COMMUTE: photographs by Anthony Jannelli

May 21, 2023 – June 25, 2023

“COMMUTE: photographs by Anthony Jannelli” opened in our Upper Gallery on Sunday, May 21 with a reception from 2-5pm. Jannelli joined Museum Director Bob Foster for an online Artist Talk Friday, May 19 at 7pm. It can be viewed below, as well as on Facebook. The exhibit runs until Sunday, June 25. For more info, visit Anthony’s website here.

Born and raised in Summit, New Jersey, Anthony Jannelli has worked as a cinematographer in the motion picture industry for 4 decades. He has worked on feature films, short films, television series and commercials with Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Robert Benton, Mike Nichols, Jodie Foster, Tim Robbins, Penny Marshall, and many others. Additionally, Anthony has filmed television promos and music videos with The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Talking Heads, and Laurie Anderson. He photographed the pilot and the full first season of Law & Order Special Victims Unit.

His first professional job was as an assistant cameraman for John Lennon and The Plastic Ono Band’s One to One concert at Madison Square Garden in 1972. His first feature as a director of photography, Longtime Companion, won the 1991 Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2008 he directed the short film Five Years of Forever, which went on to win an Accolade Award for Excellence in Direction. Currently, Tony is cinematographer on the Untitled Tom Wilson Project, about renowned record producer Tom Wilson, which is being directed by Marshall Crenshaw.

A member of the International Cinematographers Guild and the Directors Guild of America, he has been an instructor at the Sundance Filmmakers Workshop and the Maine Photographic Workshops for Film and Television.

A professor of cinematography at NYU Tisch School of the Arts/Graduate Film Program since 2002, he has served as Head of the Cinematography Department 2005-2023 and as Head of Graduate Studies 2007-2008. He also taught cinematography at NYU’s Tisch Asia (Singapore) in 2009. He has been a Hoboken resident since 2010.

In 2018, Anthony began to shoot one photograph a day during his daily commute from Hoboken to NYU using only his iPhone. He shares: “What at first was an exercise in observation, I soon learned that capturing everyday life could also be a bridge to love, empathy, and sometimes humor.” In 2021, Anthony published a book entitled “COMMUTE,” a collection of street photography taken in and around Hoboken and Greenwich Village. The Hoboken Historical Museum is pleased to exhibit these extraordinary photographs in the Upper Gallery.

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.

Shipyard Marina: watercolors by Patrick Neill

April 8, 2023 – May 14, 2023

“Shipyard Marina: watercolors by Patrick Neill,” opens in our Upper Gallery on Saturday, April 8 with a reception from 2-5pm.  Patrick joined Museum Director Bob Foster for an online Artist Talk Thursday, April 6 at 7pm. It was livestreamed on YouTube here and Facebook here. The exhibit runs until Sunday, May 14.

We’re overjoyed to welcome Patrick and his beautiful, deep watercolors to our Upper Gallery. Patrick was born in 1943! He began art lessons at a young age, so he has about 70 (!) years experience seeing, drawing and painting. It’s rare for the Museum to present the work of an artist with such a history creating, who has been exhibiting decades. Professionally, he worked for 18 years as a union carpenter and two years as the foreman of the carpenter shop at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He’s built mock-ups for industrial designers at Henry Dreyfuss Associates and served four years in the US Air Force.  After a lifetime of working, and also creating art, he has found his sure footing as a painter in retirement. He says, “One cannot be a painter part time.” To see more of his work on Instagram, just click here. Welcome, Patrick! Patrick told us about his whole life’s journey so far, and we’re so pleased to share it below. What a life! Have a read. 

I was born on May 29, 1943 in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in McPherson and Emporia in Kansas. I took art lessons from Mrs. Pool, a retired teacher, whom I had met at a local craft fair when I was 11 or 12. I got a boy scout art merit badge with work that I had done at Mrs. Pool’s. The merit badge counselor, Norman Eppink, was the chairman of the art department at the local college. He suggested that I draw with a large stick of charcoal like the charred end of a stick.

My family and I went to the Nelson Art Gallery in Kansas City to view the showing of the Chrysler Collection. I was impressed by a large van Dyck and a drawing by Juan Gris. Nell Blaine told me that she had been impressed also by the Chrysler Collection when she was a girl.

While in high school I worked at the local stock yards in the summer hauling hay: loading and unloading 4 truckloads of 4 – 5 tons each with a partner. I started drawing in connection with zoology lab in college after a four-year hiatus. My academic performance was lacking. After a year back home, I moved to Portland, OR. I enrolled in painting and watercolor classes at Portland State College. The watercolor class was disappointing. I visited the art museum in Portland. I worked at the Albina Freight Yards as a class 2 loader. Occasionally I was assigned to unload barges of 50# sacks of lime and 100# bags of starch for the paper mills. I enlisted in the Air Force. I was stationed at Williams AFB, AR, for the next 3 years and 9 months. I enrolled in night classes in painting and life drawing at Arizona State University, which was near Willams AF base. I took several semesters of life drawing at ASU. Eugene Grigsby was the teacher in life drawing and Mr. Wagner in painting.

I moved back to Emporia, Kansas after my discharge from the Air Force. I enrolled in Emporia State College. Life drawing was added to the curriculum at my instigation.  My senior year, I persuaded Norman Eppink to supervise me in a seminar. He encouraged me to do tight drawings with charcoal pencils, ala Richard Estes. I graduated with a double major, in Art and English. I worked for Didde-Glaser, a graphic arts manufacturer, while in college, full-time in summers and 20hrs/week during the school year. My designation was that of stock clerk but I drove a truck and fork lift mostly.

While I was in the Air Force, I read an essay by Phillip Guston in the Art News, which had been a lecture at the New York Studio School of Drawing Painting and Sculpture. After I graduated I applied to the Studio School and I took a bus to New York for the interview and was accepted. The emphasis of the school was studio work exclusively. The first semester I did life drawing in the morning and painting in the afternoon. I exchanged life drawing for sculpture in the second semester. I was granted a full Scholarship. As part of the work for the scholarship, I rebuilt the iron steps in the small court yard of the town house.

The school rented a bus and students and some faculty went to the Barnes Foundation in Merion, PA. I didn’t realize that it was such a privilege. I must have thought the museum was just always in waiting for students to spend a day leisurely wandering through the various rooms viewing the paintings. My opinions regarding the relationship between different artists and periods of painting were confirmed. My interactions with Leland Bell, George Spaventa and Esteban Vicente were particularly important to me. Mercedes, the dean, knew many people in the art world and attracted speakers such Buckminster Fuller, Phillip Guston and Meyer Shapiro for the lectures and informal talks with Willem De Kooning and George McNeil for instance.

During my time at the Studio School I helped Leland Bell prepare for his upcoming spring show by making canvas stretchers for him. He showed me a stretcher that he’d bought in France. The superintendent, Mr. Bohn, at St. Francis Xavier on West 16th St., where I was a night watchman, permitted me to use the shop there to make French-like stretchers for Leland Bell’s show.

I didn’t return to the studio school after one year believing that I had to go my own way. Leland Bell with whom I maintained a relationship for several years after the studio school, encouraged me to go to the Kansas City Art Institute where he occasionally taught. Had I done so my prospects as an artist may have been enhanced with an MFA. Myself and two other Studio School students renovated a club in East Hampton, NY, for Mercedes Matter’s son. With money from that job I bought machines to start making French-style stretchers. Through Leland Bell I met other artists: Robert DeNiro, Sr, Paul Resika, Nell Blaine, Warren Brandt and Ilya Bolotowsky whom I supplied with stretchers for several years. I made stretchers for painting restorers/conservators also, principally the Paul Moro studio. Many masterpieces of painting have been mounted on stretchers that I made.

In 1980, I returned to New York City after a year working in Kansas. I worked at Julius Lowy and Shar-Sisto Inc., experts in period framing, making stretchers for a year. Afterwards I built mock ups for Henry Dreyfus Assoc., an industrial design company, for a couple of years. I was foreman of the carpenter shop at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for two years. After the Met job, I was a union carpenter until I retired in 2003.

While at the Met I began going regularly to the Project of Living Artists on Green Street for the life drawing sessions and continued going there and occasionally to the Spring Street Studio and Art Students League; wherever I could draw from models. I stopped going a few years ago. While I worked at the Met I also began to make regular use of sketchbooks which I continue to do. With life drawing and sketchbooks, I had hoped to keep my hand in as an artist until I retired.

While this may have been helpful to me as an artist when I retired, I learned that it would be another 10 years before my work showed consistent quality in painting. This shift can be observed in my sketchbooks. My sketchbook entries show significant improvement beginning in 2013.

One cannot be a painter part time.

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.

“From a Yuppie’s Typewriter” – Poems by Pierce Logan

February 26, 2022 – April 2, 2022

In conjunction with our Main Gallery exhibit, “The Fires: Hoboken 1978-1982,” the Museum is pleased to present the work of Pierce Logan of QWERT Poetry in our new Upper Gallery exhibit, “From a Yuppie’s Typewriter,” from February 26 through Sunday, April 2.

With this one-of-a-kind batch of seventeen poems, Pierce aims to capture the hearts and minds of Hobokenites past and present. “From a Yuppie’s Typewriter” showcases tidbits of the city’s history through the lens of polemic personal opinions and hot topics. It takes inspiration from the 1987 book edited by Joseph Barry and John Derevlany, ‘Yuppies Invade my Home at Dinnertime,’ which was a compilation of Hoboken-resident-submitted letters to The Hoboken Reporter, while giving contemporary citizens an opportunity to express thoughts on current issues surrounding the city and cities like Hoboken.

Pierce says, “This is my biggest project yet. As the city contends with gentrification, battles between “B&Rs” and “Yuppies”, the questions of identity and belonging are ever-present and always unanswered, and turn out to be byproducts of all contemporaries of their time. The work aims to reflect the voices of the authors’ and as such, poems range from biting sarcasm to calls for justice, to contradictory and light-hearted.”

The Museum is thrilled to welcome Event Typewriter Poet Pierce Logan and his original, topical and engaging exhibit to our Upper Gallery. 

On Friday, February 24 at 6pm, Pierce was interviewed by the Museum’s Poet-in-Residence Danny Shot in an online-only Artist Talk that was livestreamed on the Museum’s YouTube channel and Facebook page.

Additionally, on March 26th Pierce will bring typewriters into the Museum and visitors will be able to compose their own “letters” that will then be added to the exhibit. He will guide attendees in how to use these under-appreciated, antiquated machines. These sessions allow attendees to pay homage to the past, and the pieces that they create will be displayed, and become part of this dynamic exhibit. There will also be a live reading of the poems.

Pierce has recorded audio introductions for and readings of  each of the poems, which are accessible to visitors of the Upper Gallery by scanning QR codes. The audio is also available here:

Pierce Logan is a writer, English teacher, and poet based in New Jersey. Pierce began QWERT Poetry, a custom typewriter commissions company, in 2015 and has since composed hundreds of original poems on a typewriter for strangers. The mission of QWERT Poetry began as an effort to gain exposure with his writing and later turned into an opportunity to inspire more celebration into our lives by offering the space to commission something personal. Pierce has authored several books including QWERT Poetry’s Favorite Requests, Volume I, publishing several original scans of requested poems, Oblong and Bedrock, early poetry collections, and “HOUSE OF PAIN”, an epic poem which will be reformatted into a theatrical production in 2023 and 2024. Find published work in FATHERFATHER Magazine, The Spectre Literary Review Magazine, Writer’s Pocket, SOUP CAN Magazine, and Free The Verse. Press includes Tap Into Hoboken, podcast interview at The Life Eclectic, and the artist’s first solo exhibition at Green Hive Atelier in Union City, New Jersey with eight original framed pieces October 2022-December 2022.

QWERT Poetry is a poetry experience. In the age of “immersive experiences” QWERT stands out. You will take home a custom gift composed on a typewriter that will melt your heart, bring you to tears, or leave you overjoyed — that’s the goal. Begin with a subject in mind; Pierce will ask you a series of questions to dig deeper, unlock the reason for your request (like going to the doctor), type it out for 5ish minutes, stamp it with wax in the color of your choice, then read it to you, offering a frame. 

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.

“(UN)ERASED” by Christopher López

September 11, 2022 – October 20, 2022

In conjunction with our Main Gallery exhibit, “The Fires: Hoboken 1978-1982,” we are proud to present an accompanying installation by Christopher López. (UN)ERASED, our new Upper Gallery exhibit, has its opening reception Sunday, September 22 from 2 – 5pm. This installation received support from the Hudson County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs and will run until Sunday, February 19, 2023.

In this installation, photo-based artist Christopher López utilizes both contemporary and appropriated archival imagery to construct a visual dialogue through collage that evidences the human toll that arson played on mostly migrant communities during Hoboken’s gentrification. “This is the first time that I am exhibiting this new work. The Hoboken Historical Museum is the most important space for this work to be experienced. These photographs and stories belong here. I’m honored to share them with this community.”

When asked how he uses his skills as both an artist and a historian in this exhibit, López answered, “The gentrification of cities thrives on the erasure of its pre-existing communities. As a historian, my purpose is to fight against that in whatever way I can. My goal is to create a compendium of this history by using every resource made available to me. The people’s names, their likenesses, their stories have been buried, and run the risk of being permanently erased. My work aims to change that.”

When asked how exactly stories are erased, López answered, “Stories have the potential to be erased depending on who is driving the narrative. In gentrified cities like Hoboken, it happens through this self-anointed position of pioneerism and the cultural appropriation of urban spaces. In its perversity, it picks and chooses the things it likes and discards the rest. The rest, in this case, are actual human lives. Gentrified cities are very cookie cutter and are not actually designed by people, but rather, by developers and banks to meet the demands of an upper tier consumerism. The palpable sense of community is no longer present. The creation of this absence is exacting in its design and predominant function, which is to rebrand a city’s already existing cultural capital and replace it with a newer fiscal capital.”

Our Upper Gallery exhibit, “(UN)ERASED” is a precious opportunity to view tragic pieces of our shared history through this artist’s compassionate, discerning perspective. It’s also a key companion piece to our Main Gallery Exhibit, and we urge everyone to experience this installation before it ends its run on Sunday, February 19.

Christopher López (b.1984), was born in The Bronx and was raised between New York and Northern New Jersey. He has been working as a visual artist since 2005. To date, many of his works have been made on the island of Puerto Rico. Often by exploring diminishing histories, his photographs celebrate the richness of culture as well as portray the complexities of identity both on and off the island. His work was most notably exhibited in the exhibition, “Caribbean; Crossroads of the World” which spanned three museums in New York City and showcased over 100 years of Caribbean art from the region’s most prominent artists.

Christopher has been awarded fellowships at The Laundromat Project and The Diaspora Solidarities Lab. He is a current member of Diversify Photo, an initiative started to diversify the photography industry and has given lectures at Barnard College and Cornell University among others. His artworks are currently in the permanent collections of El Museo Del Barrio, The World Trade Center Memorial Museum, and The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.

Carol Halebian: When We Were Young

July 10 2022 – September 4, 2022

We are thrilled to present photography by Carol Halebian, in our new Upper Gallery exhibit, “When We Were Young.”  We’re showing select images form the Kodachrome film she shot of Hoboken Street life between the late 70s and early 80s. The exhibit opens Sunday, July 10 with a reception at 2 pm and runs until Sunday, September 4. Before the opening, Carol will be interviewed by Museum Director and photographer Bob Foster in an online Artist Talk Friday, July 8 at 7pm, streamed out live on both YouTube and Facebook

Carol Halebian grew up in Bergen County. She attended Syracuse University and majored in Photojournalism. On a trip to Europe, she found herself marveling at the sights along with her with fellow photography students. A professor remarked, “Don’t overlook your own backyard!” Her initial awareness of Hoboken came from the signs she saw on the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel. She was intrigued, and made her first visit here on Election Day, 1976. Carol was fascinated at how “the sidewalks became like second living rooms,” hosting card games and all manner of get-togethers. She loved the low buildings and vibrant street culture. She also was seeing the urban landscape “change rapidly.” The words ‘gentrification’ and ‘yuppie’ were commonly used in the conversations naming these changes. Carol realized that the rapidly changing Hoboken was just the place –  her “own backyard” – to focus her photographer’s eye. So she began chronicling the street life in Hoboken regularly and in earnest, with her beloved Kodachrome film. “When We Were Young” shows select images taken between the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Carol’s grandmother emigrated to the US in 1920 when she was 17 as a refugee from the Armenian Genocide. She came in on a ship that docked in Hoboken and was quickly taken home by a member of her extended family that was already here for a bath. Poor immigrants traveling over the Atlantic in ‘steerage’ were vulnerable to lice, among other medical issues, and the fortunate ones had family or friends ready to administer the serious baths needed to minimize and address infestations.

As she prepared for this exhibit, Carol found herself reflecting. She was moved to describe her impressions of Hoboken, and the circumstances that led her to photograph in Hoboken forty years ago. These are her reflections:

“The first time I saw Hoboken, I thought it was a period piece in slow progress. It was a presidential election day, 1976, Ford vs. Carter and my first day off from work. I had recently graduated from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University with a photojournalism major and a sociology minor. Employed at a photography magazine, my plan was to photograph, maybe even start a long-term project. Until that day, Hoboken was a word on a traffic sign, the place a motorist would avoid by turning in the direction of the Lincoln Tunnel for Manhattan.

Hoboken was literally “the road not taken.” It was also the butt of endless jokes, an underdog. My cousin Barbara and I, both having grown up in Bergen County, decided to explore. We parked and wandered around, smelling coffee in the air for blocks from Maxwell house, the world’s largest coffee plant. I shot one roll of my favorite film, Kodachrome. Not only the subject of a hit Paul Simon song, Kodachrome was considered to be the most stable of the slide films. Black and white could last forever, but color could fade.

It was a brief, but memorable visit. I had stumbled upon a photographic gem, a place where people are open, the quality of light is warm, bright, and beautiful. The predominant color matched my favored film’s distinctive red. In this mile square city, the street was a second living room, a meeting ground, and a melting pot. It was not unusual to see three generations enjoying an afternoon on a stoop. My first impression was that the clock had stopped about forty years ago.

My photographic approach was direct. In most situations, I walked up to people because I was attracted to an expression, a gesture, stance, attitude, or activity. Each encounter became a mini collaboration. There were so many kinds of people of different ages, classes, and cultures living side by side. The mix was changing because Hoboken was in the process of being “discovered” by people priced out of Manhattan who appreciated the proximity to New York and the charm of a unique city with a rich history.  While some people may laugh at the very sound of “HoBoKen,” its inhabitants are house and city proud.

I spent many days slowing scouting about, familiarizing myself with the grid of short blocks and long streets. There were no concrete canyons to block the sun, only an unending tangle of telephone wires.  Few buildings were more than four or five stories high. A curious situation was obvious, in several places row houses were crumbing, while in other areas they were being painstakingly renovated. It was the beginning of gentrification. Selected to be part of the federally funded “Model Cities” plan, the availability of low interest loans resulted in an influx of families seeking bargain brownstones along with speculators and investors. There were fires, some most likely arson, lots of “For Sale” signs and telltale scaffolding. There was development, re-development, and restoration. Hoboken entered a new stage of life, no longer the butt of jokes, and still a rich and vibrant community.

I continued to photograph in Hoboken until about 1984 when President Reagan passed through during his re-election campaign. While there have been many changes, Hoboken remains a unique city with a rich past and a promising future.”

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.

Lou Carbone: COVID

May 7, 2022 – July 3, 2022

We are thrilled to present the recent work of Hoboken master painter Lou Carbone. “COVID” debuts in our Upper Gallery on Saturday, May 7 with an opening reception with the artist from 2 – 5pm.  The exhibit consists of 25 16 x 20 acrylic paintings done under quarantine. On Friday, May 6 at 7pm, tune in and chat with Lou at a live, online Artist Talk on our YouTube channel here.  Lou Carbone’s “COVID” exhibit runs from Saturday, May 7 until Sunday, July 3. 

With diverse influences that include cubism, surrealism and the Mexican muralists, Lou’s paintings are a series of pictorial spaces borne of personal experience as filtered through dreams and illusions. The images of anonymous figures in common settings depict ritual happening combined with feelings of sexual tension that are woven with a quiet elegant motion.

Each canvas is a merging of fact and fantasy that opens a window to animated yet mysterious places. Many of the objects and figures are structured, ordered and linear yet they create elements that have references to the mystical and spiritual, using multiple perspective and intense color. Lou has developed an assortment of visual symbols in an effort to pare cultural traditions and rituals to their essence and intensify the relationships between his subjects. His tools may be color, line and composition but the imagery is formed through the visceral process of thought.

To see more of Lou’s work, click here.

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.

Liz Ndoye and Ibou Ndoye – “Adjacent”

March 6, 2022 – May 1, 2022

The artwork of Liz Ndoye and the artwork of Ibou Ndoye are featured in our Upper Gallery exhibit, “Adjacent.” The show runs from Sunday, March 6th until Sunday, May 1st. There is an opening reception on Sunday, March 6 from 2 – 5pm. Ms. Ndoye and Mr. Ndoye will present an online-only Artist Talk Friday, March 4 at 7 pm. Click here for more details. 

Ms. Ndoye and Mr. Ndoye are accomplished artists, showing their work for well over 20 years. They each have dozens of solo and group show credits in the greater New York City area. Mr. Ndoye additionally has shown in: Indianapolis, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Washington DC, Germany, and Senegal.

Ms. Ndoye works in mixed media and fiber, including installations. After teaching in Australia and the U.S. and traveling extensively throughout the world, she has spent the last two decades creating soft sculpture that she calls her “dolls”. She has become so deeply involved with these creatures that she has crafted a rich and lively culture around their “way of life” – including a language, religion, and governmental structure. Ms. Ndoye depicts all these activities and cultural constructs in her drawings, paintings, and installations. Her passion and love for her doll creatures is evident in the lively and playful compositions of her work. To learn more about Liz Ndoye and her artwork, visit her website here. 

Ibou Ndoye works in mixed media and glass painting. He was born in West Africa’s most progressive capital city, Dakar, Senegal. His mother made her living as a dressmaker while his grandmother worked as a tie-dye artist. Regularly surrounded by colorful African textiles and fabrics, Mr. Ndoye says he “socialized with art and cohabited with colors” from a very young age. He further shares, “My paintings are 100% social, in the sense that they have  social functions which allow the viewer to deal with all the social ethics of modern and traditional life. They are the  short stories from oral traditions that teach, inform, awake and communicate with your subconscious.” To learn more about Ibou Ndoye and his artwork, visit his website here. 

The Museum is thrilled to feature the work of these two established artists and we are intrigued to see what will happen when Ms. Ndoye’s and Mr. Ndoye’s artwork is “Adjacent” to the other’s.

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.