Winter 2009 Exhibitions
Knitted, Knotted, Netted
October 11, 2009 - January 24, 2010
Supported by The Coby Foundation, Ltd.
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2009 Members Exhibition
October 11, 2009 - January 25, 2010
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Michelle Loughlin: Water falls.
November 29, 2009 - January 24, 2010
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Michelle Loughlin: Water falls.
Water falls. is a site-specific interactive installation. Growing up in New Jersey, Loughlin has been a frequent visitor to Clinton, drawn in part by her fascination with the 200-foot long waterfall next to the Museum. Inspired by this and other waterfalls, she made gestural drawings that she translated into three-dimensional knitted forms using silver synthetic fibers and an industrial knitting machine. Stitched together, these cascading forms transform the inside of the Museum's River Gallery and mimic the action of the water outside.
With this project, Loughlin aims to probe an iconic image -- one associated with the unspoiled and pristine aspects of Nature-and present a more honest portrayal. By stitching a variety of found objects into the flowing forms of Water falls.--water bottles, latex gloves, coffee cup lids--she references the detritus that is an all too familiar element of most natural settings.
Her purposeful choice of a synthetic material to replicate the "natural" beauty of the waterfall further highlights the dichotomy between the artificial and the natural. Even the most remote and "unspoiled" places reveal the presence of Man; as Loughlin aptly points out, the man-made and the natural are no longer separate.
Fall 2009 Exhibitions
Holli Schorno: Collecting Samples
October 11 - November 29, 2009
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Laura McClanahan: Planktonic Constructs
Member Highlight
October 11 - November 22, 2009
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Holli Schorno: Collecting Samples
Hideout, 2008, Book cuttings on rag paper, 23" x 15"
Holli Schorno assembles innovative collages with book cuttings. Using fragments from discarded textbooks, instructional manuals, topographical maps, and scientific journals, she constructs fantastical objects that sprawl over landscapes or float through space. Varying the scale of the works, the artist offers both expansive and intimate views of the worlds she creates.
January 15, 2018, 2009, Book cuttings on paper, 6" X 17"
Signal Hill, 2008, Book cuttings on paper, 80" x 60"
Knitted, Knotted, Netted
Karen Ciaramella, Abigail Doan, Pat Hickman, Kazue Honma, Ed Bing Lee, Norma Minkowitz, Ruth Marshall, Leslie Pontz, Ann Coddington Rast, Hisako Sekijima, Noriko Takamiya, and Carol Westfall
Abigail Doan, Knitted Flotsam 01, 2009, Crocheted, twined, handspun and recycled fiber, string, balloon, paper, 12" x 7" x 6", courtesy of the artist
Supported by The Coby Foundation, Ltd.
Knitted, Knotted, Netted provides an opportunity to sample some recent art made with knitting, knotting and netting. These techniques with ancient lineages have had a resurgence in the art world through the creativity and ingenuity of contemporary artists. Each of these methods involves the looping of a thread or cord; this differentiates them from braiding and weaving, in which elements may interlace but not necessarily loop through each other.
Two-and three-dimensional artworks use not only plant and animal materials but also industrial and synthetic materials, creating looped structures never envisioned in earlier contexts. Such work is innovative and surprising, inspiring to practitioners of textile and fiber arts and intriguing to a broader audience. Among the artists in this exhibition are several celebrated practitioners whose work explores the fluid boundary between the traditionally defined categories of "art" and "craft."
Artists: Karen Ciaramella, Abigail Doan, Pat Hickman, Kazue Honma, Ed Bing Lee, Norma Minkowitz, Ruth Marshall, Leslie Pontz, Ann Coddington Rast, Hisako Sekijima, Noriko Takamiya, and Carol Westfall
Pat Hickman, Vesicle, 1999, Gut (hog casings), 29" x 13" x 10", Courtesy of the artists
Ruth Marshall, Ivy the Snow Leopard, 2006, Yarn, glass eyes, tapestry canvas, metal grommets, nails, bamboo frame, 87 ½" x 66" (frame variable), Courtesy of Dam, Stuhltrager Gallery
Leslie Pontz, Cactus Flower #1, 2006, Crocheted wire, thread, iron, 102" x 24" x 12", Courtesy of the artist and Snyderman-Works Galleries
2009 Members Exhibition
Kiyomi Baird, Berendina Buist, Andrew Dalpe, Joann Doneen, Edward Evans, Brian Goings, Nikolai Houston, E. Jan Kounitz, Catherine LeCleire, Vikki Michalios, Urmila Mohan, Pat Feeney Murrell, Mark Sharrock, Laurinda Stockwell, Shirley Supp, Mallory Weston, Kimberly Witham, and Katherine Yvinskas
Berendina Buist, Revenge is wrong: eye for a tooth, 2009, Acrylic, wood, plastic eye, 1 1/2" x 1 1/2"
All members of the Hunterdon Art Museum are invited each year to submit work to our Members Exhibition. This year's juror was Ann Aptaker, Curator of Exhibitions at the Morris Museum.
Mallory Weston, Survival Bag, 2008, Brass, sterling silver, cotton, thread, 11" x 8" x 1 1/2"
Urmila Mohan, Apotheosis, 2008, Clay, paint, found objects, 72" x 18" x 18"
Laura McClanahan: Planktonic Constructs
Laura McClanahan, Haematococcus Pluvialis, 2008, color photogram, 12" x 12"
Laura McClanahan: Planktonic Constructs is the Museum's first Member Highlight Exhibition. This solo show is awarded to an artist selected from the Annual Members Exhibition.
Planktonic Constructs features color photograms and video abstractions inspired by different species of plankton. Using her darkroom enlarger as a microscope, and glass objects to represent microorganisms, the artist creates pictures that resemble various protists, plankton, diatoms and jellyfish. She invites the viewer into a constructed world entirely of her own making that convincingly replicates a scientific investigation. Two intriguing videos transform live jellyfish into a mesmerizing kaleidoscopic panorama. These works reflect McClanahan's interest in probing life's origins. The ambiguity of her mysterious forms challenges us to ponder similar questions.
Laura McClanahan, Linuche Unguiculata, 2008, color photogram, 12" x 12"
Laura McClanahan, Solenosphaera Familiaris, 2009, color photogram, 12" x 12"
Summer 2009 Exhibitions
Up and Coming:
New Printmakers Make Their Mark
June 14, 2009 - September 13, 2009
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Marion Held: Sculpture
June 28, 2009 - September 13, 2009
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Click here to read the New York Times review of the Marion Held exhibition.
Barbara Schulman: Fiber Art
June 28, 2009 - September 13, 2009
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Up and Coming: New Printmakers Make Their Mark
Ivanco Talevski, Self Portrait, 2009, Etching, drypoint
The Hunterdon Art Museum continues its long history of supporting and promoting contemporary printmakers with this invitational show of prints by MFA candidates and recent graduates. We invited eleven East Coast art schools to nominate up and coming printmakers, and from these nominees we selected twenty-two talented artists. Participating schools are: The LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies, Columbia University; Cornell University, College of Architecture, Art & Planning; Hunter College of the City University of New York; Pratt Institute; Rhode Island School of Design; Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; Syracuse University; Tyler School of Art; The University of the Arts; University of Pennsylvania; and Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Arts. Works chosen for the exhibition utilize traditional techniques such as etching, woodcut, silkscreen and lithography, as well as current advances in digital technology. The show includes two- and three-dimensional objects, handmade paper, artist books, and mixed media installations that expand the conventional boundaries of printmaking, and identify innovative trends in contemporary art.
Click here to read the New York Times' review of Up and Coming : New Printmakers Make Their Mark
Andy Kozlowski, The Ambassador (Is There Anyone Else Out Here?), 2008, Serigraph
Noah Breuer, Superior Airpower Pinwheel 3, 2009, Lithograph, silkscreen and collage on board see it in motion!
Marion Held: Sculpture
Material Traces, 2008
Working in disparate materials such as rubber, clay, metal, and resin, as well as found objects, the core of Marion Held's work has remained remarkably consistent. It references the passage of time, with skeletal structures reminiscent of archeological sites suggesting the distant past. Worn childhood furniture and objects from contemporary life evoke the more immediate past.
Whether she uses actual objects or illumination and shadow as expressive vehicles, mystery permeates Ms. Held's work. Often elegiac in tone, it suggests memory and loss, as well as fertility.
Material Traces, 2008, detail
Material Traces, 2008
Barbara Schulman: Fiber Art
Barbara Schulman creates both two- and three-dimensional works of art that surprise the viewer with their inclusions of unusual content. Although a weaver for many years, Schulman turned to techniques and materials that allowed more personal freedom of expression. However, her love of pattern and structure, key components of weaving, continue to influence her work. Along with hand and machine embroidery, this artist also uses credit card fragments, commercial fabric labels, embroidered patches and deconstructed text. Schulman's work in unexpected materials may sometimes be construed as commentary on society's consumerism.
Spring 2009 Exhibitions
Phyllis Carlin
April 5, 2009 - June 21, 2009
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Valeri Larko: Urban Landscapes
April 5, 2009 - June 21, 2009
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Cutters
February 8, 2009 - June 7, 2009
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Winter 2009 Exhibitions
Chotsani Elaine Dean
February 8, 2009 - March 29, 2009
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Amy Wilson:
"There are always such beautiful things..."
January 10 - March 29, 2009
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2008 Fall Exhibitions
Material Color
October 5, 2008 - January 31, 2009
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Walter Chandoha:1940's New York
November 23, 2008 - January 31, 2009
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Hank Murta Adams: Sculpture
October 5, 2008 - January 4, 2009
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Members Exhibition
October 5, 2008 - January 4, 2009
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Curt Ikens: A New Season
October 5, 2008 - November 16, 2008
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Summer 2008 Exhibitions
| The 52nd Annual National Juried Print Exhibition 6/22 - 9/7/08 Learn more about this exhibition |
| The House That Sprawl Built 6/22 - 9/7/08 Learn more about this exhibition |
| Lisa Dahl: No Place Like Home 6/22 - 9/7/08 Learn more about this exhibition |
Faces and Figures: People form the Permanent Collection 6/22 - 9/7/08 Learn more about this exhibition |
Phyllis Carlin
In the 1980s, after decades of working as a scenic designer, Phyllis Carlin made a bold decision. She noted, "Finally I decided to take the risk of giving up work... to concentrate all my energy on being an artist. That was an enormous decision for me to make ....But it is something I know I just have to do, something I look forward to doing every day..."
As a scenic designer, Carlin had been one of a few women and the youngest person to pass the exam for entry into the United Scenic Artists Union. She had worked at the Metropolitan Opera, at TV studios, and for films. Annie Hall, The Turning Point, Matilda, and The Verdict are some of the films for which she had designed and painted scenery.
Transitioning from scenic designer to artist, Carlin compiled a list of art and artists that gave her "courage" and "trigger(ed) something inside". The list included ancient Egyptian figures, a Greek kouros, Giotto, Joseph Cornell, Ida Applebroog, and others. The list is wide ranging, reflecting her interests in historic and contemporary art. These sources have influenced her work throughout her career.
The current exhibition includes paintings, ceramics and mixed media pieces from the 1980s through 2008.
Valeri Larko: Urban Landscapes
Valeri Larko's urban landscape paintings reflect her ongoing fascination with abandoned spaces and overlooked areas on the fringes of the city. Through her investigation of this subject matter, the artist explores the effects man has on the environment. Often juxtaposing the pastoral with the industrial, Larko finds both beauty and pathos at the intersection of urban culture and nature.
A native and long-time resident of New Jersey, Larko has deep personal and professional roots in the state. While attending art school in New Jersey she began painting plein air landscapes and soon turned to the industrial settings in and around the city for her subject matter. She worked outdoors, experimenting with panoramic views of industrial parks and close up "portraits" of tanks and machinery. The artist's early encounters with New Jersey's urban landscape solidified a relationship with this subject matter and sparked ideas that continue to inspire her. Relocating to New Rochelle, NY several years ago expanded her geographical reach, and her recent work encompasses the waterways, bridges, highways, warehouses, factories, power lines, and machinery found along the edges of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx.
Although the locations have changed, Larko has never altered her method of painting directly from the sites that attract her. All her paintings are created on location, an approach that enables her to form relationships with both the environment and its inhabitants. Informed by encounters with people she meets while on location, Larko considers the process of painting to be as important as the final work.
Each of her paintings has a unique story--one that only reveals itself to the artist gradually, day by day, through patient and faithful observation. Sometimes taking months to complete, her eloquent paintings capture the strange beauty and quiet nobility of these often overlooked urban landscapes.
Cutters
Cutters presents artists who alter objects and surfaces to enhance their visual and symbolic meanings. They use knives, scissors, scalpels, razors, hole punches, lasers, jigsaws, shredders and even plasma cutters on a variety of materials. Exploring formal and conceptual issues, the works in the exhibition comprise a wide range of media, incorporating painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, video and installation. The thread that connects this diverse group of artists is the transformative quality of their work. The artists in the exhibition are Jaq Belcher, Louise Despont, Brian Dettmer, Kate Dodd, Michelle Forsyth, Beth Gilfilen, Cal Lane, Marco Maggi, Eva Mantell, Aric Obrosey, Mia Pearlman, Casey Ruble, Hunter Stabler, Merle Temkin, Auguste Rhonda Tymeson, Carlo Vialu, Paul Villinski, and Thomas Weaver.
Chotsani Elaine Dean
Clay Quilts/Post-Emancipation is both the artist's homage to her African American ancestry as well as a highly original statement in ceramic art. Chotsani Elaine Dean's background and training as a painter and ceramic artist imbue her tiles with color and texture achieved through deep knowledge of the complexities of clay, glazes, and the transformation that occurs through firing. The clay quilts become durable works of art, loving and respectful commentaries on art forms that in some cases have fortunately survived adversity, in others are situated in memory and tradition. The quilts have been reconceived as contemporary ceramic art through the exploration and creativity of a gifted artist.
Amy Wilson: "There are always such beautiful things..."
Jersey City artist Amy Wilson's watercolor drawings feature a cast of child-like female characters who communicate their thoughts, fears, hopes and dreams through diaristic text. Often deeply personal, the work touches on the inner life of the artist while addressing broader cultural ideas about femininity, art, science, and politics. In some instances the drawings become three-dimensional with the incorporation of cut-outs and pop-up constructions.
Walter Chandoha : 1940s New York
Walter Chandoha has had a long and successful career as a freelance photographer specializing in horticulture and animals. His photographs have appeared on over three hundred magazine covers and in thousands of advertisements; his illustrated articles on animals and gardens have been published in numerous books and magazines. He is the author or illustrator of twenty-six books, including How to Shoot and Sell Animal Photos.
The vintage black and white photographs in this exhibition were taken while Chandoha was a student at New York University's Stern School of Business in the late 1940s. Equipped with an inquiring eye, a keen sense of observation and a Rolleiflex camera, the young photographer wandered the city streets in search of a subject. The resulting photographs captured the changing scale and pace of New York City in the years following World War II. Many of these pictures showcase people moving through the city--on foot, in automobiles, trains and even boats. Some of them depict quiet moments of solitude in the midst of hustle and bustle. All of Chandoha's photographs provide a nostalgic glimpse of New York in the 1940s and offer new perspectives on the city we see today.
Material Color
Peter Fox, detail Royaume, 2008
Leslie Wayne, Mondo Mondo, 2008
Omar Chacon, Untitled Painting #177, 2008
Material Color showcases some of the innovative ways artists are handling paint today. The twenty artists in this exhibition apply oil, acrylic, encaustic and other pigments to a variety of surfaces using conventional, as well as unexpected methods. With eye droppers, plastic bottles, turkey basters, palette knives (and sometimes even brushes,) they drip, splash, pour, squeeze, squirt and layer their colors, balancing chance and discipline. Several of them peel off dried paint from one surface and transfer it to another, while others model and mold pigment into freestanding three-dimensional shapes. All of these techniques result in colorful, voluptuous surfaces that seduce our eyes and almost beg to be touched. With their layered surfaces or heavy impasto, the works in Material Color blur the boundaries between painting and sculpture, and seem to transform themselves into three-dimensional objects.
Participating artists are: Cecilia Biagini, Alana Bograd, Ivana Brenner, Omar Chacon, Carlos Estrada-Vega, Peter Fox, Vincent Hamel, Gregg Hill, Wil Jansen, Vadim Katznelson, Lori Kirkbride, Kathleen Kucka, James Lecce, Markus Linnenbrink, Joanne Mattera, Carolanna Parlato, Paul Russo, Robert Sagerman, Louise P. Sloane, and Leslie Wayne.
Hank Murta Adams: Sculpture
Making sculpture can, if desired, be collaborative, but working in glass is particularly intense and requires the cooperation of a team. Hank Murta Adams has a rich history of illuminating and sharing innovative approaches with residents at Wheaton Arts where he is Studio Creative Director, and in many universities and workshops.
Adams disarms our usual expectations of sculpture. Traditional assumptions about form and content appropriate to glass and metal are subverted. The artist's exploration of qualities inherent in the materials results in art with a fresh and quirky honesty.
"Produce," an installation, also references found objects, subjecting them to a variety of processes. While forms retain their objective identity, they simultaneously become integral partners in acts of technical wizardry; splashing, flowing liquid becomes rigid--ét voilà, glass! A myriad of these pieces on a twenty-two foot surface presents a marketplace of surprises, sometimes glittery, sandy or scorched--unexpected transmutations of familiar "produce" or discarded relics of another time. This is far removed from a discreet gallery arrangement of art objects and more like the jumble of human existence.
The "Ocupatto" series, with its recycled metal detritus of daily use, might be considered a visual commentary about our wasteful consumerism. Yet the pieces are also playful manifestations of the art of blown glass--but blown into empty tomato or kerosene cans from which grotesque heads emerge.
Cast pieces, heads, animals, objects, for which Adams has long been known, are raw and expressive. Light and color diffuse through them; wire elements spring from their grainy surfaces. Varied inclusions, protrusions and additions are visual explications of their titles and identities.
Hank Adams' sculpture is an ongoing experiment and adventure, conceptually, formally, and technically. It resonates with wit and irony as the artist explores the porous boundary between art and life.
2008 Members Exhibition
left: John Spears, Untitled, 2008; right Donna Lish, Cohesion, 2008.
Twenty-three artists who are members of the Hunterdon Art Museum exhibit work in the 2008 Members Exhibition. Douglas Ferrari, founder and Executive Director of the Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts (SICA) in Long Branch, New Jersey, was the juror for this year's exhibition. Selected artists are Peter Arakawa, Wally Barnette, Berendina Buist, Leigh Orner- Carnese, Jacqueline Ann Clipsham, Michael Cooper, Buel Ecker, amy Evans, Charles Hanson, Rita Herzfeld, Roz Hollander, Betty Jacobsen, Donna L. Lish, Laura W. McClanahan, Lucy Metskill, Longia Miller, James Mullen, Marta Schee, John Spears, Laurinda Stockwell, Shirley Supp, Michael Wiley, and Etta Winigrad.
Curt Ikens: A New Season
Curt Ikens has always been interested in the inevitable deterioration of materials and information. He is intrigued with the idea that artists consistently try to create works that will outlast them; subsequently, art objects and art history play a central role in his work. Often referencing the work of other artists, he uses printed promotional items such as exhibition catalogs and announcement cards as raw materials.
Ikens also considers the exhibition space a stage for conversations about art, and often incorporates the space in his work. In this installation, both the architecture of the River Gallery and the exterior environment are critical elements. Using steam-bent wood stained to resemble the Museum's floorboards, Ikens has constructed a tree that appears to grow from the gallery floor. A carpet of leaves die-cut from previous Hunterdon Art Museum show cards and catalogs blankets the ground, while the leaves on the tree are fashioned from cards representing the current exhibitions. Timed to coincide with the changing fall foliage, this site-specific installation addresses the repetitive cycles in both nature and the art world. At this interesting intersection of nature and culture, Ikens reminds us that art--like life--has ongoing rhythms, with each new art season unfolding almost as reliably as the turning leaves.
The 52nd Annual National Juried Print Exhibition
| Christopher Lesnewski Untitled (detail), 2002 mixed media print Collection Hunderton Art Museum |
The 52nd Annual National Juried Print Exhibition showcases two and three dimensional prints using traditional print media, computer, or experimental techniques by artists from across the United States. The 2008 juror is Kathleen Goncharov, Director of the Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions at Mason Gross School of the Arts
The winners of the 2008 prizes are:
Tom Baker
Bad Weather, 2007
Relief and silkscreen
6 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches
James R. and Anne Steele Marsh Memorial Prize
Evan Lindquist
Departures, 2007
Burin engraving
12 x 8 inches
and
Succession, 2007
Burin engraving
12 x 9 inches
Johnson & Johnson Purchase Prize
Ross Racine
Subdivision: Greenfield Lakes, 2008
Digital drawing (inkjet print)
20 1/2 x 15 3/8 inches
Hunterdon Art Museum Purchase Prize
Johnson & Johnson Purchase Prize
Jon Rappleye
Jabberway
Lithograph
20 1/4 x 30 inches
Brodsky Center Residency Prize
Angela Young
Identity, 2008
Stone lithograph
23 x 30 inches
Lynd Ward Memorial Prize
The House That Sprawl Built
| Owen Kanzler New Neighborhood Manalapan, NJ, 2001 chromagenic print |
In the decades following World War Two the single-family suburban house emerged as a central component of the American Dream. The rapid development of mass-produced affordable housing created new suburbs and contributed to the phenomenon known as suburban sprawl.
The House that Sprawl Built presents the work of ten artists who incorporate ideas and images of suburban houses. Some of the work seems almost documentary, displaying repetitive sprawling neighborhoods. Other work is satirical, poking fun and implicitly criticizing the houses we build and the neighborhoods we create. Several artists put a surreal spin on the subdivision house, melting, mutating, or shrinking it. Still others create houses and neighborhoods that can only exist in the imagination or more recently, in cyber-space.
Many Americans engage in a "love-hate" relationship with the suburbs, their feelings ranging from nostalgia for an idyllic past and a growing dread of overcrowding, overdevelopment, loss of open spaces and dwindling resources. These ten artists explore this complex relationship by helping us see the places we call home in new and provocative ways.
Participating artists: Bill Amundson, Darlene Charneco, Julia Fullerton-Batten, Owen Kanzler, John Kirchner, Steve Lambert, Brian Loughlin, Robert Selwyn, Becky Suss, J. G. Zimmerman
Lisa Dahl: No Place Like Home
| Lisa Dahl Sub-Prime 2008 mixed media installation (detail) |
In a multi-media installation Lisa Dahl uses the suburban home to investigate the American Dream and its associated trappings. Having grown up in the suburbs of several cities throughout the country, and having been a resident of New York City for over a decade, she combines the vantage point of an outsider with an insider's intimate knowledge. Working with a variety of media - painting, photography, video, sculpture - Dahl's art often uses a large dose of playfulness and humor as it undermines the home's traditional sense of being a place of safety and security.
Faces and Figures: People from the Permanent Collection
Faces and Figures represents a variety of human forms and faces found in the Museum's permanent collection. Each work considers the human figure in its own way, and provides an opportunity to display a wide variety of media and styles. Faces and Figures showcases the diversity of printmaking techniques found in the Museum's collection, and the ways in which the representation of the human form is altered and energized by the artists' techniques. Each work reflects not only the personality of its subject, but of the artist as well.
The Hunterdon Art Museum was founded as a community art center created by and intended for the people of Clinton and the surrounding region. From the beginning, the Museum has accumulated as many people and personalities in its collection as the community it serves. The Hunterdon Art Museum's permanent collection has grown over the years to include the work of many well-known American artists as well as fine examples of work acquired through its Annual National Juried Print Exhibition. Several of these prints have not been included in a show of works from the Museum's permanent collection for some time, making this exhibition an opportunity to once again provide a voice to Hunterdon Art Museum's colorful characters, as well as the artists who created them.
2008 Spring Exhibitions
| Emil Lukas: Moderate Climate and the Bitter Bison 5/10/08 - 6/15/08 Jim Toia, Curator Learn more about this exhibition |
| ken ross: where men hide 4/6/08 - 5/4/08 Ellen Siegel, Curator Learn more about this exhibition |
Emil Lukas: Moderate Climate and the Bitter Bison
| 5/10/08 - 6/15/08 Emil Lukas: Moderate Climate and the Bitter Bison Jim Toia, Curator Opening Reception, Sunday May 18, 2-4 Artist Talk 3pm |
2008 Spring Exhibitions
| UNcommon clay 4/6/08 - 6/15/08 Hildreth York, Curator Ingrid Renard, Assistant Curator Learn more about this exhibition |
| close encounters: The Art of Bonnie Berkowitz 4/6/08 - 6/15/08 Mary Birmingham, Curator Learn more about this exhibition |
Ken Ross
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| Waldy's Workbench, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print 16 x 20 in. |
| These striking black and white photographs take the viewer on a tour of various places and spaces--the basements, garages and attics--where men retreat to get away from it all. Ken Ross creates telling portraits in the absence of his subjects by recording men's most private sanctums. His photographs are at once muscular and tender, a tribute to the essential nature of men. This revealing exhibition by the New Jersey based photographer will undoubtedly strike a familiar cord with men as well as women. Ross's photographs also provided the inspiration for Where Men Hide (Columbia University Press, 2006), a collaborative work with James Twitchell. |
 | Rick's Basement Office, 2008 Pigmented inket print 20 x 24 in. |
| Duck Blind, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print 8 x 10 in. |
 | Pop-Pop's Pegboard, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print 24 x 30 in. |
 | Chick's, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print 24 x 30 in. |
| Al's Car Barn, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print 24 x 30 in. |
| Shannon's Fly & Tackle, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print 16 x 20 in. |
 | Dad's Recliner, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print 20 x 24 in. |
 | Lap Dance Room, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print 20 x 24 in. |
 | Dick's Train Room, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print 20 x 24 in. |
 | Matt's Room, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print 16 x 20 in. |
 | Deer and Beer, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print 16 x 20 in. |
 | Dick's Tools, 2008 Pigmented inkjet print 20 x 24 in. |
Ken Ross: Artist's Statement
The idea for Where Men Hide was initiated a number of years ago when my then ten-year-old son suggested we set up a basement shop for our Scout projects. This seemed like a pretty good idea, and as we began planning, I thought it might be wise to visit the home shops of some friends to check out their set ups.
My family and I live in Mountainville, a tiny village of 19th century houses in northern Hunterdon County. Most of the residents have converted their barns or carriage houses to alternative uses. So to visit our first home shop we walked down the road to a neighbor's place. The owner was a middle-aged elementary school teacher who was highly regarded as a scoutmaster and woodsman. His shop was devoted to his real passion--restoring antique canoes. The place was amazing, a living testament to function and form, with a vintage pin-up overseeing the whole works.
Matt and I took home lots of great ideas for our shop that day and I got the notion that "guy places" might make an interesting series of pictures. I returned a couple of days later, and after a few false starts eventually came away with what I wanted. I have been working on and off on this project ever since.
The series had grown to forty or so images, ranging from a home slaughterhouse to my Dad's recliner, when I got a call from Jim Twitchell, and Where Men Hide was born.
My original title for this series was "Men's Rooms." This phrase still accurately describes the subjects of my pictures. The places are all exclusively male in function, sometimes private yet often communal, and they are surely visited as it becomes necessary.
Ken Ross, 2008
Ken Ross: Curator's Statement
In the past a man's home was his castle; not anymore. In the contemporary home even the man's study has been turned into the family room. Women now take the responsibility for the decoration and upkeep of the home, and we do it to our standards. So where do men go to get away from us?
About ten years ago I was talking with Ken Ross about a series of photographs that he was making. He called them "Men's Rooms." They chronicled those exclusive places where men went to be alone--dark, secretive, rooms, purpose specific, no "girls" allowed. The gate crashing voyeur in me was hooked. I wanted a glimpse into their world.
James Twitchell, professor of English and advertising at the University of Florida was having his hair cut when he picked up a March 1999 issue of Esquire magazine. The headline read, "Where We Go: Portraits of the Places Men without Women Inhabit." It caught his imagination. He and Ken Ross forged a collaboration that culminated in the book Where Men Hide, published in 2006 by Columbia Press. The subject matter was extended to include places where men congregate, but when I made my selections for this exhibition I found myself mostly drawn to those solitary rooms.
Ken Ross is not only a talented visual artist, but also a gifted story teller. He takes his photographs on film, scans the negatives, and does digital darkroom manipulation. The results are rich tones and complex values, teasing and tempting the border without ever dipping into the muddy. The rooms are brooding and dingy. The whiff of citrus cleaner or the roar of a vacuum cleaner has never invaded these spaces. The photographs narrate the stories of his subjects and serve as portraits of the men even in their absence from the image.
We women thought we knew these men. Through Ken Ross' work we learn we only knew them in our world, not theirs.
Ellen Siegel, Curator
Uncommon Clay
 Ruth Borgenicht Forrestal Village: Brown Tree (detail), 2007 salt-fired stoneware Photo: Joseph Painter | Clay is ubiquitous. If you gathered it all up and spread it evenly over the surface of the earth like peanut butter, you would create a mud layer a mile in thickness. |
| The artists in this exhibition have each found a way to make clay, one of the most ancient and common materials known to artists, "uncommon." The malleability of unfired clay offers infinite shaping possibilities. Its transformation through fire creates one of the world's most durable materials. Each of these artists is a master of the medium and the many physical, technical and chemical processes that turn earth into art. Yet what they share, aside from the fact that all are New Jerseyans, is their "uncommoness," the distinct personality of each artist's body of work. That all are residents of this State is deliberate on our part, and reflects the Hunterdon Museum's intention to highlight and bring to attention examples of outstanding creativity in our midst. Each of the artists has an impressive resume of prestigious exhibitions; all have made their knowledge and talents available through teaching and workshops. |
| Bennett Bean |  | Jim Jansma |
| Ruth Borgenicht |  | Taesik Song |
| Ka Kwong Hui |  | Mikhail Zakin |
Close Encounters: The Art of Bonnie Berkowitz
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| Bard, 2005 Hand/rod table top puppet Japanese and Czech beads, fabric, paper clay, paper, pigments |
| Bonnie Berkowitz discusses this work: "As the Bard took shape, I was influenced by the news of the war in Iraq. The idea of false reporting and censorship of the soldiers' deaths led me to give the Bard a golden pen. As in the past, Bards went to war and reported the historical events of war. So, the Bard's persona and story were created." |
 | Beaded Prince, 2005 Marionette Fabric, metallic embroidery floss, glass beads, paper clay, pigments, paper |
| All puppets tell stories; Berkowitz's puppets literally embody their stories, often in their very guts. The poem embedded in the Beaded Prince is aptly called "We Carry Our Stories With Us." In it she poses the question "How many words can a heart hold before the book flies open?" |
 | Four Answers, 1999 Book bracelet Czech glass beads, fabric, cotton cathedral beads, metallic thread Collection of Arlan and Bruce Kardon |
 | Levite's Daughter, 2000 Book shoe Japanese and Czech glass beads, leather, fabric |
 | Miriam's Glove, 2003 Paper, pigments, glass beads, thread |
| This work was inspired by the story of Miriam, a Biblical prophet who kept the Israelites alive in the desert with water from a miraculous well. The beads that flow like water through Miriam's glove represent the creativity flowing through the artist's hands. |
| Mother's Milk: Book Bra II, 2006 Fabric, wire, Japanese and Czech glass beads, embroidery floss |
Bonnie Berkowitz: Curator's Statement
Fiber artist Bonnie Berkowitz uses beading and stitching to transform ordinary objects into exquisite works of art. Her handmade books, garments, pillows, jewelry and puppets also tell stories, their richly embellished surfaces concealing poetic narratives. By stitching words directly into her art Berkowitz mirrors the way stories are embedded or even hidden within the individual psyche.
Her meticulously crafted works and seductive surfaces invite the viewer to take a second, closer look. Berkowitz explains: "When a pillow, a puppet, a book, a shoe or a garment becomes other than ordinary, when its surface becomes unfamiliar and invites closer examination, it is then that craft elevates the simple, familiar life experiences and adds wonder, joy and a longing to connect and touch, to know something more than only surface offers." This desire to go beneath the surface may explain the artist's fascination with concealing words within her objects.
Since her early childhood Berkowitz has been a storyteller, and as an artist she has found diverse and original ways to incorporate her stories into her art. Books, miniature theaters and puppets are natural vehicles for narrative, but Berkowitz also works in unexpected places. Sometimes she stitches poems directly onto surfaces, integrating the words into the decoration. Other times she conceals small books or scrolls within objects, often in the form of accordion "pages" that literally unfold before the viewer.
These transformed objects are loaded with meaning, both personal and universal. The observer who takes time to look beyond the surface is rewarded with an intimate connection to the work and its meaning. Such a close encounter with the art of Bonnie Berkowitz is internalized and carried by the viewer, where it continues to resonate.
Mary Birmingham
Curator
2008 Winter Exhibitions
 | 1/13/08 - 3/30/08 Cuba: Artists Experience Their Country Kristen Accola, Curator Opening Reception, Sunday January 13, 2-4 Panel Discussion 4pm |
 | 1/13/08 - 3/30/08 Nancy Moore Bess: Extraordinary Baskets Hildreth York, Curator Opening Reception, Sunday January 13, 2-4 See Education Department listings for workshop by artist |
Nancy Moore Bess: Extraordinary Baskets is funded by a generous grant from The Coby Foundation.
