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Bill Curran – “Extraordinary Hoboken”
April 9 - May 29, 2016.
When most of us pass a flowerpot in full bloom on a stoop or a cat sunning lazily in a window, we might make a mental note of these moments of unexpected beauty, but they are soon forgotten, buried under a pile of errands and obligations. It takes a special eye to see these fleeting moments of pure color and light as inspiration for great art.
Artist Bill Curran has that kind of eye. He finds subjects for his lushly colorful paintings in his everyday walks through Hoboken, or views from his own window. The less “artfully” arranged the better. Taking a cue from his favorite painter, Fairfield Porter, Curran prefers to happen upon a scene worth painting, rather than intentionally arranging objects.
To explain his penchant for painting flowers, Hoboken stoops, cats, windows, boats and more, he cites a phrase that Porter used to describe the French painter Edouard Vuillard: “It seems to be ordinary, what [he’s] doing, but the extraordinary is everywhere.” When Curran sees something he likes, he will paint it quickly, en plein air, to capture the fleeting moment of pure color and light, sometimes making a sketch on site and finishing the canvas quickly back at his studio. “The feeling of adding lush paint to a rough canvas is incomparable,” he adds.
On Saturday, April 9, with an opening reception from 2 – 5 pm, the Museum is pleased to present Curran’s third Upper Gallery exhibit, “Extraordinary Hoboken,” comprising 64 small-format oil paintings of a stunning variety of subjects, painted between 1999 and 2016. Regular visitors to the Museum will know Curran as the unfailingly nice Museum Associate who greets guests and keeps operations humming at the Museum and the Fire Department Museum. On view through May 29, the paintings are as delightful as the artist!
Before coming to work for the Hoboken Museum, Curran was an illustrator and art director for 16 years at Lord & Taylor in New York. He also teaches private art lessons and classes at the Bayonne Jewish Community Center. His work has been widely exhibited at venues in New York and New Jersey, including Hoboken City Hall, Hoboken Library and even in the Empire State Building, which used to captivate him from his vantage point at Lord & Taylor, and continues to draw his eye from the Hoboken waterfront.
Curran honed his technique through years of study at The Art Institute in Fort Lauderdale, as well as New York’s School of Visual Arts, the Fashion Institute of Technology, Parsons School of Design and the Art Students League. But perhaps the most profound influence was an invitation to join Fairfield Porter’s niece, Anina Porter Fuller, and 12 other artists for a painting retreat at the family’s 100-year-old estate on Great Spruce Head Island, Maine, in 2013.
Originally born in Brooklyn, NY, and raised on Long Island, Curran has lived in Hoboken for thirty-two years. View more of his work online at billcurran.net.
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.
Alex Morales – “Watercolor Paintings”
January 10 - February 14, 2016.
The Uruguayan artist Alex Morales has been making art in a wide range of media from an early age, studying and refining his skills at the Museum of Fine Arts in the state of San Jose de Mayo in his home country. He earned a living in Uruguay and Buenos Aires as a successful illustrator, graphic artist, set designer and muralist before moving to the United States about nine years ago. He settled in the New York/New Jersey area, and about three years ago met a woman named Pilar in Hoboken. They fell in love, and have since married, and along the way, he fell in love with Hoboken.
“I like Hoboken because of the people and the small-town feel,” he says. “It is a very open community, a small town that offers a blend of youth and joy with elegance and maturity. The community is very vibrant and friendly.” As an artist, he is drawn to Hoboken’s architecture, and its piers and marina, as well as the mesmerizing views of the New York City skyline across the river. He can sense that the people who live here are proud of their city, and he was inspired to give them a chance to see it through his artistic interpretation.
For his six-week exhibition in the Hoboken Museum’s Upper Gallery, Morales has assembled about 15 recent paintings executed in water-based media, some in traditional watercolor and some elaborated in ink and lemon juice. They are realist works, with elements of abstraction and meticulously detailed work with a fountain pen.
Morales earned a reputation in Uruguay as a sought-after decorator for dance clubs and pubs, and today he continues to earn commissions creating art for commercial spaces, such as the large-scale mosaic mural, “Life,” that he created recently for the Orama Restaurant in Edgewater, NJ. The massive, 1,150-square-foot mural and other artistic elements adorning the restaurant took the artist the better part of 2013 and half of 2014 to realize. This year, he plans to offer private art classes, specifically drawing and painting.
Throughout his career, he has continued to produce fine art, exhibiting his work in solo and group shows in galleries and public spaces. “My next exhibition will be of small sculptures representing the most characteristic places of Hoboken,” Morales says. “These will be replicas in yeso (plaster) of the buildings and homes showing the architecture of this town.” The first of these pieces will be on view during his exhibit at the Hoboken Historical Museum, through Sunday, February 14. Learn more at the artist’s website: http://www.ajmorales.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 Sinatra Centennial
August 2, 2015 – July 3, 2016.
Frank Sinatra: The Man, the Voice, and the Fans
Honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of Hoboken’s most famous native son, the exhibition, “Frank Sinatra: The Man, the Voice, and the Fans,” will open on Sunday, Aug. 2, with a free opening reception from 2 – 5 p.m. The exhibit will feature interactive displays and videos, period-appropriate listening stations, and cherished fan photographs and artifacts to illustrate the singer/actor’s formative years in Hoboken, highlights from his remarkable 60-year career, and memories from legions of fans. The exhibit will be accompanied by packed schedule of singers, films and authors, and a big birthday bash on Dec. 12, 2015.
Sinatra was, as writer Bruce Bliven put it, “a kid from Hoboken who got the breaks.” He emerged from a blue-collar, working class, urban setting, where most guys, he once told an audience, became fighters or worked in factories. His own father, Martin, a recent immigrant from Sicily, started out as a boxer, fighting under the assumed name of Marty O’Brien to gain access to Irish-controlled gyms that wouldn’t admit Italians.
Though he was born in a cold-water flat in a neighborhood of newly arrived immigrants in Southwest Hoboken, his life wasn’t as rough as some biographers have portrayed. He was a rare only child, whose mother, Dolly, used her political savvy and facility with languages to improve her family’s station, securing Marty a position with the city’s fire department. By the time he was 12, the Sinatras had moved to better housing and he earned the derisive nickname of “Slacksy O’Brien” for the dress pants he sported. In the 1920s and 30s, Hoboken was bursting with young singers who performed on street corners, in pool halls and clubs, and in private homes–wherever they could get an audience.
His big break came in 1935, when a Hoboken trio calling themselves the Three Flashes invited him to join them for a shot at the American Idol program of its day, the radio program, “Major Bowes and His Original Amateur Hour.” The Hoboken Four were a hit, and went on a tour sponsored by the radio program for the next several months. Then Sinatra went solo, performing at the Rustic Cabin in Englewood, NJ, which was broadcast on WNEW’s radio program, Dance Parade, leading to an invitation to join the nationally popular Harry James band. In 1939, he joined the Tommy Dorsey band and soon earned the name “Swoonatra,” for causing teenage girls to faint at his concerts.
He would go on to sell more records than any previous singer, and also to pursue a successful Hollywood film career, including an Oscar-winning performance in “From Here to Eternity.” He and his pals in the “Rat Pack” defined the image of American cool in the 1950s and 60s, and he continued to tour and record successful records into his later years. When he died in 1998, fans swarmed Hoboken to mourn the man whose music and movies had meant so much to them.
Judy Schmitt – “Capturing Hoboken”
May 10 - July 5, 2015.
The accomplished artist Judy Schmitt may be based in Cape Cod, but since her daughter and son-in-law moved to Hoboken 15 years ago, this city has been a second home for her. Inspired by the artistic tradition of Provincetown, Mass., and many of the experienced artists who live there, Schmitt strives to capture the soul of her subjects in her paintings. She will exhibit 14 of them in the Museum’s Upper Gallery from May 10 to July 5.
Schmitt grew up in the blue collar town of Waterbury, CT, so she appreciates the hidden beauty of the many factory buildings tucked into Hoboken’s cityscape. She is enamored of the beauty and sounds of Hoboken, which she soaks in on walks through the city, or while visiting its parks with her grandchildren. She loves the way the light bounces off the brownstones, and imagines the voices of the families who grew up in them. Her goal is to portray each building’s individual character and charm, using a rich palette of Veneitan red and burnt sienna.
She starts the paintings in plein air, on the street, taking color notes for the trees, the different red-browns of the bricks and grays of the sidewalks, and finishes the canvases in her studio.
“A major influence was Edward Hopper, who lived and painted in my town,” she says, “and I learned about capturing the light, from my mentor, Steve Kennedy, a wonderful plein air artist.”
Living near the sea in New England, Schmitt is especially sensitive to Hoboken’s waterfront and its rich shipping history. She was so struck by the image of an old pier with the “Hoboken” tugboat, that she felt compelled to use a large canvas to convey the scene in all its rich detail, with the New York skyline in the background.
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.
Walter Barco – “Litopintura”
March 22 - May 3, 2015.
Ecuadoran artist Walter Barco creates extraordinary “rock-works” that evoke nostalgic memories of his native Guayaquil’s colonial architecture and 19th century homes, using a technique he describes as “la litopintura,” or stone-painting. With incredibly fine detail, including tiny figures in the windows of these three-dimensional paintings, he brings 12 of these miniature buildings to the Museum’s Upper Gallery for a unique exhibit from March 22 to May 3.
Working with the natural contours of the stone, Barco recreates the buildings’ walls of mud-and-straw (adobe), which are traditionally painted white, or sometimes structures made of wood and painted in pastel colors of pink, yellow, or blue. They are adorned with wooden balconies, porches, doors and windows.
This mini-village is mounted on revolving turntables so visitors can take in the full dimensionality of these amazing works of art.
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.
Kids Map Hoboken Artwork
January 25 - March 15, 2015.
Hoboken is a kid-friendly city — just ask a kid! We asked hundreds of children who visited the Museum with their school groups, scout troops and Family Fun Day participants to list their favorite places in town, and the result is the third edition of our popular “Kids Map Hoboken.” Some of their favorite places are illustrated with original artwork by local children, many of which will be on display in the Upper Gallery of the Museum from January 25 through March 15, 2015.
The new edition of the map was created with the support of a generous grant from the group Party With Purpose, under the direction of the Museum’s education curator, Razel Solow, and designed by graphic artist Claire Lukacs.
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.
The Extraordinary Stevens Family, A New Jersey Legacy: 1776-1911
January 25 – July 5, 2015.
Click here to take an interactive virtual tour
“The Extraordinary Stevens Family, A New Jersey Legacy: 1776-1911” detailed the lives and careers of two generations of the family The New York Times referred to as “one of New Jersey’s first families.” The Stevenses were inventors and designers, engineers and urban planners, and their influence is still very much felt, and seen, in Hoboken, and across the nation.
In addition to planning the city of Hoboken, and building many of the town’s major landmarks (Hoboken Land and Improvement Building, Willow Terraces, and Church of the Holy Innocents), and donating land for important institutions such as City Hall and the Hoboken Free Public Library, Colonel John Stevens III, along with his sons Robert Livingston, Edwin Augustus, and John Cox, made major contributions in the areas of steam transportation, railroads, architecture, and education.
Working with archivists and researchers from Stevens Institute of Technology, the first engineering school in the United States that was founded by Edwin Stevens’ estate, the exhibit featured patent models, military uniforms, maps, photos, 19th century furniture and personal family items from the family estate in Hoboken known as Castle Stevens. The museum also displayed original documents from the Stevens Institute of Technology collection, including correspondence with Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, James Madison, Robert Fulton, Richard Stockton, and many other historic figures. Many of these artifacts have never been seen by the public. The Stevens family were very politically astute and their descendants married into some of the most influential families in the country. The family corresponded with presidents and entertained royalty.
The Stevenses were also slaveholders, and the exhibit lecture series will feature a talk about Peter Lee, a former slave who was with the family from 1804 until his death in 1902, when flags were flown at half-mast at Castle Stevens to honor his passing. He was considered a part of the family and is buried in the Stevens family plot. In addition, the time period for this exhibit (mid-1700s through 1900) provides the Museum with a rare opportunity to explore 18th century life in New Jersey.
While the Stevenses’ legacy can be clearly seen and felt in Hoboken, it is their contributions to New Jersey and the nation that will be the focus of this exhibit. Colonel Stevens and his sons were forward-thinking inventors and their innovative designs were adapted by shipbuilders and railway companies across the country. Robert Livingston Stevens, the Colonel’s middle son, revolutionized how trains were built and operated with his invention of the t-rail and spike, still in use today. Father and son were also interested in using steam to power railroads, and in 1826 the Colonel had a track built on his property in Hoboken so he could experiment with a steam locomotive driven by a multi-tubular boiler that carried passengers around the track at 12 miles an hour. This was the first engine and train that ever ran on a railroad in America.
The land that is now Hoboken had been confiscated by the State of New Jersey from a British loyalist and was won in an auction by Colonel John Stevens III, a revolutionary war hero from Perth Amboy, N.J., for $90,000 in 1784. In order to make Hoboken more appealing to homesteaders, Col. Stevens developed Hoboken as a pastoral getaway for New Yorkers weary of the dirty city. Open meadows, walkways along the river, inns, the “natural spring waters” of Sybil’s Cave, were all designed to entice buyers to purchase plots in the newly laid out community. These plots sold slowly at first, even with the added bonus of advertising Hoboken as being free of “yellow fever,” but after Col. Stevens established the Hoboken Ferry Company, with steam-powered ferries making regular trips between Manhattan and Hoboken, the town began to fill with the area’s first commuters.
The Stevens women were equally progressive-minded contributors to the betterment of society. Martha Bayard Dod Stevens, wife of Edwin Augustus and a descendent of the British loyalist who lost the land that Colonel Stevens won at auction, has contributed as much as any of her in-laws. It is probably Martha Stevens whose influence is most felt in Hoboken. Her interests in education, housing for laborers, and opportunities for working women, drove her to establish a foundling hospital, Holy Innocents Church, the Hoboken Free Public Library (National Register of Historic Places), and an industrial training school for young women and men. In addition, as a result of a trip to the Scottish village of New Lanark, a community founded by utopian social reformer Robert Owen, whose clean, affordable housing for workers inspired Mrs. Stevens to commission similar housing at the Willow Terraces in Hoboken. Widowed at age 37, she was left to carry out her husband’s wishes for a school of higher learning to be built on the family property. It was in honor of her family’s innovative natures that she chose to build a school of engineering.
Lou Carbone – “New Paintings”
November 9 - December 23, 2014.
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. The show opens on Nov. 9, with a free reception from 2 – 5 p.m., and remains on view through Dec. 23.
To see more examples of Carbone’s work, visit his website, www.loucarbone.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.
Ibou Ndoye – “Art for Life”
September 21 - November 2, 2014.
Ibrahima Ndoye, who goes by “Ibou,” has been an artist all his life. Born in Senegal to a family who expressed their creativity in tie-dying, embroidery, welding and dressmaking, Ndoye learned from an early age that nearly any material can lend itself to creative hands.
“When I was a boy, my mother would tease me, saying that if I didn’t create something, my hands were blind,” he says. He grew up surrounded by textiles in rich colors and bold patterns, in a culture that was very creative – Dakar, he says, is one of West Africa’s most progressive cities. So it only seemed natural that Ndoye was drawn to art as a vocation, beginning his career as a painter in the late 1980s while still living in Senegal. He was influenced by a popular movement that encouraged artists to embellish the urban environment by painting murals on buildings and walls – he painted several in the suburban city of Pikine that were featured in a French documentary in 1990.
He then learned the technique of glass painting, a Middle Eastern tradition that had been introduced to Senegal a hundred years earlier. Adding an innovation of his own, Ndoye began using broken pieces of glass, some of it repurposed from old windows and other discarded glass. He feels it conveys another layer of meaning, about the broken communications and broken relationships that people persevere to overcome.
“The more you talk with people the more you know who they are,” he adds. He views art as a vital way of communicating. When he moved to the United States in 2001, he was initially drawn to Hudson County because he had friends here, but stayed because of the vibrant arts community. He joined several artist organizations, and helped Liz Cohen and other Hoboken artists to found the hob’art artists gallery group. Through these contacts, his work has been exhibited in numerous group and solo shows in and around Hudson County. He also has taught several art workshops, in the homeless shelter and at the Hoboken Library. “People really value art here – it’s like a cultural exchange,” he observes.
Lately, he’s been fascinated with the question of recycling and laundromats, inspired in part by the post-Sandy clean-up. “Everyday objects have an importance for me,” he says. “And finding new uses for everyday objects is not just a way to help our ecosystem; it also makes the city beautiful and clean again.”
Several of the works that he will exhibit in his new show, “Mixed Media Artworks and Glass Paintings by Ibou Ndoye,” in the Museum’s Upper Gallery will be brightly colored creations made of cut and assembled pieces of detergent bottles and other laundry paraphernalia. In addition, he will show several glass paintings on salvaged windows he has collected around Hoboken from home remodeling projects. He enjoys giving a second function and new artistic life to windows, which have always been a part of his art. The show opens on Sept. 21, with a free reception from 2 – 5 p.m., and remains on view through Nov. 2.
To see more examples of Ndoye’s work, visit his website, www.iboundoye.com.
Click here to see a virtual gallery of the exhibit.
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.