Past Exhibitions

2011 Exhibits

Revisitng Landscape: Paintings by Wes Sherman 
humus redux: landscape painting across a spectrum of abstraction
January 6 – February 25, 2012

Youth Art Month: March 2012

2011 Exhibits

Water/Line: Mark Stockton and Cindy Stockton Moore: October 16 – December 3, 2012

The Center for Contemporary Art is pleased to present “Water/Line”, an exhibition of the work of Philadelphia artists Mark Stockton and Cindy Stockton Moore opening on Sunday, October 16, 2011 from 3-6 p.m. with an Artist Talk at 3 p.m. The exhibition runs through December 3, 2011 and is curated by well-known New Jersey artist Mel Leipzig.

Cindy Stockton Moore’s painted work explores the liminal landscape in a variety of media including encaustic, watercolor and gouache. Swimmers trespass in isolated bodies of water – restricted reservoirs, wetlands, and rivers- creating a sense of both playfulness and potential for disaster. Themes of unease within nature, impending danger, and vulnerability also run through Stockton Moore’s Actum Agere series.  Here paintings are repeated and abbreviated resulting in shifts and alterations from piece to piece and creating a narrative series that references cinematic story-telling. The imagery is inspired by cult films and staged photographs, resulting in a related but evasive narrative.

Mark Stockton works with traditional materials and techniques to reference a range of historical portraiture. Through a time-intensive and rigorous process, he reproduces the synthetic product of celebrity through hand-drawn and intimately human means. Through his drawings, Stockton reexamines familiar images of famous and infamous archetypes in an exaggerated size and with painstaking detail.  Working from memory, found images and Internet sources, his work reflects a collective consciousness that is shaped by our media-saturated culture.“Water/Line” speaks to the underlying themes connecting the work on view and the very different ways that these two, married artists work in their shared studio. Both artists are interested in saturation, Stockton with media-generated saturation of images, and Stockton Moore with the physical sensation of saturation.  Both seek out the implied spaces around figurative images, but their methods differ dramatically in revealing them.  Mark Stockton’s carefully rendered compositions introduce complex connections between iconic figures, while Cindy Stockton Moore’s looser, more intuitive approach to painting allows the media to obscure and reveal simultaneously. 

Members’ Non-Juried Show: June 9 – August 25, 2011

The Members’ Non-Juried Show is an opportunity for The Center’s members to submit work in any media for this summer exhibition. Christopher B. Koep, Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing at Raritan Valley Community College, was the judge for this year’s exhibition. Koep has taught at the College for 23 years and has been the recipient of two New Jersey State Council on the Arts fellowship grants as well as McDowell, Yaddo and Millay fellowships. This year seventy-seven of The Center’s members participated, submitting works in painting, pencil and charcoal, pastel, photography, mixed media and sculpture.

About the exhibition, Koep states, “I am impressed with the sense of beauty that all the pieces portray. The pieces selected for awards have a strong point of view and a high level of competence within their media. Sometimes the simplest of subject matter holds the most content.”

 

Serena Bocchino: iPOP April 10- May 26, 2011

The Center for Contemporary Art is pleased to present an exhibition of the work of New Jersey-based artist Serena Bocchino opening on Sunday, April 10^th from 2-4 pm and running through May 26^th. iPOP is the term used by  Bocchino to describe her recent body of mixed media work which includes paintings, “photo-paintings,” painted figures and drawings.  Using bright enamel and her unique “pouring technique,” Bocchino creates a true wonderland in this installation.  Surrounding her vivid and lyrical paintings is a garden with ordinary lawn ornaments such as bunnies, squirrels and flamingos which she transforms into iconographic pop elements.  The result is vital and dynamic; a colorful and surprising environment which combines high art with popular culture.  

Bocchino has developed her own poetic and unique visual vocabulary of rhythmic marks, lines and imagery.  The result is an exciting fusion of color, mood and atmosphere.  She continues to push the parameters of her paintings using a vibrant palette and textured imagery.  In addition to her paintings, she will exhibit her “photo-paintings,” which combine digitally manipulated photographs with acrylic plexiglass sheets on which she paints to create a “pop synergy” between the different media.  She continues to fully investigate her subject matter utilizing these and other industrial materials in bold new renderings of her visual language.

In iPOP Bocchino revisits, reinvents and reconstructs her world based on influences of the past three decades.  The philosophical contrast of combining the high art of abstraction with ordinary lawn ornaments creates a contradiction that is both provocative and humorous.  The ornaments are hand painted to match the paintings, and the integration of these figures creates an unexpected reality that spins ideas of fantasy and hope and creates a unique and personal perspective on life.  Bocchino’s mastery of cosmic color and rhythmic abstraction gives the term “pop” – an oft-used expression – an explosive new meaning for our contemporary culture.

Bocchino is also a children’s book author and illustrator. Who Am I? The Story of the Artist, is her most recent book and will be on display and for sale for the duration of the exhibition. At the opening reception Bocchino will be available to sign copies of her book and limited edition giclee prints of the illustrations that combine watercolor illustration with her abstract paintings will also be on display. The public is invited to the opening reception free of charge and refreshments will be served.

About the artist

Since 1985 galleries and museums worldwide have featured Bocchino’s work including The Morris Museum, Morristown; The New Jersey State Museum, Trenton; Tria Gallery, NYC; ArtHaus, San Francisco; Campo & Campo, Antwerp; Studio Bocchi, Rome; the Galerie du Tableau, Marseilles; and the Millennio Gallerie D’Arte, Venice among others. Bocchino and her work have also been the subject of four films, the most recent of which, A Dream of Blue, directed by Greg Smith of Down the Line Productions, received the 2009 Best Inspirational Documentary Award by the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival. The documentary, Observer Highway Revisited by filmmaker, Monica Sharf, featured Bocchino working in her studio and creating a painting from inception to completion. This documentary was screened at the International Film Festival at The Museum of Modern Art.

Bocchino has been recognized by many art institutions for her work and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the PS 1 International Studio Residency, the Artists Space/Artists Grant, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, the Art Matters Grant, the Brodsky Center Printmaking Residency and the Basil Alkazzi Award.  Her work is included in prestigious private, public and corporate collections throughout the world, including those of McKinsey & Co. Inc., Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. Bocchino has a Masters Degree in Painting from New York University.

For more information about Serena Bocchino visit www.serenabocchino.com

For information about Who Am I? The Story of an Artist visit www.theamicollection.com

 

YOUTH ART MONTH
An exhibit of student work, in partnership with Art Educators of New Jersey

 Part 1: Student Work grades K through 5: March 1  -  March 13
Part 2: Student Work grades 6 through 12: March 18  -  April 3

2011 Members Juried Exhibit: January 16 – February 12, 2011
Juror David Shevlino

Best in Show

 

Award Of Excellence

Judy Balance – “Winsor and Newton” Watercolor (photo not shown)

 

Honorable Mention

2010 Exhibits

“Michael Graves,” a five panel portrait by Mel Leipizg
February 17-

Annual Youth Art Month Celebration
in partnership with the Art Educators of New Jersey
March 1 – 31

W. Carl Burger & Rhoda Yanow
“New Jersey People & Places”
April 8 – May 7

Members Non-Juried Exhibit
July 8 – August 20

Art in Architecture
The exhibit of an international juried competition
September 11 – October 30

Compact: Impact
Juried Exhibit and Sale of Small Works
November 6 – December 4