Downtown Red Bank’s signature “Lollipop Clock” is among the local landmarks vividly envisioned by Mike Quon, below, in an exhibit currently on display at the Art Alliance.
One of our favorite hometurf painters and a Latino artist collective with Jersey roots bring both well established and cutting-edge art to the Greater Red Bank Green as summer winds down.
Keynoting a new schedule of exhibition events at the Art Alliance of Monmouth County — and simultaneously looking wistfully back on the vibrantly colored experiences of the peak-season interlude — Fair Haven-based painter and illustrator Mike Quon marks “The End of Summer” with a solo show that opened this past weekend at the Monmouth Street studio space, and continues through September’s transitional journey into autumn.
A veteran favorite of local art lovers, and himself a second-generation master of his medium (his 103-year-old dad, Milton, is a former Disney animator whose projects included the groundbreaking Fantasia), Quon has long been a welcome presence at area art fairs like the recent Canterbury Art Show in Rumson — and many of his best-loved works focus on his sun-kissed, whimsically spirited impressions of familiar Monmouth County buildings, streetscapes and attractions — boldly rendered images that possess a sense of fun, and an “animated” quality all their own. The show, which collects scenes of Red Bank, Asbury Park and other Shore area locales, remains on display, along with the Alliance group show “All Things Considered,” during regular gallery hours, Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.
********
In the words of curator Monica S. Camin, “2016 is a pivotal year for the Latino/a voice, especially with this year’s’ monumental election,” and beginning this Friday, Lincroft’s Monmouth Museum presents a group show that addresses some front-and-center questions: when does a population reach a point of pivotal change? When does a group go from being an element of a community to being a leading voice in its future? Entitled Critical Mass, the exhibit is the work of Grupo Neo-Latino, an artist collective boasting origins in the Garden State and representing creatives with roots in or ties to Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Portugal and Spain.
Curator Camin joins Luis Stephenberg Alers, Imna Arroyo, Josephine Barreiro, Hugo X. Bastidas, Olga M. Bautista, Angélica Muñoz Castaño, Christie Devereaux, Ricardo Fonseca, Carlos Frias, Maria Cristina Jadick, Alexis Mendoza, Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo, Hugo Morales, Lisette Morel, Gabriel Navar, Isabel Nazario, Julio Nazario, George Rivera, José Rodeiro, Catalina Santamaria, Nicola Stewart, Sergio Villamizar and Raúl Villarreal as participating artists in the show, with Friday’s free reception going on between 6 to 8 p.m., and the exhibit remaining on display in the museum’s main gallery through November 6 during regular hours, Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday 12 to 5 p.m.
********
Currently on the walls at Shrewsbury’s Guild of Creative Art are “Two Solo Shows” spotlighting the works of two member artists, Lizzi Schippert and Sven Widen. A traveling exhibition that was previously featured at Ocean County College’s Center for the Arts, the installation continues through September 27 during regular hours, Tuesday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It’s free admission and on-site parking at all times, with the Guild also announcing the the return of Leslie Backlund’s Thursday art classes beginning this week, September 15 at 4 p.m.
********
The most exciting art event in recent Red Bank history was the much-anticipated late-August opening of Ken Schwartz’s Detour Gallery, a formerly faceless warehouse space on Clay Street turned expansive canvas for some of the region’s contemporary art visionaries — including some eye-popping exterior murals and rooftop sculpture.
The inaugural group show “Culturedrone” remains on display in an open-ended engagement, with the brand-spanking-new gallery, which has yet to formally establish viewing hours, open by appointment only for the time being. Visit the website or call (732)704-3115 to make arrangements — and take it here for a picture show from Detour’s opening night, courtesy of redbankgreen.
