calendario eventi  :: 

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2/11/2013

Two exhibitions

Ben Shahn Center for the Visual Arts - William Paterson University, Wayne

Dahlia Elsayed
Navigations in the Present Tense

New Jersey Artist Dahlia Elsayed Explores Intersection Of Painting And Writing In Site-Specific Installation At William Paterson University Gallery
--Installation inspired by William Carlos Williams poem, “Paterson”

New Jersey artist Dahlia Elsayed reexamines the interconnectedness of writing and painting in a new, site-specific installation, Navigations in the Present Tense, on view in the University Galleries in the Ben Shahn Center for the Visual Arts at William Paterson University in Wayne from November 4 through December 13, 2013. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on November 10, 17 and 24 and December 8 from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Sunday, November 3 from 2 to 4 p.m. Elsayed will give an artist talk on her work on Tuesday, November 19 at 12:30 p.m. in the University Galleries.

Language is central to Elsayed’s work, both as formal element and subject matter. For more than a decade, she has been making text and image-based work that synthesizes an internal and external experience of place, connecting the ephemeral to the concrete.

For this new site-specific installation, she found inspiration in the writing of New Jersey author and poet William Carlos Williams. She previously created Paterson Landscapes (2001-02), a series of paintings inspired by Williams’s poem “Paterson,” and revisited the subject for this exhibition. Elsayed conducted research on Williams at the library in Rutherford, the poet’s hometown, and also visited Paterson—strolling, listening, observing, and conversing in this post-industrial city. A poem she wrote to accompany her work incorporates several citations of Williams' own words that capture what Elsayed describes as, “Williams’ fluctuations between doubt and drive, his idea of the city as a metaphor for man, and his use of mosaic structure—mixing in letters, historical documents alongside his own prose.”

Inspired by a recent residency at the Joan Mitchell Foundation in New Orleans, she adopted harder edges and bold colors such as orange, whose association with construction signage and barriers suggests a transitional state. These recent compositions fuse multiple perspective points: looking up, down, sideways, and inside from both close-up and far away.

Elsayed integrates text as a footnote or a list of things rather than an overarching word that defines the composition. As a result, the reader is drawn into the juxtaposition of words, the sounds of reading them aloud (alliteration in some cases), and the visual and mental associations they conjure. Her new language is specific to a place, landscape, experience, and a moment in time.

Language further evolves in an accompanying publication that pairs a handful of diminutive compositions with her poem. The colorful abstract compositions mimic stanzas of a poem, where pauses and breaks can be used to emphasize words or images around them. The arranged forms evoke sky, sun, horizon, architecture, and water.

Elsayed is a graduate of Barnard College with a bachelor’s degree in English, and earned a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Columbia University. Her paintings, prints and artist books have been shown at galleries and art institutions throughout the United States and internationally, including exhibitions at the 12th Cairo Biennale, BravinLee Programs, Clementine Gallery and the Jersey City Museum. Her work is in the public collections of the U.S. Department of State, Johnson & Johnson Corporation, The Jersey City Museum, Zimmerli Art Museum, Hunterdon Museum of Art, Noyes Museum of Art, Montclair Art Museum, Newark Public Library, New Jersey State Museum, and Morris Museum. A large number of her works were commissioned for the permanent collection of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in New York. Elsayed has received awards from the Edward Albee Foundation, Visual Studies Workshop, The Newark Museum, ArtsLink, The Dodge Foundation, Women's Studio Workshop, Headlands Center for the Arts, and The New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

The exhibition is one of three on view concurrently in the University Galleries. Without Adornment: Photographs by George Tice, on view in the South Gallery, presents gelatin silver prints from the renowned New Jersey photographer’s early Paterson series, as well as platinum/palladium prints, in celebration of Tice’s 75th birthday. On view in the East Gallery are nineteenth century paintings from the University’s permanent collection.

This exhibition is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. The William Paterson University Galleries are wheelchair-accessible. Large-print educational materials are available. For additional information, please call the William Paterson University Galleries at 973-720-2654.

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Nineteenth Century Paintings from the Permanent Collection

William Paterson University Galleries Showcases Nineteenth Century Paintings From its Permanent Collection in New Exhibition

Rarely displayed works by nineteenth century artists Ralph Albert Blakelock, Willard Leroy Metcalf, and Edwin Lord Weeks are among the works on view in Nineteenth Century Paintings from the Permanent Collection, an exhibition in the University Galleries in the Ben Shahn Center for the Visual Arts at William Paterson University in Wayne from November 4 through December 13, 2013. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on November 10, 17 and 24 and December 8 from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on Sunday, November 3 from 2 to 4 p.m. Kelly Claudette Ruffel, a William Paterson University graduate student in history, will present her master of arts thesis, Collecting the Past, New Jersey Industrialists and Landscape Painting, on Tuesday, December 10, from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Galleries.

This exhibition presents a small selection of eighty-five artworks donated to William Paterson University by Jeanne and S. Paul Boochever between 1959 and 1968. The Boochevers were avid collectors and had a wide range of interests that included nineteenth century American paintings and Japanese and French prints. Although not currently on view, the collection also includes more than thirty works by Anthony Thomas Triano (1928-1997), a painter, sculptor, and illustrator who taught at Seton Hall University.

Among the artworks included in the exhibition is “Moroccan Street Scene” (1883) by Willard Leroy Metcalf (1858-1925). Metcalf was an American Impressionist, one of a group of artists who emulated their European predecessors in their landscape scenes, use of natural light, and rapid brushwork. Metcalf visited Giverny, France, an artist colony where Claude Monet (1840-1926) practiced outdoor painting. Upon his return to the United States, Metcalf opened a studio in New York, where he was a portrait painter, illustrator, and teacher.

Artist Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847-1919) was influenced by the Hudson River School, an American art movement whose artists portrayed the ruggedness and vastness of the American landscape. A native of New York, Blakelock traveled extensively in the Western United States, Mexico, and Central America, gathering inspiration for his landscapes. His favorite subject matter included depictions of seclusion in the wilderness, as well as moonlight landscapes and twilight hours, such as in his painting “Twilight,” on view in the exhibition.

Edwin Lord Weeks, whose work “Arab Scene” is included in the exhibition, favored creating exotic and imagined historical images of African and Middle Eastern societies. Here, he depicts Morocco from a typical Western perspective, as a scene of mystery, seduction and beauty. Like many of the artists in this exhibition, Weeks practiced plein air (or outdoor) painting and studied the effects of natural light and shadow.

Other artists included in the exhibition are Edward Lord Weeks, Frederick Arthur Bridgman, J. Antonio Hekking, Sir Benjamin W. Leader, William Trost Richards, and H.D. Kruseman van Elten.

In addition to this significant donation to the William Paterson University Galleries, the Boochevers established an art scholarship in 1964. S. Paul Boochever was an executive at several manufacturing companies including Gibraltar Paper Company and Ilikon Inc. He served as executive secretary of the New York City Department of Correction under the administration of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia. He received an honorary degree from William Paterson in 1966. He died in Old Saybrook, Connecticut on May 22, 1983. Jeanne Boochever founded and oversaw a successful women’s accessories company, Jeanne Bouchever Inc. She died on October 10, 2013.

The exhibition was curated by Kelly Claudette Ruffel, a William Paterson University graduate student, in fulfillment of her master's degree in history. Currently, she is a historic preservation specialist for the city of Paterson. She previously worked as a graduate assistant for the University Galleries and an interpretive specialist for Ringwood Manor. She earned a bachelor's degree in history (2011) and anthropology (2012) at William Paterson University. She is a resident of Garfield.

The exhibition is one of three on view concurrently in the University Galleries. Without Adornment: Photographs by George Tice, on view in the South Gallery, presents gelatin silver prints from the renowned New Jersey photographer’s early Paterson series, as well as platinum/palladium prints, in celebration of Tice’s 75th birthday. On view in the Court Gallery is Navigations in the Present Tense, a site-specific installation by New Jersey artist Dahlia Elsayed that examines the interconnectedness of writing and painting.

This exhibition is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. The William Paterson University Galleries are wheelchair-accessible. Large-print educational materials are available. For additional information, please call the William Paterson University Galleries at 973-720-2654.

Opening Reception: Sunday, November 3, 2013, from 2:00 - 4:00 pm

University Galleries
Ben Shahn Center for the Visual Arts
William Paterson University
300 Pompton Road - Wayne, NJ 07470
Gallery Hours
Monday – Friday, 10am – 5pm
The Galleries will be open from 12 – 4pm on the following Sundays: September 15, 19; October 6, 13; November 10, 17 and 24; December 8
The Galleries will be closed from Thursday, November 28 - Sunday, November 31 in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.

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