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.
I am ecstatic to announce the The Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project has been included in Phase II of the Four Corners Public Arts mural program. I have be working closely with curator Rebecca Jampol, on a 37′ long mural honoring the work and contributions of 6 artists from the project. The mural will be completed by the end of 2020.
“The Four Corners Public Arts partnership is thrilled to announce three new public art projects coming to Downtown Newark for Fall/Winter 2020/2021. In the upcoming weeks, FCPA phase II will commence with: The Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project by Colleen Gutwein O’Neal; Will You Be My Monument by Salamishah Tillet and Alliyah Allen of New Arts Justice at Rutgers University – Newark, designer Chantal Fischzang, photographer Scheherazade Tillet and Keary Rosen of the Form Design Studio at Express Newark; and We Are Home led by Yeimy Gamez Castillo in collaboration with the ImVisible project and artist Layqa Nuna Yawar.
This phase of the program sought proposals that directly address community building through public art. Each project includes thoughtful and intentional collaboration, engages various audiences, and brings to life narratives that are constructed through open community dialogue. “We are living in time that demands that public art represents the diversity and dynamism of the communities in which it is made,” says Salamishah Tillet, Director of New Arts Justice. “To meet this moment, Newark artists are collaborating on murals and monuments that reflect who we are and by doing so, are reimagining the vibrant possibilities of who we, as a city and nation, can be.” “
Exhibition runs Tuesday, February 4 – Saturday, April 4, 2020
View From E. Kinney, Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project.
The George Segal Gallery announces Fifty Years of Inspiration and Impact: The Photographic Legacy of Klaus Schnitzer and His Students. The exhibition is a celebration of the career of Klaus Schnitzer, long-time professor of photography at Montclair State University, who will be retiring at the end of the academic year. As with any committed teacher, his legacy lives on through the work of his students, 54 of whom are included in this exhibit. The exhibition opens on Tuesday, February 4, 2020 and runs through Saturday, April 4, 2020.
A public reception will be held on Friday, February 7 from 5.30 – 8.30pm. The exhibit features the work of Professor Schnitzer alongside the work of his former students, many of whom are now engaged in their own professional activities in fine arts, commercial arts, art education, and other art-related endeavors. The exhibiting artists also currently represent a far greater geography than the small slice of North Jersey where they all once studied, including residents of California, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia. Work from numerous series will represent the different phases, collaborations, and projects Professor Schnitzer has undertaken over the past several decades.
Exhibiting together with Professor Schnitzer are:
Haylee Anne, Aaron Atkinson, Christine Back, Maria Baez, Nathan Bajar, Barbara Bell, Teresa Braun, Doug Cannon, Anne-Marie Caruso, Bryan Coppede, Antonio De Benedetto, Wendy Erickson, Robert Eustace, Brian Feeney, John Z. Fei, Ruth Frazier, Taylor Galloway, Jim Golden, Colleen Gutwein, Chris Heintze, Anna Calluori Holcombe, Eric Hummel, Lin Pernille Kristensen, Daryl Lancaster, Erik Landsberg, Jennifer Larsen, Bridget Laudien, Todd I. Lauther, Meg Lyding, Greg Maka, Leonor Marion-Landais, Gerard Marrazzo, Kelli McGuire, Diane Meyer, Chad Mooney, Christopher Pace, Heather Palecek, Greg Pallante, Craig Peters, Reneé C. Powell, Jim Rimi, Anthony Louis Rodriguez, Iggy Ruggieri, Anna Ryabtsov, Joseph Gerard Sabatino, Richard Schleuning, Toni Ann Serratelli, Sara R. Stadtmiller, Nicole Strafaci, Rex Thomas, John Vigg, Taylor Zartman, Mike Zawadski, and Pamela Vander Zwan.
For information and directions to George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University:
The Camera I Always Wanted is included in a 5-book series “The Plume House of Prayer Series” a series that was thoughtfully curated by Nick, emotionally photographed by all of the artists, carefully designed by Chantal, and painstakingly printed in risograph format by Anthony with the help of Shelly and Devyn. (see previous post for more info).
A huge thank you to The Met Museum Library and the Newark Library for including this in their collections, as well as to Shine Publishing for seeing and supporting me.
The Plume House of Prayer Series, 2019, is Shine’s newly published edition of books referencing a historic site in Newark, NJ. Once a ”cozy farmhouse on the outskirts of a little town on the riverside,” and rectory to The House of Prayer church, is the Plume House. Built in approximately 1725, and the second oldest home in the city of Newark, now has its foundation visibly shaken by the vehicles driving on I-280, constructed a few feet from the house.
On this site, in 1887, Reverend Hannibal Goodwin invented celluloid photographic film in the attic. This invention was motivated by the frequent breakage of his glass lantern slides, which Goodwin used to teach children bible stories. The book covers in this series are designed to invoke a House of Prayer sermon pamphlet from 1852, on the life of statesman and slaveholder Henry Clay, delivered to “The Young Men of Newark, N.J.”
Five books feature the work by artists: Anthony Alvarez, Dominique Duroseau, Colleen Gutwein, Nick Kline and Scheherazade Tillet. Designed by Chantal Fischzang.
The books published in this series vibrate with the various histories and nature of this site, including the intersection of American independence, slavery, gender, church, state, Newark’s role in the history of photography, obsolescence, and hope.
October 11, 6-8pm Book Release Event and fundraiser at Shine.
On October 11, 6-8pm, 100% of sales, of Shine’s 5 book edition, will be donated to support a foundation in Bolivia, working on projects of reforestation, environmental education and rehabilitation of the flora and fauna lost during the Amazon fires. Please help this effort which is being organized by our designer and colleague, Rutgers Professor Chantal Fischzang, who is from Bolivia and knows this landscape and volunteer group intimately.
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
INDEX is a group exhibition of works in all mediums by artists currently participating as both mentors and mentees in the New York Foundation of the Arts 2019 Immigrant Artist Mentor Program, Newark.
design by: Gisel Endara
5.4.19 – 5.9.19 Opening Reception: Saturday May 4th, 6-9pm
Exhibiting Artists: Ole Lie Vandal Ananda Lima Anne Trauben Jin Jung Ceaphas Stubbs Kimmah Dennis Colleen Gutwein Daniela Puliti Agnieszka Wszolkowska fayemi shakur Olufunke Ogundimu Jen Mazza Mariejon de Jong-Buijs Jo-El Lopez Francisco Pena Kati Vilim Eka Pramuditha Katrina Bello Mic Boekelmann Malik Whitaker Kanako Tsutsumi Matthew Gosser Diana Candelejo paulA neves Gisel Endara Sally Helmi Sarah Walko Adishetu Oyibo Yvette Molina Shiza Chaudhary
Index Art Center 1st Floor Gallery 233 Washington St Newark, NJ 07102
A big thanks to: Index Art Center, NYFA, Ford Foundation, Project for Empty Space, Paul Robeson Galleries, New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Newark Arts.
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
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