Guajiros Retratos de Otoño, an exhibition of work by Lázaro Niebla
2023-09-01 00:00 - 2023-12-15 23:59 (America/New_York) | Pollak Gallery
Lázaro Niebla, a resident of Trinidad de Cuba, documents the connection to the past through reverse woodcut portraits of those that understand it best: his elders. His process begins by collecting discarded colonial window panels that were used to protect the homes in Trinidad de Cuba during the Spanish colonization. He then photographs his subjects, capturing them in a spontaneous moment. Working off of his photograph, Lázaro meticulously carves layer after layer from the repurposed panel, exposing the perfectly preserved wood under the surface. Using acrylic paint, Lázaro adds touches of color to the piece, choosing to leave the skin of the subject wood tone — connecting the person he has chosen to portray to the material that he has chosen to work with. The life of the tree, the window shutter, the home it protected, the subject portrayed, and the artist are all represented in each piece of art.
Artist Demonstration: September 27 from 6pm – 8pm |Great Hall Auditorium
Lázaro Niebla, Cuban wood sculptor, explains his concept, technique, tools and cultural aspects of his work. He’ll show an example of a work in progress and how he accomplishes the carved details of his subjects to create the multi-dimensional texture of his works.

NEW!!! Opening Reception – RESCHEDULED FOR November 10 from 6pm – 8 pm | Pollak Gallery
Please join us for a meet and greet with the artist!

PAT CRESSON - Taking a Leap –The Power of the Natural World - 45 Years of Creative Work
2023-09-05 00:00 - 2023-12-08 23:59 | DiMattio and Ice House Galleries, 400 Cedar Ave, West Long Branch, nj, 07764
Closing Reception and lecture/walking tour: Thursday December 7 – Tour begins at 4pm; Reception (light refreshments) from 5-6pm
This retrospective show, PAT CRESSON Taking a Leap –The Power of the Natural World 45 Years of Creative Work is a combined visual statement of over 45 years of artmaking. It covers 21 different categories ranging from painting, drawing, collage, printmaking, and digital imaging to sculpture. CRESSON have always been interested in a broad range of art topics, styles and techniques and has followed her heart and not limited herself to just one or two topics, series or styles.
Ancient cultures and architecture, botanicals, maps & ephemera, the landscape, weather systems and climate, insects, birds, Asian culture, kimonos, bonsai design, endangered species, marine life and the seashore – these are all topics that have interested her for many years and she returns again and again to them for inspiration. Using these as inspiration and metaphor her interest is also in the exploration of human interaction and the natural world – the navigation between what is hidden and what is revealed.
Recently she has concentrated her explorations into the connection between geometry and Nature. She has explored this by juxtaposing hard edge geometric design form, scientific illustrations, and pattern against organic landscape shapes, portions of sketches, and textured paint.
Many of the artist’s pieces combine drawing, type, painting, graphic design, digital imagery, and original photography. A majority of her prints and images over the years have reflected interests in nature and landscape, legend, myth, storytelling, and spirituality. They complement a 35-year interest in anthropology and archaeology with particular interest in the cultures of Egypt, Japan, China, South American Mayan and the Anastazi.

Pat Cresson – Taj Mahal

Pat Cresson – Vintage Fish

Pat Cresson – Blue-Lagoon-Kimona-Series-Green-Frog

Pat Cresson – Prevailing Winds

Pat Cresson – Moose and Elk

“Cresson has often taken a collage approach in her creative work and this is clear in both paintings and prints. In painting, the artist’s use of oils, wax, and mixed media enhances both the collage look of her work and her atmospheric approach to color. In printmaking, her use of chine-collé and the collograph process heightens the variety of textures and colors in her work. Whether one looks at the paintings and the prints on display here, or the drawings and digital images available on the artist’s website, there are opposing areas of abstract color, a wide array of textures and transparencies, and recognizable images (or in some cases, the vague suggestion of images). Color is one of the artist’s strengths, and her use of it ranges from the poetic to the dramatic. The paintings, which tend to be more abstract than the prints, contain some of her most ethereal color combinations. Line is another strength, especially in the prints that utilize the inherently linear process of intaglio etching.”
Dr. Kate Ogden, Professor of Art History, Stockton State University, NJ
This work was supported, in part, by several Grant-in-Aid-for-Creativity awards and the Urban Coast Institute at Monmouth University.

J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye
2023-09-12 19:30 - 21:00 | Virtual
Join us for Tuesday Night Book Club! Hosted by Monmouth University’s Ken Womack. This month’s novel is J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. One of the greatest American novels of all time, The Catcher in the Rye is a classic coming-of-age story: an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.
When you register you will be provided the meeting link to join the conversation.
