Tag Archives: Rowan University Art Gallery

7 MILE

Jamea Richmond-Edwards Explores Detroit’s Fashion and Style in 7 Mile Girls

JAMEA RICHMOND-EDWARDS EXPLORES DETROIT’S FASHION AND STYLE IN 7 MILE GIRLS

Artist Talk & Opening Reception at Rowan University Art Gallery: Thursday, November 7, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

GLASSBORO, NJ – Rowan University Art Gallery presents 7 Mile Girls, an exhibition exploring the connection between Black female style of Detroit’s inner city, with designer fashion and self-empowerment. Featuring several new works by artist Jamea Richmond-Edwards alongside paintings loaned by the Rubell Family Collection, the exhibition will run November 7 – December 21, 2019, with an opening reception on Thursday, November 7 from 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM. 

Richmond-Edwards grew up observing the Black community’s fashion style in Detroit’s inner-city during the late 1980s and early ’90s. Popular and idolized were Coogi sweaters, red gators, and designer bags from Gucci and Louis Vuitton. She understood the correlation of the fashion industry around the Black female experience and their complex relationship with luxury clothing.  

Jamea Richmond-Edwards Explores Detroit's Fashion and Style in 7 Mile Girls
Jamea Richmond-Edwards 2018, Shirt with Lace Heart, 72 x 128″, Image Courtesy Kravets Wehby Gallery

The artifice of dressing became the driving narrative of her work and her form of Black aesthetic and expression. She was particularly interested in how her work confronted social disparities and the inequitable practices and tone-deaf decisions continually made by the fashion house of H&M, Adidas, Gucci, and Prada. In opposition to the market focus of these brands her imagery is inspired by the styles of Black designers who have made a positive impact on the fashion perspective, particularly Dapper Dan for Gucci, and the work of Duro Olowu, alongside influences of artists coming out of AfriCOBRA and the Black Arts Movement.

The title 7 Mile Girlsrefers to the street in Detroit where Richmond-Edwards grew up and where she encountered many of the female subjects in her paintings. Inspired by women in her life, the central female figures in her paintings confront the viewer with an air of confidence and agency as guardians of Black culture.  Across her multi-layered collages, the artist conveys the complex intersection of Black style, capitalism, fashion, and personal identity through the lens of these resilient Black women.

Jamea Richmond-Edwards 2019, Two Sisters and the Horned Serpent, 8 x 6 feet, Image Courtesy of Kravets Wehby Gallery

ABOUT THE ARTIST  
Jamea Richmond-Edwards
graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Jackson State University in 2004 where she studied painting and drawing. She went on to earn an MFA from Howard University in 2012. She offers a repertoire of portraits of women drawn using ink, graphite and mixed media collage. Richmond-Edward’s work has garnered the attention of various art critics including in the Washington Post and the Huffington Post’s “Black Artists: 30 Contemporary Art Makers Under 40 You Should Know”. Richmond-Edwards has exhibited her artwork nationally and internationally including the Delaware Art Museum, California African American Museum, Charles Wright Museum in Detroit, MI, and Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore, Maryland. Her works are in the permanent collection of private collectors across the country including the Embassy of the United States in Dakar, Senegal. She currently resides in Maryland with her Husband and three sons. 


ABOUT ROWAN UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY 
Rowan University Art Gallery
serves as a premier cultural destination for South Jersey, the Rowan community, and surrounding region. Our mission is to provide a platform for discourse on best practices in contemporary art by professional artists, curators, and scholars through the presentation of interdisciplinary art exhibitions, panel discussions, guest curatorial projects, and other public programming. 

The Gallery has a history of programming that recognizes the achievements of women in the visual arts with group and one person exhibitions that included: Beverly Semmes (2011), Joyce Kozloff (2014), Jeanie Jaffe (2015), Diane Burko (2018), Heather Ujiie (2018), Ebony G. Patterson (2019), and Julie Heffernan (2019). Its permanent collection includes the groundbreaking and historic installation The Sister Chapel.

This exhibition is presented with the generous support of the Joseph Robert Foundation. Support for programming at Rowan University Art Galleries is also made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information please visit: rowan.edu/artgallery.

GALLERY LOCATION

301 High St W, Glassboro, NJ 08028, 856-256-4521

Visit us online at rowan.edu/artgallery and follow us on Facebook @RowanGallery.  #RowanGallery #7MileGirls

GALLERY HOURS

Monday – Friday, 10 am – 5 pm 

Saturday, 12 pm – 5 pm

Public parking is available in the Mick Drive Parking Garage across the street from the gallery. Admission to the gallery, lecture, and reception is free and open to the public.

Thank you to Chelsea Markowitz for the content of this post.

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Die

 Ebony G. Patterson: if we must die

Ebony G. Patterson: if we must die

Ebony G. Patterson bears witness to the violence and social injustices

imposed upon the invisible and the voiceless

February 11 – April 20, 2019.

In dialog with the artist Wednesday, March 27 at 5:00 p.m

GLASSBORO, NJ – Known for her drawings, tapestries, videos, sculptures and installations that involve surfaces layered with flowers, glitter, lace and bead, Ebony G. Patterson’s works investigate forms of embellishment as they relate to youth culture within disenfranchised communities. That work is the focus of the newest exhibition at Rowan University Art GalleryEbony G. Patterson: If We Must Die. The exhibit is on display from February 11 – April 20, 2019.

In conjunction with the exhibit, a conversation with the artist will be held on Wednesday, March 27 at 5:00 p.m. in the gallery, led by visiting scholar Colette Gaiter, a professor in the Department of Art & Design and Department of Africana Studies at the University of Delaware. A reception will follow.

The two featured installations – Invisible Presence: Bling Memories and Of 72 – employ opulent, hand-embellished surfaces and brightly colored patterns that entice viewers to bear witness to the violence and social injustices imposed on the invisible and the voiceless. Patterson’s neo-Baroque works address masculinity, “bling,” visibility, and invisibility within the post-colonial context of her native Jamaica and within black youth culture globally. The references to Carnival in Patterson’s use of beads, plastic ornaments, and reflective materials echo her interest in mining international aesthetics in her practice.

 Ebony G. Patterson: if we must die

Born in Jamaica, Patterson received her BFA from Edna Manley College in Jamaica and an MFA from Sam Fox College of Design & Visual Arts in St. Louis. She has had recent solo exhibitions at The Perez Museum in Miami, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Atlanta Center for Contemporary Art, and Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago. She was featured in biennials in Havana, Cuba; New Orleans; Jamaica; and Miami. She has exhibited in Brazil, Boston, and New York, in addition to group exhibitions at Seattle Art Museum, National Art Gallery of the Cayman Islands, and National Gallery of the Bahamas among others. Her work is included in a number of public collections, including The Studio Museum in Harlem and the Museum of Art and Design, New York; Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Durham, NC; Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY; 21c Museum Hotels; and the National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston.

The gallery is located at 301 High Street West. Free 2-hour public parking is available in the Mick Drive Parking Garage across the street from the gallery. Admission to the gallery, lecture, and reception is free and open to the public. Regular gallery hours are Monday – Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Thursday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Directions can be found on the gallery website. For more information, call 856-256-4521 or visit www.rowan.edu/artgallery.

Support for programming at Rowan University Art Galleries is also made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Thank you to Mary Salvante for the content of this post.

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Armor

Enamored Armor, Rowan University Art Gallery

ENAMORED ARMOR
The Potency of the Female Figure

GLASSBORO, NJ – Rowan University Art Gallery welcomes guest curator Amie Potsic with this exhibition. Three women artists reframe the cultural construct of feminine as empowering in Enamored Armor. The opening reception and artist talk is on Thursday, November 29 from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. The exhibit is on display from November 29, 2018 – January 12, 2019.

Featuring work by Marjan Moghaddam, Mari Ogihara, and Tiantian Li, Enamored Armor includes references inspired by art history, cultural specificity, and contemporary society. The classical figure serves as a basis, as the artists investigate the multiplicity of ways in which women choose to present and redefine themselves in pursuit of potency and self-discovery. Through video, painting, sculpture, and Augmented Reality, their work spans a historical spectrum of millennia with a finger on the pulse of current artistic practice, the women’s empowerment movement, and emerging technologies.

Marjan Moghaddam is an award-winning and pioneering digital artist and animator who works primarily with 3d computer graphics, motion capture, and digital media for animation, post-internet art. Her work has been exhibited internationally, in addition to curated shows at the Armory Show in NYC and Art Basel Miami. In her digital female bodies, Marjan utilizes aesthetic styles as part of a figural vocabulary that explores the evolving nature of humanity. The figures represent the deconstruction of the organic, and its fracturing and fragmentation as it migrates from the physical to the digital.

Mari Ogihara’s work ranges from female figures to colorful biomorphic sculptures. She connects her understanding of how a samurai got ready for battle with the way women throughout history have prepared their physical appearance for sexual intimacy. Ogihara has held international residencies in France, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico in addition to multiple residencies in the United States.

Tiantian Li’s work has been shown in numerous Philadelphia galleries in addition to major art museums in China. In her watercolors she explores ideation of female intimacy and emotions expressed through portraits of her lingerie superposition with portraits of historical characters from the renaissance period, which represents a time of enlightenment and romantic expression. She is encouraging women to take a positive perspective on their bodies and female representation while giving themselves the attention, humor, and respect they deserve.

The Rowan University Art Gallery is located at 301 High Street West. Free 2-hour public parking is available in the Mick Drive Parking Garage across the street from the gallery. Admission to the gallery, lecture, and reception is free and open to the public. Regular gallery hours are Monday – Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Thursday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Directions can be found on the gallery website. For more information, call 856-256-4521 or visit www.rowan.edu/artgallery.

Support for programming at Rowan University Art Galleries is also made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Baisser in Mary Boone, in Glassish & Waxish Glitch from marjan moghaddam on Vimeo.

Thank you to Mary Salvante for the content of this post.

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Terra

HEATHER UJIIE

HEATHER UJIIE: TERRA INCOGNITA
Textile artist explores our relationship to the natural world

GLASSBORO, NJ – Heather Ujiie’s exhibition, Terra Incognita, opens the 2018-2019 season at Rowan University Art Gallery with a reception on Thursday, September 13 from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. The artist’s work blend the disciplines of textiles, fashion design and visual art to create an ethereal, imaginary, and mythological world. The exhibit runs September 4 – November 17, 2018.

In her work, Ujiie builds upon the imagery found in Hieronymus Bosch’s painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights, and infuses it with her own vision inspired by botanical studies, living networks, sexual identities, and commonalities between living creatures. Much of what the artist is currently creating has evolved out of re-contextualizing historic printed cloth, and illuminated manuscript paintings from the Moghul Empire, to contemporary symbols of the feminine in global cultures.

Three mythological deities and animal hybrid forms – The Goddess, The Demon, and the Warrior – dominate the world created by the artist. Each of the textile installations and sculptural figures reveals the power of the female voice which can be at once loving and nurturing, while simultaneously conjuring mythologies around the femme fatale. Digitally-printed murals evoke narratives which question the human relationship to the fragile natural world, and the destruction of ecological systems, in our evolving planet.

The Coby Foundation, and The Joseph Roberts Foundation have provided support for this project. Additional support is also made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Heather Ujii grew up in NYC’s Greenwich Village, part of a family of artist educators, and believes her creativity comes from a lively bohemian childhood. Her installations have been exhibited at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, Delaware Art Museum, Hunterdon Museum of Art, Racine Art Museum, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Philadelphia International Airport, and the prestigious Wind Challenge Award Exhibition at the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial Museum.

As a designer, she has more than 15 years of experience creating printed textiles for the high-end home furnishing and apparel markets. Her commercial designs have been used in such projects as decorating The White House private residence for President and Mrs. George W. Bush. Ujiie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Visual Art from the State University of New York/New Paltz; an Art-Education K-12 degree from Brooklyn College; and an Associate’s Degree in Textile Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She is on the faculty of Moore College of Art & Design and has design experience for dance, theatre, and textiles.

The gallery is located at 301 High Street West. Free 2-hour public parking is available in the Mick Drive Parking Garage across the street from the gallery. Admission to the gallery, lecture, and reception is free and open to the public. Regular gallery hours are Monday – Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Thursday – Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Directions can be found on the gallery website. For more information, call 856-256-4521 or visit www.rowan.edu/artgallery.

Thank you to Mary Salvante for the content of this post.

Like DoNArTNeWs Philadelphia Art News Blog on facebook

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DoNArTNeWs – celebrating ten years reporting on Philadelphia artists and art.