Events

Rare Wildlife Revealed: The James Fiorentino Traveling Art Exhibition
2018-01-13 09:00 - 2018-02-19 19:00 (America/New_York) | Pollak Gallery
Artist James Fiorentino of Hunterdon County, NJ, has won national acclaim for his ability to create uncanny likenesses of people. The youngest artist ever inducted into the prestigious New York Society of Illustrators, James uses his self-taught watercolor expression to paint some of the most recognized faces in the world, from sports icons and presidents to Nobel Prize winners and CEOs. His award-winning art is showcased in museums, galleries, and private collections across the globe, and his story has been told on national television and in the pages of magazines and newspapers.
Fiorentino uses his trademark detail and realism in watercolor to paint New Jersey’s most endangered and vulnerable wildlife species. His evocative artwork inspires viewers through his life-like depictions of rare wildlife in their natural surroundings. His paintings truly bring wildlife to life on paper, and in doing so, his art helps to educate and engage viewers about the precipitous declines that many of these species have undergone.
“Though their painting styles differ, Fiorentino is adept, like Neiman
was, at drawing, which is of course the most fundamental skill required
to succeed as a figurative artist. Very few wildlife artists that I know
of can handle the human figure in convincing fashion. Fiorentino has
distinguished himself as a wildlife artist with skill and versatility
that positions him above the rest in this regard.”
In keeping with his expanding body of work, James is a signature member of the Society of Animal Artists and Artists for Conservation in addition to the American and New Jersey Watercolor Societies and the Salmagundi Club. He also serves as a trustee for The Raptor Trust and D & R Greenway Land Trust, both in New Jersey.
Rare Wildlife Revealed: The James Fiorentino Traveling Art Exhibition is sponsored by Omni Distribution, LLC, Flying Fish Brewing Company, Merrill G. & Emita Hastings Foundation, Studio 7 Fine Art Gallery, and Somerset Patriots.
This exhibition is presented in partnership with Conserve Wildlife Foundation

Oceanids by Joseph Coscia Jr.
2018-01-16 10:00 - 2018-03-11 17:00 | Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall
Oceanids are some 3000 nymphs in Greek mythology who watch over fresh water: rain, clouds, lakes, springs and rivers, as well as pastures, breezes and flowers. They are the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys. Coscia, the Chief Photographer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has spent countless hours with classical sculptures, photographing them in various settings and seasons. He focuses on the qualities of light on sculpture in changing conditions, and the shifting effects of natural light on stone surfaces. His photographs of museum pieces explore elements of the art outside the context of the museum setting.
His recent work draws on Man Ray’s solarization techniques. This effect reverses the shadow areas and transforms the sense of weight and volume of the objects, so that they appear suspended in air or water. The forms are evocative of earthly creatures or fossils; photographing and printing them using recreated old photographic techniques removes time specificity, so that they also are suspended in time.
Coscia, Jr. received his MFA from Hunter College in 1989 and his BFA from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania in 1982. His photographs have appeared in numerous publications and museum books, most notably Light on Stone, a photographic essay published by Yale Press in 2004.

Maunderings by Tonya D. Lee
2018-01-16 10:00 - 2018-03-23 17:00 | Rotary Ice House Gallery
In this exhibition, artist and Monmouth University Art and Design faculty member, Tonya D. Lee presents a collection of multi-discipline work that explores the abstraction of nature and environment through the combination shapes, patterns, moments and pauses that are derived from passive spaces, fleeting thoughts and changing winds. Location and process are in a conversation about ephemeral moments of beauty. Using a multi-disciplinary process of combining painting, drawing, collage, construction, and digital media, the obsessions with materiality explore form and color as an echo of the present overlapping past presents — form and color negotiating to exist as object and subject.
