Living in the era of late-stage capitalism, consumers are aware of single use plastics overpopulating landfills, rivers, food sources, and the ecological effects of rapidly changing fashion trends. Perceptual Engineering challenges artists and viewers to envision new possibilities of everyday items once their originally intended use has ceased. Letting go of preconceived notions of what objects are, this exhibition presents an opportunity to explore the world with fresh eyes and imagine what else could be.
Regional artists and twelve students from the fall 2022 class Problems in Contemporary Art at Rutgers University – Newark were given a “perceptual engineering” prompt by Express Newark’s Artist-in-Residence Willie Cole. Inspired by Cole’s practice of upcycling objects condemned otherwise to landfills, artists were tasked to choose an everyday object and discard prior conceptions of its form and function to create works of art. Once the object was chosen, the first phase of “discovery” commenced. The object was completelv disassembled and all parts saved. As preconceived notions of the object fell by the wayside, a new space opened for reimagination, allowing the mind to wander freely among the pieces.
The second phase, “documentation,” required documentation of each individual piece from the original object as sketches, focused primarily on silhouettes and non-detailed renderings of the disassembled pieces, playing with scale and form. The final “transformation” stage, likened to a phoenix rising, an entirely new object was perceived and fabricated using pieces of the original, altering the perception of both the old and the new.
The Problems in Contemporary Art class was co-taught by Artist-in-Residence Willie Cole and American Studies PhD student, Colleen Gutwein O’Neal.
November 20, 2021 – January 15, 2022 (extended through March, 2022)
Opening Reception Saturday, November 20, 2021 7 – 11pm
MAPPING APPARITIONS HAS BEEN EXTENDED THROUGH THE END OF MARCH. GALLERY HOURS BY APPOINTMENT. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WILL BE AVAILABLE AT INDEXARTCENTER.ORG RE: SPECIAL PROGRAMMING
*Please bring your personal images, memories, and ephemera to be included in the exhibition.
Mapping Apparitions is an experimental pilot exhibition at the intersection of art, collective memory, and public history. Merging digital humanities with collective history and storytelling, vaguely similar to a wikipedia-type system, this interactive exhibition and memory collection dances around shared experiences centered on Newark arts and artists without demanding a singular narrative, rather inviting a chorus of narratives in flux.
It is of great importance to document and create access to art and artists in the Newark community, it is equally important to document and make accessible the culture in which art was created and artists have been nurtured. To build upon and make accessible a rich variety of perspectives and experiences is essential to understanding the culture. Reggae historian Lloyd Bradley summarizes this historical perspective in a recent interview on Nzinga Sounds while referring to a Bruce Lee film, Enter the Dragon. “Bruce Lee and some little kid were looking at something and he (Lee) was pointing at the moon and he said, ‘concentrate on the finger and you’ll miss the glory of the moon,’ and this, it sums so much up right. If you concentrate on the records on your shelf, you’ll miss the glory of the reggae culture that created it.”
Mapping Apparitions pulls inspiration from the oral history and exhibition project Kea’s Ark of Newark at Gallery Aferro, the interactive, unrehearsed, and creatively driven Lime Sessions at Index Art Center, Post Pocket Utopia’s 2015 collaborative exhibition #SEEINGNEWARK at a pop-up gallery in The Gateway Project studios, and the community-based methodology and diverse archives of the Queer Newark Oral History Project supported by Rutgers, Newark.
This pilot exhibition is focused on providing information and visual cues to visitors to inspire recollection. Lowell Craig’s seminal documentary 31 Central, a 2017 film chronicling artists working in studios at 31 Central amid the looming threat of eviction will be screened continuously throughout the exhibition. Additional cues including reimagined archive images and resource materials will be made available intended to conjure memories of five Newark arts spaces no longer physically accessible. Visitors are encouraged to share ephemera, photographs, and memories from 31 Central, City Without Walls (at both their 41 Shipman Street and 6 Crawford Street, possibly additional locations), Red Saw, Le Joc, and Unicorn Gallery.
The collective history emerging from the pilot exhibition will be used to inform and build the base of knowledge for a future “ghost map” of Newark arts spaces, happenings, and public works no longer physically accessible, in some cases gone completely. Target completion date of the ghost map is spring, 2025. Information collected through the pilot exhibition Mapping Apparitions will be made public on the OMEKA open-sourced content management platform and credited to each individual author.
Special thanks to Index Art Center, without which experimental pilot exhibitions like this would not be possible. Index is a volunteer driven 501(c)3 non-profit gallery that has been serving its community for over a decade. Please consider making a donation HERE if you can.
INDEX ART CENTER WILL CLOSE THEIR DOORS AT THE 237 WASHINGTON STREET LOCATION BY THE END OF MARCH, 2022.
INDEX ART CENTER 9.14 – 11.8. 2019 Lance Rautzhan, Patricia Dahlman, Dong Kyu Kim, Matthew DiLeo, Juno Zago, Devyn Nuñez.
Index Art Center presents Bringing It All Back Home, a group exhibition of six artists exploringthe concepts of home, and what it means to come back to a place. Each artist brings a distinct visual language to the exhibition as they explore personal and social narratives within their work.
The title, Bringing It All Back Home, hails from the avant-garde folk rocker Bob Dylan’s 1965 album release by the same name. Dylans album skins emotional nerves raw. It was created ata time not so dissimilar from today, bluntly facing racial injustice, international war and suffering, and rebellion in search of freedom. This exhibition seeks the meaning of home, a concept in constant flux, through the brutal honesty of the artists vision.
Curated by Colleen Gutwein O’Neal
SIDE GALLERY:Fern & Fossil X The Nork Project Fall Pop Up Shop
FIRST FLOOR: Art & Artifacts of NewarkArt & Artifacts of Newark is a part of IAC’s curatorial residency program featuring works and art exhibitions curated by Matthew Gosser.
20 years (1999 – 2019) of photographic works by Colleen Gutwein. At the age of 5, Colleen developed her first image in a basement darkroom at her Grandparents house in Metuchen NJ. Years later she earned a degree in photography at Montclair State University with her Grandfather’s old Canon FT-b camera. This #miniretro shows Gutwein’s early use of 4×5 film (polaroid type-55) from her first solo exhibition, and the evolution of her work through both digital and traditional photographic formats and printing techniques, up through 2019 with a digital portrait of the medium format Jem. Jr. film camera used for The Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project.
Art & Artifacts of Newark: 233 Washington St Newark, NJ
Brick + Mortar is pleased to announce, Colleen Gutwein O’Neal as it’s new Gallery Director.
Colleen comes to Brick + Mortar with more than 10 years of experience as an independent curator in the Northeast Metropolitan region. Working predominantly with emerging and mid career artists on exhibitions ranging from non-objective paintings to socio-conceptual projects.
O’Neal, brings a wealth of knowledge as an artist and educator. She recently completed a 5 year photo-documentary, The Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project, through a long-term residency at Index Art Center, is an adjunct professor of photography at Rutgers University Newark, and serves as a Community Partner at Large for Shine Portrait Studio in Express Newark. Colleen is in a unique position to propel Brick + Mortar gallery into the contemporary conversation on an international stage while at the same time implementing a structure that will embrace and strengthen the local arts community.
“I’m very excited to bring Colleen onboard as Director of Brick + Mortar Gallery as we enter into our fourth year of operations” says Brick + Mortar Gallery and Design Studio owner, Chaz Hampton. “Colleen brings a wealth of experience, a broad network of artists and collaborators, a fresh vision, and a shared ambition to take Brick + Mortar Gallery to the next level.”
Colleen and her husband Joseph O’Neal, himself an artist with an extensive domestic and international exhibition history, purchased a home in Easton’s West Ward in 2016. The couple discovered the City of Easton through their close friend and colleague Joe Strasser, while visiting his solo exhibition 50 Years of Bad Behavior at Brick + Mortar’s previous location on Centre Square.
Brick + Mortar Gallery is free and open to the public.
Friday + Saturday 12 – 6, Sunday 12-4, and by appointment
Index Art Center
2nd floor main gallery
237 Washington St.
Newark, NJ, 07102
‘We Are the Ghosts of Our Future’ encapsulates the analog portion of The Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project. Utilizing vintage Jem Jr. box cameras manufactured in Newark in the 1940s, Colleen Gutwein O’Neal forgoes the slow and methodical techniques of portraiture in favor of a more urgent and instinctive approach. A process that archives artists’ personalities in fuzzy, mysterious images emerging against a backdrop of vanishing architecture, forgotten places and artists’ workspaces. Putting forth a diverse cross-section of participants, the ghostly prints provide a subtle yet provocative commentary on the place of the artist in today’s society and the importance of honoring and documenting their contributions.
“ The camera was manufactured in Newark on Jelliff Ave in the 1940’s by the J.E. Mergott Company, and helps me to stray from the perfection of a digital image, and document these artists through my own artistic process. The gritty, fuzzy Jem Jr. images allow for disruption, ambiguity, and self-reflection by viewers, and create a truly unique perspective on archiving working artists. “ -Colleen Gutwein O’Neal
The Jem Jr. images are created in conjunction with modern, digital portraits depicting the artists in their studios or homes. The growing digital archive, the first such directory of significant visual artists in Newark, provides a useful tool and networking resource for the community at large and beyond. This portion of the project can be viewed at: https://www.newarkartsphotodoc.com/
Join us on Thursday March 30th, 2017 6-9pm at Index Art Center for an artist & curator led gallery tour of the exhibition Landholdings, followed by a community conversation dealing with local issues close to the theme of the exhibition. Artists will include: Anne Percoco, Ellie Irons, Jamie Bruno, and Sara Fox. Community discussion speakers will include: Lowell Craig from Index Art Center, Tobias Fox from Newark Science and Sustainability, and Ngu Asongwed from Shorty’s Skate Park.
LANDHOLDINGS is a multimedia exhibition focused on questioning the ownership and stewardship of the land we live on. The exhibition explores these ideas though an ascension from soil composition to the broader scale of cartography and all of the human relationships in between.
“When you answer the question, Who really owns the soil? wrote George McBride, a pioneer of the Green Revolution in Mexico, you lay bare the very foundations upon which its society is based, and reveal the fundamental character of many of it’s institutions.” – Andro Linklater Owning the Earth
Index Art Center presents: LANDHOLDINGS.
Reception Saturday, March, 4, 7 to 10pm.
LANDHOLDINGS is a multimedia exhibition focused on questioning the ownership and stewardship of the land we live on.
The exhibition explores these ideas through an ascension from soil composition to the broader scale of cartography and all of the human relationships in between.
“When you answer the question, Who really owns the soil? wrote George McBride, a pioneer of the Green Revolution in Mexico, you lay bare the very foundations upon which its society is based, and reveal the fundamental character of many of it’s institutions.” – Andro Linklater Owning the Earth
Curated by Colleen Gutwein
Exhibiting Artists:
Nell Painter is an artist and historian. In her series “Composite Maps” (Odalisque Atlas), Painter examines the ancient and contemporary locations of slave girls through cartography.
Sara Fox has taken her photo journalism to North Dakota in an essay from Standing Rock. Fox gives the viewer a glimpse into the present-day struggle over a Native American territory with disputed boundaries dating back to the 1800’s.
Mike Belleme points his lens into a mysterious subculture of people living off the excess of a society they have left behind in his photo essay “Wild Roots”. Foraging, dumpster diving, and the occasional hunt brings food to their off-grid cooperative, hidden deep in the forests of NC.
Anne Percoco explores migrant peoples relationship to the land in her “Weather Shield for a Migrant Dwelling”. Percoco designed a protective outer layer for a one family dwelling using the waste of plastic food wrappers. The shelter reflects the landscape surrounding it, as well as creates a localized cooling system within.
Ellie Irons & Anne Percoco have created an ongoing library, “The Next Epoch Seed Library”. This seed bank focuses on weedy species most likely to survive and thrive in a landscape dominated by human excess.
Jamie Bruno has spent years in both the art and agricultural worlds. Her installation focuses on the urban gardener, and the cultivation of polluted land into nutrient rich soil suitable for growing food.
As the Earth changes and people continue to migrate, we explore our deepest relationships with the earth and to each other through LANDHOLDINGS.
Also Happening-:
Index Side Gallery: “ANTI-PRINTS” by Joe Waks
27 Mix: Xplore Freedom
Gallery hours are by appointment.
Admission is free and open to the public.
This event is sponsored by our neighbors 27 Mix and Kilkenny Alehouse.
Newark is having it’s annual Open Doors arts festival this weekend with over 50 galleries and artist studios to visit, now is the best time to experience the arts in Newark. For more information about Newark Open Doors and the venues involved click HERE.
Friday October 16th Index Art Center will host the opening reception for “Forum in Form”, a sculptural exhibition I curated featuring Domonique Duroseau, Amanda Thackray, Bisa Washington, Adrienne Wheeler, and Noelle Lorraine Williams. To read the full press release, see the post below or follow the link HERE.
The side gallery at Index will be exhibiting the artists from Index Art Center’s studio residency program. I will be showing some small works from the break-away series “We Are the Ghosts of Our Future”.
Post-Pocket Utopia will be adding to their exhibit #SeeingNewark in their new gallery space at the Gateway Center. I have some small works from The Newark Arts Photo Documentary Project in this group show. For more information click HERE.
On Sunday October 18th, artists will open their studios throughout Newark. I will have my shared studio space (with the fabulous Joseph O’Neal) open and will be showing large works from the Newark Arts Photo Documentary Project break-away series “We Are the Ghosts of Our Future”. follow the Facebook event HERE
The closing reception for “Emerging Ideas” curated by Adrienne Wheeler will be on view in the Wells Fargo Building, 765 Broad Street, 5th Floor (entry around the corner on Bank Street) and will include large works from the Newark Arts Photo Documentary Project break-away series “We Are the Ghosts of Our Future”. For more information follow the Facebook page HERE.
There are lots more events happening in Newark this week…. just pop into one and you can get all the information you need to keep touring around the city. For transportation information and shuttle services click HERE….ENJOY!
Five coeval artists from the Newark area reclaim ideas, materials, and roles for their specific use in creating new forms. They conjure a discussion of culture and identity spanning through time. This exhibition will fuse the sculptural works of the artists by exploring the use of tradition and myth to define history, present day, and future.
Dominique Duroseau’s work focuses on both a philosophical and physical level of being. Her choice of material and pallet creates rhythm and multiplicity throughout her work.
Amanda Thackray uses non-traditional materials reflecting common objects which examine the idea of identity as a human being.
Adrienne Wheeler uses bundling techniques to create powerful and power-filled forms highlighting contemporary ideologies and our personal role in culture and violence.
Bisa Washington repurposes specific objects in her sculptures as a way to reclaim nationality, identity, religion and customs and develop legacy.
Noelle Lorraine Williams integrates craft and history to discuss our role in society and the communities we are actively part of.
You must be logged in to post a comment.