Curated by Corey Dzenko, Associate Professor of Art History

With backgrounds in journalism and fine art, Sheryl Oring began her ongoing project I Wish to Say in 2004 from a concern that many people’s voices were not being heard. She started to take dictation from the public about what they wanted to say to the (next) President. Dressed as a 1960s secretary with a typewriter, she records whatever participants say onto a postcard, making copies with carbon paper. During larger events, a secretarial bank takes dictation. Oring mails the postcards to the White House and exhibits copies. To date she has typed over 4241 postcards.

For this exhibition, MU’s DiMattio Gallery will chronologically display hundreds of I Wish to Say postcards, photographs, and videos of performances, along with larger prints of select postcard texts. A timeline on the wall will note the presidential elections that span Oring’s project. The empty wall space for 2024 will fill as MU student-typists add postcards they collect during the current election season. The other half of the gallery will showcase a selection of Oring’s related projects that all involve a question, active listening, and a typewriter for a secretary to record dictation. These include Collective Memory (September 2011), recorded memories of the 9-11 attacks; Travel Desk (2014), travel stories that were then carved into a wooden table now installed in the San Diego International Airport; and other artworks.

Multi-part programming will include an artist’s talk to showcase Oring’s timely and inclusive artmaking practice. MU students will participate as typists at numerous live events throughout the exhibition’s duration. MU faculty from various disciplines will hold public teach-ins in the gallery about topics related to Oring’s project. Finally, MU is collaborating with nearby Neptune and Long Branch school districts so that high school students can dictate their own postcards to the future president. As an educator, Oring has involved younger constituencies, empowering the next generation of participants in both US democracy and artmaking.

Oring performs I Wish to Say: Thursday, September 19, 2024, 11am-1pm, Rebecca Stafford Student Center Patio

Artist talk: Thursday, September 19, 2024, 4:30-5:30pm, Great Hall Auditorium
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 19, 2024, 5:30-7:30pm, DiMattio Gallery, Rechnitz Hall

About the Artist
Sheryl Oring examines critical social issues through projects that incorporate old and new media to tell stories, examine public opinion, and foster open exchange. Using tools typically employed by journalists (the camera, the typewriter, the pen, the interview, and the archive), she builds on her experience in her former profession to create installations, performances, artist books, and internet-based works that address themes of citizenship, free expression, first amendment rights, story-telling, and activism through art. Oring received her MFA from the University of California at San Diego. She is currently a board member for the National Coalition Against Censorship. She has held several academic positions, most recently serving as the Dean of the School of Art at University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Oring has shown her work at the O1SJ Biennial; Bryant Park in Manhattan; the Brooklyn Public Library; and the Jewish Museum Berlin. She has also presented work at Art in Odd Places in New York; the Art Prospect festival in St. Petersburg, Russia; Encuentro in São Paolo, Brazil; and the International Symposium on Electronic Art in Dubai. She has completed public art commissions at the San Diego and Tampa International Airports. Collecting institutions include the Library of Congress; Museum of Modern Art; Tate Britain; Bibliothèque nationale de Luxembourg; and many others.

For more information, see: https://www.sheryloring.org/
Or contact Dr. Corey Dzenko, cdzenko@monmouth.edu

This exhibition was made possible with funding from the Edna Wright Andrade Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation and from the Diversity Innovation Grant Program coordinated by the Office of the Provost and Intercultural Center at Monmouth University. Thank you also to ArtNOW, the Helen Bennett McMurray Endowed Chair of Social Ethics, and Monmouth University’s Department of Art and Design and Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

Monmouth University, in conjunction with Parlor Gallery is thrilled to kick off the year with a captivating art exhibition that transcends traditional boundaries. Prepare to immerse yourself in a world of limitless imagination at the much-anticipated Cardboard Show, an extraordinary celebration of free-form and experimental creativity.

The Cardboard Show is the result: a collection of large-scale sculptures and forms in three distinct voices, united by medium, friendship, and a commitment to a playful approach to creating art for its own sake. These three artists sequestered themselves in Parlor Gallery last January and opened the doors to the public a month later to share their fantastical and unique cardboard creations in an immersive type of presentation. For the continuation of this project, the artists will follow the same practice of collaborating in the same space at the same time, building these wonderous creations on site starting January 16^th, 2024, and will continue to construct and design the exhibition until the opening night on February 9^th, 2024.

Demo and Meet & Greet:
Thursday, March 21st. Demo from 3-4 and continuation of the Meet & Greet from 4 – 6.

Opening Night Reception: Friday, February 9th from 6-9pm. In addition to the opening reception, there will also be an artist meet & greet and informal artist talk during the exhibition.

Unveiling the Magic:
The Cardboard Show is a testament to the power of collaboration. Three visionary artists—Porkchop, Bradley Hoffer, and Jason Stumpf—invite you to witness the evolution of their fantastical creations. Having sequestered themselves in Parlor Gallery last January, the artists opened their doors to the public a month later, sharing the enchantment of their unique cardboard world.

Creating Wonders in Real-Time:
As part of the ongoing project, these artists will once again unite under one roof, infusing life into their cardboard wonders starting January 16th, 2024. Witness the magic unfold as they construct and design this extraordinary exhibition, culminating in the grand opening on February 9th, 2024. Join us on a journey where art transcends boundaries, fueled by the collaborative spirit of three local artists and friends. In addition to the cardboard sculptures, each artist will also be exhibiting a selection of each of their respective work.

About the Artists:

Bradley Hoffer is a multi-disciplinary artist, designer, carpenter, and maker of original and preconceived concepts. Living and working most of his life in NJ; he received a BFA in sculpture from Mason Gross school of Visual Art at Rutgers. Bradley’s distinct style/work is recognizable using continuous line along with a balance of colors. For this show at Monmouth University, he is exploring a new complex level of layers in three dimensions. Cardboard is the medium that is being used to accomplish the new sculptures. Bradley is also revealing a collection of paintings that have been in the works for the past 6 years.

Jason Stumpf is multidisciplinary artist based in Asbury Park, NJ. A woodworker for over 30 years, his work ranges from sculpture and furniture to cabinetry and wooden boats. His work is influenced by a fascination with structure, minimalism, and materiality.  Jason furniture designs often take inspiration from archaic forms and techniques. Those influences are expressed through a minimalist, modern design ethos. His sculptures stretch that practical design aesthetic into abstracted forms and ideas.

Porkchop is a multi-disciplinary artist from New Jersey. He has an MFA in Sculpture from VCU and a BFA in Fine Arts from University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Porkchop has established a great presence through his magnificently scaled murals, including the extensively documented scenes he composed along the Asbury Park Boardwalk in conversation with the sea. Narrative is a prevalent theme in his work. Denizens and visitors to Monmouth County have been enjoying Porkchop’s vibrant and colorful artwork and murals for years, but in most recent manifestation, the artist strips his works of his normally vivid palette and instead employs intentionally ritualistic and graphic monochromatic designs and symbols accented with Gold. Influenced by ancient history, mythology, religion and literature, the artist Porkchop sources out, manipulates, and casts familiar objects. He then painstakingly recreates their surfaces giving them a new existence into a dark and curious storyline. The application of paint into his intentional ritualistic designs followed by flawless coats of glossy resin is an act of pure precision and care, like the work of a surgeon or mortician. There are often unexpected but pleasant marriages of imagery and object. By stripping these pieces of his usual vibrant palette, Porkchop’s choice of black & white emphasizes the narrative in the works, which becomes difficult to ignore. Presenting these pieces in symmetry creates an alter that pulls the stories altogether.