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Arts & Entertainment

NEXUS NJ SHOW AT AGNJ: Juror Rocío Aranda-Alvarado of El Museo Del Barrio

Arts Guild New Jersey announces the results of NEXUS NJ, a juried exhibition open to New Jersey artists. Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, Associate Curator of Special Projects at El Museo Del Barrio, is this year’s esteemed guest judge.

From nearly 300 entries submitted by 96 artists, Dr. Aranda-Alvarado selected 47 artworks in a wide variety of styles, media and sizes, in two and three dimensions. The 25 selected artists include: Jennifer Lynn Bates (Livingston), Olga Mercedes Bautista (Keyport), Patricia Bender (Somerset), Seanna Noonan Book (Chatham), Jacques Bredy (Newark), Ron Brown (South Orange), Monica Camin (Fair Haven), Fred Cole (Highland Park), Pam Cooper (Upper Saddle River), Jane Dell (Maplewood), Tracie Fracasso (Hoboken), Darlene Foster (Plainfield), Janice Gossman (Garwood), Mort Herman (Cliffwood Beach), Lauren Lehman (Montclair), Jessica Lenard (Springfield), Abby Levine (Union City), Laura Levy (Maplewood), Miranda Maher (Camden), Leonard Merlo (South Plainfield), Victoria Plummer (Millburn), Sumukha Ravishankar (Short Hills), Robert Richardson (Madision), Lisa Sanders (Montclair), and Florence Wint (Maplewood).

Winning entries will be featured in the Nexus NJ art show, which opens on October 23, 2011, and runs through November 17, 2011, at Arts Guild New Jersey, 1670 Irving Street in Rahway, NJ. An opening reception will be held on Sunday, October 23, 1:00-4:00 PM.  Dr. Aranda-Alvarado will be electing a best-in-show artwork during the opening. The exhibition and reception are free, open to the public, and wheelchair accessible. The gallery is open during the exhibition on Saturdays and Sundays, 1:00-4:00 PM, and Monday-Friday by appointment, during office hours.

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Dr. Aranda-Alvarado states: “Among the definitions of nexus are, “the core” of something, but also “a connected series or group.” In many of the works seen in this exhibition, a dream-like state seems to persist, catalyzed by an interest in the workings of the subconscious mind. Artists are concerned with the way this fantastic imagery is expressed both internally and to the peripheral world.

Among the works, we see political figures, people taking part in ceremonial events, fantasy landscapes in which figures and the environment—distant mountains or an indefinite space in the foreground—are joined in an endless cycle of perpetual movement across the surface. Whimsical, hybridized figures are present, in which human and animal and machine-like characteristics are improbably merged. Haunting figures, some a mere silhouette, are visible among the shadows of a chaotic world, like something barely remembered. Surrealistic sculptural works combine the vaguely recognizable with the utterly unexpected.

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Always present, the landscape is an important player in many works. It is approached as an object of romantic admiration, a link to decoration, or a backdrop to the experience of everyday life. In some cases, it accompanies human movement via the landscape. In others, it evokes nostalgia, vague memories, and even visions derived from science fiction.

Animals, vehicles, and references to the everyday object are part of our experience of the portrayal of our environment. Pattern, color, form and line are all prominent, underscoring the language of art as the basis for creative production. Taken together, these works evince the potential of the creative force as it is expressed throughout the state.”

 

About Arts Guild New Jersey

Arts Guild New Jersey is a non-profit center for the arts located in the downtown Arts District of Rahway.  Each year, the Guild presents a series of fine art exhibitions and an art education program that includes studio art classes for adults, teens and children, an on-going series of intensive one-day workshops for adults, and a series of summer art workshops for teens and children. Arts Guild New Jersey is easily accessible from the Garden State Parkway, NJ Turnpike, Routes 1 & 9, Saint Georges Avenue (Route 27/35), and by train, via NJ Transit Northeast Corridor and Jersey Shore Lines. The exhibit program at Arts Guild New Jersey is made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and by a grant from the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, which promotes health, well-being and quality of life in New Jersey’s communities, including the arts. Sponsors of this program are RSI Bank, Rahway, NJ, and ConocoPhillips.

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