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.” “
Learn to build a narrative around your photographs in this four-part online course led by photographer, curator, and educator Colleen Gutwein O’Neal.
Documentary photography is deeply rooted in conveying a message to an audience through a meaningful series of images. Participants will explore how photography can be used as a tool for scientific development, social change, and community engagement. Each session will explore photographic techniques through both historic and contemporary examples. The course will include four one-hour zoom sessions and access to a closed Facebook Group for posting assignments, resources, and discussion.
Students need access to a camera or camera phone for this course
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:
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
City Without Walls is pleased to present ArtReach XXV and a Newark New Media exhibition this summer. An opening reception will be held on Friday, June 16, 2017, 5-8pm.
ArtReach XXV will be on view at City Without Walls June 16 – August 26, 2017.
cWOW’s ArtReach program exposes local high school art students to the real lives of working artists. ArtReach offers encouragement, practical advice and guidance, and includes a high profile cWOW exhibition featuring collaborative work by the mentors and their students. The program, celebrating its 25th year, nurtures the next generation of artists and arts leaders with professional artists for a semester, engaging in dialogue through art talks, and visits to local art spaces. Students in this year’s program were sponsored in part by The Newark Print Shop, a community fine art printmaking workshop that provides affordable and accessible workspace.
This group exhibition features painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, installations and video by the following students and their mentors: Chevelle Ogbonna and James Blake, Marcus Everson and Layqa Nuna Yawar, Adelin Figueroa and Patricia Arias-Reynolds, Olga Melissa Tapia and Robert Richardson, Alonzo Lockhart and Matt Gosser, Gabrielle Johnson and Toni Thomas, Kayla Muldrow and Danielle Scott, Orchid Sylvester and Angela Pilgrim, Manuel Mejiá and Alverson Layne, Angela Johnson and Kristian Battell, Dylan Sánchez Quinteros and Colleen Gutwein, Taphara Lundy and Adrienne Wheeler, Chiara Quezada Hernández and James Wilson; and Jackson Bazile and Khari Johnson-Ricks.
City Without Walls is New Jersey’s oldest alternative art space. Our mission is to advance the careers of artists, expand the audience for contemporary art and provide opportunities for arts education and community engagement.
City Without Walls is the grateful recipient of donations and grant support from The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the City of Newark, Tarin M. Fuller, and individual contributors.
Join the celebration this Friday, May 5, 2017 for the grand opening of Express Newark and Shine Portrait Studio in Newark, NJ. I will be shooting complimentary black & white portraits in the Shine Studio from 5-8pm, as part of a happening. See the Small Forest contact page for directions to the studio. Click HERE for information about the Express Newark grand opening celebration. (accessible by train, bus, and car: parking deck available under the Hahne building, closes at 10pm)
I am very excited to be working with Matthew Gosser. He will be providing set pieces for the photoshoot from his current curatorial programming: “Art & Artifacts of Newark”.
Join me for an open studio visit on the 3rd floor of Index Art Center, followed by the Opening reception for the Queen of Angels: When a Church Dies exhibition, all on Sunday October 23rd. Free transportation is available to local galleries and artists studios, more information HERE
I am lucky enough to share my studio space with my talented husband, Joseph O’Neal. Please join us in our studio from noon-6pm on Sunday October 23rd. The gallery at Index Art Center will also be open and showing Intersection 2016, in which both Joseph and I are participating.
Facebook Event HERE
Queen of Angels: When a Church Dies
Unintended Relics, 2016
October 23 & by appointment. Opening Reception: October 23, 4-7pm
270 Central Ave, Newark
After a 5 year hiatus from curating Ar+chaeology exhibits, Matthew Gosser is bringing the idea back to help celebrate Newark’s 350 anniversary founding. The Queen of Angels church, and school, was a highly significant historic landmark which was recently demolished. A collection of artifacts, photographs, and historic research was plentiful to artists in this exhibit charged with the idea of creating works that speak of the Queen of Angels.
Information for Newark 350 HERE
Facebook Event HERE
Newark Open Doors 2016 will be happening October 19 – 23rd this year. On Friday, October 21st, three exhibitions I am showing work in will be hosting opening receptions. Free transportation to all of the gallery openings that night is available with registration for the “Gallery Crawl” through the Newark Arts Council. Hope to see you there!
The 5 Wards
Ballantine Brewery. September, 2016
October 21 – December 17 Opening Reception: October 21, 6-9pm City Without Walls
The 5 Wards is a photography exhibition curated by Akintola Hanif featuring works by Manuel Acevedo, Cesar Melgar, Tamara Fleming, Colleen Gutwein, Fabian Palencia, Nema Etebar, Stefan Brown and Rhys Valmonte. Presented in conjunction with HYCIDE magazine, the exhibition will also launch The 5 Wards online series, which is part of Newark Celebration 350.
Complete information for The 5 Wards HERE
Facebook Event HERE
Market Street Convergence II
Samantha Katehis, above her studio.
October 21 – November 12 Opening Reception: October 21, 5-9pm Gallery Aferro @77 Market St (fl. 2)
25 exhibits/ 4 buildings/1 block/1 night Market Street Convergence II is presented by Gallery Aferro and the Newark Arts Council for the Open Doors citywide arts festival.
Alongside other photographic documentation of Newark, I will be exhibiting The Newark Arts Photo Documentary Project: Selected Color Prints
Complete information for Market Street Convergence II HERE
Facebook Event HERE
Intersection 2016
31 Central, September, 2016
October 21 – November 17 Opening Reception: October 21, 6-11pm Index Art Center
Intersection 2016 features work by artists that have studios located at 31 Central Avenue in Newark. 31 Central has been occupied by artists and creatives for more than three decades, helping to establish an emerging arts community in the Halsey Street area and Downtown Newark. Intersection will also feature works by artists that have studios at 237 Washington Street – Index Art Center’s new location after a fire displaced the organization in 2013.
Complete information for Intersection 2016 HERE
Facebook Event HERE
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