Ellen Martin’s ‘Abandoned’ series of photographs (above) are on display beginning Thursday at the Oyster Point.
From painted portraits of nature’s splendor to photographic captures of commercial ruins and other scenes of gorgeous desolation, the galleries of the Greater Red Bank Green offer up an eyeful in the days and nights to come with an art walk that begins Thursday evening with a new installation on the walls and walkways of the Oyster Point Hotel.
“Beach Ballerinas” by Karissa Harvey (above) and “Gingko” by Pat Hutchinson (below) are among the works on display in WOMEN PAINT WOMEN, the art exhibit that opens with a reception tonight at the Oyster Point Hotel.
As Ellen Martin tells it, “I started the Jersey Artist Registry (JAR), an online gallery, in 2013 to showcase the talent of New Jersey artists in a way that was immediately visually impactful and accessible (not three or four menus down).”
It’s an endeavor that led the Monmouth Beach painter, photographer and mixed-media specialist to mount her first group show of JAR artists at Asbury Park’s intimately scaled Hotel Tides in 2015. With the success of that show, and a move to the more expansive environs of Red Bank’s Oyster Point Hotel, Martin professes that her original thought was to again open the next exhibit to all artists, “but then thought I should do what I could to tip the balance of the male-dominated art world.”
The Kennedy Mystique: the egg-tempera CIRCUS SUMMER by Eileen Kennedy is among the items included in DREAMSCAPES AND SHAPED DREAMS — an exhibit of works by the painter and her cousin Lynne Kennedy, going up on the walls of the Oyster Point Hotel.
The river breezes may still be blowing more bitter than sweet, but as sure a sign of Spring — surer even than Punxsatawney prognosticators, or pudgy pitchers — is the sudden proliferation of art exhibitions in our area’s galleries, grand lodgings, and even greenhouses. It’s an explosion of color that begins, appropriately enough, amid the plant life of Sickles Market in Little Silver this weekend — and it continues, in the days and evenings to come, in places both safe and surprising.
St. George’s-by-the-River Episcopal Church takes its place among the works of art on display, with tours offered during the annual Canterbury Art Show that begins on Friday, August 29.
Returning to St. George’s by the River Episcopal Church in Rumson for the third consecutive year — and relocated to Labor Day weekend for the first time — the annual Canterbury Art Show…A Tapestry of the Arts event brings one of the area’s largest exhibitions and sales of juried and non-juried artwork back to the banks of the greater Green — with a grand “new” work of art taking center stage.
According to church Rector Ophelia Laughlin, “The building of St. George’s by-the-River is itself a masterpiece of art and 19th century architecture” — and this Saturday and Sunday, attendees will be able to take guided Architectural Highlight Tours of the church property at 7 Lincoln Avenue; a setting that’s framed by Laughlin as “a beloved venue for local artists to show off their God-given gifts for the rest of us to enjoy.”
SUNFLOWER NEST by Avery Brighton was among the prize-winning works displayed at last year’s Canterbury Art Show…A Tapestry of the Arts. The three-day festival returns on Labor Day weekend to St. George’s by the River in Rumson.
Returning to St. George’s by the River Episcopal Church in Rumson for the third consecutive year, the annual Canterbury Art Show…a Tapestry of the Arts event moves to Labor Day weekend for the 2014 edition of the local exhibition and sale of juried and non-juried artwork.
Hundreds of attendees have enjoyed the Canterbury Art Show, at which more than 600 works by artists from all over New Jersey and beyond are displayed and sold. Event times for this year’s show are Friday, August 29 from 11am to 6 pm; Saturday, August 30 from 10 am to 6 pm, and Sunday, August 31 from 12pm to 4pm. A special Meet the Artists reception will be held Friday evening from 7 pm to 9 pm. All proceeds from the Art Show directly benefit St. George’s-by-the-River and its Outreach Grants to more than 30 local agencies serving the needy of Monmouth and Ocean counties, including Lunch Break, Family Promise, HABcore, 180 Turning Lives Around, and more.
Artist Ellen Martin in her Red Bank studio on June 11, 2014.
Because she was born on Manhattan’s Museum Mile, “it was perhaps inevitable I become an artist,” says Martin. But it wasn’t until 2008, after years as a marketing director, an artists’ representative and an art consultant that she began painting. Her work may be seen here. (Video by Gerda Liebmann. Click to pause.)
Check out all the Clippings from the Green here.
A selfie by Bob McKay is among the works on display in the group show FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE opening Friday at Gallery 135 in Red Bank.
Leave it to Gerda Liebmann – the Swiss-born, internationally exhibited multimedia artist (and redbankgreen Clippings correspondent) – to discern the beauty in so tawdry a device as the cellphone selfie.
Liebmann, who established Gallery 135 in the second-floor space shared by Red Bank Community Church, has employed this maybe-misunderstood signifier of 21st century life – and its cousin in succinct cinema, the Vine – as the basis for her new group show, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. Opening with a reception at 7 pm on Friday, the multimedia installation “will give viewers the opportunity to reconnect with the special intimacy and self-revelation that self-portraits uniquely offer,” she says.
Time’s running out: Oakes Fegley and Robert Hogan co-star in director Joel Grey’s staging of ‘On Borrowed Time,’ now in its final weekend at Two River Theater. Below, spraypaint specialist Demer judges taking the Jersey Shore Aerosol Art Battle Against Hunger, at Colorest.
Friday, October 11:
RED BANK: Take a late afternoon/ early evening tea break and head upstairs to 135 Monmouth Street in Red Bank, where internationally exhibited multimedia artist (and Red Bank Community Church co-pastor) Gerda Liebmann presents a special opening event at Gallery 135, the must-see space located inside the second-story loft shared by the RBCC. An eclectic array of works in multiple media on the theme of one of the world’s favorite beverages, “Fifty Shades of Tea” spotlights the artistry of Debbie Jencsik, Ellen Martin, Wesley Sumrall, Linnea Tober — and Liebmann, who explains that “the concept of this exhibit is to have the visual reality of art and the multi-sensory reality of tea complement each other to create a truly immersive esthetic experience.” Also offered at the free 6 pm opening event will be a tasting of special-teas from Tea4U of The White House in Oakhurst. Additional exhibit hours will be offered on Saturday (3-5 pm) and Sunday (1-3 pm); call (732)687-3580 for more info.
RED BANK: It’s the final weekend of performances for “On Borrowed Time” at Two River Theater. Broadway legend Joel Grey — who appeared in Paul Osborn’s play as a child back in 1941 — directs this “Americana fantasy that filters big themes of death, devotion and stubborn determination through a Depression-era small town sensibility (and a vague unease over the gathering storm clouds of the Second World War).” Veteran stage-screen character ace Robert Hogan is a refreshingly tart and salty “Gramps” who tragic circumstance has charged with the care of his young grandson, Pud (the impressive young actor Oakes Fegley). Showtimes at 8 pm Friday and Saturday, and 3 pm Saturday and Sunday; take it here for tickets.
Shay Guiod prepared to hang one of Dumitru Gorzo’s paintings at the Two River Theater on Sunday, above, having installed another at Space Interiors on White Street, below.
By TOM CHESEK
The opening of an exclusive major exhibition of paintings by an internationally acclaimed artist would be a feather in the cap of any town and an absolute must for a cranny of culture that was ranked third on Smithsonian Magazine’s list of the 20 Best Small Towns in America.
A feather goes to Red Bank, then, for landing HEADS, an ongoing, open-air (and in-your-face) “observation of the individual spirit” that takes to the borough’s exterior walls from these dog-star days of August to the harvest-moon evenings of early autumn.