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New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art launches “NJMoCA Art Conversations” Panel Talk Series about Contemporary Art at Monmouth University

The world of contemporary visual art is often intimidating, challenging, and seemingly unapproachable. To help break those perceptions and barriers, New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art and Monmouth University Center for the Arts will present “NJMoCA Art Conversations,” a series of three scholar-led panel talks providing context and insight into what defines contemporary art, its transformational trends, and its relevance and impact on society. The highly credentialed and charismatic United Nations journalist Alexandra King will moderate conversations with art critics, collectors, curators, technology producers, and artists.

The first of these discussions Secrets of the Contemporary Art World will take place on Thursday, November 12, 2015 at 7 p.m. in Wilson Auditorium. The event will offer an inspiring conversation between key players of the art world who will share their experiences, insights and views on creating, exhibiting and collecting art; what defines contemporary art; the international art market; and the impact of contemporary visual art on society.

The event is free and open to the public, and there will be an open Q&A at the end of the talk. Panelists will include artist and art critic Stephen Westfall, a contributing editor to Art in America and a 2007 Guggenheim Fellow; Isaac Lyles, owner of Lyles & King located in New York’s Lower East Side; and art collector Steve Shane who has amassed a collection of over five hundred works of contemporary art to date. Robin Lipson, the Founder and interim Executive Director of New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art, hopes that the panel will, “help demystify contemporary art and make it, and the international contemporary art market, more familiar and enjoyable for the public.”

Moderating all three panels in the “NJMoCA Art Conversations” series is Producer/Reporter at United Nations Television, Alexandra King. King has reported from four UN General Assembly Debates, interviewed numerous celebrities like Stevie Wonder, Pharrell Williams and Steve McQueen, and produced and reported from the field in Mozambique, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Ethiopia. Her work has been featured on networks such as CNN International, MTV, NHK and Agence France Presse.

This panel series adds to the already robust visual arts offerings on the Monmouth University campus which include three gallery spaces – Rechnitz Hall’s DiMattio Gallery, the Ice House Gallery and the Pollak Gallery – featuring year round rotating exhibits of works by international, national and local artists as well as student works.

The second talk in the “NJMoCA Art Conversations” series will be “The Intersection of Technology and Contemporary Art” on February 10, 2016. This panel will focus on the influence of new technologies on contemporary art and how this cutting-edge work impacts society. The third talk will be “Breaking News” on April 28, 2016 that will feature artists from NJMoCA’s Breaking News exhibition next spring and whose works address how artists provide an alternate reading of current issues.

This “NJMoCA Art Conversations” series is presented by New Jersey Museum of Contemporary Art in partnership with Monmouth University Center for the Arts. All events are free and open to the public. For more information about the series, please visit njmoca.org and www.monmouth.edu/arts or call 732.263.5715.