E9 is the annual group exhibition that is the culmination of Aljira Emerge, the highly acclaimed strategic career management and exhibition program for emerging artists. E9 features new and recent works by a dynamic group of 22 artists of diverse backgrounds who successfully completed last year’s competitive and rigorous program.

E9 presents works ranging from painting and sculpture to video and installation by the following artists living and working in the New Jersey/New York metropolitan area: Hima B., Firelei Báez, Soyeon Cho, Helen Dennis, Oasa DuVerney, Jeff Feld, Beth Gilfilen, Clare Grill, Juan Hinojosa, Swati Khurana, Beth Krebs, Barbara Landes, Sujin Lee, Sungmi Lee, Elizabeth Livingston, Dominic Miller, Ivan Monforte, Meridith Pingree, Ronny Quevedo, René Smith, Bisa W. Washington, and Rachael Wren. This year, we welcome as our Guest Curator Christopher Y. Lew, Manager of Curatorial Affairs at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York.

Aljira is pleased to announce that the E9 exhibition will be part of the Newark Arts Council’s Open Doors Artists’ Studios and Available Space Tour. See the Newark Arts Council’s website for more information.

Gifted & Proud: Selections from Edmund W. Pease and Nurak Israsena’s Collection features modern, contemporary, and decorative works of art that have been gifted to Aljira. This exhibition serves as an art sale to benefit Aljira. Artists include Pablo Agudelo, Jean Arp, Charoon Boonsuan, Paul Cadmus, Jose Camacho, Sonia Chusit, Agnes W. Crowley, Edgar Degas, Mary Lou Dooley, John Elwyn, Hans Erni, Luis Garcia, Allan Gussow, Eikoh Hosoe, Peter Jacobs, Michael Kelly, Ronald King, Bruce Klauck, Dame Laura Knight, Richard Koppe, studio of Ambrosius Lamm, Lancelott, George Lewis, Edward Liang, George Luks, William Chester Lyman, Joan Miró, Seth Montgomery, Francisco Mora, Elizabeth Parmalee, Antonio Petracca, Eligio Pichardo, Robert Porter, Ernestine Rubin, Josette Urso, Alison Weld, Lawrence M. Williams, Suchart Wongtong, among others.

Culture Creators, a program of Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art presents Unlocked: Reflections of Myself, an exhibition of works created by 127 student artists from Newark’s Arts High School, Malcolm X Shabazz High School, and Weequahic High School. (Please note: this exhibition runs through June 18, 2008.)

The Beautiful Ones presents new and recent works by up-and-coming artists who are engaged with issues of mortality and reverence for the dead. Produced in mixed media, painting, photography, sculpture, and video, these works are contemporary memento mori and portraits of or homages to individuals, real or fictional. Artists include Pepper Fajans, Juanita Lanzó, Irini Karayannopoulou, Jayson Keeling, Tim McDonnell, Larilyn Sanchez and Riza Manalo.

Join us live on April 3 beginning at 5:30pm for a rousing evening of great food and great Art. Tickets are $75 per person and can be purchased by contacting Chris Walia at cwalia@aljira.org or 973 622-1600.

This year’s Auction features 120 works, including those by artists from New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area, such as Willie Cole, Cindy Sherman, James Siena, Catherine Opie, Philip Pearlstein, Frank Bowling, Helen M. Stummer, Hugo Xavier Bastidas, June Wayne, Valeri Larko, Emma Amos, Gregory Amenoff, Manuel Acevedo, Berrisford Boothe, German Pitre, Archie Rand, Juan Sanchez, Jack Whitten, Mimi Smith, Scott Dedecker, Sun K. Kwak, and Julian Kreimer. Aljira is equally proud to offer works by artists from across the country and around the world, including Larry Fink, Hiroshi Kumagai, Luca Buvoli, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Ming Smith, Thornton Dial and Franco Mondini-Ruiz. In addition, The Monya Rowe Gallery has donated pieces by Angela Dufresne and Vera Iliatova to the auction.

Works in the Auction are currently on view at Aljira during regular gallery hours.

The Aljira Fine Art Auction 2008 is underwritten by Prudential Financial, the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, The MCJ Foundation, David Ellis Catering, PNC Bank, Crozier Fine Art, the Fidelco Group, PSE&G, Edison Properties, LLC, NJ TRANSIT and individual contributors.

Curated by Bonnie Yochelson, Rebuilding Newark: The Memory Project is an illustrated timeline of the community development corporations that emerged in Newark in response to the 1967 riots. This exhibition is sponsored by the Local Initiatives Support Corporation’s Greater Newark and Jersey City Program.

Curated by Bonnie Yochelson.

This exhibition presents the photography of Helen M. Stummer who has practiced social documentary photography for thirty years. Beginning in 1980, Stummer photographed primarily in Newark, the city of her birth. In 1998, she began photographing spontaneous memorials dedicated to young people who were senselessly killed. After seeking out those who knew the deceased, Stummer created photographs that became part of their mourning process. The series Rest in Peace forms the centerpiece of this exhibition.