JSQ Art Crawl

 JSQ Art Crawl 2024

This year’s crawl was a massive success, especially for the rising artists. For the most part this would be just another event catering to the “established” artist, but thanks to Hudson County Community College and the Dineen Hull Gallery, students had the opportunity to share their work with the Jersey City Art Crawlers. The Student Showcase looked spectacular where some students framed and exhibited their work for the very first time. The work looked spectacular, some pieces easily rivaling a so called established artists.

Many of the guests seemed somewhat unapproachable to me and I felt kind of uncomfortable, which I usually don't. After the conclusion of the Anti-Pompidou protest next door, several of the protesters came to our show not to complain or protest but to see our artwork. I can't understand why people who enjoy gallery hopping and viewing exhibitions would be opposed to a new museum being opened right in the heart of Journal Square. This could also open opportunities for local artists to be highlighted in a major museum, right in their own community.

The first guest of the crawl was a lone middle aged man wearing a red and white, very generic plaid shirt and leather loafers, with a glaring homemade pin reading "pompi-don't" in black sharpie.  He looked very uptight, walking right past the student show into the main "shifting horizons" show. I decided not to talk to him.  More guests, and elderly couple viewed my Joker and Friends collage for all of 8 seconds, before the wife asked her husband, "Let me ask you, isn't this plagiarism? That's Frank Gorshin right there!" She wittingly points out a magazine cutout of Frank Gorshin as the Riddler in the 1966 Batman television series. Unsurprisingly, she did not recognize any of the figures from 1970 onward which I'm sure she would have also denounced as plagiarism. I had never thought about any legal ramifications behind this piece but the criticism certainly made my night.  After their critic, the couple approached the gallery attendant, Ellaf to complain, saying we knew little about our own artwork as well as the foundation artwork, claiming the gallery was wrongfully in possession of an Indigenous American Headdress. Meanwhile many spectators praised the student work, making this event an undeniable win.

I also had the opportunity to explore some of the other crawl locations, including beautiful shows by Daniel Guzman and team at DGA Studios and a solo show by Buttered Roll at Smush Gallery.  The diverse and unique art by the Jersey City artist is so inspiring to me.  It's events like these that I'll remember keep me going as an artist.

Afterlives: Contemporary Art in the Byzantine Crypt

Standing firmly as the largest museum in New York, The Metropolitan museum of art has no shortage of art and rarities one could spend weeks examining. In one exhibition you may be looking at priceless pieces by top contemporary names, while in the next room you may find ancient antiquities dating over three thousand years old. Many are familiar with the Byzantine Crypt exhibit at the Met, a dark cave-like room bearing ancient artifacts. Being that the Byzantine Empire came to an end in 1453, one might find it unlikely to find contemporary art in this space, but this is exactly the case. In the Afterlives exhibition, new and ancient come together, showing how modern artists are undoubtedly still influenced and inspired by the earliest ancient artists. The first Contemporary work I discovered in the crypt was Point of Contact, a sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, a revolutionary French artist who lived over five hundred years after the fall of the Byzantine empire. Known for bold bronze arachnid statues like Spider and Maman, Bourgeois paved the way for female artists looking to find their ground in the art world. Bourgeois has also explored human sexuality in many of her works, with her piece in the Byzantine Crypt being a medium size sculpture depicting a woman’s legs, bottom, and underwear. The sculpture is cast in bronze, a favorite material of Bourgeois which gives her work archival longevity, and faux-ancient look. Resembling a heart from a distance the piece would likely go unnoticed as an ancient table centerpiece.

Bourgeois, Point of Contact, 1968

In the display case directly adjacent to the Bourgeois is Fragment of a Stella, a piece that is authentically ancient. This is a painting from Roman Egypt, specifically thought to be as early as 4th century c.e. An early form of paint is used, likely made of rock pigment mixed with an early binding agent. Some of these binders may have included egg, honey, tree sap, or even urine. The surface is a simple wooden board, now broken and weathering aways, looks to be a small piece of a larger piece. This could have been a segment of a large mural. From what we can see a man of dark complexion is partially visible on the board, pointing left. To his right, a bird is perched in a way it appears to be speaking into the man’s ear. The bird iconography is associated with both Egyptian creator god Ra and underworld god Horus.

 

Fragment of a Stella, Roman Egypt, 4th or 5th century

Fragment of a Stella, Roman Egypt directly across from the Stella Fragment is Enoch, a piece resembling a pharos sarcophagas. At first glance many might think this is an artifact originating from ancient egypt, possibly a jar that once held remains. However, this is not the case as the piece was made as early as 2017 by Bahamian artist Tavares Strachan. Even Upon further inspection the figure piece is not a pharoh at all but in fact Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first black astronaut. The piece was cast in bronze, gold, steel, with retro radarreflectors, and blessed by a shinto priest in honor of Lawrence Jr., who died in a jet crash.

Strachan, Enoch, 2017

More contemporary artists in the crypt....

Balasubramaniam, Body as Shell, 2015

Metcalf, Memento Mori Brooch, 2001