Stillwell House Fine Art & Antiques in Red Bank is the newest local stop on a walking gallery tour presented by Monmouth Arts, the latest edition of which happens Tuesday evening.
Like a street procession that picks up new and willing participants as it rolls along, the regularly scheduled “MoCo Art Walks” hosted by the folks at Monmouth Arts have morphed into excursions that serve to showcase some of Red Bank’s best-kept secrets among its artier nooks and crannies.
A followup to a late April “Gallery Gallivant,” the latest in the borough-based nonprofit’s evening excursions hits the pavement Tuesday night for a stimulating little constitutional that welcomes a new addition to the fold: Stillwell House Fine Art & Antiques, at 212 West Front Street.
Located since 2015 across from the West Side Lofts in the “arts and antiques district” home of Two River Theater and the Galleria complex, the shop introduces itself to prospective new clientele with a special Tuesday evening look at its many high-end specialties, from unique and genuine 18th-century European furnishings to beautiful Asian antiquities and numerous works of art by the Franco-American painter Leon Dabo. The business established by Paul Gallagher and Ron Knox is a museum experience in itself.
The Front Street foray is one of several station stops on the tour that begins 5:30 p.m. with a wine and cheese reception at the Monmouth Arts office and “Micro Gallery,” located at the western end of the Count Basie Theatre building. Just a couple of blocks east on Monmouth Street is another stop on the sidewalk safari: the gallery/studio space of the long-established local artist collective Art Alliance of Monmouth County.
Now showing its annual Ebba Osborne Memorial Award Exhibition prior to taking a summertime break, the Alliance will present a special artist demo featuring painter Sharon Sayegh, whose works are currently on display in the storefront gallery’s windows.
Also on the tour, and located at 143 Broad Street, is the Red Bank studio of Ani Art Academy America, one of only two U.S. locations of the international art school chain founded by Anthony and Ani Waichulis, a facility that offers comprehensive art-education apprenticeships to armed forces veterans and individuals with disabilities.
One block west of Broad on once-overlooked Clay Street is the appropriately named Detour Gallery, the major new artspace founded and curated by collector and businessman Ken Schwartz, whose current exhibition is a solo spotlight for the compelling large-scale oil paintings of Michael Labua. The Tuesday art walk will conclude there with complimentary “sweet treats” at approximately 8:15 p.m.
Tickets for the Gallery Gallivant are $20 per person ($15 for Monmouth Arts members), and can be reserved online here.
