Category Archives: Past Exhibition
Tom Zuk – “Rear Window”
April 15 – May 27, 2018
Tom Zuk has made photographic art from the rough materials of the urban cityscape outside his Hoboken apartment window. A wall of crumbling masonry, a clothesline with pulley, a patio, a street corner, a church with steeple, hi-rise apartment, just the sky filling the window from edge to edge: Each scene is interpreted by a photographer steeped in all aspects of the medium, from the studied attention to light and shadow in shooting a still life or landscape to the split-second instincts of a street photographer. Working within the self-imposed constraints of shooting from his apartment, Zuk didn’t set out with a particular objective, but he describes the resulting series as “a hybrid of the Romantic and Existential, recording the particular species of mankind’s solitude unique to dense, old cities.”
The image used in the poster, for example, was inspired by the effect of the city at night, “painted with artificial lights that haphazardly––beautifully, to my eye––mix color temperatures, and serve up a chiaroscuro dreamscape that I find compelling.” The photograph is just one in a very varied tableau of Zuk’s corner of Hoboken. See the rest in the exhibit, “Rear Window: Photographs by Tom Zuk,” which opens Sunday, April 15, with an opening reception from 2 – 5 pm, and an artist’s talk at 4 pm.
His first love was painting and drawing, but he wasn’t satisfied with his efforts. As did Man Ray and Irving Penn, photographers who started out as painters only to find that they’re more adept with a camera than with a brush, Zuk turned to photography as an alternative means of visual expression. He trained himself by walking the streets of New York, shooting and learning from his mistakes. He apprenticed with established photographers and took photos for his own portfolio, spending hundreds of hours in darkrooms mastering black and white photography. He works in the digital medium today, but credits his early experience in the darkroom for his ability to pull off a striking black and white photograph even with digital tools.
“Of all the work I did as a commercial photographer, the least remunerative but most gratifying assignments were editorial jobs and travel features, many of the latter for a New York newspaper,” Zuk says. “I liked being on the loose in a foreign country, meeting strangers, struggling to communicate, and coming home with good film. The rewards were directly proportional to the risks.”
He adds, “Another, quieter current in my work is still lifes. I enjoy taking an unusual household object––a bouquet of dead flowers, for instance, or an espresso pot or toy car––arranging it in front of the camera, and seeing if I can extract an unsettling mood from the composition.”
Zuk admits that “Hoboken isn’t Yosemite or the Grand Canyon,” but he enjoyed the challenge of capturing strong images in this variation on street photography. “The views don’t surrender themselves easily.”
Zuk has seen the city change a lot in the 35 years since he and his wife moved here. He spent his early years in Buffalo, NY. “It was a working-class city when I lived there, and often came to mind when my wife and I moved to Hoboken,” he says. “But change is the only constant, and Hoboken is no longer blue collar. I have to catch myself when drifting into nostalgia because I’m suspicious of its potential for dishonesty,” he concludes.
Explore more of Zuk’s work on Instagram. The exhibit will remain on view through May 27.
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.
Marcella Conti – “Hoboken Sensations”
February 25 – April 8, 2018
Even though Hoboken is very close to the Big Apple, the city has its own personality and charm. There’s a sense of familiarity, a warm environment where foreigners are welcomed to be themselves and keep their traditions alive. Small, family-owned businesses are an important part of Hoboken’s character, and are the main focus of the Museum’s latest art exhibit: “Hoboken Sensations: The photographs of Marcella Conti.”
Marcella Conti is a Brazilian photographer who has found in photography a true passion for capturing places and families. In 2016 she attended the International Center of Photography, where she studied documentary and visual journalism. There she finished the project, “Hoboken Sensations,” which was part of the exhibition, “Another kind of paradise,” at ICP, in New York City in 2016.
Conti found that the city of Hoboken has a feeling of coziness, warmth and tradition. Small family shops didn’t give way to large chains, as in most big cities. Stores founded by settling immigrants are kept alive in the families for generations and so are their memories and traditions. Their walls are covered with old photographs and memories from grandparents, and their business models, routines, and customs remain mostly the same. They continue to fight to survive a gentrification that makes cities impersonal in the modern world.
“When we move to a new place, especially a country with a different culture, we change our personality too,” Conti says. “After a while we don’t belong anymore to our birth place or to the new one. I wanted to show that the old can still live with the modern.
“This feeling of not belonging brings a certain loss of identity,” she added. “Living and working in such a big and cosmopolitan place like New York City can be comforting because many residents are immigrants too, but it can also make us feel like we’re missing something that defines who we are. Pieces of our culture, history, and memories that makes us unique are usually left behind.”
The exhibit opens Sunday, Feb. 25, with a free reception from 2 – 5 pm, and remain on view through Apr. 8.
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.
Erik L. Burro – “Legacy of Remembrance”
January 7 – February 18, 2018
As the commemoration of the centennial of America’s involvement in World War I continues into 2018, a new photography exhibit in the Museum’s Upper Gallery documents one man’s quest to bring attention to the wealth of fine statuary and other monuments erected by New Jersey’s towns and cities.
“Legacy of Remembrance: Photographs by Erik L. Burro,” presents a series of large format black-and-white photographs of over two dozen WWI monuments around New Jersey, plus a few from neighboring states. Burro is a historian and photographer who has many years’ experience with historic character portrayals and historic site multimedia productions, mostly since the 1976 bicentennial celebrations.
This WWI series has been a passion project he’s pursued on his travels around the state in the past two years, ever since he became intrigued with a WWI monument in his adopted hometown of Burlington, NJ. After researching its history, he started noticing more of these largely forgotten monuments, leading him to document as many of them as possible, in tribute to the 1917-1918 centennial of America’s involvement in the Great War.
The exhibit opens Sunday, Jan. 7, with a free reception from 2 – 5 pm, and a talk by Burro starting at 4 pm. The photos will remain on view through Feb. 18.
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.
Anna Pinto – “30 Years of Snow”
November 18 – December 31, 2017
A hand-crafted card is a gift in itself, in an age when computer-generated “hand-writing” typefaces attempt to mimic the personal touch without quite pulling off the illusion. Hoboken-based lettering artist Anna Pinto has produced snow-themed calligraphic holiday cards for more than 30 years.
“My holiday cards are an opportunity to create something completely for my own pleasure, that I can also share with family, friends and clients,” she adds. Her cards often combine hand-lettering with photographs or drawings, and occasionally hand-coloring or stencils and individual tiny collages.
“After a series of cards based on lines from Dylan Thomas’ “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” I decided if I just used winter and/or snow as a theme, I wouldn’t have to worry if I was late with my cards as long as they got out before the first day of spring!” The theme continued to resurface as a theme in her cards, as she keeps an eye out for references to snow in her reading throughout the year.
An exhibit of her work, “Thirty Years of Snow: Calligraphy by Anna Pinto,“ will be on display at the Hoboken Museum from Nov. 18 – Dec. 31, featuring her printed cards, along with original pieces using some of the same quotations used in the cards. The exhibit also will include examples of preliminary work and writing for a few of the cards, to give visitors an idea of how they were done. In some cases, the size of the lettering has been reduced dramatically for the final card — so having the original writing will demystify the cards a bit. Her card formats vary quite a bit, often with unusual folds that allow her to include a greeting without printing on both sides. Join the artist for a talk and Q&A about her work on Saturday, Dec. 9, at 4 pm at the Museum.
Pinto cobbled together a lettering education by taking many workshops and classes over the years. “Calligraphy really is drawing: You’re controlling line very precisely,” she says. “I also enjoy watercolor and collage. But I always loved literature as well, so calligraphy seemed like an ideal way to combine both interests.”
Now, she’s an established freelance calligrapher, doing a variety of lettering work, from invitations, envelopes and placecards for social events; citations for educational institutions and corporations; to hand-lettered poems and quotations for individual commissions. She also teaches calligraphy for the Society of Scribes (societyofscribes.org) and other organizations.
Aside from her cards and commissioned lettering projects, some of her most fascinating projects have been film props, ranging from medieval calligraphy for pages of a huge book of spells used in Disney’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and lettering on a map for the “The Smurfs,” to writing entries for a 1920s ship manifest for “The Immigrant,” an illuminated spread from Dante’s Inferno for “True Story,” and 1950s-style handwriting for a notebook in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” She notes, “I enjoy the research into the topic as much as the work itself, because it takes me into worlds I might not enter otherwise.”
Pinto moved to Hoboken in 1980 with her husband, Pieter Sommen, to find a more peaceful and affordable place of their own after sharing a large apartment with friends on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. “Our block had become a kind of tourist circus, but Hoboken felt so familiar, and reminded us of what we loved about the Village: the human scale of the buildings, the coal oven bakeries, delis making their own mozzarella, café con leche at the bodegas, people growing fig trees in their backyards,” she recalls.
“Hoboken has certainly changed dramatically,” she adds, “but we still love it here. My experience of snowy days in Hoboken certainly inspires my choice of quotes. I love the hush that expands as the snow falls and the normally noisy Willow Avenue traffic outside my studio window stops. And I love the graphic geometry in the backyard view from my kitchen, as snow settles on the angles of fire escapes and roof tops and the branches of trees.”
Her work has been exhibited in the show “The Revival of Calligraphy” at the Grolier Club in NYC, as well as in an exhibit along side work by her parents and sister in the “Families/Cities Shift” show at the Susan Teller Gallery in NYC in 2013. The exhibit at the Hoboken Museum will include both originals and printed cards available for purchase. For a glimpse of her work, visit www.annapintocalligraphy.com.
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.
Frank Hanavan – “Hoboken”
September 24 - November 12, 2017
A plein air painter’s life isn’t easy, especially in an urban setting. Imagine lugging around close to 20 pounds of art supplies, including an easel and bulky canvases, perched on a bike or squeezed into public transit, just to capture a scene in the right light. For more than 25 years, that’s been the modus operandi of Frank Hanavan, whose acrylic paintings of Hoboken and New York City streetscapes, parks and waterfront adorn the walls of dozens of Hoboken homes.
A couple of years ago, to lighten his load on his “days off,” Hanavan began carrying a small watercolor set and a pad of watercolor papers, just to do some light sketches. He hadn’t worked with the medium since taking classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, University of Buffalo, and Chautauqua. He discovered it took a few tries to get the hang of it. At first, he applied the watercolor pigments thickly, resembling the opacity of acrylics. But the more he painted with them, the lighter his touch became, bringing more and more light into his paintings.
“I’ve always taken the watercolor less seriously,” he admits, adding, “I view the medium as being more carefree, and it’s my favorite thing about it.”
That insight may be the secret to why this series of watercolors of Hoboken is so delightful. “Perhaps because I don’t take it as seriously, or put it on a pedestal, I can experiment more with it,” he says. “And when I go back to using acrylics, I find the watercolor experience gives me a fresh look at the acrylic, a perspective I could not have gained otherwise.”
Using a smaller format than his acrylics, the artist infuses light and air into these 43 scenes of the city’s waterfront walkway and parks, train terminal, and street views. Fans of his work will recognize some of his perennial favorite Hoboken scenes, such as sidewalk cafes and the cherry trees in bloom along 9th Street, and some new ones.
Even with the entire city of New York at his disposal, Hanavan is drawn to Hoboken. “It’s small enough to feel like a microcosm,” he says. “It’s close, yet it’s a different place, it’s distinct from Manhattan or Jersey City and it pretty much looks good no matter where you plop yourself down.” And as a self-taught sailor and fan of all things nautical – he creates historically accurate ship models as a hobby – he likes that the Mile Square City is right on the Hudson.
Hanavan grew up in the Buffalo, NY, suburb of Kenmore, and moved to New York City in 1990, where he began painting scenes of everyday city life. Winter, spring, summer and fall, regardless of the weather, rain, snow or shine, he is constantly out painting the city he loves from life, without editorializing or romanticizing the subjects. He often says his real subject matter is the quality of light falling on the subject, not the physical subject itself.
The exhibit, Hanavan’s third exhibit at the Hoboken Museum this decade, opens Sunday, Sept. 24, and remains on view through Sunday, Nov. 12. And on selected Saturdays, Oct. 7th and 14th, and Nov. 11th, Hanavan will share his talents in three art classes, from 2 – 4 pm, with anyone who wants to learn how to handle watercolor paints. Each class costs $25, $15 for kids, and materials are included. See the Museum’s events calendar page for sign-up links.
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.
Artists on the Move – “In Transition”
August 6 - September 17, 2017
Art teacher Liz Cohen has been teaching weekly classes at the Hoboken Shelter and St. Matthew’s lunch program, as a volunteer. After retiring from 40 years of teaching in a private school, she enjoys working with Hoboken’s transitional population, helping them explore their own talents by exposing them to the techniques and styles of a diverse group of artists, including Keith Haring, Jim Dine, Hans Hofman, Kara Walker, Faith Ringgold, Georgia O’Keeffe, Romare Beardon, Stuart Davis, Jackson Pollack, Jasper Johns, Basquiat, Helen Frankenthaler and Yayoi Kusama.
The result is a stunningly diverse exhibition of nearly 150 works of art that reveal the unique perspectives and individual talents of these local artists. On view from August 6 through September 17, the exhibition should give visitors a new respect for members of our community who are often underappreciated, according to Cohen. She says some of the artists are creating artwork for the first time, while others show natural talent equal to some of America’s best-known self-taught “outsider” artists.
One of the artists once asked Cohen why she enjoys hanging out with homeless people, and after two years, she says she has come to see the art classes as a powerful tool for helping people communicate. “I really enjoy talking to the students,” she adds. “Each is unique; as unschooled talents, their work is fresh and uninhibited, unselfconscious, and naïve.”
She hopes viewers will come to see these artists more clearly as individuals through their work. “They’ve created a life for themselves,” she observes. “Hoboken provides a good amount of support, with the food pantry, the Hoboken Shelter, and St. Matthew’s lunchtime ministry, they have formed a community, sharing ideas and problems with each other.”
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.
World War I Centennial, 1917-2017: Heaven, Hell or Hoboken
August 6, 2017 - December 23, 2018
“World War I Centennial, 1917-2017: Heaven, Hell or Hoboken” explores how Hoboken and its residents were transformed by the United States entry into World War I on April 6, 1917. The city was declared the main point of embarkation for the U.S. Expeditionary Force bound for Europe.
Almost overnight Hoboken became a military town, as hundreds of officers and thousands of enlisted men took residence here to facilitate the logistics of the Embarkation Service. With an additional 14,000 civilian employees, they would oversee the transit of an estimated two million American servicemen to Europe—and then the soldiers’ return—from 1917 through 1919.
Soldiers arriving in Hoboken from boot camps soon began to use the phrase “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken,” referencing John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, the commander general of the Army forces destined for Europe. Pershing had predicted they would be in “Heaven, Hell or Hoboken”—return into America—“by Christmas” 1917.
As the Great War raged on, servicemen retained the saying for Christmas 1918, and when about 5,000 men returned to Hoboken just days before the holiday, the City fathers lined the march route with flags, bunting, and a banner bearing that slogan. The men marched from the trains of the West Shore Railroad, from Jersey City Heights into Hoboken, up First Street, to Hoboken’s waterfront piers, and new destinations—including home. A Jersey City solider, Thomas T. Gavin, told the local Hudson Dispatch: “It certainly is fine to know we accomplished what we set out to do: “’Hell, heaven, or Hoboken by Christmas.’ I am lucky that it is Hoboken.” As he and the returning men marched along First Street, flag-waving residents, gathered in throngs, cheered and sang.
There would be many more returning servicemen and parades, but there would also be sorrowful reckoning and recognition of the soldiers’ great sacrifice, as transport ships increasingly brought back wounded men, and the bodies of those who had died from battle wounds or disease. The influenza epidemic was especially deadly, claiming the lives of nearly as many soldiers as died in combat.
The Great War lasted nineteen months, and many Hoboken men served. Women on the home front also volunteered to assist the war effort in many ways. “World War I Centennial, 1917-2017: Heaven, Hell or Hoboken” displays some of the personal letters, postcards, official documents, and photographs of these men and women, allowing us, 100 years later, to consider their unique perspectives and contributions, and the way the war changed them and their hometown.
— Introduction written by Holly Metz
The exhibition is on view from August 6, 2017 – December 23, 2018. Other highlights in the exhibition include:
- The official ledger book – measuring 3 ft. by 4 ft.! – in which a Hoboken city clerk inscribed the names, addresses and ages of all the men ages 18 – 45 who were required to register for military duty under the country’s first Selective Service Act.
- Twenty-five patriotic posters (on loan from the Jersey City Free Public Library) issued by the US government to rally all citizens to contribute to the war effort, through military service, buying bonds, or conserving food.
- Archival film footage of soldiers and YMCA volunteers busy with preparations for shipping out or returning home.
- An authentic, hand-cranked Victor Victrola, made in Camden, NJ, in 1918, and stereoptical images of the bustling Hoboken waterfront in wartime, with both an original and a modern viewer for enlarged versions of the cards.
- Artifacts from the Warriors’ Shrine at the former St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, on Hudson St. (now a residential condo building), including a sanctuary chair containing a stone from the bridge across the Marne River at Chateau-Thierry in France.
Funds from the David Webster Memorial Fund were used to purchase some artifacts for this exhibition, including items from Peter Spinetto’s estate and the estate of John DePalma. Additional thanks to the Jersey Room at the Jersey City Free Public Library and the Librarians Cynthia Harris and John Beekman. We would also like to thank Ronald Magnusson for his research on Peter G. Spinetto, and the following Museum staff and contributors for making this exhibit possible: Melissa Abernathy, Robert Foster, Rand Hoppe, Eileen Lynch, Holly Metz, and McKevin Shaughnessy.
William Magruder – “The Walls of Hoboken”
May 28 - July 2, 2017
An architectural illustrator by profession, William Magruder has an irrepressible artistic imagination that expresses itself in fantasy-infused drawings, reminiscent of one of his favorite artists, Windsor McKay.
A recent series was inspired by Hoboken’s inundation during Superstorm Sandy. Magruder and his wife had lived here since 2002, and his adopted city’s defenselessness during the storm surge sent Magruder’s imagination on a journey to the fortified cities and villages he had seen on his travels through Europe. Among his favorites is Lucca, Italy, whose thick, sloped, brick-and-stone walls were built by 16th century residents for protection against mortar shells.
The walls were built to last and give the impression of impregnability, he recalls, but they are also topped with promenades so the people could enjoy the surrounding landscape during peaceful times. “They’re a delight, a magical combination of landscape and architecture,” he says. “They’re a wonderful asset to the city, drawing tourists and residents alike.”
These walls become particularly intriguing when they’re adjacent to water, Magruder adds, like those in Antibes, on the Côte d’Azur of France. That’s what inspired him to imagine such fortifications surrounding Hoboken, keeping the water at bay, yet allowing people to enjoy the views from the walkway on top. He began the series by drawing in pen and ink, with no preconceptions of how they would turn out, because he prefers creating art spontaneously. He then developed some illustrations into full-color renderings using 3D computer modeling.
His “The Walls of Hoboken” drawings are a fantasy exercise, he admits, “not a design solution.” For one thing, in the 16th century, most of the labor was conscripted! But with Margruder’s award-winning technical expertise, his illustrations of solid walls seem as capable of protecting a city as any Frank Lloyd Wright renderings.
Magruder has published the illustrations in a book, and a number of them will be displayed in the Hoboken Museum’s Upper Gallery from May 28 through July 2. For a preview, and to see other work by the artist, visit www.williammagruder.com.
Magruder and his wife no longer live in Hoboken; they have recently relocated to Italy, choosing Milan for its central location and ease of life without a car. He continues to practice his art and do some teaching.
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.
Robert Nardolillo – “The Essence of Hoboken”
April 15 - May 21, 2017
Join us for a free opening reception for our latest Upper Gallery art exhibition: “The Essence of Hoboken: Watercolors by Robert Nardolillo.” These dynamic and moody watercolor paintings by the Brooklyn-born artist who now lives in the suburbs, express the urban energy of the Mile Square City. He discovered the city’s unique beauty when his daughters moved to Hoboken after college. Meet the artist at the opening reception for his works on Saturday, Apr. 15 from 2 – 5 pm. His works will remain on view through Sunday, May 21. For a preview of his work, visit the artist’s website.
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.
Jean-Paul Picard – “Hoboken Sweeps”
March 4 - April 9, 2017
The versatile artist Jean-Paul Picard specializes in web design and digital photography. He teaches courses in these technical skills in evening classes at the Hudson County Schools of Technology. But he started out as a graphic designer and photographer back in the days when you used an actual T-square to draw a rule, and mixed chemicals in a darkroom to print a photo.
With a penchant for trying new things, Picard started experimenting with using multiple images in single work to create a story line, after seeing a Richard Avedon exhibit in 2013. Avedon had created monumental, panoramic photographs of people standing in a row by combining several exposures together. Inspired by this and by his affinity for art by cubist painters like Picasso and Braque, Picard started combining a series of separate exposures he had taken at another art exhibit.
Then, he struck on the idea of using the panorama mode on a digital camera, but rather than moving the camera in a smooth line, he learned he could create more interesting effects by sweeping the camera in different ways and at different speeds. Like the cubists, this he uses this technique to show more sides of an object than a traditional single-perspective image offers.
At first, he printed these “sweeps” from his digital printer on white paper, but because of the images’ shapes, there was too much white space on the final artwork for his taste. So he experimented with printing on different types of fine-art paper, first preparing the paper with a digital ground – a field of special white paint applied to the paper to help set the inks and make the image pop.
He devised this approach on his own, inspired by a technique that dates from the earliest days of photography, when photographers applied a silver gelatin halide solution by brush to paper before developing their images. The silver gelatin images usually had rough-edged borders, unseen behind the matte or frame of the final product. But that rough edge appealed to Picard, who incorporates it into his original works of art.
Although the images originate in a digital camera, each of the works on display in the Museum’s upper gallery is a unique edition, or monoprint, containing the serendipitous elements of the artist’s hand. In addition to the Hoboken Sweeps series, Picard is working on similar series with the themes of nature, travel, portraiture, New York City and Québec, where he has family roots. More examples of his work, including his 2009 “Visage Hoboken” portraits that were displayed in his first Museum exhibit, can be seen at www.jean-paulpicard.com.
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.