Events

Gallery Exhibition: Second Senior Show - Fine Art and Art Education
2015-04-10 09:00 - 2015-04-18 17:00 (America/New_York) | Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall
April 10 – 18, 2014
Rechnitz Hall’s DiMattio Gallery
Opening Reception: Friday, April 10, from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Featuring the work of Monmouth University graduating seniors who will receive their degrees in Fine Art and Art Education.

Gallery Exhibition: First Senior Exhibition - Graphic Design and Animation
2015-03-27 09:00 - 2015-04-04 14:00
March 27 – April 4, 2014
Rechnitz Hall’s DiMattio Gallery
Opening reception: Friday, March 27, from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Featuring the work of Monmouth University graduating seniors who will receive their degrees in Graphic Design and Animation.

Gallery Exhibition: Hon Eui Chen - After the Sun
2015-01-20 09:00 - 2015-03-07 14:00
January 20 – March 7
Rechnitz Hall
DiMattio Gallery – First Floor
Lecture: Thursday, January 29, 4:30 – 5:30 p.m. Wilson Hall Auditorium,
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 29 5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
The poetics of intimate spaces and the exploration of the idea of home are what interest me in paintings and installation. The subject of home remains an abstract concept and is the motivational force for my studio pursuits. Born in a refugee camp that lies between Cambodia and Thailand, I moved with my family to Mississippi at the age of six. Growing up, the sense of belonging and not belonging to the Southern culture of Mississippi affected my sense of identity. The memories of my childhood on the Thai-Cambodia border became just a faint beacon of light as the years go by; the need to remember, to retrieve those childhood memories of a past life remains a constant act in my work.
In my installations, I make objects that convey themes of identity, memory and longing to transform and activate a room. I use acrylic paint, varnishes, resin, plaster and photographs as the structural realization for a subject as formless and transitory as memory. The concept of travel and memory are embedded in the current series of mixed media paintings – layered earthy, dark colored background with graphite drawn trees and foliage and an overlay of concrete. My work seeks to simulate the impermanence of memory, the fleetingness of its existence in mixed media installations, creating structures that translate the mind’s formless but living past into physical material and sensation and transforming space that poetically simulates a timeless place for recollection and dreams.
Artist website: www.honeuichen.com
Image Caption: Untitled, 8” x 8”, acrylic, image transfer and concrete on panel, 2014

Gallery Exhibition: Jacob Landau - Selected Paintings from the Monmouth University Permanent Art Collection
2015-01-20 09:00 - 2015-03-07 14:00
January 20 – March 7, 2014
Rechnitz Hall
DiMattio Gallery – Second Floor
Jacob Landau (1917-2001), printmaker, painter, humanist, and teacher was an artist whose works explored the basic themes of human existence and morality with an insight that was both passionate and indignant. He was born in Philadelphia, PA, where he began as an illustrator, but he lived most of his adult life in Roosevelt, NJ. Here he immersed himself in the town’s thriving artistic community, along with such noted artists as Ben Shahn, and began a distinguished career as professor at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. The art he created gained him an impressive reputation, with many of his works included in the permanent collections of the world’s finest museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY), the Hirshhorn Museum (Washington, DC), as well as the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. He also received numerous honors, including fellowships from the Guggenheim and Ford Foundations.
In retirement he became Professor Emeritus at Pratt and received an honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from Monmouth University in 1996.
In 2008 the Jacob Landau Institute donated more than 300 of the artist’s prints, drawings and paintings to Monmouth University. Jacob Landau: Selected Paintings from the Monmouth University Permanent Art Collection will feature approximately twenty original paintings.
Image Caption: Satanic Wheels, Watercolor, 36 1/4″ x 50 3/4″

Art Now: Bernd Klug - Sound Installation and Performance
2014-11-20 14:00 - 19:00
This sound installation features a piano-wired based interactive feedback system that turns Rechnitz Hall into a resonating instrument. Room frequencies, wavelengths and the connection points of the strings will create a unique sonic activation of the exhibition space.
Using the means of transducers, piezo-disks, single coils and speakers, found sounds will be amplified and create an interactive situation, blurring the lines between sculpture, architecture, instruments and sound. In a performance, students will play the sound installation transforming architecture directly into an orchestra.
2 pm: Installation Opens
4:30 pm: Artist Talk with Bernd Klug and Richard Garet, Daniel Neumann and Wolfgang Gil from Contour Editions
6 pm: Student Performance

Gallery Exhibition - Evelyn Leavens Retrospective 1924 - 2013
2014-11-07 09:00 - 2014-12-19 17:00
November 7 – December 19
Rechnitz Hall’s DiMattio Gallery
Opening Reception: Friday, November 14, 2014 from 7 – 9 pm
Born in 1924, Evelyn Leavens is a life long resident of Red Bank. Her first solo show was in 1952 at the Old Mill Gallery, Tinton Falls, known then for the introduction of Alice Neel and Martha Graham.
In 1958 a book of drawings “Boswells’ Life of Boswell” by Leavens was published by Simon and Schuster which became #2 on the New York Times children’s best seller that year.
She has received two fellowships from N.J. State Council of the Arts and was included in the 1977 N.J. Arts Council biennial at the Trenton State Museum. Her work has shown, notably, at City Without Walls, Aljira, Tweeds, Summit Art Center and the Morris State Museum.
Primarily self taught, she attended the Vermont Studio Center in 1987 where she studied with Malcolm Morley, Archie Rand and Niel Welliver.
“Black Convergence is a bit hard to describe. First, it is not an abstract. It takes nothing from nothing. This painting is non-objective because it has nothing in its mind to start with. The first mark on the paper is the way to the second mark. This progresses, through many marks and changes to become a true non-objective. It makes many changes until, through love and hate, eventually becomes acceptable. I never give up”.
– Evelyn Leavens
This exhibition will include works from throughout the artist’s life.
Image Caption: Black Convergence, 2012, Watercolor on paper, 16″ x 20”

Gallery Exhibition: MAVIS SMITH / THINK AGAIN
2014-09-02 09:00 - 2014-10-17 17:00
September 2 – October 17, 2014
Rechnitz Hall
DiMattio Gallery – First Floor
Opening Reception: Friday, September 19, from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
We interact with hundreds of people throughout our lifetimes, yet can we ever hope to grasp the intricate web of experience that makes them tick? Imagining the hidden realities of other people’s existences is a continuing theme in the work of artist Mavis Smith. “It’s not so much specific people or events, but the general sense of unknown depths that intrigues me”, says Smith. “It does not have to be dark; heroic acts toward total strangers or simple people rising to extraordinary occasions are equally in the mix.” Smith, who’s works are often done in egg tempera, brings an almost surreal aesthetic to her paintings that further suggests the dislocation of appearances and realities.
“I have a love/hate relationship with egg tempera. It’s a labor intensive medium, but the luminous effects you can achieve makes it seem worth it to me. I build up layer upon layer of thicker paint, alternating with sheer washes of pigment – back and forth, back and forth. The actual process is very meditative, and I believe it contributes to my subconscious imagination coming into play.”
Bucks County, PA resident Mavis Smith studied at the Pratt Institute in the 1970’s, and has exhibited her work in Holland and Switzerland as well as Santa Fe, New York City, and several venues in NJ and PA including a solo show in 2012 at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA. She is also a prolific illustrator and author of children’s books, having authored 10 and illustrated at least 75. This exhibition samples a range of Smith’s work from years past, as well as several new pieces, including both paintings and works on paper as well as some recent sculptural works incorporating egg shells.

Gallery Exhibition: Robert Mueller - Selected Works From the Monmouth University Permanent Collection
2014-09-02 09:00 - 2014-10-17 17:00
September 2 – October 17, 2014
Rechnitz Hall
DiMattio Gallery – Second Floor
Inspired by mathematical models, literary sources, and his own social consciousness, Robert Emmett Mueller, artist, engineer, inventor, author, musician, puppet maker, and general wizard, is on a never-ending search for visual equivalents to his ideas.
“Such is his mind, and such is his personality that I know whatever he is doing artistically is a search for form, a search for beauty, and a search for the meaning of things”, said Bernarda Bryson Shahn, and artist and Mueller’s longtime neighbor in Roosevelt, New Jersey.
Mueller’s creations are largely varied. They include woodcuts, like a recent triptych entitled: Ravages of Pre-emptive War; The Devil Stalks Baghdad; America’s Bitter Presence, whose theme is the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Many of Mueller’s pieces can be found worldwide and are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and The Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the New Jersey State Museum, the Rutgers University Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, and other museums worldwide. He is also a painter who describes his personal style as “Mathematico-abstract.” Mueller has written two books, The Science of Art, published in 1967, and Inventivity, published in 1963.
Mueller’s own “inventivity” took a circuitous route to art. He grew up in St. Louis, where his father was a baker and his mother was a seamstress and milliner. After serving in the Navy, he was sent to a college preparation program in Asbury Park and later graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After moving to New York City to study philosophy at New York University, Mueller began to meet artists from Roosevelt, which was begun as a planned workers’ community but had evolved into an artists’ colony that included, among others, Ben Shahn, and Gregorio Prestopino, both who influenced Mueller’s work. Mueller moved to Roosevelt with his wife Diana Lobl, an attorney, in the 1950’s. They now have two grown children, Rachel and Erik.
Mueller said that through Roosevelt he became “conscious of human inhumanity, moral and social problems, the depths of degradation, and the heights of elegance over which human nature ranges”, and he believes that artists should use their work to react to crises in society, to encourage protest, and to fight for economic, political, and human well-being.
In this exhibition, all of the above are skillfully communicated.
Image Caption: Classic Figure, 1996, Woodcut, 23 1/2″ x 17 1/2″

Annual Student Exhibition 2014
2014-04-27 13:00 - 2014-05-02 17:00
Opening Reception: Sunday, April 27 from 1-4 pm. Featuring select works by Monmouth University students in photography, graphic design, animation and studio art.

Second Senior Show: Graphic Design & Animation
2014-04-11 09:00 - 2014-04-18 17:00
Location: Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall
Free & Open to the Public
Featuring the work of Monmouth University graduating seniors who will receive their degrees in Graphic Design.
Rechnitz Hall, The Dimattio Gallery
Opening Reception: Fri. April 11, from 7 – 9 p.m.
Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall Hours
Monday – Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. | Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

First Senior Exhibition: Fine Art
2014-03-28 09:00 - 2014-04-04 17:00
Location: Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall
Free & Open to the Public
Featuring the work of Monmouth University graduating seniors who will receive their degrees in Fine Art.
Opening reception: Fri. March 28, from 7– 9 p.m.

Rechnitz Hall, The Dimattio Gallery
Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall Hours
Monday – Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. | Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery Exhibition: Eye Cons
2014-01-21 09:00 - 2014-03-07 17:00
EYE CONS: Michael Anthony Donato

‘The paintings in this show for the most part have been inspired by Pre Renaissance and Renaissance iconography. Although some may be based on familiar and traditional themes, all of the paintings are original contemporary interpretations of these themes.’
The Dimattio Gallery – Lower Level

Opening Reception: Friday January 31, from 7– 9 p.m.
Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall Hours
Monday – Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. | Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery Exhibition - Lewis Mumford: Selections from the Monmouth University Permanent Collection
2014-01-21 09:00 - 2014-03-07 17:00
Lewis Mumford
Selections from the Monmouth University Permanent Collection
The Dimattio Gallery – Upper Level
Lewis Mumford, a dynamic writer, literary and architectural critic, moralist, historian and philosopher. Born in Flushing, NY, on October 19, 1895, Mumford’s extensive contributions to literary scholarship, technology, urban planning, and architecture are internationally renowned for their uncanny social vision and their timely prescience. Lewis Mumford criticized progress based on the intoxicating power of technology and the machine. He argued that the advancement of civilization should be cultivated by humanism, and that technology should never be used to acquire global domination, promote military prowess, or erode individualism.
Lewis Mumford, however, was no pacifist—he despised fascism and urged America to fight in both World Wars. Like George Orwell, he often accused his liberal contemporaries of being corrupt, and claimed that their “willingness to submit to the Nazis rather than risk the need for using force in opposing them” was nothing short of egregious.
His many prestigious awards include the Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson, the Presidential Medal of Art and Citation from Ronald Reagan, and the Knight of the British Empire (K.B.E), an honor bestowed on him by Queen Elizabeth II. These achievements are all the more remarkable when we consider that Lewis Mumford did not take an academic degree.
Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall Hours
Monday – Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. | Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Gallery Exhibition: Massachusetts
2013-09-03 09:00 - 2013-12-05 17:00
Opening Reception: Friday, September 20th from 7 – 9 p.m.
This exhibition is comprised of nine artists: Steve Smalley, Henry Pinardi, Brenda Atwood Pinardi, John Stevens, Suzanne Howes-Stevens, Candace Walters, Bob Stein, Robert Cumming, and Vincent DiMattio; who all have strong personal ties related to Massachusetts. Many of the relationships began as early as 1960 as students of the Massachusetts College of Art.
Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall Hours
Monday – Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. | Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Second Senior Show: Graphic Design
2013-04-11 - 2013-07-18
Rechnitz Hall, The Dimattio Gallery
Opening Reception: Fri. April 11, from 7 – 9 p.m.

Senior Animation and Motion Graphics Screening
2013-03-28
Featuring the work of Monmouth University graduating seniors who have taken animation and motion graphics courses.
Screening Event: Thursday, March 28th | 7-9 p.m. – In conjunction with the Graphic Design Senior Exhibition

Student Movie Posters from the Department of Art & Design
2013-02-11 - 2013-05-31
2nd Floor, Rechnitz Hall
What can you do with 4 colors, 4 names, 2 locations, 2 dates, 2 films genres and 4 adjectives?

For this project, students are asked to create a concept for a movie poster for a film that does not exist. As a point of departure, students are asked to type up a list of colors, locations, names, dates, adjectives, and film genres. These words are then cut and distributed (via the nearest baseball hat). This compilation of information is then used as the catalyst for the story. From this exercise, students write a summary of the movie including plot line and character development. Once the story concept is discussed and approved, each student begins a visual journey resulting in the work displayed here on the gallery walls.

Coursework from:

AR374 Digital Imaging: Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012
Professors Bright and Cresson

Faculty and Friends: Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall Inaugural Exhibition
2013-01-28 - 2013-03-08
January 28 – March 8
Joan and Robert Rechnitz Hall Gallery
Free and Open to the Public
This invitational exhibition features the work of 57 accomplished artists from across the country – including current faculty and former faculty, alumni and artists who have exhibited in the Monmouth University galleries over the years.
