Curated by Joyce Korotkin.

Created and Curated by Young Curators, Renaissance Middle School

Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art, presents, Numbing Us to Death: Happy War Games from Generation Y, an in-depth exploration and analysis of violence in contemporary culture by adolescents in their own voice. The exhibition focuses on the connections these youths have identified in the toys of their childhood that are marketed directly to them and their relationship to the all too real violence of the world in which we are currently living. The exhibition is on view at Midland Gallery, 3 Midland Avenue, Montclair, NJ.

“Today’s adolescents, the post-911 generation, are targeted by the entertainment industry as consumers of violence-saturated merchandise that simulates reality to an increasingly frightening degree. They have inherited a century of wars that have directly and indirectly impacted their own families and are bombarded as well by the current reign of terrorism on a global scale,” observes artist/teacher Joyce Korotkin.

The concept for this exhibition evolved from a visit to Aljira’s recent exhibition of the work of Judith K. Brodsky. Brodsky’s installation of large-scale prints of vintage photographs and text chronicles three generations of her family’s emigration from Europe and assimilation into American culture. However, underlying Brodsky’s celebration of family is the horror of the Holocaust, which her family narrowly escaped. The Young Curators’ responses to the show revolved around the latter. Two images were of particular interest to many of the curators. One portrayed a little boy wearing a c.1950s-style cowboy outfit, replete with double-cap-gun and holster; the other, little girls in ballet costumes. Through ensuing collaborative discussions, they evolved the concept for their own show: reality versus play; war, games, families, uniforms, war again.

Curated by Carl E. Hazlewood.

The third installment of Aljira’s ongoing project, Bending the Grid, presents the work of Guyana-born artist, Donald Locke. The work, in various media, begins with an example from his early series of “Timehri” paintings. The Timehri works refer directly to ancient rock engravings found in the interior of Guyana. These became a means of creating an independent identity for Guyana’s modern art while retaining a practical, psychic, and artistic connection to the country’s original inhabitants. Locke’s interest in the mythical and metaphoric uses of prehistoric Amerindian petroglyphs in his art foreshadow his current intellectual and visual interest in Southern vernacular art: the untutored, “outsider” art of the American South which has influenced his most recent sculpture. Also on view is pottery, painting, sculpture, and work on paper. Evidence of his multi-media installations is also presented. A brief mention of the many private and public collectors of Donald Locke’s work around the world would include the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the Guyana National Collection, Guyana, South America; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Carl E. Hazlewood, a co-founder of Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art, is the curator and essayist for Locke’s exhibit.

Photo (at right): Donald Locke, Ceremonial Mask of Mark-Matthew Ezekiel Jones, 2003

Curated by Rosemary Miles.

Judith Brodsky works with late 20th century iconography and often addresses contemporary issues of the environment, feminism and the Holocaust. Founder of the Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper (RCIPP), she is an esteemed artist in the field of contemporary printmaking. Aljira’s exhibition of Brodsky’s work highlights photo-etchings from her series Memoir of an Assimilated Family. This exhibition explores Brodsky’s Jewish identity through old family photographs and anecdotal texts. Individually each piece tells a specific story of her family experience; experienced in its entirety, however, it strikes a common chord across ethnic groups and national borders, touching upon the importance of family, memories and heritage. Rosemary Miles of the Victoria & Albert Museum of London is the curator and essayist for Brodsky’s exhibit.

Catalog for Bending the Grid: Memoir of an Assimilated Family: Gender and Ethnicity in the Work of Judith K. Brodsky now available. Call (973) 622-1600 to order.

Photo (at right): Judith K. Brodsky, You ought to have seen what I saw…, 2001

Curated by Dorothy Desir. Spencer Richards, Associate Curator.

Frank Bowling is the first Black artist to have his art bought by the Tate Gallery, but the last among the famous class of 1962 out of the Royal College of Art to receive this distinction. Bowling has been reduced to a footnote or omitted from major art historical texts, as have other artists of color, in spite of the significant contributions he has made to modern art and the discourse around it. And the popular and critical attention that his peers, David Hockney and R. B. Kitaj have enjoyed has eluded him.

Bending the Grid: Black Identity and Resistance in the Art of Frank Bowling is mindful of the neglect of Bowling, and the work on display is a clear affirmation of his resolve to press on. His representation in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his recent inclusion in the Venice Bienale are further testaments to his refusal to be silenced or made invisible.

BENDING THE GRID, AN ONGOING SERIES

Aljira’s series of exhibitions, Bending the Grid, examines the production of outstanding artists chosen from among accomplished, yet under-recognized national and international practitioners. While often grounded in rational modernist principles, each artist presented finds personal ways to adapt, or circumvent traditional, or rigid aspects of formalism.”

Photo (at right): Frank Bowling, Squall, 2002

Curated by Calvin Reid.

“Dancing in the Dark is an effort to show off the wide range of visual imagination, conceptual eccentricity and formal inventiveness that characterizes the contemporary New York-New Jersey art scene.” – Calvin Reid, Emerge 2002 Catalog

“Taking risks, going through doors (even those with cruel bars and dead bolt locks) are part of being an artist, and are an integral aspect of the philosophy behind Aljira’s Emerge program. Aljira provides the ‘keys, combinations, lock picks, screwdrivers, drills and crow bars’ to open doors but the program participants must be ready and willing to use the tools. They must also have the desire, energy and courage to continue the passage—after all, getting through the door is only the first move.”
– Judith Page, Emerge 2002 Catalog

The following artists were selected for inclusion in this exhibition:

Michael Bramwell, Jeongtae Chae, Francks Deceus, Ricardo Francis, James Harbison, Ketta Ioannidou, Marlene Lewis, Norma Markley, Vivian Massry, Kim Mayhorn, Jodie Olson, Kristen Palazzo, Jinnie Seo, Hyungsub Shin, Suzanne Walters, Angela Wyman

Photo (at right): Norma Markley, It was a wrong number that started it (detail), 2003