2023 Fall Exhibitions Opening Reception

Public Enemy
Curated by Juno Zago

Onward Upward Towards the Light
Curated by Jordan Mayfield  

Dead Ringers: Portraits of Abandoned Payphones
Curated by Juno Zago  

Poem Booth: The F*cking Reticence  
Curated by Emma Wilcox

Elevator Music 11: Lynnée Denise presents Case Studies in
DJ Scholarship: Folk, Funk, and Toni from Ohio
Curated by Juno Zago 

Opening Reception
Friday, September 29th, 6-9pm
Gallery Aferro
73 Market St., Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Due to rising Covid-19 numbers, masks are encouraged, but not required.

Gallery Aferro brings a phenomenal year of milestones and memories to a close with not one, not two, but five extraordinary exhibitions celebrating … well, milestones and memories. On September 29th, this always-innovating alternative arts space invites you to go beyond the conventional to see what truly connects us to our ideas and our ideals. Whether in the form of music, poetry, photography, mixed media or sculpture, the fall season at Aferro has something for everyone.

Illuminating the first floor of Aferro, Public Enemy takes center stage in the Main Gallery as the first solo exhibition by mixed media artist and activist Bleriot Thompson. In this visual deep dive into the Black cultural landscape that constantly defines and redefines what it means to be an American citizen, the artist seeks to create authentic connections between dignity, compassion and understanding.

Thompson’s thought-provoking showcase is buoyed by two unique exhibitions guaranteed to challenge your perspective. Featured in the art-shop-turned-mini-gallery, photographer Amy Becker explores the path of human connection through the remains of obsolescent technology in her solo show, Dead Ringers: Portraits of Abandoned Payphones.

At the opposite end of the gallery, a revivified payphone brings to life The F*cking Reticence, a curation of spoken word artists giving voice to the voiceless in a world where freedom of desire and expression are restricted by privilege and access.

On Aferro’s second floor, two more solo exhibitions guide you along a path to expand your mind while cultivating your soul. Interdisciplinary artist Anjali Benjamin-Webb delves into the indefinable space between matter and the immaterial in Onward Upward Towards the Light. Drawing from a multitude of traditions and fantastical imaginations of the afterlife, this exhibition centers on the universality of death and the stories we tell about where we go.

Combine this singular show with a step inside Elevator Music 11: Lynnée Denise presents Case Studies in DJ Scholarship: Folk, Funk, and Toni from Ohio, an audio installation spotlighting the connection between Ohio musical artists and the words of a 1986 interview with the late great author Toni Morrison. 

The free, all-ages event scheduled from 6-9pm will serve refreshments. Join us!

For more information, contact Juno Zago, Creative Director, (973) 353-9533, jzago@aferro.org.

Image credits, counter-clockwise from top left: Ladders by Amy Becker, Sappho embrassant sa lyre by Jules-Élie Delaunay, Death Chart by Anjali Benjamin-Webb, Chad by Bleriot Thompson and photo courtesy of Lynnee Denise

---

2023 Fall Open Doors Studio Tour

Sunday, October 1st
12pm – 5pm
Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Due to rising Covid-19 numbers, masks are encouraged, but not required.

Gallery Aferro’s Studio Residency program has been the creative home of inspirational and aspirational artists working, polishing and branding their craft in the heart of downtown Newark for 17 years. Within the walls of this 20,000 sq. ft. building, singular talents have brought to life everything from paper art to sculptures to interactive installations to photography to theatrical productions for the stage. 

And here is your chance to meet, observe and chat with each of our incredible studio residents during the 2023 Newark Arts Festival’s Open Doors Studio Tour event taking place on Sunday, October 1st from 12pm – 5pm. Connect with art and ideas while enjoying free coffee, tea and bagels as you wander the corridors of this 19th-century building in New Jersey’s largest city. 

When you’re not waxing poetic with one of our 18 resident artists including two new Fellowship recipients, take a moment to savor our five amazing new art exhibitions; our Community Book Room containing over 2,000 books, magazines, and journals; or a classic board game from our all-ages games cabinet.

Artists you can visit on October 1st include:

• Basement: Ken Weathersby, Jo-El Lopez
• Second Floor: Anne Dushanko Dobek, Noelle Lorraine Williams, Masakhane Center (Organization-in-Residence), Tonya Johnson, Ian King
• Third Floor: Lisette Morel, Matilda Forsberg,* Amanda Thackray, kara lynch (2023 Lynn and John Kearney Fellow for Equity), Jaz Graf, Hasnat Mehmood (2023 Sustainable Arts Fellow)
• Fourth Floor: Juno Zago, Bleriot Thompson, Steve Rossi, troizel, Michael K. Taylor

Artist-run Gallery Aferro’s resident alumni now number more than 100 strong and include Fulbright scholars, Eyebeam alumni, and a wonderful cross-section of contemporary practice by different generations of artists. Over the last decade, the program has included two fellowships programs: The Sustainable Arts Fellowship supports artists and writers who are parents, and The Lynn and John Kearney Fellowship for Equity supports women artists of color of any age in support of gender-based, racial and economic justice.

* Unfortunately, this artist-in-residence will not be available to participate in this year’s studio tour.

---

Summer Show Artist Talks @ Gallery Aferro
Saturday, August 12th, 3-4PM
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

To close out our spectacular summer exhibitions, Visceral Bodies and Calendar, Gallery Aferro is pleased to announce our Summer Show Artist Talks! Join us on Saturday, August 12th from 3-4PM for a vital dialogue between exhibiting artists of both exhibitions as they talk about their art, their practice, their artistic processes, their interests, and the ways those those things pertain to how we contemplate the human form.

Joining us for the artist talks will be Peter Dougherty, Judy Giera, Ian King, Kerry Kolenut, Nelle, Robert Richardson, Christine Sauerteig-Pilaar, Jackie Skrzynski, and Ken Weathersby.

August 12th all also be the last chance to view both Visceral Bodies and Calendar! If you have any questions about the Artist Talks, please contact Gallery Aferro at (973) 353-9533 or info@aferro.org. 

---

BLOOM!
Gallery Aferro’s 20th Anniversary Benefit Art Auction & Party
Saturday, May 20th, 7-10PM
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

* Masks or face coverings are encouraged, but not required

“Gather your rosebuds while ye may” because art is in full bloom at Gallery Aferro’s 20th Anniversary Benefit Art Auction & Party. Celebrate two decades of ingenuity and advocacy in the home of fearless artistry on Saturday, May 20th from 7pm to 10pm. This year’s theme – Bloom! – invites art lovers to don their most blossomy apparel as they live it up to great music, food, cocktails and prizes for a glorious cause.

Preview the over 200 artworks up for bid with our online catalog here

To mark this milestone, this year’s fete will honor Aferro’s budding genesis and conscience evolution while helping to usher in a vibrant and flourishing future. Guests can expect to enjoy an evening of fun and frivolity as they bid in this season’s uniquely curated silent auction, while nibbling on delectable eats, sipping on sensational spirits and grooving to vinyl virtuoso DJ Kortez.

Back by popular demand, the jubilation will also feature the second annual Aferro Hat Contest, inviting guests to dare to impress with their very best flower-themed chapeau. Esteemed judges will determine which stylish headpiece goes home with the $350 cash prize and bragging rights. When not bidding on art, attendees can revel in the celebratory cake and Nasto’s ice cream, strike a pose with the botanical selfie wall, and vie for the top prize in a History of Aferro-themed trivia contest. 

The annual fundraiser is vital in maintaining popular programming, like artist talks, educational outreach, community workshops, legacy work for women and LGBTQ+ elders, and year-round exhibitions featuring visual, literary and sound artists. But more notably, it also helps Aferro cut a new path to innovative projects and opportunities on the horizon, such as an in-house artwork printing co-op, more inclusive internship and fellowship programs, more resources for new artist commissions and paid engagements, and the continual development of Aferro’s role in spotlighting Newark as an arts education hub.

Returning this year, bidding-by-proxy and bidding-by-phone will allow art enthusiasts to continue to participate in the festivities even when they are unable to attend in-person. But for those who wouldn’t dare miss this special evening, be prepared to drape yourself in your most luscious attire and make your way to the verdant art-covered walls of Gallery Aferro for cake, cocktails and contests as the celebration of Newark’s oldest artist-run alternative arts space promises you a night you will never forget.

Tickets are available for $35 in advance or $40 at the door. Special VIP tickets with early access to artwork for sale and a VIP happy hour are also available for $125 in advance or $150 at the door. Gallery Aferro is located at 73 Market Street in Newark, New Jersey.

For more information, visit www.aferro.org or contact: Candace Nicholson, Gallery Director, (973) 353-9533, cnicholson@aferro.org.

---

2023 Scholastic Art Awards Opening Reception

Saturday, March 4th, 2 – 5pm
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are encouraged, but not required. Please register for a free ticket here.

Gallery Aferro proudly welcomes the 2023 Gold Key winners of the annual Scholastic Art & Writing Awards to honor them and their amazing artwork in an exhibition crafted to encourage, inspire and celebrate. A group exhibition unique to our community, the Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition will feature works from more than 10 different art categories created by students from grades 7 through 12 — all of whom are Gold Key winners.

From digital art to fashion to animation to photography to drawing & illustration, more than 500 Northern New Jersey students will receive 2023 Scholastic Art Awards for their work this year. Gold Key, Silver Key, and American Vision award winners will receive their keys, and Scholastic Art Awards winning teachers will receive commemorative badges during the exhibition opening on Saturday, March 4th.

While this is not a traditional ceremony, Gallery Aferro invites everyone to appreciate all the art created by these brilliant artistic minds while enjoying food, music and camaraderie with an arts community that continues to thrive even during times of great change. Please register for a free ticket here.

For the past 100 years, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have honored the exceptionally creative ways in which American teens and tweens tell stories, share their perspectives, and challenge us to see the world in a new light. These talented students have reflected broader social currents, responding to prevailing political, cultural, and technological developments that have emerged in American society over the decades.

Each year, artists submit hundreds of thousands of works, and the winners are honored in local and national exhibitions. And like the others, this exhibition at Gallery Aferro celebrates the efforts and achievements of all those involved in this program — educators, students, families, jurors, affiliates, and staffers alike — while cataloging the profound impact of the Awards, past and present.

As for the future, for many of these young creative minds, this may be the first time seeing their artwork in a professional gallery, but we are certain it won’t be their last.

---

Gallery Aferro 2022 Artisan Market & Party

December 17th, 2022 – 1-6PM

Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro 

• MOVE. SKETCH. MAKE. Workshop by Monifa Kincaid and Zoey Crenshaw – 2-4PM
• Dance Performance by South 17th Street School Students – 4PM
• Various vendors 
• Hot & cold drinks

On December 17th Gallery Aferro is its end-of-year Artisan Market & Party! 

Gallery Aferro is thrilled to welcome you to our annual artisan market & party. Come browse our gallery walls, enjoy shopping the wares of diverse, local vendors and artisans, including Eleven’s El GaHada Clothing & K. Eleven prints, Ivy’s World of Art, Patricia Patzi’s art, Garden Storey Natural Body Care, Poeta Sin Cadenas, Nitijuan Designs, E. F. Hartl, SMUSH Gallery, Ian King’s art, Rollo Tomasey, Towhee Co. & JC Fab Lab, Iritadescent Shop, David LaMorte’s art, and Ben Webster-Hurr.

Participate in “MOVE. SKETCH. MAKE” an energetic and collaborative dance/movement & collage workshop presented by visual artist Monifa Kincaid and dancer Zoey Crenshaw. Then stick around and watch dance teacher and choreographer Arthur Thornton present two new works entitled “In The Middle of The World” and “PEACE,” performed by students of South 17th Street School. 

Hot and cold refreshments will be served, and the food and festivities are FREE and all are welcome. Proceeds from the sales of art and art shop items support Gallery Aferro’s award-winning nonprofit art programs, but 100% of the sales from the artisan market go to the brilliant creatives themselves.

As we approach the end of 2022, it’s still a great time to start or expand your friends & family’s or your own art collection. Nothing is over $500, and there are wonderful items for every budget. You will find limited edition prints, photographs, paintings, artist multiples, artist books, t-shirts, music, pins, buttons, postcards, and more to take home for yourself or gift to someone you adore. 

If you’ve never been, join us for the first time! Come out to nosh, browse and spend time with new friends and strangers.

Please reach out via (973) 353-9533 or info@aferro.org to ask any questions about an artwork you see online or about any gifting or art-buying. Art is for everyone and buying it should be fun and easy!

---

Gallery Aferro Annual Affordable Art Sale

December 8th – 17th, 2022

Memorial Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

Thursday, December 8th: 12 Noon – 8 PM

Friday, December 9th: 12 Noon – 6PM

Saturday, December 10th: 12 Noon – 6PM

Wednesday, December 14th: 12 Noon – 6PM 

Thursday, December 15th: 12 Noon – 7:30 PM

Friday, December 16th: 12 Noon – 6PM

Saturday, December 17th: 12 Noon – 6PM

Gallery Aferro welcomes you to our annual art sale and artisan market starting Thursday, December 8th! This year we are running for two weeks in our 2nd Floor Memorial Gallery. All proceeds from the sales of art and gift items support Gallery Aferro’s award-winning nonprofit art programs. 

Nothing is over $500, and there are wonderful items for every budget. You will find limited edition prints, photographs, paintings, artist multiples, artist books, t-shirts, music, pins, buttons, postcards, and more to take home for yourself or gift to someone you adore. 

Exclusive consignments this year by artists such as Jeffrey Cobbold, Ian King, Rita Jimenez, David LaMorte, Patricia Patzi, Bleriot Thompson, Bisa Wendy Washington, Heather Williams, and Luisa Pinzon & Malik Whitaker.

If you have any questions, don’t be shy about reaching out via (973) 353-9533 or info@aferro.org to ask about an artwork you see online and on social media, or with any gift-giving or art-buying ideas. Art is for everyone and buying it should be fun and easy!

---

Artist Talk: Ancestral Call with Danielle Scott

Saturday, December 10th
2pm – 4pm
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are required.

Join exhibiting artist Danielle Scott, co-curators Bryant Small and Anthony E. Boone, and songwriting chanteuse Janétza Miranda on Saturday, December 10th for an evening of communal observation and illuminating conversation as these dynamic voices in the New Jersey arts scene share their collective journey in the creation of the Ancestral Call exhibition.

Darker in tone and emotion than previous exhibition by Scott, Ancestral Call taps into the complex, but inexhaustible need to explore ancestry and lineage within the Black families shaped by the legacy of slavery across generations. With Small, Boone and Miranda by her side, Scott will take us through the process, choices and memories that sparked this magnificent collection of new work and the unparalleled impact it has had on her life. 

Ancestral Call will be on view at Gallery Aferro through Saturday, January 21, 2023.

If you have any questions about the Artist Talk, please contact Gallery Aferro at (973) 353-9533 or info@aferro.org. 

---

How To Tell Your Story: An Intimate Talk and Writing Workshop with Doreen Oliver

Thursday, December 8th
7pm – 9pm
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to only 10 registered participants!
* Masks are required. Please register for a free ticket here.

2019 Sustainable Arts Fellow Doreen Oliver and Gallery Aferro invite up to 10 participants of all experience levels to consider how to tell their story.

Do you have an idea that you’ve turned over and over again in your head but never put pen to paper? Or have you been writing for a long time but haven’t yet published your work? In this workshop, writer/performer and former film producer Doreen Oliver will share with you her own experiences in taking an idea and turning it into a published or produced piece. We’ll talk about nonfiction/memoir, fiction, theater, and film, and an overview of what the process entails of getting your work out into the world for each genre. Come with one idea or piece and we’ll offer suggestions about how to take it to the next level.

Doreen Oliver is a writer, actor, and speaker whose storytelling illuminates the beauty, heartbreak, and unpredictability of life, often through the lens of parenting. Her critically acclaimed one-woman show about raising a child with autism, Everything Is Fine Until It’s Not, broke the record for the fastest sellout of a run in the 20-year history of the New York International Fringe Festival and won the Backstage/United Solo Audience award the following year.

Oliver’s essays on autism, racism, and the chaos and contradictions of parenting have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post Sunday Magazine, The Root, Kenyon Review, and as an Audible Original, which she recorded. She has performed her pieces at the Yale Repertory Theatre and New York’s Symphony Space, and shared her insights nationally from college classrooms to ideas festivals like The Nantucket Project, where fellow speakers included George W. Bush, Tig Notaro, and Laura Dern.

A former independent film producer and development executive, Oliver helped bring to the big screen such independent films as the Oscar-winning Precious (Mo’Nique), Shadowboxer (Helen Mirren), and The Woodsman (Kevin Bacon). She also honed her storytelling skills working in Original Programming at HBO in Los Angeles. Early in her career, she created and produced the sold-out talent showcase series “Frustrated Artists in Corporate America,” held at the legendary venue The Bitter End in NYC and featured on CBS Evening News.

A recipient of residencies, fellowships, and other support from Yaddo, Hedgebrook, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Tin House Writers Workshop, VONA, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation at Gallery Aferro, Oliver was named a 2022 PEN American Emerging Voices Fellow for fiction. She is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was a Charles Bonini Fellow. Learn more at www.doreenoliver.com 

---

2022 Fall Exhibitions Opening Reception

Ancestral Call: Danielle Scott
Curated by Anthony E. Boone and Bryant Small

Multitudinous
Curated by Emma Wilcox and Candace Nicholson  

Poem Booth: Make Me Wanna Holler
Curated by Candace Nicholson 

Opening Reception
Friday, October 7th, 6-9pm
Gallery Aferro
73 Market St., Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are required at all times, except when eating and drinking.

Gallery Aferro believes that open doors can lead to open minds, so this year’s Newark Arts Festival will see us throwing open our doors to celebrate the beginning of a new season and a new opportunity to heal through the power of art. On Friday, October 7th, Gallery Aferro invites artists and art lovers alike to enjoy three new exhibitions inside the 19-year-old organization’s reverberant walls.

The fall exhibitions will feature the brilliant works of visual and literary artists against a backdrop of a society standing at the precipice of great change, where hurting and harming give way to healing and helping knowledge builds bridges, not walls.

In the Main Gallery, Danielle Scott’s solo exhibition, Ancestral Call, embodies the artist’s work and dedication to social commentary and ancestral storytelling. Manifesting the internal into the external, she creates a connection through color, texture and technique that weave together the fables and stories of legend that are true. Poised to be stories of sadness, Scott as a cultural explorer and activist channels the power and resilience of these figures … these warriors … these kings and queens for all the world to see. 

Multitudinous, located in the Memorial Gallery, not only showcases eight wonderfully talented recipients of Gallery Aferro’s two fellowship programs, but also asks each artist to answer the question: How do we first come to understand each other as a purposeful community of artists? As expected, these exceptional minds rose to the occasion, each with a profound representational artwork that makes connections by expanding beyond our idiosyncrasies, our differences, and our approaches to art-making.

Delighting the ear as much as the soul, the third exhibition, Poem Booth: Make Me Wanna Holler, is the latest incarnation of Aferro’s newest permanent sound installation, where visitors get to step into a vintage 1960s-era wooden telephone booth to revel in an immersive experience unlike any other. Once inside, 13 unique voices spin a yarn with humor, wit and anecdotal sarcasm, bringing the salve of comedy to tales of woe.

The free, all-ages event scheduled from 6-9pm will serve refreshments. Masks will be required at all times, except when eating and drinking. Join us!

For Publicity Images, contact: Candace Nicholson, Gallery Director, (973) 353-9533, cnicholson@aferro.org. 

Image credit: “True Love Galennie” by Danielle Scott

---

Fall 2022 Open Studios

Sunday, October 9th
11am – 3pm
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are required at all times, except when eating and drinking.

Gallery Aferro’s Studio Residency program has been the creative home of inspirational and aspirational artists working, polishing and branding their craft in the heart of downtown Newark for 16 years. Within the walls of this 20,000 sq. ft. building, singular talents have brought to life everything from paper art to sculptures to interactive installations to photography to theatrical productions for the stage. 

And here is your chance to meet, observe and chat with each of our incredible studio residents during the 2022 Newark Arts Festival’s Open Studios event taking place on Sunday, October 9th from 11am – 3pm. Connect with art and ideas while enjoying free coffee, tea and bagels as you wander the corridors of this 19th-century building in New Jersey’s largest city. 

When you’re not waxing poetic with one of our 19 resident artists including three new Fellowship recipients, take a moment to savor our three amazing art exhibitions; our Community Book Room containing over 2,000 books, magazines, and journals; a classic board game from our all-ages games cabinet; and our charming Art Shop highlighting affordable works by celebrated artists, alongside buttons, T-shirts, CDs, posters, and a collection of postcards featuring the work of Aferro Studios residents.

Artists you can visit on October 9th include:

• Basement: Ken Weathersby, Jo-El Lopez
• Second Floor: Anne Dushanko Dobek, Noelle Lorraine Williams, Masakhane Center (Organization-in-Residence), Heather Williams (2022 Sustainable Arts Fellow), Ian King
• Third Floor: Lisette Morel, Matilda Forsberg, Amanda Thackray, Joe Silvestro, Jaz Graf, Krystle Lemonias (2022 Lynn and John Kearney Fellow for Equity)
• Fourth Floor: Juno Zago, Bleriot Thompson, Steve Rossi (2022 Sustainable Arts Fellow), Jesse Davis, troizel, Michael K. Taylor

Artist-run Gallery Aferro’s resident alumni now number more than 100 strong and include Fulbright scholars, Eyebeam alumni, and a wonderful cross-section of contemporary practice by different generations of artists. Over the last decade, the program has expanded to include two fellowships programs: The Sustainable Arts Fellowship supports artists and writers who are parents, and The Lynn and John Kearney Fellowship for Equity supports women artists of color of any age in support of gender-based, racial and economic justice.

---

Harriet Tubman Monument: Tile Making Workshop

Thursday, May 26th, 6 – 8pm
Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are required. Please register for a free ticket here.

Slated for installation in the Fall of 2022, Mayor Ras Baraka and the City of Newark has commissioned Architect Nina Cooke John to design and build a monument in the newly renamed Tubman Square (former Washington Park) which will honor the legacy of Harriet Tubman and the city’s long fight for justice and liberation.

On Thursday, May 26, from 6-8pm Nina Cooke John and her team invite you to join her at Gallery Aferro and contribute to the making of the monument, through two hands-on tile and audio recording workshops. Participants will be asked to to etch onto wet clay and record their stories of freedom and liberation in a private sound booth.

The mosaic tiles from these workshops will be incorporated into the monument’s ground and wall surfaces and the audio recordings will become a part of the listening experience for everyone visiting the Monument. This will not be a static statue of a woman, but a dynamic multi-sensory space that encourages engagement, reflection, and learning. I hope you will join Nina and her team in this community collaboration and be a part of the historical and timely monument.

This event is made possible by The City of Newark, Gallery Aferro, the Newark Museum of Art, Audible, and Newark Arts.

---

2022 NJCU Solidarity Awards & Cocktail Party

Thursday, May 19th, 6 – 10pm
Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Tickets and sponsorships available here.

If you believe that communities have the power to affect transformative change through collective action, then NJ Communities United’s 2022 Solidarity Awards & Cocktail Party is the event you’re looking for. On Thursday, May 19, 2022, join a powerful movement of low-income and working-class communities fighting to achieve justice while they honor the voices, supporters and revolutionaries who work to make New Jersey a better place for us all.

This year’s honorees include Azucena Delgado, Dioceline Vazquez, Marilyn Kirby, The Alliance for Newark Public Schools, Christian Estevez of the Latino Action Network, and Governor Phil Murphy. The ceremony will also include a special tribute to the life and legacy of Roberto Cabañas Jr., one of the very first organizers with NJ Communities United. Cabañas left an indelible legacy that shaped the organization and built a movement that continues to grow and inspire countless others every day.

You don’t have to a member of the NJCU to join in celebrating a decade of organizing at the 2022 Solidarity Awards. Donations, sponsorships and tickets are available for the general public and members alike at www.unitednj.org/2022solidaryawards. Come out and support the grassroots movement created to build a sustainable world for all of us.

---

2022 Scholastic Art Awards Reception and Awards Ceremony

Saturday, May 14th, 3 – 7pm
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are required. Please register for a free ticket here.

Congratulations to the more than 900 Northern New Jersey youth artists who will be receiving 2022 Scholastic Art Awards for their work! This year, several Northern New Jersey students, including a youth artist from Newark, went on to receive national-level awards as well. We are proud of all of you and thrilled that New Jersey’s largest city is now the locale of record as part of the country’s longest-running recognition program for creative teens.

The 2022 Gold Key winners will have their art featured in an exhibition on view at Gallery Aferro from May 14, 2022 through June 3, 2022. To kick off this exhibition, we will also be holding a regional awards ceremony presentation on Saturday, May 14, 2022, where all Gold Key, Silver Key, Honorable Mention, and American Vision award winners will receive a certificate honoring their participation in the competition.

After the ceremony, we invite everyone to take in the exhibition while enjoying food, music, and camaraderie with an arts community that continues to thrive even during times of great change.

---

NOW IS RIGHT HERE
13th Annual Benefit Art Auction & Party
April 23rd, 7-10PM

* Proof of vaccination or negative PCR test result for ages 5 and up is required
* Masks or face coverings are required when not eating or drinking

Gallery Aferro ushers in an evening of celebration honoring the moment, the people, and the spirit of 2022 in their 13th annual benefit art auction and party themed: “Now Is Right Here.” Art lovers, collectors and creators will gather on Saturday, April 23rd from 7pm to 10pm to enjoy music, food, cocktails and prizes while bidding on hundreds of artworks available for auction in the name of a worthy cause and a worthy “call” to action. 

For 19 years as an artist-run institution, Aferro has lived by the immortal words of James Baldwin: “The place in which I’ll fit will not exist until I make it.” And it is with that directive in mind, this year’s benefit promises to remind us all that the time to create that place where we all fit is right here and right now. 

This year’s benefit will offer a few additions that highlight ways in which Aferro is committed to being more inclusive by bridging distance through the joy of art. First, the much-demanded bidding-by-phone option will provide art enthusiasts, who are unable to attend in-person, the opportunity to join in the fun. And for those who wish to send a gift to a fellow collector without leaving their home, a limited-edition print will be available to purchase and surprise a loved one or a stranger with the beauty of art from afar. 

When guests aren’t bidding on their favorite pieces, they can revel in the comedic talents of host MC Justin Williams, enjoy the rare vinyl tracks from DJ Kortez, and savor delicious treats courtesy of Nasto’s ice cream bar. Guests can also participate in the gallery’s first-ever Aferro Hat Contest, daring to impress esteemed judges from the House of BAV, The Newarker, Queer Newark Oral History Project, Pink Dragon Artist Syndicate, Newark Times, and Off The Hanger & High Street Original. Winner of the contest receives bragging rights and a cash prize.

Imagery for this year’s event was created by Jesse Wright, a New Jersey artist and 2021’s New Jersey Art Teacher of the Year, whose work often draws on the global ties that connect us all. With that in mind, all guests over the age of 5 will be asked to provide proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test result and be required to wear a mask or face covering when not eating or drinking.

Tickets are available for $35 in advance or $40 at the door. Special VIP tickets with early access to artwork for sale and a VIP happy hour are also available for $125 in advance or $150 at the door. Gallery Aferro is located at 73 Market Street in Newark, New Jersey.

For more information, visit www.aferro.org or contact: Candace Nicholson, Gallery Director, (973) 353-9533, cnicholson@aferro.org.

---

What To Know Me By: A Virtual Artist Talk About Influences

Saturday, March 12th
6 – 7:30pm Online via Zoom

Free and open to everyone! Register for Zoom here.

Join exhibiting artists Armisey Smith and Caren King Choi for an intimate conversational space and learn about their influences. Defined expansively, influences are the past and present context, cultural expressions, traditions, and memories that we draw from, knowing, and not, to make our work. Each artist will present “10 Things You Can Know Me By.”

Armisey Smith is a native of Brooklyn, NY, living in Newark, NJ, who earned a BFA in Illustration from Parsons School of Design and an MPS in Arts and Cultural Management from Pratt Institute. In addition to creating her own original works, she is currently an arts administrator, educator, illustrator, and curator. Her amalgamation has afforded various opportunities to collaborate with essential stakeholders and community-based organizations in New York and New Jersey, serving primarily marginalized communities.

Presently, she serves as the director of arts education at Studio Montclair, working with a cohort of visual art instructors who teach adults with disabilities. She was also a 2021 recipient of the Lynn and John Kearny Fellowship for Equity from Gallery Aferro.

Caren King Choi is a Chinese-Taiwanese-American artist, illustrator, and writer born and raised in New Jersey. Her artwork has appeared in exhibitions at venues including the Pollak Gallery, Newark Arts Festival, Gallery at 14 Maple, William Paterson University Gallery, Express Newark, Gallery Aferro, Akwaaba Gallery, and the Newark Museum of Art.

After 10 years of working as an arts administrator, educator, and program director at the Paul Robeson Galleries in Newark NJ, Choi started a new career in 2018 as a full-time mom and homemaker. She is the author and illustrator of two self-published books: Every Day Something New: Doodles by a New Mom (2019) and Let It Happen: Doodles From A Parent’s First Year (2021). Choi lives and works in Fair Lawn, NJ.

Armisey Smith: In Time and in Tide, and Caren King Choi: Drawn In are both on view at Gallery Aferro through Friday, April 1, 2022.

---

Boston Typewriter Orchestra: Live at Gallery Aferro!

Saturday, March 5th, 6 – 7:30pm
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are required. Please register for timed admission here.

On Saturday, March 5th, live for one night only at Gallery Aferro, in the heart of downtown Newark, come and enjoy a performance like you’ve never seen before!

The Boston Typewriter Orchestra (BTO) is a collective endeavor which engages in rhythmic typewriter manipulation, combined with voice elements: performance, comedy and satire. They aim to entertain the masses while providing an outlet for the creative urges of its members. The latest rotation of Gallery Aferro’s Elevator Music project features an original track composed just for the project by BTO.

BTO has released several singles and five albums, the most recent of which is a collection of remixes entitled Delegation. The ensemble members included/includes: Derrik Albertelli, Jeff Breeze, James Brockman, Alex Holman, Chris Keene, Erik Lindahl, Steve Mazzulli, Jay O’Grady, Brendan Quigley, and Chris Webb. Other collaborators include Brian Dewan and Elizabeth Donovan.

Learn more about BTO at www.bostontyperwriterorchestra.com, then follow them on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter, then purchase their work via their Bandcamp page.

---

Thee Event Plug Presents: “Announce Yourself!”

Saturday, February 19th, 6 – 8pm
Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Ticket price: $7.00
* Masks are required

Calling all artists, poets, comedians, and performing artists! If you want to perform any pieces or sets you’ve been working on, this is the event for you!

On Saturday, February 19th, Thee Event Plug will be hosting its first open mic night event from 6pm to 8pm at Gallery Aferro, located in downtown Newark. There will be featured artists and local vendors, so please come out and support!

The category is… “Announce Yourself!” So come with a piece that tells the world who you are. Follow the event page on Instagram at @the.event.plug to stay up to date with this event and any future announcements.

Tickets are available at here.

Image credit: Adaobi Njokuobi

---

2022 Winter Exhibitions Opening Reception

In Time and In Tide
Curated by Evonne M. Davis

Drawn In: Caren King Choi
Curated by Caren King Choi and Candace Nicholson  

Elevator Music 8: Boston Typewriter Orchestra
Curated by Juno Zago 

Opening Reception
Saturday, February 5th, 6-10pm
Gallery Aferro
73 Market St., Newark, NJ

All Shows on Exhibition from January 29th to April 1st

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are required, please register for timed admission here

On Saturday, February 5th, Gallery Aferro will celebrate for the first time in the new year with three new winter exhibitions. Officially kicking off on January 29th, the new shows will highlight the 19-year-old organization’s commitment to public-serving art in a community hit hard by the ongoing pandemic. The winter exhibitions will feature artists who expertly combine personal reflection and social commentary wrapped in the brilliance of artistic ingenuity. This delight for the eyes and ears offers amazing musical and visual creations to help you start off your new year (solar or lunar) just right.

Guests are welcome to visit the exhibitions starting on Saturday, January 29th, but the opening reception has been moved to Saturday, February 5th, in hopes of a possible decline in health-related stats that will create a more comfortable and safe atmosphere for all who wish to attend.

The Main Gallery exhibition, In Time and In Tide, is a uniquely powerful reflection of Armisey Smith’s deeply brave commitment to expressing and exploring her own times through familiar and visceral visual cues that underscore the causal relationship between the Covid-19 pandemic and systemic racism. Smith’s artwork often takes a critical view of social, political and cultural issues of African-American women and other women of color, including referencing her personal experiences to articulate the weight of America’s social ills.

In the Memorial Gallery, Drawn In: Caren King Choi is an exhibition that presents two visually divergent bodies of work by one artist. King Choi applies drastically different techniques from the meditative and studied Red Portraits to the quick and humorous Motherhood Doodles. Nevertheless, both are a part of the artist’s overarching attempt to truthfully portray elements of her identity which remain largely underrepresented in the dominant visual culture. 

And last, but far from least, step inside the third exhibition, Elevator Music 8: Boston Typewriter Orchestra, to enjoy the creative rhythms and playful whimsy of one of America’s most eclectic musical troupes. Seeking to educate and evangelize the archaic machines they use, BTO grants audiences an opportunity to experience a connection to history and industrial technology with new evocative sounds, callouts and textures all within the 150 cubic feet of an early-1900s Otis Elevator.

The free, all-ages event scheduled from 6-10pm will serve refreshments. Masks will be required at all times, except when eating and drinking. Join us!

For Publicity Images, contact: Candace Nicholson, Gallery Director, (973) 353-9533, cnicholson@aferro.org. 

Image credit: Armisey Smith

---

12th Annual Potluck Party, Art Sale & Artisan Market 

December 18th
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro
1pm – 6pm @ 73 Market Street

Come out to Gallery Aferro’s end-of-year Art Sale, Artisan Market, and 12th Annual Potluck Party!

As the cold weather rolls in, our minds turn to gift giving, delicious food and community fun. That’s why Gallery Aferro is thrilled to welcome you to our annual art sale, artisan gift market and potluck party. While browsing our gallery walls, enjoy shopping the wares of diverse, local artisans and chowing down on delicious, multi-ethnic cuisine. Plus, a 50/50 cash raffle means you might win some walking around money!

Food and festivities are FREE and all are welcome. Proceeds from the sales of art and art shop items support Gallery Aferro’s award-winning nonprofit art programs, but 100% of the sales from the artisan market go to the brilliant creatives themselves.

So as we approach the end of 2021, now is the perfect time to begin or enlarge an art collection for your friends, your family or yourself. With our new tiered system of $50 – $500 pricing, we will have limited edition prints, photographs, paintings, artist multiples, artist books, T-shirts, pins, buttons, music, and more.

Once again, Gallery Aferro makes affordable art-buying the easiest shopping experience you’ll have this season. And while you’re deciding on what works you’d like to see deck your halls, you can enjoy a dish or two from our community potluck.

If you’ve never been, join us for the first time! If you’ve been coming every year and already have your recipe picked out for the potluck, join us every time! Come out to nosh, browse and spend time with new friends and strangers.

Please reach out via (973) 353-9533 or info@aferro.org to ask any questions about an artwork you see online or about any gifting or art-buying. Art is for everyone and buying it should be fun and easy!

---

12th Annual Affordable Art Sale & Artisan Market 

November 20th to December 18th
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

Various times @ 73 Market Street

Saturday, Nov. 20 — 12 Noon – 6 pm

Wednesday, Nov. 24 — 12 Noon – 6 pm

Wednesday, Dec. 1 — 12 Noon – 6 pm
Thursday, Dec. 2 — 12 Noon – 7:30 pm
Friday, Dec. 3 — 12 Noon – 6 pm
Saturday, Dec. 4 — 12 Noon – 6 pm

Wednesday, Dec. 8 — 12 Noon – 6 pm
Thursday, Dec. 9 — 12 Noon – 7:30 pm
Friday, Dec. 10 — 12 Noon – 6 pm
Saturday, Dec. 11 — 12 Noon – 6 pm

Wednesday, Dec. 15 — 12 Noon – 6 pm
Thursday, Dec. 16 — 12 Noon – 7:30 pm
Friday, Dec. 17 — 12 Noon – 6 pm
Saturday, Dec. 18 — 12 Noon – 6 pm

Gallery Aferro welcomes you to our annual art sale and artisan market starting Saturday, November 20th! This year, we’re extending the art sale and artisan market to include 4 Saturdays with late open hours on Thursday evenings.

All proceeds from the sales of art and gift items support Gallery Aferro’s award-winning nonprofit art programs. 

From Saturday, November 20th through Saturday, December 18th, 73 Market Street becomes the gift market destination for anyone looking to deck the halls and share in the artisanal craftsmanship of Newark’s creative community without the fear of their items being locked in shipping or supply chain limbo.

Not only are we offering art from a wide range of styles by an extraordinary array of local, national and international talent, we have created a tiered system that allows you to easily select artworks based on price and budget. From $50 – $500, you will find limited edition prints, photographs, paintings, artist multiples, artist books, T-shirts, music, pins, buttons, postcards, and more, to take home for yourself or gift to someone you adore.

If you have any questions, don’t be shy about reaching out via (973) 353-9533 or info@aferro.org to ask about an artwork you see online, or with any gift-giving or art-buying ideas. Art is for everyone and buying it should be fun and easy!

---

BEFORE THE WAVE: Celebrating the Gladys Barker Grauer Legacy
Benefit Art Auction and Party
November 6th, 7-10PM

All tickets are $20
* Masks are required

Gallery Aferro is back with our first in-person art auction celebration since 2019, and it promises to be unlike any other.

On November 6th from 7:00pm to 10:00pm, the oldest artist-run gallery in Newark will present “Before The Wave: Celebrating the Gladys Barker Grauer Legacy” to not only honor the memory, influence and passion of “The Mother of Newark Arts,” but to also come together in a joyous gala for artists and art lovers to revel in music, dance, food, drinks, and a little something extra.

This uniquely curated event will feature more than 20 works from Gladys Barker Grauer’s estate, reflecting on both her love of life and her determination to be a rule-breaker and trailblazer. Expanding on the connection to her legacy, the auction will also feature works from artists influenced, inspired or mentored by Grauer throughout her 70-year career. Collect artworks by artists Anne Dushanko Dobek, Donna Conklin King, Janet Taylor Pickett, Danielle Scott, Armisey Smith, Onnie Strother, Nette Forné Thomas, Toni Thomas, Bisa Wendy Washington, Adrienne Wheeler, Noelle Lorraine Williams and Philemona Williamson!

Remote Bidding Available:

This is a one-night-only opportunity to acquire artworks by Grauer, and a downloadable PDF of auction artworks by Gladys Barker Grauer is available here, and of the accompanying auction here.

Pre-bids can be placed November 4th and 5th, by calling or emailing the gallery after reviewing the PDFs. We will bid on your behalf the night of the event as proxy, based on your maximum bid and using standard bid increments.

Also on November 4th and 5th, advance preview of the auction will be available on site, by appointment. Pre-bids can be conveyed to gallery staff during visits.

We believe that collecting art should be as accessible as possible, and payment plans are available to facilitate your purchases. Please contact info@aferro.org with any questions.  

“Before The Wave” tips its hat to Grauer’s role in pursuing a life where creativity, equality and justice were inextricably intertwined before such a concept became a movement, a trend or a norm. 

Joining the showcase of works by Grauer and her admirers, the event will also include a video homage of her art with highlighted segments of past interviews, a tribute dance performance, remembrance speeches and anecdotes from friends, and a special gift for everyone to take home. 

Proceeds from the event will help us to continue to sustain programs in alignment with Grauer’s values and vision, such as the digital humanities project, The Prism Commissions; the historical retrospective series, Past & Power, featuring writing by and about women, art and radicalization; and the creation of www.gladysbarkergrauer.org, an educational microsite dedicated to sharing the nonagenarian’s renowned reputation with students, artists, collectors, and more. 

Described by The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation as having an “expansive vision, impact in Newark as well as regionally and even internationally,” Gallery Aferro comes from an idiomatic Portuguese word meaning bound or chained to an insane idea or an idea that is difficult to achieve.

We believe this high praise combined with our commitment to manifest the true meaning of “aferro” is what led Grauer to gift our alternative art space the privilege to act as curatorial liaison for her artwork in the wake of her passing. And through this one-time-only, major celebratory event, we aim to honor her choice, her legacy and her spirit.

Gallery Aferro is located at 73 Market Street in Newark, New Jersey. For more information, visit www.aferro.org or contact: Candace Nicholson, Gallery Director, (973) 353-9533, cnicholson@aferro.org.

---

Being Gladys: Free Online Screening
November 5th, 6:30PM on Zoom

All are invited to watch BEING GLADYS, a documentary film from Ralph and Zelda Patterson and Executive Producer Pamela Morgan of Women in Media – Newark.

For over seventy years Gladys Barker Grauer advocated for the poor, the working class and the liberation of herself as a Black woman through the power of her art. Born during The Great Depression and just a mere 60 years after The Emancipation Proclamation, Gladys evolved as an artist using not only brush and paint, but weavings and found objects to create her art. Despite the odds against her she found the love of her life and despite the odds against her she has spoken truth to power not to create controversy, but to be true to herself. Even at 95 she defied being “a little old lady”. Legacy remains a force and an example. Her story and the story of her determined efforts to sustain the work of Black women artists in Newark and the lives and careers she has touched are told here in: Being Gladys.

Gallery Aferro gratefully acknowledges the partnership of Women in Media Newark to make this offering possible: https://wim-n.com/

Register here to get zoom link to watch film on November 5: https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZEkf-ihpzgoGtInlBSPu257JiuFm…

This event is aligned as a leadup to the 16 Days of Activism against violence against women and girls, an international campaign that commences on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, until December, 10, Human Rights Day. It was originated by activists at the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute in 1991and this year marks its 30th anniversary. It continues to be coordinated each year by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL).

---

2021 Newark Short Film Awards

Friday & Saturday, October 8th – 9th
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

The Newark Short Film Awards (NSFA) film festival is about the filmmaker and the collaboration of filmmaking. And this year, it will be one of the featured events of the Newark Arts Festival and hosted by Gallery Aferro, located in the heart of Newark’s downtown district.

Taking place on October 8th – 9th, the film festival is designed to strengthen filmmakers with tools to take them to the next level while celebrating their works in the process. Films will be presented in the following category blocks:

• Short Documentary
• Short Narrative
• Short Comedy
• Short Student Film

The festival will also include actor and filmmaking workshops to help prepare up-and-coming artists for what’s ahead in an ever-changing industry, a headshot/portrait studio session to aid creative professionals in putting their best foot forward, and a networking event to provide an opportunity to share information and promote individual specialties within the film industry.

An exciting extra this year to highlight the connection between the Newark Arts Festival and the legacy of Gallery Aferro as Newark’s oldest artist-owned alternative arts space, NSFA will also feature the first “I’m So Newark Filmmaking Contest.” For the competition, a visual artist will create a work of art onsite during the festival. Next, everyone who wishes to participate is invited to write a story based on that work of art. Then, filmmakers are asked to create a 1-minute short film based on the story they wrote inspired by the work of art, and submit it to the official Art to Script Short Film contest. 

The NSFA is designed for all artists interested in creating and working in the filmmaking industry and movie lovers alike. So join us for two days of short film screenings, art creations, professional portraits, headshots, networking, an awards show, and more. 

Prizes will be awarded to winners during the Awards Ceremony on the evening of Saturday, October 9, 2021.

If you would like to attend the Newark Short Film Awards, please register at filmfreeway.com/shortff. The event is free, but all guests must register to attend. 

If you’d like to learn more about the film festival and review the schedule of events, please visit www.newarkshortfilmawards.com.

Gallery Aferro will be following the latest Covid-19 guidelines recommended by the state and the CDC. Please plan accordingly.

---

Fall 2021 Open Studios

Sunday, October 10th
11am – 4pm
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are required

As of 2021, Gallery Aferro’s Studio Residency program has been running for 15 years in the heart of downtown Newark. Within the walls of this 20,000 sq. ft. building, creative minds have come together to craft everything from paper art to sculptures to interactive installations to photography to theatrical productions for the stage. 

And here is your chance to meet, observe and chat with each of our incredibly talented studio residents during the Newark Arts Festival’s Open Studios event taking place on Sunday, October 10th from 11am – 4pm. Connect with art and ideas while enjoying free coffee, tea and bagels as you wander the corridors of this 19th-century building in New Jersey’s largest city. 

When you’re not waxing poetic with one of our 18 resident artists including five new Fellowship recipients, take a moment to savor our four amazing art exhibitions; our Community Book Room containing over 2,000 books, magazines, and journals; a classic board game from our all-ages games cabinet; and our charming Art Shop highlighting affordable works by celebrated artists, alongside buttons, T-shirts, CDs, posters, and a brand new collection of postcards featuring the work of Aferro Studios residents.

Artists you can visit on October 10th include:

• Basement: Ken Weathersby, Jo-El Lopez
• Second Floor: Anne Dushanko Dobek, Patricia Cazorla and Nancy Saleme, Masakhane Center (Organization-in-Residence), Armisey Smith (2021 Lynn and John Kearney Fellow for Equity)
• Third Floor: Lisette Morel, Matilda Forsberg, Amanda Thackray, Jaz Graf, Ruth Borgenicht (2021 Sustainable Arts Fellow)
• Fourth Floor: Juno Zago, Kay Reese (2021 Lynn and John Kearney Fellow for Equity), Anna Parisi (2021 Lynn and John Kearney Fellow for Equity), Jesse Davis, Mic Diño Boekelmann (2021 Sustainable Arts Fellow), Michael K. Taylor

Artist-run Gallery Aferro’s resident alumni now number more than 100 strong and include Fulbright scholars, Eyebeam alumni, and a wonderful cross-section of contemporary practice by different generations of artists. Over the last decade, the program has expanded to include two fellowships programs: The Sustainable Arts Fellowship supports artists and writers who are parents, and The Lynn and John Kearney Fellowship for Equity supports women artists of color of any age in support of gender-based, racial and economic justice.

Image: The Black Person’s Sundial by Armisey Smith

---

Artist Talk: Victor Davson and Cynthia Hawkins, Ph.D. in Conversation — The Making of the Misogyny Papers/Apology Project

Sunday, October 10th
4:00pm – 4:45pm
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are required

The Misogyny Papers/Apology Project has been many years in the making, and Victor Davson’s journey to conceptualizing, creating and executing this stylized in-depth look at rethinking gender stereotypes and systemic racism through the inextricable link of intersectional oppression was a daunting task, even for such a practiced veteran of the art world.  

We invite you to join us for one of two special Artist Talk sessions on Sunday, October 10th to learn just how Davson accomplished this impressive feat while also developing the ongoing project into a collaborative residency at Gallery Aferro.

In conversation with Cynthia Hawkins, Ph.D., guest curator to Davson’s current solo exhibition, Misogyny Papers/Apology, Davson will delve into the process of bringing this momentous venture to life. He’ll answer questions about how to draw on a long tradition of socially engaged art to channel it through a contemporary lens, how to disrupt existing race-gender power dynamics through the prism of the privileged benefactor, and how to create an environment that melds the intimacy of the artist workspace with the full accessibility of a public exhibition space.

The Artist Talk is a featured event during Gallery Aferro’s participation in the 2021 Newark Arts Festival.

If you have any questions about the Artist Talk events, please contact Gallery Aferro at (973) 353-9533 or info@aferro.org.

Top Image: Misogyny Papers/Apologies V by Victor Davson
Bottom Image courtesy of Colleen Gutwein O’Neal and The Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project.

---

Artist Talk: Jesse Wright — Connecting Spirituality & Artistic Expression in a Divided World

Sunday, October 10th
4:45pm – 5:30pm
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are required

At a time when individuals seem more divided than ever by physical boundaries and sociopolitical issues, interdisciplinary artist and educator Jesse Wright’s work seeks to champion what connects us and how we can build on those connections through empathy, love and art. 

Please join us for one of two special Artist Talk sessions on Sunday, October 10th to learn how Wright’s approach to art allows him to emphasize the daily experiences that unite us with something bigger than ourselves, as well as to each other. 

In conversation with Evonne M. Davis, Aferro’s Artistic Director and curator to Wright’s current solo exhibition, No Rule – Multiply Alpha, Wright will share details about his experiences working in orphanages, medical centers and displacement camps in Haiti, Honduras, Uganda, Mexico and the U.S., and how they inform his development of the exhibition that has allowed him to reconnect with his mother’s homeland of Jamaica. He’ll answer questions about his process, his vision, and his journey back to Gallery Aferro’s door 14 years after he first joined the studio residency program. 

The Artist Talk is a featured event during Gallery Aferro’s participation in the 2021 Newark Arts Festival, and will include a special artist giveaway and sale.

If you have any questions about the Artist Talk events, please contact Gallery Aferro at (973) 353-9533 or info@aferro.org.

Top Image: Michele Made It To The Elders Table by Jesse Wright
Bottom Image courtesy of Jesse Wright.

---

Gallery Aferro’s Summer Exhibitions Close Against The Backdrop of the 2021 Newark Arts Festival

No Rule – Multiply Alpha
Curated by Evonne M. Davis

Misogyny Papers/Apology
Curated by Cynthia Hawkins, Ph.D. and Juno Zago  

Elevator Music 7: IDES
Curated by Juno Zago 

Poem Booth: Calling Upon Self
Curated by John Gavin White 

Closing Reception
Sunday, October 10th
6:00pm – 8:30pm
Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are required

On October 10th, Gallery Aferro will close their summer exhibitions and first gallery showcase in 15 months on the final day of the 2021 Newark Arts Festival. Originally kicking off on June 16th, the summer exhibitions highlighted Aferro’s return to the public-serving arts community since the start of the quarantine in March 2020. Featuring artists across generations, the summer showcase welcomed dynamic musical, poetic and visual creations to this vibrant alternative arts space once again.

Join artists, art lovers, and more as you gather together again with Aferro as the closing reception bids adieu to four exhibitions that remind us of the power and promise of our creative community.

The first exhibit, No Rule – Multiply Alpha, is a series that reconnects interdisciplinary artist and educator Jesse Wright to his mother’s homeland of Jamaica by depicting family members and locals as vessels for biblical allegory and commentary on the impact of life throughout the diaspora. His blended prismatic vision and unapologetic spiritual narratives seek to promote a return to “the source” or “beginning,” in hopes of emphasizing our underlying daily experiences and connections.

Misogyny Papers/Apology, located in the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery, is an ongoing project that seeks to negotiate a space for rethinking gender stereotypes and systemic racism by creating an environment that melds the intimacy of the artist workspace with the full accessibility of a public exhibition. Conceived and executed by veteran artist Victor Davson, the project draws on a long tradition of socially engaged art and channels it through the lens of contemporary life in the wake of the #MeToo movement. 

Also located on the second floor, visitors are invited to step inside a third exhibit, Elevator Music 7: IDES, spotlighting the work of New Jersey radical thinkers expertly remixing discord, introspection and hope. IDES, an iconoclastic 4-piece punk band, embraces unabashed lovers of both hardcore’s brutal dissonance and pop’s sharpest hooks while combining harshness and harmony into a hybrid sound all their own.

Returning to the first floor, Aferro introduces you to the gallery’s latest interactive installation. In Poem Booth: Calling Upon Self, language lovers step inside a vintage 1960s-era wooden telephone booth to enjoy an innovative experience that only comes at the intersection of art and technology. Curated by author, philosopher and poet John Gavin White, the poem booth features 10 spoken word artists sharing their poetic brilliance as a means for calling out to the greater world in hopes of one day having that call returned.

The free, all-ages event will serve refreshments. So come early, grab a drink, and feast your eyes and ears on these amazing exhibitions!

Gallery Aferro will be following the latest Covid-19 guidelines recommended by the state and the CDC. Masks are required, so please plan accordingly.

Image: For Star Apples in Little London by Jesse Wright

Apologies, Philosophies & Art – Intersectionality in the Misogyny Papers/Apology Project

Thursday, September 30th
6:30pm – 8pm
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Free and open to everyone!
* Masks are required

On Thursday, September 30th, artist Victor Davson will be joined by Dr. Antoinette Ellis-Williams and other esteemed scholars in a panel to discuss the artworks in his ongoing Misogyny Papers/Apology project. Exhibiting at Gallery Aferro’s Memorial Gallery, the ongoing series, which Davson began work on in 2018, draws on what he describes as “a long tradition of socially engaged art [channeled] through the lens of contemporary life in the wake of the #MeToo movement.” 

Of the project, curator Dr. Cynthia Hawkins posits, “I believe it is important that works of art, even as they address critical social issues, must be extended beyond the artist’s intent for the work. In other words, how or in what ways can Misogyny Papers/Apology, a multi-panel, two-dimensional body of works be linked to other ideas, philosophies, or content?” 

Davson and guests will expound on Dr. Hawkins’ premise and speak not only of his philosophical findings while in the process of creating the work, but also center it within current sociopolitical debates surrounding race, gender, misogyny, patriarchy, intersectionality, and more. 

---

Playwright, screenwriter, essayist, poet, teaching artist and producer Lori Roper will lead viewers live through the process of creating ekphrastic prose. Ekphrastic compositions are lines created in response to visual artworks, and Roper chose as her point of inspirational departure fellow Gallery Aferro Studio Resident Amanda Thackray’s recent work, “Blue Ghost Trawler.” Join us for an immersive and interactive offering that celebrates the deep mysteries of artmaking, and the pleasures of conversation amongst colleagues, and across genres.

Roper was the inaugural Writer in Residence at Gallery Aferro, and during that time connected with Thackray, whose third floor studio is the ongoing site of large-scale experimental papermaking. For Spring 2021, Gallery Aferro is celebrating almost two decades as an artist-run workspace supporting the realization of ambitious projects across an expansive and highly diverse cross-section of contemporary art practice. Where does art come from? What does it mean to instigate? To evoke? To describe, and in Roper’s words, “to do it from within your own memories?”

Poetry often materializes in mythical ways. Viewers can expect to break the often rote nature of the writing process through a guided workshop which encourages comprising lines that dwell upon the meditation of an image. These verses may arrive one by one like blossoms on a cherry tree or as pacifying lolls. This will not be instruction relegated by stoic directions. Viewers can expect to be led on the journey of creating unique, authentic storytelling with Thackay’s works as their muse. Roper will inspire an illuminating excursion into the Ekphrastic process through a series of prompts and suggestions as well as a series of provocative questions to inspire verses for each participant’s creation.

Lori Roper is a prolific writer whose work interrogates the cultural history of people who have been marginalized, ignored and silenced. Her works most often serve as requiems to the illuminating spectres of her personal elders and ancestors from Newark, NJ, the Gullah Islands of NC and New York City, whose histories infuse her voice as a composer of new texts. Lori’s voice brings the arduous, historical journeys of those whose stories are often mythologized, muted and dismissed – by tantalizing them into the light of genuine, naturalistic reality. Her solo play Talk White, a work from the collection Nothing to See Here, developed in part at Gallery Aferro, was selected by the RestorationART and Billie Holiday Theatre as a part of their project, 50 in 50: Writing Ourselves into Existence, collection of solo plays written by women of color. Her most recent work, Hawks Tavern, co-written with Rick Sordelet, is an historical play set during the Newark Riots of 67’. Her play, The Sisters Grey, recently received a complete page to stage development and production through the August Wilson Center for African American Culture’s “New Theatre Initiative.” As a writer, teaching artist and producer, she has served on the faculty of Words and Music, and been granted prestigious residencies including Yale Writers’ Conference, Vermont Studio Center, Southampton Writers Conference and the Kenyon Playwrights Conference. She has served as a member of the faculty at Essex County Community College, as a guest lecturer at The College of William and Mary and is currently a Visiting Artist in Residence at Rutgers the State University of New Jersey. Lori was recently awarded the prize and honor of serving as a Fellow at the well-renowned Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing.

Amanda Thackray is a multidisciplinary artist and educator, based in Newark, NJ, whose practice sits at the intersection of craft, sculpture, and environmentally-based social practice. Thackray’s projects have been exhibited at The Newark Museum, The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, The Montclair Art Museum, The NARS Foundation, and The Knockdown Center. In fall 2021, she will have a solo exhibition of her installation-based work at NJCU Harold B. Lemmerman Gallery. She is the recipient of a 2020 Creative Catalyst Fund Artist Fellowship. Thackray has been awarded numerous residencies including The Arctic Circle in Svalbard, Norway, and artist-in-residence at the Museum of Art and Design in NYC. Her work is in over a dozen public collections including The Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, Mediatheque Andre Malraux, France, Yale University, and The Library of Congress. She teaches printmaking at SUNY Purchase and Rutgers University. Thackray earned her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and her BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.

Ancestors at Play: Audacity and Visibility in the Queer Black Archive
Thursday, April 22nd, 6-7pm
Online courtesy of Rutgers University-Newark & Gallery Aferro

Free and open to everyone!
Register for the event at go.rutgers.edu/Aferro

Artist and archivist Alanna Fields joins historian, sculptor and conceptual artist Noelle Lorraine Williams and poet and writer Naomi Extra for a dynamic conversation about Black representation in art’s past, present and future, as well as how Black representation in the LGBTQ+ community and queer-led artistic movements has been historically obscured. The event will be moderated by American Studies and History professor Beryl Satter, co-founder of the Queer Newark Oral History Project.

Alanna Fields is a 2020 Lynn and John Kearney Fellow for Equity at Gallery Aferro, and as a culmination of that award, Aferro is working with the Queer Newark Oral History Project and the Departments of African American and African Studies and History at Rutgers University-Newark to offer public engagement with her research and artmaking. The Fellowship is one of several fully-funded opportunities for artists available in Gallery Aferro’s workspace residency program, and supports women artists of color at any age, to advance gender-based, racial and economic justice.

---

People’s Open Mic Online on March 24th
Online @ Instagram Live! with Gallery Aferro *and* Clubhouse

Every Last Wednesday of the Month 7-9pm @ Gallery Aferro Instagram Live!

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic has traditionally been held on the second floor of Gallery Aferro in the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery space. Now, until the current health crisis has passed, this monthly event will take place online. But as always, it will continue to welcome all people and emphasize inclusivity, love and respect. Feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience, or participate with your own poetry in front of a supportive, yet passionate crowd.

---

CHANGE IS CONSTANT
The 12th Annual Benefit Art Auction & Party In A Box
October 31st, 12PM
to
November 28th, 7PM

Deadline extended!
Order your Party In A Box to
12 Midnight on Sunday, November 8th

The start of this new decade has been nothing like what anyone expected, and many are still uncertain about what lies ahead. That’s why Gallery Aferro is embracing the enigma and reminding everyone that “Change Is Constant,” so why not honor 2020 resilience with art from a community of creative iconoclasts and celebrate for a night marking a new era of transformation and rebirth. This year’s benefit will take place in two dynamic forms — an online auction and a Party In A Box.

Not since 2001 has a blue moon fallen on Halloween, but the calendar read 1944 the last time the entire globe experienced a blue moon together. Combine this with the “extra” hour of nightfall thanks to the end of Daylight Savings Time occurring overnight, this year’s All Hallows’ Eve will be beyond exceptional and deserving of a singular event to honor the occasion. To bless the thinning of the veil, Gallery Aferro invites everyone, beginning at 12 Noon on Saturday, October 31st, to enjoy an online auction of more than 100 works by local, national and international artists who continue to persist and insist in a time of unprecedented change. 

After 5 weeks, the auction will culminate in another extraordinary event for our less-than-ordinary times: a Party In A Box. This unparalleled fete brings an end to the fundraiser in a “party-together-apart” virtual jubilee with a special package delivered to patrons’ doors filled with limited edition art, a personalized music playlist, ready-to-enjoy nibbles and cocktails, and memorable prizes that the community has come to love at an Aferro annual benefit.

Party guests will order their boxes in advance, then on November 28th, join the festivities online in a counter-consumer celebration where all attendees will open their packages at 7pm and revel in the collective joy that only inclusivity, resilience and creativity can bring.

Everyone is welcome to bid in the online auction for free starting at 12 Noon on Halloween. The Party In A Box packages range from $50 to $200, and must be ordered by 12 Midnight on Halloween Deadline extended:

12 Midnight on Sunday, November 8th!

For more information about the online auction and the Party In A Box, visit www.aferro.org or contact: Candace Nicholson, Gallery Manager, (973) 353-9533, cnicholson@aferro.org.

#galleryaferro #aferrocreateschange

Top image: Dahlia Elsayed

---

Remarkable times call for remarkable celebrations. So this year, Gallery Aferro is kicking off their annual fundraiser on a special night (the first global blue moon Halloween since 1944 which also falls on the evening before Daylight Savings Time ends overnight), and closing the fundraiser with an unforgettable event held 5 weeks later on the day we remind ourselves that it is community, family and friends that make our lives rich, not things.

On Saturday, November 28th, join us for an unparalleled fete where we will “party-together-apart” in a virtual jubilee. Each party guest will order a special package filled with limited edition art, a personalized music playlist, ready-to-enjoy nibbles and cocktails, and memorable prizes to be delivered to their door.

Then all attendees will open their packages at 7pm and revel in the collective joy that only inclusivity, resilience and creativity can bring. The Party In A Box packages range from $50 to $200, and must be ordered by 12 midnight on Halloween. Deadline extended:

12 Midnight on Sunday, November 8th!

For more information about the online auction and the Party In A Box, visit www.aferro.org or contact: Candace Nicholson, Gallery Manager, (973) 353-9533, cnicholson@aferro.org. #aferrocreateschange #galleryaferro

Image design: Dahlia Elsayed

Reserve your box today!

---

Born in Flames, Lizzie Borden

November 5th
Online Screening @ Vimeo with Gallery Aferro

Screening extended!
Watch Born in Flames for free in
our online screening until
12 Midnight on Sunday, November 8th

As an accompaniment to our ongoing Past and Power series concerned with women, art, and radicalization, this free online screening presented in partnership with First Run Features, will take place on Thursday, November 5th.  Born in Flames is set in a hypothetical United States where a peaceful revolution has led to the country’s first openly socialist-run federal government. Directed and written in 1983 by Lizzie Borden, the 79-minute film takes place 10 years after the revolution, where the problems of contemporary era are far from being solved from the top-down.   Many of the issues that plagued society prior to the revolution are still very much a part of the sociopolitical landscape, greatly affecting minority and disenfranchised communities. What has changed?

With the backdrop asking the question, “What do you do when the peaceful path doesn’t produce the results you worked so hard for?” different groups of women in New York City decide to mobilize and push for more substantive change … by any means necessary.

Borden worked largely with non-actors, including legendary activist lawyer florynce kennedy, to create a convincing and immersive fictive universe, using a low budget, cinéma vérité approach. The texture of the women’s lives, and the enormity of coming together across race and class, is evoked by Borden using “twentieth century collage” techniques similar to Past and Power: 1972 artist Anne Q. McKeown.

Using the password aferro, viewers will be able to access the full-length feature here for 24 hours starting at 12:01am on Thursday, November 5th. Born in Flames is both a film about our past and our present, reflecting on the visceral roller coaster the citizens of a country experience when faced with slow or no change regarding complex problems that may or may not have easy solutions.

A jarring and seductive documentary-style film, Born in Flames, won the 1983 Reader Jury prize at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Grand Prix at the Créteil International Women’s Film Festival. The film was restored in 2016 by Anthology Film Archives, which has since gone on to receive positive reviews from respected critics such as Richard Brody (The New Yorker) and Melissa Anderson (The Village Voice). Borden was invited to show the new 35mm print in Brussels, Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian, Milan, Toronto, The Edinburgh Film Festival, The London Film Festival, along with screenings in Detroit, Rochester, San Francisco, Los Angeles and including in series of “films of resistance.”

---

People’s Open Mic Online on October 28th
Online @ Instagram Live! with Gallery Aferro

Every Last Wednesday of the Month
7-9pm @ Gallery Aferro Instagram Live!

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic usually takes place on the second floor of Gallery Aferro in the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery space, but due to important quarantine restrictions and our desire to keep everyone as safe as possible, we’re hosting the events online. This monthly event welcomes all people and emphasizes inclusivity, love and respect.

Feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience, or participate with your own poetry in front of a supportive, yet passionate crowd.

---

People’s Open Mic on September 30th
In Person at: 40 Belmont Ave., Belleville, NJ 07109
*and*
Online @ Instagram Live! with Gallery Aferro

Every Last Wednesday of the Month
7-9pm @ Gallery Aferro Instagram Live!

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic will take place in person for the first time since the quarantine began outdoors at a special location. Don’t worry. We will be masked and social distanced to help maintain everyone’s safety and health.

We’re still keeping the potluck tradition alive, so please bring a dish to share with everyone if you’d like. This monthly event welcomes all people and emphasizes inclusivity, love and respect.

And if you’re unable to attend in person, feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience or participate on the livestream provided by Gallery Aferro’s Instagram Live. See you there!

---

I Am Somebody, Madeline Anderson

Online Screening, September 23-24

As an accompanying event to mark the launch of our new series, Past and Power, Gallery Aferro will host a September 23-24 online screening of I Am Somebody, made in 1970 by Madeline Anderson. Using the password Aferro, viewers will be able to access the full length film here during September 23-24, in partnership with Icarus Films, on Vimeo.

I Am Somebody covers the 113-day Charleston hospital strike the year before. The film is told from the perspective of the Black female workers who led the strike, with their newly founded branch of Local 1199 in Charleston, South Carolina, Local 1199B.  Like Grauer, Anderson is a pioneering African-American female artist, also born in the 1920s. Amongst her many accomplishments: she was the first Black woman to join Local 700 as a film editor. In 2016, Anderson donated the original 16mm color reversal film to the Smithsonian-National Museum of African American History & Culture. Read more about the film and Anderson here.

Dr. Rhea L. Combs, Curator of Film & Photography and Head of the Earl W. and Amanda Stafford Center for African American Media Arts, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture writes: “She constructs a collective narrative driven by the women as a group, instead of focusing on an individual heroine. And she emphasizes those women over the institution itself. In her telling, the union does not swoop in to save the women from their circumstances. It is, instead, something called into being by the women as a means to the broader project of both demanding dignity in their work and economic stability for their families.”

Mimi Howard, writing in Another Gaze: A Feminist Film Journal: “The film suggests that violence is not exceptional or alien but rather embedded into and constitutive of the situation itself: the racist past resounding into the racist present.”

---

People’s Open Mic Online on August 26th
Online @ Instagram Live! with Gallery Aferro

Every Last Wednesday of the Month
7-9pm @ Gallery Aferro Instagram Live!

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic takes place on the second floor of Gallery Aferro in the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery space. This monthly event welcomes all people and emphasizes inclusivity, love and respect.

Feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience, or participate with your own poetry in front of a supportive, yet passionate crowd.

---

People’s Open Mic Online on July 29th
Online @ Instagram Live! with Gallery Aferro

Every Last Wednesday of the Month
7-9pm @ Gallery Aferro Instagram Live!

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic takes place on the second floor of Gallery Aferro in the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery space. This monthly event welcomes all people and emphasizes inclusivity, love and respect.

Feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience, or participate with your own poetry in front of a supportive, yet passionate crowd.

---

People’s Open Mic Online on June 24th
Online @ Instagram Live! with Gallery Aferro

Every Last Wednesday of the Month
7-9pm @ Gallery Aferro Instagram Live!

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic takes place on the second floor of Gallery Aferro in the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery space. This monthly event welcomes all people and emphasizes inclusivity, love and respect.

Feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience, or participate with your own poetry in front of a supportive, yet passionate crowd.

---

Colorful Language: A Virtual Poetry Pop Up

May 29, 7pm

Poets Joel Chace, John Gavin White and Mia X recite their rhymes and rhythms inspired by the works in the Newark Museum’s Normal Bluhm Metamorphosis exhibition. Afterwards, engage with the poets in a round of improv poetry. This program is made in partnership by the Newark Museum and Gallery Aferro.

This session will be accessible on Zoom and Facebook Live. Sign up to attend here

Joel Chace has published work in print and electronic magazines such as, The Tip of the Knife, Unlikely Stories, Eratio, Otoliths, Word For/Word, and Jacket.  Most recent collections include Kansoz, from Knives, Forks, and Spoons Press, War, and After, from BlazeVOX [books], Scorpions, from Unlikely Books, Humors, from Paloma Press, and Threnodies, from Moria Books.

John Gavin White is a poet, philosopher and educator. A former Research / Teacher’s Assistant in African- American Studies and Women and Gender Studies at Fordham University, White’s research is centered in “black male self-recovery in the U.S.” and the “philosophy of the poetic.” He has been featured several times on the world famous Apollo amateur night along with having performed or lectured at a number of universities in the U.S. and abroad, ranging from University of Minnesota to Queen University Belfast in Ireland, to the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa. His debut poetry collection, “I, John de Conqueror” is forthcoming this fall through Spuyten Duyvil publishing.

Margie ‘Mia x’ Johnson is a spoken word artist, mother, community activist, organizer, teaching artist and Newark nurturer. She is the host and producer of “People’s Open Mic”, where she provides space for poets and artists at Gallery Aferro. Additionally, she teaches creative writing and poetry, serving as a youth developer for various community organizations, a teaching artist for NJPAC’s in School Assembly Program and a “Brick City Voice” in the Dodge Poetry Festival.  She self-published her first collection of poetry, “Norky”, in 2018.  She is also the organizer of an annual public art demonstration “Hug the Block” created in 2012 which brings poetry and street performances to her Newark neighborhood. In 2013, she presented her first TED talk, “Why I Hug My Block”, in conjunction with TEDxBroadStreet , an independently organized TED event fueled by the theme “Reach, Rise, and Revive,” that took place at Rutgers Business School in partnership with Newark residents.  Follow her Instagram @besthingcreated.

---

People’s Open Mic on February 26th
2nd Floor Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert
Memorial Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

Every Last Wednesday of the Month
7-9pm @ 73 Market Street

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic takes place on the second floor of Gallery Aferro in the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery space. This monthly event welcomes all people and emphasizes inclusivity, love and respect.

Feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience, or participate with your own poetry in front of a supportive, yet passionate crowd.

---

People’s Open Mic on January 29th
2nd Floor Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert
Memorial Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

Every Last Wednesday of the Month
7-9pm @ 73 Market Street

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic takes place on the second floor of Gallery Aferro in the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery space. This monthly event welcomes all people and emphasizes inclusivity, love and respect.

Feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience, or participate with your own poetry in front of a supportive, yet passionate crowd.

---

---

11th Annual Potluck Party, Art Sale & Artisan Market 

December 14th
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

1pm – 7pm @ 73 Market Street

Come out to Gallery Aferro’s End-of-Year Open House, Art Sale, Artisan Market, and 11th Annual Potluck Party!

As the cold weather rolls in, our minds turn to gift giving, delicious food and family fun. That’s why Gallery Aferro is thrilled to announce our annual art sale, open house, artisan gift market and potluck party. While browsing our gallery walls, enjoy shopping the wares of local, diverse artisans and chowing down on the multi-ethnic cuisine. Contemporary dance performance, and avant choral song  showcase the talents of the community, and a 50/50 raffle means you might win some walking around money. Bring something yummy to share.

The festivities are FREE and all are welcome. Plus, proceeds from the sales of art and artisan items support Gallery Aferro’s award-winning nonprofit art programs.

Establish or enlarge an art collection for your friends, your family or yourself. From $50-$500, with limited edition prints, photographs, paintings, artist multiples, artist books, T-shirts, music, and more, you can take home something for everyone. The entire gallery will be decked in art — all for sale, all for you.

Gallery Aferro will make affordable art buying the easiest shopping experience you’ll have all December. Don’t be shy about reaching out via (973) 353-9533 or info@aferro.org to ask about an artwork if you see it online, or with any gifting or art-buying questions! Art is for everyone and buying it should be fun and easy.

If you’ve never been, join us! If you’ve been coming every year and already have your recipe picked out for potluck, join us! Come out to nosh, browse and spend time with new friends and strangers.

---

Ask The Curator with Maureen Kelleher
Saturday, November 2nd, 1-2pm & 4-5pm
and
Saturday, November 9th, 1-2pm
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

Free and open to everyone!

Do you have questions about the U.S. prison system? Are you curious about the intersection of art and rehabilitation? Would you like to know more about private investigation and what it takes to succeed at it as a career?

Then please join us for one of our special Ask The Curator sessions coming up November 2nd and 9th featuring Maureen Kelleher, private investigator, activist, artist and curator of Gallery Aferro’s current exhibition, The Social Justice Collaboration Quilts Project featuring the Quilts of Angola Prison.

In three 1-hour Q&As, Kelleher will share details about her experiences working within the criminal justice system as a death row private investigator, the long journey of taking The Social Justice Collaboration Quilts Project from inspiration to reality, the truth about working with The Innocence Project, her personal journey relocating from Louisiana to New Jersey in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and much more. Everyone is welcome to attend any or all of the Q&As to hear her stories and ask questions about her work, the exhibition and thoughts on the role of art and activism.

This is a unique opportunity to not only peer inside the American sociopolitical machine and learn more about it from the perspective of someone in a non-traditional role, but to also share commentary on the art, artists, and more.

If you have any questions about the Ask The Curator events, please contact Gallery Aferro at (973) 353-9533 or info@aferro.org. See you at the Q&A!

---

Gallery Aferro’s Fall Season Spotlights Justice, Fabric & Sound

The Social Justice Collaboration Quilts Project featuring the Quilts of Angola Prison
Curated by Maureen Kelleher

Still Living Out Loud
Curated by Evonne M. Davis  

Elevator Music 6: SiIvaGunner
Curated by Juno Zago

 

Opening Reception – October 5, 2019, 7-10pm
Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

All Shows on Exhibition from October 5 to November 22

On October 5th, Gallery Aferro will become the bridge between two worlds with the opening receptions of three art exhibitions that touch on the compelling power of sound and its ability to connect the visual, the tactile, and the poignant. Join artists, activists and advocates as they kick off the fall season with Aferro as our artist-run space shares the works of creative minds unlike any other. 

The first exhibit, The Social Justice Collaboration Quilts Project featuring the Quilts of Angola Prison, is a visceral blend of creativity, advocacy and history. Thanks to the hard work of artist and private investigator Maureen Kelleher, this curated collaboration between Louisiana State Penitentiary incarcerated prisoners and free civilians utilizes handmade quilts, musical accompaniment, and experiential narratives to connect two worlds often muted in the name of fear. 

Kelleher brings her decades of experience culled from her investigative work, which has been instrumental in helping exonerate 3 men off of Louisiana’s death row, to craft a showcase that includes music from artists such as Irma Thomas, Delfeayo Marsalis, and the Venerable Robina Courtin, with endorsements from Princeton professor and philosopher Dr. Peter Singer and the nation’s foremost expert on Harriet Tubman, Dr. Kate Clifford-Larson. The original fabric art created by the hands of inspiring artists, including members of the Louisiana State Penitentiary Hospice Program; Dr. Mutulu Shakur, the godfather of Tupac Shakur; and Ramsey Orta, the man who recorded the death of Eric Garner, will grace Aferro’s Main Gallery and tap into the humanity in all of us.

Still Living Out Loud is an exhibition featured in Aferro’s Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery, and it too melds the spheres of fabric, sound and transformation. Self-taught artist Geri Hahn specializes in biomorphic, geometric and brightly colored hand-sewn works of linen, metallic floss and embroidered silk, allowing her to bring to life an embodied interpretation of her own synesthesia. Combine this singular show with a step inside our third exhibit, Elevator Music 6, spotlighting game music remixes by audio artist Dashiell Hastings-Ward, part of the Youtube collaborative SilvaGunner.

The free, all-ages event scheduled from 7-10pm will serve refreshments. Join us!

For Full Artist Listing, see aferro.org. For Publicity Images, contact: Candace Nicholson, Gallery Manager, (973) 353-9533, cnicholson@aferro.org. 

---

Fall 2019 Gallery Aferro Open Studios

October 13th, 11-3 PM

The Gallery Aferro Studio Residency program has been running for more than 10 years in downtown Newark. Another way of thinking about it: artists have been making art continuously for at least 409,968,000 seconds and counting, in one large, evocative 19th century building in the middle of NJ’s largest city. Connect with art and ideas in our 20,000 square foot building with this twice-a-year-only day when all five floors are open to the public! Enjoy three new exhibits, conversation, exploration, fresh bagels, and don’t forget to pick up a copy of the Citizen’s Guide to Direct Action.

Participating artists:

Basement: Ken Weathersby, Juno Zago, Jo-El Lopez

Second Floor: Dominique Duroseau, Masakhana Center (Organization-in-Residence), Patricia Cazorla and Nancy Salame, Anne Dushanko Dobek

Third Floor: Michael K. Taylor, Marsha Goldberg, Jasmine Graf, Amanda Thackray, John Maturri

Fourth Floor: Nene Diallo, Matilda Forsberg, Yoland Skeete, Hal Laessig, Doreen Oliver (2019 Sustainable Arts Fellow), Bisa Washington (2019 Lynn and John Kearney Fellow for Equity)

Artist-run Gallery Aferro’s resident alumni now number more than 100 and include Fulbright scholars, Eyebeam alumni and a wonderful cross-section of contemporary practice by different generations of artists. Two fellowships have been established to support artists who are parents, and women artists of color, and the program continues to evolve and expand.

Gallery Aferro is a platform for the exchange of ideas in service of advancing human dignity and beauty, with a focus on visual arts as the vehicle. Founded in 2003 by two artists, Evonne M. Davis and Emma Wilcox, we are a community hub offering topical exhibitions and a wide range of public events, artist residencies, publications, public art, educational offerings, collaborations, and innovative, community-responsive projects such as our mobile portrait studio. Along with offering portfolios by important female and LGBTQ artists, we serve as curatorial liaison for legendary artist and activist Gladys Barker Grauer, and as the steward of the artifacts of Newark ark-builder Kea Tawana. Visit our downtown 20,000 sq ft downtown building, with 19 artist studios, two gallery spaces, two sound art installations (a vintage payphone and elevator, respectively), and a community book room with almost 3000 volumes.

Image by Nene Diallo

---

ANOTHER WORLD
The 11th Annual Benefit Art Auction and Party
June 15th, 7-10PM

Another World (is possible).

Let’s take a night off from Earth and celebrate our fantastical selves.

ADVANCE TICKET SALES HAVE ENDED- GET TICKETS AT DOOR

Regular Party Tickets at Door $35

VIP Tickets at Door for access to 6-7 PM VIP Happy Hour $150*

This June, Gallery Aferro celebrates all that is unique and exciting about the arts and community with our 11th annual benefit art auction and party unlike any other gala. MCs Justin Williams and Johann Chacko, DJ AJoya Angola Thompson, and surprise guests will take you away, to another world:

• Two Floors of Extraordinary Artworks up for Bid Just for One Night.
• Delectable Refreshments, Strong Icy Cocktails and Roving Ice Cream Bar.
• Music and Gratuitous Art Weirdness.
• Cash Raffle and Epic Prizes Galore.

All proceeds support our nonprofit programs, including, but not even remotely limited to year-round exhibitions and public events, such as workshops, artist talks, and screenings; artist residencies including two new fellowships for parent-artists and women artists of color; publications; public art; educational offerings; collaborations; legacy work and curatorial stewardship for elder artists; and innovative, community-responsive projects.

We want to gratefully acknowledge event sponsors Rutgers-Newark University, NJPAC, The LL Group at Merrill Lynch, NJ Asset Management, and Redd’s Biergarten, and to supporters All Points West Distillery for cocktail, and to Remco Press for being Gallery Aferro’s printer of choice.

Artists with artwork in auction include Joe Ahearn, Ibrahim Ahmed III, Gregory Amenoff, Eddie Arning, Les Ayre, Matt Bailer, Hugo Xavier Bastidas, M. Beerman, Barbara Beirre, Anonda Bell, Patricia A.Bender, Kim Berman, Per Billgren, Mashell Black, Terry Bodie, Amy Brian, Daniel Brophy, James Brown, Matthew Burcaw, Charles Burwell, Karlos Cárcamo, Deric Carner, Nanett Carter, Ash Casti, Elizabeth Catlett, William Chester, Vincent Ciniglio, John Coburn, Santiago Cohen, Willie Cole, Christopher Cozier, Pradeep Dalal, Ian Davis, Jane R.Dell, Dan Dezarn, Donna Stackhouse, Mary Lou Dooley Waller, Chris Drudy, Keith Duncan, Mia Duran, Torkwase Dyson, Dahlia Elsayed, Eugenio Espinosa, Alfred Fayami, Stephen Flemister, Carla Gannis, Illiana Emilia Garcia, Reginald K.Gee, Ron Giangiordano, Elizabeth Gilfilen, Sam Gilliam, Marsha Goldberg, Geri Hahn, Heather Hart, Cynthia Hawkins, Christine Heller, Toru Hayashi, Hugh Hayden, Carl Hazelwood, Don Hazlitt, Lucia Hierro, Peter Homitsky, Francis Kahuri, Micheal W. Kaminsky, Jayson Keeling, Paul Keene, Barbara Klein, Elka Krajewska, Janice Krasnow, Julian Kreimer, Irving Kriesberg, Marcia Kure, Hal Laessig, Jo Lamb, Lancelott, Juanita Lanzo, Alyssa Lawler, Pat Lay, Greg Leshe, Wendy Letven, Donald Locke, Al Loving, Jodie Lynkeechow, John Matturri, Bill May, Anne Q. McKeown, Bud McNichol, Jay Milder, James O. Mitchell, E.J.Montgomery, John Bunion Murray, Michael Tyson Murray, Augustus Nazzaro, Floyd Newsum Jr., Aydan Ozalp, Amy Park, Jungeon Park, Tara Parsons, Rachel Perry, Gary Peterson, Heidi Pollard, Ron E.A.Powell, Lina Puerta, Ann Rosen, Mark Roussel, Michiko Rupnow, David Salle, Jenny Salomon, Kern Samuel, Rácmolnár Sándor, Miriam Schapiro, Gil Scullion, Sam Sebren, Jamel Shabazz, Fran Shalom, Luvon Sheppard, Xaviera Simmons, Penny Siopis, Yoland Skeete, Kiki Smith, May Stevens, Linda Streicher, Ceaphas Stubbs, Natalie Talocci, CraigTaylor, Hank Willis Thomas, Denyse Thomasos, Joanne Thorton, David Torres II, Christopher Ulivo, Mary A. Valverde, VanOs, Christian Anthony Vigoya, Alex Villar, Joe Waks, Alison Weld, Nico Wheadon, Wolf Williams, Gail Winbury, Layqa Nuna Yawar, Emma Zghal, Kevin Zucker, and others.

Find the Facebook event here.

Love, your very own proudly artist-run space in Newark, NJ #galleryaferro

Image by Kevin Durkin

---

People’s Open Mic on May 29th
2nd Floor Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

Every Last Wednesday of the Month
7-9pm @ 73 Market Street

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic takes place on the second floor of Gallery Aferro in the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery space. This monthly event welcomes all people and emphasizes inclusivity, love and respect.

Feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience, or participate with your own poetry in front of a supportive, yet passionate crowd.

---

End Game: 2019 Arts High School Senior Showcase public reception
May 24th, 6-9PM
2nd Floor Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

Arts High School, along with Gallery Aferro, presents “END GAME,” an exhibition featuring over 50 high school seniors’ portfolio works of art. With a wide range of media and concepts represented, this is the first installment of an annual collaboration between Arts High and Gallery Aferro that will bring the Newark community together to share the visionary ideas and singular perspectives of local youth from the first school in the country dedicated to the visual and performing arts.

Join us on May 24th from 6-9pm for the public reception to celebrate the artistic achievements of Arts High School’s current high school senior class.

---

“I Remember The Ark” on May 3rd
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

4:30pm @ 73 Market Street

“I Remember the Ark” at Gallery Aferro is a spoken-word performance extravaganza dramatized by NJIT students in Jon Curley’s NEWARK NARRATIVES senior seminar. The text, a collation of Facebook comments and reflections curated and arranged by Rutgers-Newark History Professor Dr. Mark Krasovic as part of the 2016 oral history and exhibition project at Gallery Aferro, created in collaboration with the Clement A. Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and the Modern Experience, and preserves memories of Kea’s Ark, a legendary wooden ship construction built by Kea Tawana (1940-2016) in Newark’s Central Ward during the mid-1980s.

The text’s form is partially inspired by radio plays, and represents an experiment in public humanities with polyphonic memory work. These brief, fragmented, momentary reminisces weave a tapestry of stories  and anecdotes from various members of the Newark community.

Those communal voices are now joined by these students, summoning the past and launching the memory of Kea’s ship into the present. It is a powerful and poetic evocation that movingly shifts the site of the Ark into the gallery, into the eternal space of collective memory.

This special one-off production comes in the wake of “Kea’s Ark: A Life in Works,” the culminating 2016 exhibition of Gallery Aferro and the Institute’s collaboration, and is made possible by a generous donation by Bob Singer.

---

People’s Book Club on April 27th
2nd Floor Community Book Room @ Gallery Aferro

2-3:30pm @ 73 Market Street

For April, we’re reading Beverly Daniel Tatum’s Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together In The Cafeteria?

Join the Facebook Group to stay up to date or visit our Recurring Events page to learn more information about People’s Book Club.

---

People’s Open Mic on April 24th
2nd Floor Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

Every Last Wednesday of the Month
7-9pm @ 73 Market Street

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic takes place on the second floor of Gallery Aferro in the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery space. This monthly event welcomes all people and emphasizes inclusivity, love and respect.

Feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience, or participate with your own poetry in front of a supportive, yet passionate crowd.

---

Gallery Aferro, Project for Empty Space, and Index Art Center are pleased to announce an official joint partnership for Newark’s Spring Open Studios, held on Saturday, April 13th, from 12-5pm, in Newark, NJ. This collective invites the general public to come visit 75+ artist studios between our three non-profit anchor arts institutions. Between gallery/studio facilities we house creative practitioners ranging from photographers, to musicians, painters, writers, multidisciplinary artists and more. This alliance came out of the natural shared interest to best serve both our artist community and our tristate area art enthusiasts. We’d like to capitalize on the fact that there is a wealth of artists within walking distance of one another that attendees can celebrate on one lovely Saturday. The day will culminate with an after party from 6 – 8pm at the Newark Print Shop, where artists and attendees from all three spaces can meet and celebrate. We look forward to welcoming all of you to engage with the arts in Newark.

Artists you can visit on April 13 at Gallery Aferro:

Patricia Cazorla and Nancy Saleme
Giacomo Colosi
Dominique Duroseau
Anne Dushanko Dobek
Marsha Goldberg
Hal Laessig
Yoland Skeete
Tasha Lewis
Jo-El Lopez
Dana Majana
Bud McNichol (Sustainable Arts Fellow)
Lisette Morel
Masakhane Center (Organization in Residence)
John Matturri
Joe Silvestro
Michael K. Taylor
Amanda Thackray
Ken Weathersby
Juno Zago

---

People’s Book Club on March 23rd
2nd Floor Community Book Room @ Gallery Aferro

2-3:30pm @ 73 Market Street

For March, we’re reading Masha Gessen’s The Future Is History.

Join the Facebook Group to stay up to date or visit our Recurring Events page to learn more information about People’s Book Club.

---

The Fashion Industry: Her Perspective on March 16th (Updated with new date)
Main Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

2-4:30pm @ 73 Market Street

Join us on Saturday, March 16th for a Women in Fashion tribute and idea-sharing session. Featuring four Newark-area tastemakers and fashion industry experts, LenGuire Institute of Fashions invites enthusiasts, professionals, and students of all ages to come learn about the hands-on experiences of Bridgett Artise, Patricia Taylor, Terina Nicole, and Tanisha Otto.

The free event will also include an appearance by Philly’s Diamonds and Pearls Models. Light refreshments will be served.

---

People’s Open Mic on January 30th
2nd Floor Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

Every Last Wednesday of the Month
7-9pm @ 73 Market Street

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic takes place on the second floor of Gallery Aferro in the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery space. This monthly event welcomes all people and emphasizes inclusivity, love and respect.

Feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience, or participate with your own poetry in front of a supportive, yet passionate crowd.

---

People’s Book Club on January 26th
2nd Floor Community Book Room @ Gallery Aferro

2-3:30pm @ 73 Market Street

For January, we’re reading Carolina de Robertis’s The Gods of Tango.

Join the Facebook Group to stay up to date or visit our Recurring Events page to learn more information about People’s Book Club.

---

As Dice: A Stampede of Aleatoric Phonemes
Andrew Demirjian, Tracie Morris and Allison Parrish
October 7, 4:30-7 PM

Three poets with a heightened attention to sound present new work from their recent projects: Andrew Demirjian, Tracie Morris, and Allison Parrish. This immersive and subversive evening should not be slept on. Parrish’s work has been described as locating an “intuitive coherence found outside the bounds of intentional semantic constraints,” and so will this one night of live, embodied experience.

Aleatoric music (also aleatory music or chance music; from the Latin word alea, meaning “dice”) is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work’s realization is left to the determination of its performer(s).

ANDREW DEMIRJIAN will be reading from: Pan-terrestrial People’s Anthem, a series of compositions and a book of poetry created entirely from remixing the songs and lyrics of 195 national anthems, newly available from Contour Editions. The music is constructed from sampling fragments of all anthems to build up an assemblage of sonic layers that transcend established geopolitical boundaries. The book of poems is divided into five sections, each part takes a different conceptual and stylistic approach to combining and filtering the 27, 523 words from all of the anthems. Demirjian is an interdisciplinary artist who creates image, sound and text assemblages. His work questions the systems, typologies and language that construct consciousness and guide behavior. Drawing from conceptual art, experimental music and computer science he creates poetry and audiovisual compositions that use constraint systems, chance operations and remixing. The pieces take the form of interactive installations, generative artworks, audiovisual performances and single channel videos. Andrew’s work has been exhibited at The Museum of the Moving Image, Eyebeam, Rush Arts, the White Box gallery, the Fridman Gallery, Cyberfest, Fieldgate Gallery, the Center for Book Arts, The Newark Museum and many other galleries, festivals and museums. He is the author of Pan-terrestrial People’s Anthem, a book of poetry and collection of music that remixes the lyrics and music of 195 national anthems. The MacDowell Colony, Puffin Foundation, Artslink, Harvestworks, Diapason, The Experimental Television Center, The Bemis Center, LMCC Swing Space, The Visual Studies Workshop and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts are among some of the organizations that have supported his work. Andrew teaches theory and production courses in emerging media in the Film and Media Department and IMA MFA program at Hunter College. He is currently a Fellow at the MIT Open Documentary Lab, where he is working on a computational text analysis project for media production.

ALLISON PARRISH is a computer programmer, poet, educator and game designer whose teaching and practice address the unusual phenomena that blossom when language and computers meet, with a focus on artificial intelligence and computational creativity. She is an Assistant Arts Professor at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, where she earned her master’s degree in 2008. Allison is originally from West Bountiful, Utah and currently lives in Brooklyn. Named “Best Maker of Poetry Bots” by the Village Voice in 2016, Allison’s computer-generated poetry has recently been published in Ninth Letter and Vetch. She is the author of “@Everyword: The Book” (Instar, 2015), which collects the output of her popular long-term automated writing project that tweeted every word in the English language. The word game “Rewordable,” designed by Allison in collaboration with Adam Simon and Tim Szetela, was published by Penguin Random House in August 2017 after a successful round of Kickstarter funding. Her first full-length book of computer-generated poetry, “Articulations,” was published by Counterpath in 2018. The poems in Articulations are the output of a computer program that extracts linguistic features from over 2 million lines of public domain poetry, then traces fluid paths between the lines based on their similarities. By turns propulsive and meditative, the poems demonstrate an intuitive coherence found outside the bounds of intentional semantic constraints. The goal of this procedure is to explore an aesthetic of poetic cohesion based on unusual, perhaps unseen similarities among the lines, based not on their surface meaning but their underlying linguistic structure.

TRACIE MORRIS is a poet who has worked extensively as a page-based writer, sound poet, critic, scholar, bandleader, actor and multimedia performer. Her sound installations have been presented at the Whitney Biennial, MoMA, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Ronald Feldman Gallery, The Silent Barn, The Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, The Drawing Center, The Gramsci Monument with Thomas Hirshhorn for the DIA Foundation and other galleries and museums. She leads her own eponymous band and is a lead singer for Elliott Sharp’s group, Terraplane. Tracie is the recipient of NYFA, Creative Capital, Asian Cultural Council and other grants, fellowships, residencies and awards for poetry and performance including Yaddo, Millay and MacDowell colonies. Tracie presents her work as a poet, performer and scholar around the globe and has presented, performed and researched in almost 30 countries and 40 US States. She has contributed to, and been written about in, several anthologies of literary criticism including: The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind, The Break Beat Poets, What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Writers in America, I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing By Women, The &Now Awards 3: The Best Innovative Writing, American Women Poets in the 21st Century, Eco-language Reader and An Exaltation of Forms. Her most recent poetry collection, Rhyme Scheme, (Zasterle Press, 2012) also includes a sound poetry CD. She is also the author of Intermission (Soft Skull Press, 1998) and Chap-T-her Won (TM Ink) . Tracie was recently featured on the experimental blues recording 4am Always, with Elliott Sharp’s Terraplane. She is co-editor, with Charles Bernstein, of “Best American Experimental Writing” (2016) from Wesleyan University Press. Her upcoming book, handholding: 5 kinds, is published by Kore Press, debuting in late 2015. Tracie holds an MFA in Poetry from Hunter College, has studied classical British acting technique extensively at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and American acting techniques at Michael Howard Studios. Tracie holds a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University. She is a former CPCW Poetics fellow of the University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Modern Language Association, Associated Writing Programs, The Shakespeare Society and The Shakespeare Forum. Tracie is Professor and Coordinator of Performance + Performance Studies at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York.

---

Open Studios: Bagels: Poetry
October 7, 11-4 PM throughout the entire building!

The Gallery Aferro Studio Residency program has been running for more than 10 years in downtown Newark. Gallery Aferro’s resident alumni now number more than 100 and include Fulbright scholars, Eyebeam alumni and a wonderful cross-section of contemporary practice by different generations of artists. Connect with art and ideas in our 20,000 square foot building with this twice-a-year-only day when all five floors are open to the public!

Current resident artists:

Anna Arcuri, Patricia Cazorla and Nancy Saleme, Giacomo Colosi, Dominique Duroseau, Anne Dushanko Dobek, Gilbert Hsiao, Hal Laessig, Yoland Skeete, Tasha Lewis, Jo-El Lopez, Dana Majana, Masakhane Center (organization in residence), John Matturri, Anne Q. Mckeown, Lisette Morrel, Michael K. Taylor (current Sustainable Arts Foundation fellow), Ken Weathersby, Juno Zago, and Amanda Thackray

Explore the studios, plus 3 new exhibits on view, “Portraits of People We Love,” “So What” plus two permanent sound installations, our 2000 volume community book room, and yes, a gift shop. Have a bagel. Stay awhile. And then catch a night of poetry.

Image detail: Dana Majana

---

People’s Book Club on September 22nd
2nd Floor Community Book Room @ Gallery Aferro

2-3:30pm @ 73 Market Street

For September, we’re reading Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts.

Join the Facebook Group to stay up to date or visit our Recurring Events page to learn more information about People’s Book Club.

---

People’s Open Mic on September 26th
2nd Floor Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery @ Gallery Aferro

Every Last Wednesday of the Month
7-9pm @ 73 Market Street

Newark’s longest continuously running open mic takes place on the second floor of Gallery Aferro in the the Eleta J. Caldwell and Rodney M. Gilbert Memorial Gallery space. This monthly event welcomes all people and emphasizes inclusivity, love and respect.

Feel free to listen and enjoy from the audience, or participate with your own poetry in front of a supportive, yet passionate crowd.

People’s Book Club on August 25th
2nd Floor Community Book Room @ Gallery Aferro

For August, we’re reading Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone.

Join the Facebook Group to stay up to date or visit our Recurring Events page to learn more information about People’s Book Club.

---

Come As You Are

Gallery Aferro’s 10th Annual Benefit Art Auction and Party
June 16th, 2018
7-10pm @ 73 Market Street, Newark, NJ
VIP Preview 6PM – 7PM
Auction 7PM – 9:30PM

Advance ticket sales have ended. Please buy tickets on Saturday June 16 at the door. Thank you so much!

Gallery Aferro Celebrates 15th Anniversary as an Alternative Art Space with COME AS YOU ARE Benefit Art Auction and Party Honoring James Abruzzo

Gallery Aferro is ecstatic to announce our best ever benefit art auction and party, and invites everyone to join us to celebrate this milestone anniversary for your very own proudly artist-run space in Newark, NJ. Unlike any other gala, our event features an exciting auction of hundreds of artworks by emerging and established artists, live music in four languages by Joya Angola Thompson, Nadine LaFond, and Emily Turonis, strong summer cocktails and delicious catering reflecting NJ’s magnificent demographic diversity, including a homemade artisan ice cream bar, and an array of door prizes including getaway packages and a lavish table overflowing with art supplies from Jerry’s Artist Outlet, our lead raffle sponsor. Other prizes include Dancing lessons from Arthur Murray Dance Studio Montclair, gift certificates from Barcade, Fairway, Fabricland and Wegmans, a getaway portrait sitting and stay in Westchester, NY or Palm Beach, FL from Bradford Portraits, dining and VIP Flamenco experiences from Mompou and the Ironbound Business Improvement District, and gift sets from Java Love, Redd’s Biergarten, and Newark Authors Mark Krasovic, Barbara Kukla, Nell Painter, Yoland Skeete, and Malik Whitaker.

Donating artists include Loren Abbate, Dara Alter, Anna Arcuri, Nora Evita Aresti, Cris Aroca, Aliza Augustine, Frank w. Augustine, Kate Bae, Milcah Bassel, Aileen Bassis, Anonda Bell, Michael Benevenia, Spencer Binondo, Mashell Black, Winifred Boss, Joseph Boss, Ash Castillo, Gerardo Castro, Patricia Cazorla, Gwen Charles, Janelle Clements, CAConforti, Cicely Cottingham, Patricia Dahlman and Michael Dal Cerro, Deslyn Dorsett, Mia Duran, Kevin Durkin, Anne Dushanko Dobek, Kate Eggleston, Amy Faris, Moni, Susan Gepford, Marsha Goldberg, M. Gosser, Commodore, Geri Hahn, Katie Hector, Aurel Hoxha, Tenjin Ikeda, Sky Kim, Robert Lach, Meredith Lawhead, Niki Lederer, Les Ayre, Wendy Letven, Laura Lou Levy, Katelyn Liepins, Niyani Lingham-Green, Niyani Simone, Jo-El Lopez, Laurie M., Stephen McKenzie, Anne Q. McKeown, Alejandra Munizaga, Margaret Murphy, Elisa Nadzieja, Renana Neuman, Suliman Onque, Nell Painter, Diana Palermo, Alissa Rose, Lucia Pizzani, Elisa Pritzker, Mün Lün Kir Sa, Lola, Celeste Regal, Anna Reid, Victor Reynolds, Patricia Reynolds, Ann Rosen, Joanne Ross, Wayne Charles Roth, Kern Samuel, Fausto Sevila, Laura Taveras, Bleriot, MollieThonneson, Dread Scott Eric Valosin, Mary A. Valverde, Christian Anthony Vigoya, Alejandra Villasmil, Joe Waks, Barbara Wallace, Anker West, Eleanor White, Gail Winbury, Michael Wolf, Christina Wolf, Layqa Nuna Yawar, Juno Zago.

We gratefully acknowledge event supporters Rutgers-Newark University, James and Lorraine Abruzzo, NJPAC, The LL Group at Merrill Lynch, and NJ Asset Management.

Our 2018 Honoree James Abruzzo is a life-long influencer and supporter of the arts. Over his thirty-plus years as a professional consultant to arts organizations he helps to strengthen the arts in America and abroad by training, mentoring, recruiting, and coaching leaders of nonprofit organizations, providing strategy, compensation and search consulting, and serving on a number of arts boards. As Global Head, Nonprofit Practice of DHR International, he leads a team whose clients include NGOs, cultural organizations, foundations, social service and educational institutions throughout the world. In 2003, James relocated the DHR New Jersey executive search office to Newark and has recruited the CEOs for NJPAC, NJSO, the Newark Museum, Newark Symphony Hall and the Newark Library.   He also created Gallery One, located in the office at One Raymond Blvd, where he presented a number of one-person shows featuring, among others, Victor Davson, Nancy Cohen and Katherine Parker. Gallery One was part of Newark Open Doors.

In 2004, James co-created the Institute for Ethical Leadership at Rutgers Business School. The Institute provides leadership training to nonprofit executives, including Aferro Gallery’s two leaders, Evonne and Emma.   In addition to his affiliation at Rutgers, James has taught in the arts management graduate programs at Columbia University, the University of Bologna and the Institute for Culture and Media Management at the Free University in Berlin. Through those associations and through mentoring, James has influenced three generations of students who are now leading organizations in the sector. He has devoted special attention to identifying, training, mentoring and promoting arts leaders from underrepresented communities and at the IEL created the Cultural and Ethnic Arts Leadership Program. His writings and presentations on the business and ethics of the arts may be found at http://www.jamesabruzzo.net

Trained as a classical pianist, James enjoys a life-long professional and personal interest in the arts – he served long stints on the board of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Foundation and as chairman of Dieu Donne Paper Mill and today serves on the boards of the Saul Steinberg Foundation and the Global Friends of Netherlands Dance Theater.   James continues to influence the nonprofit sector through his leadership at DHR and through his compensation consulting to boards and presidents of nonprofit organizations.  In his leisure time, James practices the piano and plays tennis. Together with his wife Lorraine, they collect contemporary art, and spend time with their children and four granddaughters in the Berkshires, surrounded by the lake and gardens, frequenting the region’s cultural organizations.

Like James, we are deeply committed to civil society and to living our values. For the gallery, this means an unbending commitment to holding space for ideas, dialogue, and joy.

All proceeds from tickets and purchases make possible Gallery Aferro’s year-round exhibitions and wide range of public events, artist residencies, publications, public art, educational offerings, collaborations, and innovative, community-responsive projects such as our mobile portrait studio. It all began in 2003 here in Newark, when artists Evonne M. Davis and Emma Wilcox founded an arts and community space named Aferro: (Portuguese, idiomatic) Bound or chained to an insane idea, or an idea that is difficult to achieve.

Located downtown since 2006, the gallery has received 5 back-to-back Citations of Excellence from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and has been described by Inside New Jersey magazine as offering “a dizzying array of contemporary art.” The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has praised our “expansive vision, impact in Newark as well as regionally and even internationally”, and our “exemplary mentoring opportunities for young artists.” Radius magazine has described the gallery as a place where “exuberant extremes of age and background come together,” and Brick City Live has commented on our “community-minded, experimental, collaborative, and DIY ethos.”

For one night only unique artworks will be available at prices that will enlarge or establish your collection. Delight a friend, colleague or loved one with the gift of artwork. Bring someone who’s never been to the gallery, or to Newark, or someone you come with every year. Support the free exchange of ideas. Dance and have fun. Stay tuned for more exciting announcements on facebook, instagram and twitter #galleryaferro

---

Open Studios and Artist Talks

Saturday April 28th 2018
11am – 4pm @ Gallery Aferro

Gallery Aferro’s Open Studios is a great opportunity to experience a cross section of art making in Newark. This Open Studios is especially exciting as it features 2 new artists in residence including our 4th Sustainable Arts Fellow Amy Faris.

Additional artworks on display will include Lisette Morel’s solo exhibition, Luis Carle and Gerardo Castro’s 2-person exhibition Two Spirits, Dimelo – Activate: Market Street 17 featuring Juan Gutierrez, Ernesto Rodriguez, Wali Vidal, Elevator Music 4 featuring Brian Oakes and much more!

The mission of Gallery Aferro is to bring cultural education and aesthetic engagement with contemporary issues to all people equally, and to create an environment where artists can gather and share physical and intellectual resources. We are working towards an arts community that is available to everyone, without sacrificing standards or quality of experience.

Artists listed below will have their studios open to the public.

Patricia Cazorla & Nancy Saleme
Evonne Davis
Mia Duran
Dominique Duroseau
Anne Dushanko-Dobek
Amy Faris, Gallery Aferro’s 4th Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellow
Gilbert Hsiao
Valerie Huhn
Hal Laessig
Tasha Lewis
Jacob Mandel
Masakhane
Anne Q McKeown
Sharde Hickenbottom
Lori Roper
Kern Samuel
Yoland Skeete
Michelle Suriel
Amanda Thackray
Ken Weathersby
Emma Wilcox
Juno Zago

---

People’s Book Club

April 21st, 2018
2nd Floor Community Book Room, 2-4pm
73 Market Street Newark NJ, Gallery Aferro

This month People’s Book Club will be discussing “The Japanese Lover” by Isabel Allende. Click here to follow the People’s Book Club Facebook Group and stay up to date on everything we’re doing!

---

Live Figure Drawing At Gallery Aferro

Thursday April 19th
6pm – 9pm @ Gallery Aferro

Join us for live figure drawing at Gallery Aferro! This elemental aspect of artist communities is a tradition we are proud to continue, in the beautiful context of the galleries. $20 for drawing, wine, and fellowship.

Click here to secure your spot via paypal

---

People’s Book Club

March 24th, 2018
2nd Floor Community Book Room, 2-4pm
73 Market Street Newark NJ, Gallery Aferro

This month People’s Book Club will be discussing The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. Click here to follow the People’s Book Club Facebook Group and stay up to date on everything we’re doing!

---

People’s Book Club

Saturday February 24th, 2018
2nd Floor Community Book Room, 2-4pm
73 Market Street Newark NJ, Gallery Aferro

This month People’s Book Club will be discussing March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, & Nate Powel. Click here to follow the People’s Book Club Facebook Group and stay up to date on everything we’re doing!

---

Closing Reception for Speaking Her Mind: Then and Now

Gladys Grauer in Conversation with Curator Adrienne Wheeler
Gallery Aferro Studio Residency Artist Talks in Conversation with Emma Wilcox
January 13th, 2018, 2-5 PM @ Gallery Aferro

Speaking Her Mind: Then and Now
Gladys Barker Grauer
Curated by Adrienne Wheeler
Main Gallery, Gallery Aferro
November 11th 2017 – January 13th 2018

Gallery Aferro invites you to join us for artist talks and conversation featuring exhibiting artist Gladys Barker Grauer in conversation with curator Adrienne Wheeler. We will also be featuring a conversation highlighting Gallery Aferro’s Studio Residency Program moderated by Emma Wilcox. Talks start at 3pm, come early, grab a drink, and get your last looks at Gladys’s amazing exhibition!

Featured Gallery Aferro Studio Resident speakers include:

Mia Duran
Valerie Huhn
Julie Ann Nagle
Lori Roper
Kern Samuel
Mary Valverde

Cover image features artwork by Gladys Grauer, Lori Roper, Mia Duran, Kern Samuel and Valerie Huhn

9th Annual Holiday Potluck & Art Sale

December 9th, 2-7pm @ Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street Newark NJ

Open House at Gallery Aferro!
All welcome, family friendly.
Super affordable art and gift sale with $5-$100 art and items.
An amazing potluck, bring a dish or drink to share.
Enjoy music and dance from community members.
Check out multiple art exhibits and sound art installations.
Our biggest ever crafting table for making cards.
The community book room is open, with 2000 books to browse, plus chess, checkers, scrabble, and many more games.
Quilt raffle.
More fun activities to be announced very soon!

Join us to celebrate another great year at Gallery Aferro.

---

Betty Zinefest 2017

Express Newark
54 Halsey Street, Newark, New Jersey
Saturday October 7th, 11 AM – 4 PM

Presented by The Bettys, Gallery Aferro, and Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University-Newark

The “Betty Zinefest,” NJ’s only zine fair of zinemakers who are female-identified, LGBTQ/nonconforming, and of color, is back! More than 75 vendors will converge on Newark NJ on October 7 to sell their wares! Workshops and exhibitions!

The Bettys, an independent art collective, and two of Newark’s major arts institutions, Gallery Aferro and Paul Robeson Galleries at Express Newark, along with the Women and Gender Studies Program at Rutgers-Newark University and Express Newark’s Newark Print Shop and Shine Portrait Studio, are excited to announce the Betty Zinefest 2017. A NJ-based zinefest is a great offering for residents in and of itself, but this second iteration of the Betty Zinefest is extremely unique and valuable for another reason- it is run by young women of color, and highlights exclusively the artwork of youth, women, people of color, and LGBTQ/gender-nonconforming people: essentially those whose voice is often marginalized. Led by Aurora Diaz, the Bettyz, a 150-member collective, was founded in 2013. Diaz speaks about “the zine as a platform to bring marginalized people to the front.” This use of language is notable- “the front” references the framework of activism, gatherings and marches, as well other spaces like classrooms and art spaces where visibility is an unevenly distributed commodity.

Workshops offered throughout the day to complement the zine fair will be led by W.I.S.E (Women’s Initiative for Self Empowerment), Girls on Bikes, and Rebekah Torres, and range from feminist collage to self defense for Muslim women. An accompanying exhibition, titled Resistance Across Time and curated by Evonne M. Davis of Gallery Aferro, will be celebrated in a reception from 3-5 PM along with an adjacent exhibition Justseeds: Migration Now! Resistance Across Time is a selection of activist posters ca. 1970s-2000s from Brooklyn’s Interference Archive. An interactive photobooth at Shine Portrait Studio and printmaking activities from Newark Print Shop will run all day.

More than 75 zine vendors from throughout the Northeast will be selling their creations all day. Vendors include The Asian American Literary Review, Bandida Comics, Barnard Zine Library & Barnard Zine Club, Belle Krup, The Bettys, #Blkgrlswurld Blue Crow / Marco Padilla, BOOKLYN, Brooklyn Waste Collective / Destiny Washington, Brusque Babe, Cathryn Ploehn, Connie Boje, Danielle Fee, Emily McLean & Yesenia Moises, Femme Mâché, Fizz Publishing, Ginger, Hoax Zine, HOMIE HOUSE PRESS, Ife Olujobi / Townies, In A Rut Comics, Izzy Boyce-Blanchard, Karen Kaye Llamas, KOBY, La Liga Zine, La Chamba Press, Low Level, Maria Liebana, Mikela Sheskier & Sophie Barba, Morgan Sturgeon, My Life Is a Joke / Aimee Pong, paige hanserd, P-GLiTCHii, Pub(SEX)lic, Pyrite Press, Alyssa Spatola, Stephanie Rodriguez (Steph Guez), Susie Magazine, Stay Kind! Distro, Troll Hole & Friends, unbag, We’re Hir We’re Queer, Woke Inc., Worser Beings, and Zine Hug.

Flyer by Jordan Moss ( instagram.com/__jinx )

---

Gallery Aferro Open Studios for Newark Open Doors

Gallery Aferro’s Open Studios is a great opportunity to experience a cross section of art making in Newark. This Open Studios is especially exciting as it features 6 new artists in residence including our 3rd Sustainable Arts Fellow Mary Valverde, our first ever writer-in-residence Lori Roper, and Masakhane, an organization-in-residence in our Community Book Room.

Additional artworks on display include Dominique Duroseau’s solo exhibition Black Things in White Spaces, Evonne Davis’ solo exhibition No Words, Activate: Market Street 14 featuring Agnes Deja, Jo-El Lopez, and Julie Ann Nagle, Elevator Music 4 featuring John Pugh and much more!

The mission of Gallery Aferro is to bring cultural education and aesthetic engagement with contemporary issues to all people equally, and to create an environment where artists can gather and share physical and intellectual resources. We are working towards an arts community that is available to everyone, without sacrificing standards or quality of experience.

Artists listed below will have their studios open to the public.

Patricia Cazorla & Nancy Saleme
Evonne Davis
Mia Duran
Dominique Duroseau
Anne Dushanko-Dobek
Gilbert Hsiao
Valerie Huhn
Hal Laessig
Tasha Lewis
Jacob Mandel
Masakhane
Anne Q McKeown
Julie Ann Nagle
Lori Roper
Kern Samuel
Yoland Skeete
Michelle Suriel
Natalie Suriel
Nicole Suriel
Amanda Thackray
Mary Valverde, Gallery Aferro’s 3rd Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellow
Ken Weathersby
Emma Wilcox
Juno Zago

Cover image features artworks by Mia Duran, Kern Samuel, and Valerie Huhn.

Creative Time Summit Livestream at Gallery Aferro

Hosted by Gallery Aferro and Creative Time
Friday, September 29 at 10 AM – 7 PM

The 10th Creative Time Summit, Of Homelands and Revolution will take place in Toronto, Canada from September 28th – 30th, 2017, co-produced with The Power Plant and in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Ontario. BUT YOU CAN WATCH IT LIVE IN NEWARK AT GALLERY AFERRO! Professors- have a field trip! Students-beg for extra credit! Artists, activists, and citizens-pull up a chair, have some coffee, and connect with a global community full of ideas.

Of Homelands and Revolution explores the concept of ‘home’ in its intimate and immense dimensions: we consider urgent struggles for sovereign homelands, the violent borders that produce exile, displacement, and refugeeism, and the threats of virulent nationalism(s). At the same time we keep in sight ‘home’s’ relation to the heart, and the everyday and extraordinary realms of domestic life and hospitality. Our consideration of ‘revolution,’ the Summit’s second thematic axis, takes as its point of departure the Centennial of the Russian Revolution. While certainly the legacy of this historic moment can be contested, the Bolshevik Revolution was a remarkable event that, in the words of Trotsky, one of its principal architects, allowed for the “direct interference of the masses in historic events.” 100 years later we look back at the Marxist
tradition and at the many forms of radical sociality, aesthetics and anti-capitalist organizing that it has inspired, particularly in light of the resurgence of neoliberalism and the global turn to the right today. The 2017 Summit invites participants to consider the many-layered political and aesthetic understandings of home alongside social movement—revolutionary ones at that—which have sought to summon a broader dream of social justice. Present in both of the Summit’s main thematic threads are ongoing movements led by indigenous peoples across continents and the multiple relations between home, land, culture, and community that they bring to bear. The Creative Time Summit “Of Homelands and Revolution” is curated by Nato Thompson, Sally Szwed, Gaëtane Verna, and Josh Heuman.

10:00am INTRODUCTION
Land Acknowledgement
Welcoming Remarks
10:30am SECTION 1: LAND
Wanda Nanibush
Huhana Smith
Bouchra Khalili
Post Commodity
11:30am CONVERSATION
Coco Fusco
Elvira Dyangani Ose
11:55am SECTION 2: LOVE and LIVING
Syrus Marcus Ware
Kent Monkman
Allora and Cazadilla
Crack Rodriguez
Máret Ánne Sara
1:30pm LUNCH
2:45pm KEYNOTE
Gayatri Spivak
3:15pm STATEMENT FROM STANDING ROCK
Cannupa Hanska Luger
3:25pm SECTION 3: LABOR
Elizabeth Mpofu
Carol Conde and Carl Beveridge
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons
Tings Chak
4:25pm BREAK
4:40pm STATEMENT FROM TURKEY
Vasif Kortun
4:50pm CONVERSATION
Chto Delat
Nato Thompson
5:15pm SECTION 4: LIBERTY
Srećko Horvat
Sylvia McAdam
Nabil al-Raee
Kinana Issa
6:30pm END

SPEAKER LIST
Keynotes
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Speakers
Allora and Calzadilla
Bouchra Khalili
Cannupa Hanska Lager — @CannupaHanska | Facebook | Instagram
Carol Conde and Carl Beveridge
Chto Delat — @chtodelat | Facebook
Coco Fusco — @cocofusco1960 | Facebook
Crack Rodriguez — @crackrodriguez | Facebook | Instagram
Elizabeth Mpofu — @via_campesina | Facebook
Huhana Smith —Facebook | Instagram
Kent Monkman — @KentMonkman | Facebook | Instagram
Kinana Issa — @KinanaIssa
Máret Ánne Sara
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons — @camposponstudio
Nabil al-Raee — @ReeRaee
Postcommodity — @Postcommodity | Facebook
Srećko Horvat
— @HorvatSrecko | Facebook
Sylvia McAdam — @LawladyINM | Facebook
Syrus Marcus Ware — @SyrusMarcusWare | Facebook | Instagram
Tings Chak — @t_ings | Facebook | Instagram
Vasif Kortun — @lifeisaturkubar | Facebook | Instagram
Wanda Nanibush — @criticalnish | Instagram

THEMATIC SECTIONS
The first day of the Summit will feature dynamic talks and presentations from an international roster of artists and activists. Presentations will be organized into the following, four thematic
sections:

Section 1: Land
Beyond extractive capitalism, we may imagine multiple material, social, affective and spiritual relations to ‘land.’ Presenters in this section address themes of colonialist and capitalist accumulation by dispossession; indigenous land epistemologies; environmental justice in a more-than-human world; and questions of refugeeism, hospitality, borders and belonging.

Section 2: Labor
The realm of everyday practice is a space for resistance. Artists and storytellers in this section speak to the generative power of the ‘ordinary’ and of loving actions and affects. They consider how a radical politics of care; queer forms of kinship and worldmaking; and alternate modes of re-membering, witnessing and healing embody decolonial praxis.

Section 3: Love (and Living)
Precarity is a defining feature of late capitalism. Presenters in this section speak to the conditions of urban and rural marginality, austerity politics, anti-capitalist organizing and emergent modes of assembling and collectivity.

Section 4: Liberty
Now is the moment for transnational movements of solidarity, especially in the face of the global turn to the right. Presenters in this section address the politics and aesthetics of revolutionary praxis, the grammars of (neo)coloniality, and the possibilities for anti-capitalist organizing, antiracist solidarity, and trans liberation.

WHAT IS THE CREATIVE TIME SUMMIT?
The Creative Time Summit is an annual convening for thinkers, dreamers, and doers working at the intersection of art and politics. Functioning as a roving platform, The Summit brings together artists, activists, and other thought leaders engaging with today’s most pressing issues. Presenting a critical range of perspectives, The Summit provides strategies for social change in local and global contexts. Launched in New York City in 2009, the Creative Time Summit was the first major international platform for socially engaged art, and has since grown to encompass an expanded field – featuring a range of multidisciplinary practices from music to policy making. To date, the Summit has hosted over 8,000 live attendees and hundreds of luminaries on its stage, including legendary art critic Lucy Lippard, Academy Award winning filmmaker Laura Poitras, MacArthur “Genius” award winning contemporary artist Carrie Mae Weems, #BlackLivesMatter co-founder Alicia Garza, and President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani. Just as significantly, the Summit is also a forum for emerging artists and thinkers to debut ideas and projects. In an effort to reach new audiences and explore issues within a global context, in 2014, Creative Time began partnering with institutions beyond NYC, taking the Summit to cities around the world including Stockholm, Venice, Washington DC, and now, Toronto. Local attendees are invited to propose panels, roundtables, and workshops through an open call, and Summit events highlight each city’s unique aesthetic and social spaces. In its travels outside of New York, the Summit aims to foster meaningful connections amongst a growing global community while also highlighting locally driven programming. The Summit also meets tens of thousands of attendees in their hometowns through Livestream, as well as through over 100 satellite screening sites that host live events in cities from Dhaka to São Paulo.

---

On Belonging and the Void Between

Closing Reception and Artist Talks

Closing Reception August 31st, 2017
4PM @ Gallery Aferro

Curated by Asha Ganpat
Gallery Aferro, Main Gallery
July 8th – August 31st, 2017

Gallery Aferro invites you to join us for artist talks and conversation featuring exhibiting artists in our current exhibition On Belonging and the Void Between curated by Asha Ganpat. Talks will be moderated by Emma Wilcox.

Featured speakers include:

Gwen Charles
Donna Conklin King
Sky Kim
Mahtab Pedrami
Elisa Pritzker
Nisha Sondhe
Suzie Tuchman

---

Cloud 9: Gallery Aferro’s 9th Annual Art Auction Fundraiser

June 17th, 2017
VIP Preview 6PM – 7PM
Auction 7PM – 9:30PM

Gallery Aferro excited to announce the 9th Annual Benefit Art Auction and Party on June 17th, 2017, with our honoree Ron Beit, of RBH Group. As President and CEO of RBH Group, Ron Beit is proud to support Gallery Aferro as an anchor in RBH’s portfolio of social impact investing in downtown Newark. “Eleven years ago co-owners Evonne Davis and Emma Wilcox approached me with a proposal to create a community-centric gallery and creative arts space in the heart of our downtown development portfolio.” Ron Beit says.  “Through hard work and dedication to embracing local talent, as well as featuring the work of emerging and better-known artists in our region, Gallery Aferro was a key player in making Newark a top-10 Hotbed of American’s Arts and Culture, according to the 2017 report of the National Center for Arts Research.  Thanks to the creative vision of Gallery Aferro and their role within the Newark Arts consortium, Newark now ranks higher on the arts vibrancy index than cities such as Seattle, Philadelphia, Cambridge, Portland, Chicago and Pittsburgh.”

The festive event features an exciting auction of hundreds of artworks by emerging and established artists, music by DJ John Butler, and catering by Clint Feastgood and the Mozzarella God, all proud NJ natives, and dozens of wonderful door and raffle prizes.

All proceeds from tickets and purchases make possible Gallery Aferro’s year-round exhibitions and wide range of public events, artist residencies, publications, public art, educational offerings, and innovative, community-responsive projects such as our mobile portrait studio. Founded in 2003, and located downtown since 2006, the gallery has received 5 back-to-back Citations of Excellence from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and has been described by Inside New Jersey magazine as offering “a dizzying array of contemporary art.” The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has praised our “expansive vision, impact in Newark as well as regionally and even internationally”, and our “exemplary mentoring opportunities for young artists.” Radius magazine has described the gallery as a place where “exuberant extremes of age and background come together,” and Brick City Live has commented on our “community-minded, experimental, collaborative, and DIY ethos.”

For one night only unique artworks will be available at prices that will enlarge or establish your collection. Delight a friend, colleague or loved one with the gift of artwork. Bring someone who’s never been to the gallery, or to Newark, or someone you come with every year. Support the free exchange of ideas: Mom said to share! Dance and have fun.

#galleryaferro

---

Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro
Sunday June 11th 2017, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Phoenix Lindsey-Hall

Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro
Sunday May 14th 2017, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Kevin Durkin

Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro
Sunday April 9th 2017, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Michael Wolf

---

People’s Book Club
April 29th, 2pm – 3:30pm
2nd Floor Community Book Room @ Gallery Aferro

Please join us for our first meeting at the Community Book Room at Gallery Aferro. For our first meeting we will pick our first book, and share what books we want to read in the future. This Group will take place one Saturday a month. This book club is for ages 15 to 115. We ask all who can make a donation for Gallery Aferro, for the use of the space. Suggested donation $5.00 but every little bit helps in supporting our art spaces.

This book club is to foster and cultivate allyship and intersectionality among all people through reading literature, non-fiction, and biographies written by and about people that have been marginalized in our society, historically and currently. We will be exploring the world through the writings by and about people of color, women, the disabled, the LGBTQ communities, immigrants, Muslims, etc. Our hope is to create a space in which we can identify our own privileges and understand how our privileges can keep us from understanding the struggle of those around us and in turn keep us from affecting any real change in our society.

---

Gallery Aferro Spring Open Studios and Artist Talks

April 1st 11am – 6pm
@Gallery Aferro, 73 Market Street

Gallery Aferro’s Artist Talks and Open Studios is a great opportunity to experience a cross section of art making in Newark. Kevin Durkin will be speaking about his solo exhibition on display in the main gallery at Gallery Aferro. Alex Scott Cumming, Jasmine Mans, and Ngu Asongwed will also be speaking about their installations for Activate: Market Street 11. Artists listed below will have their studios open to the public and the artists with an asterisk next to their name will be speaking during the artist talks.

Patricia Cazorla & Nancy Saleme
Dominique Duroseau
Anne Dushanko-Dobek
Essential Elements Collective*
-Sophia Domeville
-Jessica Dunston
-Sheikia “Purple” Norris
-Kelly Thomas
Gilbert Hsiao
Hal Laessig & Yoland Skeete
Tasha Lewis
Jo-El Lopez
Jacob Mandel
Anne Q. McKeown
Will Ortega & Sara Wolfe
Michelle, Natalie, and Nicole Suriel
Amanda Thackray
Ken Weathersby
Jay Wilson
Juno Zago*

Also on view: Only Home by Kevin Durkin, Respond In Kind by Jacob Lawrence Mandel, and Lawless Innovation by a Timeless Generation by Alex Scott Cumming, Jasmine Mans, and Ngu Asongwed for Activate: Market Street 11

---

Layer by Layer: A 3D Printing Primer

Presented by Locus Labs
March 11th, 3pm

Layer by Layer: A 3D Printing Primer presented by Locus Labs

We at Locus Labs and Gallery Aferro are excited to invite you to join us March 11th at 2pm for our FREE presentation: 3D Printing x New Media Art. The event will be hosted by Locus Labs, a start-up innovation tech hub in Newark. The group will be introducing Locus Lab, discussing the vision for the co-working studios, shops, offices, and classes, explaining 3D Printing technology, and exhibiting artistic applications (See our Lulzbot Mini in action!).

Introduction to 3D printing technology:

1) High level introduction on 3D printing, additive/desktop manufacturing.

2) What’s all this fuss about 3D printing and why is it so important?

3) What are some specific uses of 3D printing?

3D printing has not only advanced the capabilities for engineers and scientists, but for artists as well. Contemporary new media artists are utilizing 3D printed materials for sculptures, animations, fibers, fashion, animatronics, glitch, and fine art. Many interesting and exciting fusions between art and technology have been occurring because people from different worlds and backgrounds have been meeting each other and collaborating. Locus Lab’s shared-use makerspace plans to provide a platform for artists, craftsmen/craftswomen, engineers, scientists, and techies around the Newark area to work alongside each other and form connections.

We look forward to you joining us for our presentation. Please RSVP by March 10th end of day, the event is free and open to the public but spots are limited.

---

Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro
Sunday March 12th 2017, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Sophia Domeville

---

Newark In Tune: Track Release Party!

March 18th, 5-7pm
@Gallery Aferro, 73 Market Street

Newark In Tune is talented young people and arts organizations throughout the city of Newark who came together to create an original song for this amazing city, and it became bigger and better than we ever could have imagined! Come out for our most epic performance to date and witness the release of the newly mixed and mastered version of this Brick City Anthem. There will be opening acts as well, so prepare for a full-out concert! We also will be filming for our upcoming music video that night.

Snacks and refreshments will be served. Admission is free, but check out the video in the following link to find out more and see “the making of” Newark in Tune. Also consider donating to help us fund this event and the music video! Thanks!

---

The Boys Film

Film by Eric and Kevin Durkin
Screening February 18th, 2017 @ 7pm
73 Market Street, Newark NJ

The Boys Film is about two adopted twin boys who travel across the country to visit their birth relatives for the first time. The road trip is interspersed with footage of their childhood showing their upbringing and family life. The bond between the two is shown throughout the film, both in memories and on the road. They are looking to find out more about their birth mother who made the choice to give them up to loving and caring parents whom they wouldn’t have traded for the world.

---

Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro
Sunday February 12th 2017, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Milcah Bassel

---

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro

Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists
Sunday January 8th 2017, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Layqa Nuna Yawar

---

8th Annual Potluck Holiday Party

December 17 @ 3pm, Closing Reception and 8th Annual Potluck with listening party for radio play, and performance by Newark Boys Chorus, and other guests.

Open House at Gallery Aferro!
All welcome, family friendly.
An amazing potluck, bring a dish or drink to share.
Check out 3 art exhibits and 1 sound art installation.
Crafting table for making cards.
Performance by Newark Boys Chorus School
Dance Performance by Grab A Beat Dance Studio
The community book room is open, with 2000 books to browse, plus chess, checkers, scrabble, and many more games.

Join us to celebrate another great year at Gallery Aferro.

Image: Juno Zago

---

Drawing Skills

Hosted by Peter Dougherty
Weekly from September 27th to December 15th @ Gallery Aferro

Classes: Ages 15 – 20: Thursdays 4-6pm $7
Ages 21+: Tuesdays 6-9:30pm $15
Sign up by clicking here!

---

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro

Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists
Sunday December 11th 1:30pm, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Dominique Duroseau

In light of recent events and ongoing issues, Dominique Duroseau will be talking about “Cactus Jack at El Dorado, 1977” by American artist Robert Colescott.

Colescott’s depictions were potent reminders that racism and sexism are deeply embedded in American History. Duroseau’s work bridges these issues which have morphed and are still present.
Join her and find out why themes like race, racism, socio-economic status, and criticizing imperialist white supremacist patriarchal cultures are still relevant fuel to artists.

---

Arts Coops 101

Hosted by the Community Development Institute
December 10th 5-7pm

Artists and artisans need to do their craft, earn a living, and live their lives. All over the U.S. and the world, cooperatives are helping them to do that. The idea of co-ops is that we can do more together than we can apart, and that sharing allows us all to get what we need. Does shared space, shared purchasing, shared work, shared connections or shared abundance sound enticing? Are you wondering how to make your ideas of a better environment for creative work a reality?

Reserve your free ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/arts-co-ops-101-tickets-28949336244

---

People’s Open Mic

In collaboration with Essential Elements Collective
73 Market Street, Gallery Aferro
First and Third Wednesday of every month @ 7pm

People’s Open Mic is Newark’s longest continuously running open mic. It’s permanent home is now at Gallery Aferro in Downtown Newark and will occur every first and third Wednesday of every month starting at 7pm. All performance types are welcome.

“I dream of a better world and I build it with a collection of beautiful souls and creators at The People’s Open Mic” Mia X, host of People’s Open Mic

Margie ‘Mia X’ Johnson is the producer of Hug the Block, a public art experience where poets, artists, and musicians gather to add color, life, love and hip hop to her Newark neighborhood.

---

Market on Market

Market on Market is a fun and exciting monthly artisanal flea market in Downtown Newark NJ. Modeled after other fantastic markets, Market on Market offers handmade, upcycled, recycled and antique items as well as workshops and musical events. Over 40 vendors attend the market, and although some come back for each market, there is always a good rotation of new vendors each month. New vendors and arts programming scheduled during the event means each market is a unique and exciting experience so don’t miss it!

Questions, Vendor info & Inquiries? Contact Rachel Mandel at market@aferro.org

---

Locating the Ark Part 2

November 12 @ 5pm
@ Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street Newark, NJ

Screenings and Discussion with Margot Niederland, Broken Angel, and Tiona McClodden/Harriet’s Gun Media, KILO | Iba se 99.

MARGOT NIEDERLAND, a photographer, assemblage artist, and filmmaker, began her career as a free-lance photojournalist in the Middle East. After she had nine photography exhibitions of her work, she turned her attention to filmmaking. When her first film, “Broken Angel” premièred at the Sundance Film Festival, their catalogue described it as; “Architectural poetry brought to life …”. “Broken Angel” continued to screen in the United States and around the world in various festivals and other venues including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Biennale Internationale du Film d’Architecture et d’Environment Urbain in France. It also won several awards; including the Kino Award for short film in Australia at the 42 Melbourne International Film Festival. Ms. Niederland has spent the last eighteen years documenting the gentrification of her neighborhood, the Lower East Side. She has shot over 300 reels of film, from which she’ll be making a film entitled, Beyond Nostalgia.

TIONA MCCLODDEN is a visual artist and filmmaker whose work explores and critiques issues at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and social commentary. Themes examined in McClodden’s films and works have been re-memory and more recently narrative biomythography, and shared ideas, values, and beliefs within the African Diaspora-what she calls, “Black mentifact”. Her work is interested in Blackness and exploring intersubjectivities within Black communities as a tool for creating insider perspectives within film, time based works, and objects.

McClodden has been awarded the 2016 PEW Fellowship in the Arts in Philadelphia, PA, attended the 2016 Sommerakademie Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern, Switzerland as a nominated fellow, The 2016 Ossian Arts Research Fellowship under the Jain Family Institute in New York, NY, and attended the 2015 Flaherty Film Seminar as a Philadelphia Fellow. McClodden more recently one of six American artists selected by CFC Media Lab, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and JustFilms | Ford Foundation for the inaugural OPEN IMMERSION: A VR CREATIVE DOC LAB that brought together diverse creators from both the US and Canada to learn about, explore and experiment with VR storytelling, in particular as a form they can use to draw attention to issues of inclusion, racial and social justice.

McClodden has exhibited and screened work at the Institute of Contemporary Art-Philadelphia, Project 4 Gallery in Washington, D.C., Vox Populi Gallery, Esther Klein Art Gallery, Art Toronto’s 2015 VERGE Video program, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, @RAUMERWEITERUNGSHALLE in Berlin, MOMA PS1, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland; Kansai Queer Film Festival in Osaka and Kyoto, Japan; and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, and a range of international film festivals and film programs. Tiona lives and works in North Philadelphia, PA.

KILO | Iba se 99. takes inspiration from an excerpt of a report produced by the Women’s Bureau division of the United States Department of Labor titled Negro Women War Workers, published in 1945. The film is also an exploration of the relationship between the US Navy Flag signal Kilo which has the assigned message of “I wish to communicate with you”, the first 12 Black women allowed to work on the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1942, and the Orisha Ochosi.

---

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro

Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists
Sunday November 13th 1:30pm, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Lisette Morel & Ayana Evans

---

LOCATING THE ARK:

Ideas & conversation with Richard Cammarieri, Torkwase Dyson, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, Julia Rabig, Caitlin Tucker-Melvin & Sharon Zukin

November 5 @ 2pm, Locating the Ark Part 1
@ Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street Newark, NJ

6 artists, scholars, activists contextualize the story of Kea’s Ark of Newark: a Life in Works at Gallery Aferro, delving into topics including but by no means limited to: artist-built environments, land use politics, the spatial imagination, non-institutional archiving and protest, gentrifcation, shelter, and so much more. Join us to explore the exhibit and be part of an important local and national conversation. FREE but please rsvp here

RICHARD CAMMARIERI is Director of special projects at New Community Corporation, Newark. He was born, raised and remains a lifelong resident of Newark with a long family history in the city that began with the immigration of his maternal grandfather from Southern Italy in 1899. He is employed with the New Community Corporation (NCC) with a focus on Resident Organizing, Civic Engagement and Public Policy Awareness and Advocacy initiatives. In addition he oversees the NCC Federal Credit Union Youth and Adult Financial Literacy Training programs. He has had extensive experience in Newark grassroots community organizing and neighborhood policy development. Previous positions include Executive Director for the Newark Coalition for Neighborhoods and Associate Director for Economic Initiatives, Newark Fighting Back Partnership. He currently serves as the Chairperson for the Newark Community Development Network and chairs the Master Plan Working Group Coalition. He is a member of the Advisory Committee for the Quest Youth Services program in Newark and an Executive Committee member of the Newark Branch NAACP and is a Board member of the Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District in Newark. Previous Board affiliations include the chairperson of the Fair Lending Coalition of N.J. and founding Board member of the Community Loan Fund of N.J. He has served as an elected member of the Newark. Public Schools Advisory Board, where he chaired the Facilities Committee and served on the Finance and Curriculum Committees. He is a jazz aficionado and published poet who has had featured readings in Newark, surrounding towns and in various venues in New York City. He has served as the poetry editor for the Newark Arts Council Newsletter. He graduated from Rutgers-Newark with a Bachelors Degree in English.

TORKWASE DYSON was born in Chicago Il, and spent her developmental years between North Carolina and Mississippi. Living back and forth between these regions she developed sensitivity towards architecture, mobility, and urbanism. During her 5 years at Tougalloo College she majored in Sociology, and double minored in Social Work and Fine Art. Here she began to examine painting, black history and environmental justice. In the next 10 years Dyson traveled to Africa and South and Central America to participate with artists and activists on human rights issues of natural resources, historic visibility, and spatial equality. These experiences inspire Dyson’s investigations around nomadicity, representation, data visualization, and site. Dyson distills the language of architecture and landscape architecture to generate an idiosyncratic language that is both meditative and structural. The works are deconstructions of natural and built environments that consider how individuals negotiate and negate various types of systems and systemic order. Dyson’s work has been exhibited at Postmasters Gallery, Kravets Webhy, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Corcoran College of Art and Design, the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Dyson has been awarded the Nancy Graves Grant for Visual Artists, Visiting Artist grant to the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, the Culture Push Fellowship for Utopian Practices, Eyebeam Art and Technology Center Fellowship, and the FSP/Jerome Fellowship. Dyson’s work has also been supported by The Laundromat Projects, the Green Festival of New York, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, the Mural Arts Program of Philadelphia, The Kitchen, and the Rebuild Foundation. In 2016 Dyson was elected to the board of the Architecture League of New York as Vice President of Visual Arts. Torkwase is now based in Brooklyn, New York and is a visiting critic at Yale School of Art and Pratt Institute.

KAMEELAH JANAN RASHEED (b. 1985, East Palo Alto, CA) is an artist, writer, and former public school social studies teacher. A 2006 Amy Biehl U.S. Fulbright Scholar to South Africa, Rasheed holds an Ed.M (2008) in Secondary Education from Stanford University as well as a BA (2006) in Public Policy and Africana Studies from Pomona College. She has exhibited her work at Jack Shainman Gallery, Studio Museum in Harlem, Bronx Museum, Queens Museum, BRIC Art Gallery, Weeksville Heritage Museum, Smack Mellon Gallery, Vox Populi Gallery, MoCADA, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Leroy Neiman Gallery, the Soap Factory, among others. Currently, she is an artist in residence at Smack Mellon and on faculty at SVA. Selected residencies, fellowships, and honors include: Creative Exchange Lab at the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (2016), Keyholder Residency at Lower East Side Print Studio (2015), Commissioned Artist, Triple Canopy Commissions at New York Public Library Labs (2015), Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue Grant (2015), A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship, Queens Museum Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship (2015), Process Space Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Residency (2015), Artist in the Marketplace – Bronx Museum Participant (2015), Art Matters Grantee (2014), Rema Hort Mann Foundation Grantee (2014), New Museum R&D: Choreography Seminar Participant (2014), Vermont Studio Center Residency (2014), Working Classroom Teaching Artist (2014).

JULIA RABIG is a historian and the author of The Fixers: Devolution, Development, and Civil Society in Newark, 1960-1990 and co-editor with Laura Warren Hill of The Business of Black Power: Community Development, Capitalism, and Corporate Responsibility. She is a lecturer at Dartmouth College and has also taught at Amherst College, Boston University, and the University of Rochester.

CAITLIN TUCKER-MELVIN is an artist and curator currently based in North Adams, MA where she is the Visual Arts Exhibitions Manager at MASS MoCA. Tucker-Melvin holds an MFA (2014) in Curatorial Practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BFA (2007) in Curatorial Studies from Moore College of Art & Design. Tucker-Melvin has made exhibitions at the Arlington Arts Center, the Maryland Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Baltimore. Formerly, she managed the estate of William S. Dutterer. In her practice, Tucker-Melvin focuses on audience engagement, and making the artist’s process clear for viewers.

SHARON ZUKIN is professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Among her books are Loft Living: Capital and Culture in Urban Change, Landscapes of Power: From Detroit to Disney World (winner of the C. Wright Mills Award), The Cultures of Cities, Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places (winner of the Jane Jacobs Award for Urban Communication), and most recently, Global Cities, Local Streets, written with Philip Kasinitz, Xiangming Chen, and a team of research partners from New York to Shanghai.

---

Ark of Bones

November 7 @ 6:30pm
@ Gallery Aferro
73 Market Street Newark, NJ

Free, but registration is required at eventbrite.com

Through a reading of selections from and a discussion of the late Henry Dumas’s influential short story “Ark of Bones” and his other works, writers and critics Evie Shockley and Carter Mathes (Rutgers-New Brunswick) and John Keene (Rutgers-Newark) will explore the connections between the late author’s imaginative writing and the cultural ferment behind Kea Tawana’s Ark of Newark. Shockley, Mathes and Keene will delve into Dumas’s and Kea’s critical reimaginings of mid-century urbanism, and the visionaries’ grounding of their works in the art of the vernacular.

Speakers:

Evie Shockley is Associate Professor of English at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.  She is the author of Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry (Iowa, 2011), and several collections of poetry, most recently including the new black (Wesleyan, 2011), winner of the 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Poetry, and semiautomatic (Wesleyan, forthcoming 2017).  Her poems and essays have appeared internationally in such journals and anthologies as Boston Review, boundary 2, American Periodicals, Poetry, Best American Poetry 2015, Best American Experimental Writing 2015, Callaloo, Contemporary Literature, Los Angeles Review of Books, pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Art & Culture, and What I Say: Innovative Poetry by Black Writers in America. Her honors include the 2015 Stephen Henderson Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Poetry and the 2012 Holmes National Poetry Prize, and her work has been supported by fellowships from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the American Council of Learned Societies, as well as residencies from Hedgebrook, the MacDowell Colony, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. She serves as creative writing editor for Feminist Studies.

Carter Mathes is a specialist in African American Literature, Twentieth Century Literature, and African Diaspora Studies. His first book, Imagine the Sound: Experimental African American Literature After Civil Rights (University of Minnesota Press, 2015) focuses on the relationship between sound and literary innovation during the 1960s and 1970s. He has also co-edited (with Mae G. Henderson) a volume on Black Arts Movement writer and critic Larry Neal, “Don’t Say Goodbye to the Porkpie Hat”: The Larry Neal Critical Reader (University of Illinois Press, 2017). Currently, he is directing the Rutgers Advanced Institute for Critical Caribbean Studies, and is beginning a study of black radical thought in literature and music as it moves between Jamaica and the United States during the second half of the twentieth-century. His next project will focus on issues of race, literary form, and political critique in post-1945 American literature. He has published essays in Small Axe, Contemporary Literature, Callaloo, and African American Review.

John Keene is the author of the novel Annotations (New Directions); the art-text collection Seismosis (1913 Press) with artist Christopher Stackhouse; the short fiction collection Counternarratives (New Directions), which was named to “Best Fiction of 2015” lists and received a 2016 American Book Award; and the art-text collaboration with photographer Nicholas Muellner, GRIND (ITI Press).  He has also published a translation of Brazilian author Hilda Hilst’s novel Letters from a Seducer (Nightboat Books / A Bolha Editora), and has exhibited his artwork in Brooklyn and Berlin.  A longtime member of the Dark Room Writers Collective and a graduate fellow of Cave Canem, he currently serves on the board of the African Poetry Book Fund, and teaches in the departments of English and African American and African Studies, which he chairs, and also is a core faculty member in the MFA Program in Creative Writing, at Rutgers University-Newark.

Newark Open Doors Annual Studio Crawl

Gallery Aferro’s Studio Residency Open Studios Featuring:

Patricia Cazorla
Alex Scott Cumming
Anne Dushanko-Dobek
Dominique Duroseau
Sophia Domeville
Gilbert Hsiao
Hal Laessig
Tasha Lewis
Bell Fellow for Emerging Painters Jo-El Lopez
Jacob Lawrence Mandel
Sustainable Arts Fellow Caitlin Masley
Anne Q. McKeown
Sheikia Norris
William Ortega
Nancy Saleme
Michelle Suriel
Natalie Suriel
Nicole Suriel
Amanda Thackray
Kelly Thomas
Ken Weathersby
Jay Wilson
Sara Wolfe

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro

Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists
Sunday October 9th 1:30pm, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Jessica Ellis

 

---

KEA’S ARK OF NEWARK: A LIFE IN WORKS

Gallery Aferro, Main Gallery
September 24 – December 17, 2016

Gallery Aferro and the Clement A. Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience open major exhibition on Newark’s legendary public art

In Memory of Kea Tawana 1940 – 2016

Kea Tawana’s Ark, a three-story wooden boat that rose above Newark NJ’s Central Ward, was only extant for five years, from 1982-1987. Yet hundreds of people have come forward during the past year to share their vivid memories of the ark, which was built by one woman out of salvaged pieces of city houses, churches, schools, and factories. In much the same manner, Gallery Aferro and the Clement A. Price Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers University – Newark have “built” an exhibit out of the carefully gathered, surviving pieces of an incredible true story: archival press and TV broadcast footage; ephemera from private and public collections; photographs from artists, journalists, and family photo albums; new oral history recordings; maps and geographic data; and previously un-exhibited examples of Kea’s artwork, writings, and objects, including a collection of handmade stained glass windows and a set of blueprints for a utopian city, combine to create an immersive experience deep in a complicated story.

October 21 @ 8pm, Dance performance by Storyboard P

♥ ♥ ♥ THE BETTYS FIRST ZINE FEST! ♥ ♥ ♥

July 9th, 2016 12-6pm
85 Market St. Newark, NJ 07102

We want to create a zine fest for marginalized persons of the zine community. We are very excited to create an experience of diverse voices. We’ll be having zine workshops and screenings and performances as well!

http://goo.gl/forms/qr5hoiPsVX

♥ Zines ♥

8Ball Zines
http://8ballzinefair.com/

A Love Token Press
www.alovetokenpress.com

After Lunch Comix
afterlunchcomix.com

Alex Anne Der
www.sleepingcreatures.com

Ava Wisniewski
avawizkey.tumblr.com

Barnard Zine Club
twitter.com/barnardzineclub

BlackNColor
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/blackncolors

The Bettys + #BETTYDISTRO
THEBETTYS.COM

Brooklyn Waste
www.brooklynwaste.com

Brusque Babe
www.brusquebabe.com

cipher-schema
www.cipher-schema.net

Cósmica
www.colectivacosmica.com

Derek Marks
derekgmarks.tumblr.com

Diona West
Di0na.tumblr.com

great/grand/golden.
www.greatgrandgolden.com

Grey Scales
greyscaless.weebly.com/

Guerilla Girls
http://www.guerrillagirls.com/

Hayley Blatte
Www.hayleyblattestudio.com

Hazel Newlevant
newlevant.tumblr.com

Hoax Zine
hoaxzine.tumblr.com

Jahnny Vommit
Www.jahnnyvommit.com

Jan Descartes
heartlandcomic.com

Kat Fajardo
Katfajardo.com

Kate Eggleston
kateeggs.com

Kelly Fernandez
kelly-fernandez.com

La Chamba Press
http://lachambapress.tumblr.com/

La Liga
http://www.laligazine.com/

Lambey Press – Publishing Queer Women of Color
lambeypress.com

Lauren Lepore
IG: 35mm.mistress

MADDD GRRRL
Madddgrrrl.com

Maria Sweeny
http://inarutcomics.tumblr.com/

Mary Shyne
http://maryshyne.com/

Matthew Scott Gualco
www.matthewgualco.com

Metaphorical Fruit
http://metaphoricalfruit.com/

Meredith Miotke
Mlmiotke.com

Morgan Sturgeon
morgansturgeon.bigcartel.com

Nancy Musinguzi
www.blackcongolese.com

No Shame Distro
noshamedistro.tumblr.com

Ola Czajkowski
olaczajnik.tumblr.com

Paper Jam Fest
paperjamfest.tumblr.com

Paper Sword Collective
http://paperswordzine.tumblr.com/

Purple Pony
http://purplepony.bigcartel.com/

Rachel Fucheck
rachelfucheck.tumblr.com

Rachel Hays
rachelhays.com

Rachel Lesser
RachelLesserillustration.com

S.E. Tyler
Setylerarts online

Sinjun Strom
www.sinjun-strom.com

Sarah Beth Kaye
amplifybooks.com/shop

Smol Brown Girls.jpeg
persnicketyguide.tumblr.com

Solomia Sowlars
sowlars.tumblr.com

Steph Guez
www.StephGuez.com

Selfish
girlsgetselfish.com

Slim Lopez
www.slim-lopez.com

Suburban Blight Zine
http://suburbanblightzine.tumblr.com/

TROY Frost

Unblushing
http://vsco.co/darrieaclark/

Wyeth Moss
http://jill-cohen.tumblr.com/

♥ Lady Creator Mini Mart ♥

Angela Pilgrim
www.angelaplgrm.com

Creepy Gals
www.creepygals.com

Kaitlyn Ferruggia
www.etsy.com/shop/psycholeo

Modern Girl Blitz
Moderngirlblitz.biz

Rhiverxx
Rhiverxx.com

Wild Heart
www.etsy.com/shop/wildheartstore

Yvng Pearl
yvngpearl.com

Flyer: Stephanie Rodriguez (@stephguez on instagram)

---

Super 8

8th Annual Art Auction and Party
June 11th @ Gallery Aferro, 73 Market Street, Newark, NJ
VIP Preview 6pm – 7pm
Auction 7pm – 9:30pm
Afterparty 10pm -???

If you cannot attend, but would like to donate to support, please do so here!

Gallery Aferro is excited to announce the 8th Annual Benefit Art Auction and Party on June 11th, 2016. This festive event features an exciting auction of hundreds of artworks by emerging and established artists, live music, fun activities including interactive performances, strong signature cocktails and endless icy beer, fine catering, and dozens of wonderful door and raffle prizes!

All proceeds from tickets and purchases make possible Gallery Aferro’s year-round exhibitions, award-winning artist residencies, publications, education program, public art initiatives, and ongoing expansion. Stay tuned via our email list, Facebook and Instagram as the excitement builds.

*Tickets purchased at the event will be slightly higher. Advance ticket purchase option will be available until June 10th, end of day.

---

O.O.O.A.

May 14th, 2016 5pm
Gallery Aferro, 73 Market Street

O.O.O.A. is an anarchic interactive public performance inspired
by John Zorn’s COBRA and object-oriented ontological philosophies by Yale architecture professor Mark Foster Gage in which the public and event performers will collaborate using experimental sound objects and improvisation to create an original and ephemeral composition.The public is invited to participate in all aspects of the performance; as conductors, musicians/performers, and as listeners.

Artists were asked to design sound objects placed where the public will be able to collaborate directly in the performance and aid in the creation of the composition. These objects may be anything, as long as they create tones or add a percussive element to contribute to the soundscape. They may be musical in nature or abstract.

BE PREPARED FOR WILD AUDITORY EXPLORATIONS!

Rhythm Combo Featuring Linda Everswick and more!

Some participating artists:
Genise Paige Deal
Heidi Lorënz Wettach
Jillian Keats
Ileana Ordoñez
Dawn Foster
More TBA

Food and beverages will be available starting at 5 PM.

O.O.O.A. is a project created by Oculus Art
Collaborative and Collaborate Audio Lab.

We are looking for more collaborators for this project, please click here for more information.

---

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro

ARTIST TALK: Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists
Sunday May 8th 1:30pm, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Norene Leddy

Gallery Aferro studio residency alumna ‪Norene Leddy
invites museum visitors to participate in Labor and Love: An Ongoing
Conversation about Mothers, Children, Housework and Wages. Focusing on
the visible and invisible labor of mothers, the conversation will
start with Lilly Martin Spencer’s painting Four Children of Marcus L.
Ward, from 1858-1860, and then move to the historic Ballantine dining
room. Woven into the conversation will be personal stories, a chain
email excerpt from The Invisible Woman: When Only God Sees – A Special
Story for Mothers by Nicole Johnson (which was sent to Leddy by her
own mother), and the Wages for Housework campaign. The conversation
will continue online at www.laborandlove.net

Norene Leddy creates platforms to talk about technology, history, sex,
art, and social justice. Projects include working with LGBTQI youth,
sex workers, young women, and others to create videos, shoes,
garments, alarm systems, maps, DIY electronics kits, and other ways to
explore high and low technology for protection and self-expression.
Her work has been shown internationally at venues including Eyebeam
(New York), Henie Onstad Kunstsenter (Norway), and Sarai Media Lab
(India). She has been the recipient of numerous grants, awards and
residencies including a Fulbright Fellowship, two Eyebeam residencies,
and funding from NYSCA, Bronx Council for the Arts, and the
Experimental Television Center. In 2011 she was nominated for a 2011
World Technology award.

In 2008, Norene started an ongoing art and curatorial collaboration
with Liz Slagus. Together they have curated exhibitions for
Cuchifritos Art + Project Space, City Without Walls, Kean University,
and Gallery Aferro among others. In April 2014, they were awarded A
Blade of Grass Socially-Engaged Art Fellowship for their current
project, SexEd. Merging art, activism and education, SexEd is an
ongoing quest to expose the current state of sexual education in the
U.S. and encourage public discussions about sexual health through art
projects and community collaborations.

Norene earned her B.F.A. from Boston University in1994 and a M.F.A.
from Parsons The New School for Design in 2000, where she is now a
Part-Time Assistant Professor.

---

New Jeru Slam

73 Market Street, Gallery Aferro
First Friday of every month 7pm-10pm

Monthly Open Slam Series starting Friday Sept 4th @ 7:30pm and every first Friday thereafter, right in the heart of Newark NJ @ Gallery Aferro! New Jeru Slam has represented NJ at the Annual Southern Fried Poetry Festival since 2005. Poets will slam each month and the top 2 slammers will come back for the Grand Finals in April. The finalists will slam for a spot to Represent New Jeru Slam @ The Southern Fried Poetry Slam Festival in Greensboro NC in June 2016. This is open to any and all slam poets from NJ!

Sign up to slam is at the door and only the first 15 poets will be included each night so be early! Contact Flow Mentalz – chriscook713@gmail.com for any questions.

There is a $5 suggested donation. All proceeds go toward travel and hotel expenses for the New Jeru Slam Team competitors participating in the 2016 Southern Fried Poetry Slam Festival.

---

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro

ARTIST TALK: Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists
Sunday April 10th 1:30pm, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Margaret Murphy

---

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro

ARTIST TALK: Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists
Sunday March 13th 1:30pm, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Patricia Dahlman

---

Art Block! Hosted by Gallery Aferro, Index Art Center, and The Newark Print Shop

Join us for an exciting collaborative event featuring three venues on the same block in downtown Newark featuring more than 30 artist’s open studios, 3 exhibitions, and multiple storefront public-art installations. Gallery Aferro, Index Art Center, and The Newark Print Shop will all open their doors to the public for an Art Block Party!

Gallery Aferro Studio Residency Artist Talks & Open Studios

73 Market Street, Gallery Aferro
March 12th, 11am – 4pm
Talks start at 4pm

Gallery Aferro’s Artist Talks and Open Studios is a great opportunity to experience a cross section of art making in Newark. Jo-El Lopez will be speaking about his solo exhibition on display in the main gallery at 5:15pm. Artists listed below will have their studios open to the public and the artists with an asterisk next to their name will be speaking during the artist talks. Gallery Aferro is also welcoming our first Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellow Lisette Morel to the residency.

Patricia Cazorla &
Nancy Saleme
Alex Cumming
Anne Dushanko-Dobek
Dominique Duroseau*
Essential Elements
Creative Collective
Gilbert Hsiao
Hal Laessig*
Tasha Lewis
Jacob Mandel
Anne Q. McKeown
Lisette Morel*
William A. Ortega*
Lizzy Storm
Amanda Thackray
Ken Weathersby
Jay Wilson
Sara Wolfe*
Yoland Skeete*

Index Art Center Open Studios

237 Washington Street, Newark NJ
12pm – 5pm

Participating Artists:
And / Or: Frank Anderson and Colin Shields
Afterlife: Jennifer Schwartz
Creepy Gals: Linda Chen
Patricia Dahlman
Irrelevant: Kevin and Eric Durkin
Colleen Gutwein and Joseph O’Neal
Hila Sela and Agnes Deja
Heidi Hussa and Linda Everswick
Vazquez

Newark Print Shop

Beneath the Surface
304 University Avenue Fl 2, Newark, NJ

“BENEATH THE SURFACE” is an exhibition curated by Stephen McKenzie showcasing the intaglio print. Intaglio (/ɪnˈtæli.oʊ/ in-TAL-ee-oh) meaning “to engrave” or “cut into” is the family of printing in which the image is incised into the surface, and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink. When the time comes for an impression to be taken the plate is inked, the plate surface wiped clean, and only the ink left within the incised or etched lines “beneath the surface” is printed using a press. The intaglio print has no formal inventor. The artists of the early years were anonymous and often trained as gold- and silversmiths. They are credited only as Masters for the work they created. Durer is one of the first artists to receive recognition for his creative efforts in the medium. He is then followed by such artists as Callot, Rembrandt, Canale, Piranesi, Cassatt, Degas, Goya and Whistler. Each advanced the overall process and contributed to the further development of the medium.

This exhibition is on view from Saturday January 23rd through March 11th

Exhibiting artists:
KEVIN DURKIN, RACHEL HEBERLING, YVETTE LUCAS, KATHERINE ROGERS, ONNIE STROTHERS, EVAN SUMMER, CAROL WAX
Curated by Stephen McKenzie

All events are free and open to the public

Event cover images by Yoland Skeete, Hal Laessig, Sara Wolf, and Dominique Duroseau

---

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro

ARTIST TALK: Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists
Sunday February 14th 1:30pm, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Evonne M. Davis

Evonne M. Davis, a working artist and the Co-founder and Artistic Director of Gallery Aferro, creates sculptural installations and experimental vide. She offers new insights and personal reflections on the Museum’s collections and special exhibitions. – See more at: http://www.newarkmuseum.org/second-sunday-feb14-2016#sthash.96lL2bSI.dpuf

---

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro

ARTIST TALK: Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists
Sunday January 10th 1:30pm, meet in the South Wing Rotunda

Kenseth Armstead, Gallery Aferro Studio Residency Alum, will give a talk entitled Manifest Mysticism while standing between two paintings by Thomas Cole and Fredric Winchurch. The talk focuses on the two Hudson River School painters, Freemason culture and manifest destiny.

Kenseth Armstead is a multimedia installation artist. His works have been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Brooklyn Museum; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; the Studio Museum in Harlem; the Berlin VideoFest; and the MIT List Visual Arts Center. His videos, drawings and sculptures are included in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, African American Museum in Dallas, Texas and numerous public and private collections. The New York Times, L Magazine, Art in America, Village Voice, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post have favorably reviewed his videos, sculptures and multimedia installations. – See more at: http://www.newarkmuseum.org/second-sunday-jan10-2016

---

Pop Up Yoga with I’m So Yoga Newark

73 Market Street, Gallery Aferro
Every Thursday @7pm

Every Thursday Im So Yoga Newark will have an event at Gallery Aferro on the first floor. Im So Yoga Newark’s goal is to bring healthier activities to the area as well as build a community of friends with a common interest. Whether you’re a beginner or advanced yoga student, the benefits of yoga include flexibility, strength and posture. Yoga increases feeling of wellness, positive attitude, energy levels, memory attention, concentration, social skills and self-acceptance. Yoga also reduces anxiety, stress, depression, tension, sugar, cholesterol levels, increased Hb, weight, cell deterioration, blood pressure, arthritis and tension in muscles.

Yoga by donation

---

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro

ARTIST TALK: Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists
Sunday June 12th 1:30pm, meet in the South Wing Rotunda with Anonda Bell

---

Market on Market

Market on Market is a fun and exciting new monthly Art/Flea Market in Downtown Newark, NJ. Modeled after many other fantastic markets in Trenton, Brooklyn, Beacon and Philadelphia; Market on Market offers handmade, upcycled, recycled and antique items as well as workshops and events.

August 22nd  2015 – 85 Market Street

September 19th  – 85 Market Street

October 10th  – 85 Market Street

November 21st  – 85 Market Street

December 19th  – 73 Market Street

For more information contact edavis@aferro.org

Vendors for August 22nd Market on Market

Found Photo Gallery
All For You Vintage
Art Needs a Home
Artwork by Jim Legge
Bountiful Baskets
Carmen Bury By Hand
Davis Family Table
Diana Mandel
Diutobaby’s Homemade Bath Products
DotoriStudio
Egyptian Imports
Emerald Crow
Everrything Rrouge by Melody Asherman
Friends of the Newark Public Library
Geek Supply Co.
God-S Wearable Art
Hats and Things by Debbie Mandel
Hello Beautiful Healing Ministry
I’m So Yoga Newark
Jersey Buzz Raw Honey & Honey Related Products
Jersey Jenem Pop Art
JnJ Gift Baskets
The Junes
Justwend
Kate Eggleston
Labue Jewelry
The Lost & Found Variety Store
Lynxyart
Malik Hardaway-Whitaker
Newark Books by Barbara Kukla
Nice Stuff
Oloye Karade
The Pink Honey Bee
SamKa Designs
Spangle Pop
Stick Em Up
Sonya Jenkins
Swarovskiologist
TBL Jewelry
Tendrils and Lace
Trade Secrets Accessories
Val Gal
Vintage Libations

---

7th Annual Holiday Party/Potluck/Molting & SOUL BABY Closing Party/Elevator Music 2 CD Release and Performance/Market on Market/Holiday Card Making Workshop

73 & 85 Market Street, Gallery Aferro
December 19th, 11am – 6pm

Wow! A day jam packed with activities, events, shopping, art, and food! Bring a tasty treat or yummy dish to share at the potluck and celebrate the closing of Gallery Aferro’s exciting exhibition Molting. Make hand-made holiday cards with Patricia Davis, all materials provided by Gallery Aferro, just bring your imagination! It’s also the last Market on Market for 2015 so don’t miss it! There will also be a curated grouping of performances for our Elevator Music installation running all day. Even more details coming soon!

All proceeds, including your generous end–of-the-year donations will help benefit the community arts program of Gallery Aferro, a 501 (c)3 nonprofit!

We can’t wait to see you and celebrate the end of an especially awesome year!

---

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro

ARTIST TALK: Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists
Sunday December 13th 2pm, meet in the South Wing Rotunda

Ken Weathersby, Gallery Aferro Artist in Residence tours the Museum and talks about what inspires him and the ways that works in the collection impact his own work as a painter who finely crafts and reshuffles the given parts of painting – surface, stretcher, canvas, linen and sometimes collage. – See more at: http://www.newarkmuseum.org/second-sunday-dec13-2015#sthash.GfuIQff8.dpuf

---

Second Sundays at the Newark Museum with Gallery Aferro

ARTIST TALK: Newark Museum through the Eyes of Gallery Aferro Artists
Sunday November 8th 2pm, meet in the South Wing Rotunda

Anne Q. McKeown, Gallery Aferro Artist in Residence tours the Museum and talks about what inspires her and the ways that works in the collection impact her own work as a painter, printmaker and master papermaker. – See more at: http://www.newarkmuseum.org/second-sunday-nov8-2015#sthash.yidWikQY.dpuf

---

Cooperative Development Institute
Arts Co Ops 101

73 Market Street, Gallery Aferro
November 21st, 7-9pm

Empowering Artists through Economic Cooperation

Artists and artisans need to do their craft, earn a living, and live their lives. All over the U.S. and the world, cooperatives are helping them to do that. The idea of co-ops is that we can do more together than we can apart, and that sharing allows us all to get what we need. Does shared space, shared purchasing, shared work, shared connections, or shared abundance sound enticing? Are you wondering how to make your ideas of a better environment for creative work a reality?

Noemi Giszpenc is the Executive Director of the Cooperative Development Institute, a nonprofit providing business consultation, training and networking to groups in the Northeast pursuing cooperative endeavors. She is currently developing a project on resources for creating cooperatives that serve artists and artisans.

---

How To Photograph Your Artwork

Photography Workshop Led by Emma Wilcox and Jacob Mandel
October 3rd @85 Market Street, 1pm, $15 per attendee

Register here!

Artists, do you want to have better images of your artwork? This workshop will cover practical techniques for improving the quality of your digital images, regardless of what camera and gear you have access to.

We will demonstrate strategies to fit every budget, and discuss how images are used by curators and other arts professionals. Register early, the workshop is limited to 20 participants to ensure a goal-driven, and highly effective experience for each attendee.

---

Gallery Aferro Studio Residency Open Studios

73 Market Street, Gallery Aferro
October 18th 11am – 5pm

Gallery Aferro’s Annual Artist Talks and Open Studios is a great opportunity to experience a cross section of art making in Newark. Artists listed below will have their studios open to the public

Patricia Cazorla
Alex Scott Cumming
Anne Dushanko-Dobek
Essential Elements Creative Collective
Gilbert Hsiao
Wendy Letven
Tasha Lewis
Jacob Mandel
Anne Q. McKeown
William A. Ortega
Nancy Saleme
Elizabeth Storm
Yoland Skeete
Amanda Thackray
Emily Tumbleson
Ken Weathersby
Jay Wilson
Sara Wolfe

---

PAPER IN THE ALLEY: Sat July 18th 12-4pm

PAPER IN THE ALLEY is a free workshop offered to the public to learn and engage in the fine art of papermaking, from processing raw fiber to pulling sheets of beautiful handmade paper from large vats of pulp. This workshop taught by master papermaker Anne McKeown will take place on Saturday, July 18th from 12-4pm in the alley outside of the Newark Print Shop and Gallery Aferro on Campbell Street. We will be creating large sheets of handmade kozo paper, as well as smaller sheets of recycled denim paper.

*Rain date: Saturday, July 25th 12-4pm*

Kozo paper is made from renewable branches of the kozo (paper mulberry) tree, specifically the innermost layer of bark which must be cooked and beaten before the sheets are formed. Kozo fiber makes strong, translucent and beautiful paper.

The recycled denim paper will be made from used jeans that will be processed in our Hollander Beater.
We will be collecting used denim at the Newark Print Shop prior to the event during our studio hours:
Wednesday 6-10pm and Saturday 12-5pm.

If you are interested in learning how to process the raw kozo fiber, which needs to be beaten and cooked prior to sheet formation, a smaller workshop will be held at Gallery Aferro located at 73 Market Street on Friday, July 17th beginning at 10am. Please contact Anne McKeown if you would like to participate in the Friday workshop: anneqmck@gmail.com. For more information about Gallery Aferro visit aferro.org

*This project has been made possible by the generous support of the Newark Arts Council and the ArtStart Grant*

The Newark Print Shop (NPS) is a community fine art printmaking studio in Downtown Newark, NJ. Founded in August 2012, our mission is dedicated to promoting the fine art of printmaking by providing a vibrant learning community and access to professional equipment and facilities. The shop incubates artistic expression through its educational opportunities, while simultaneously creating workspace opportunities for shop members and artists in our community.

Newark Print Shop is located at 304 University Ave FL 2 in Downtown Newark, NJ.
Studio Hours: Wed. 6-10 p.m, Sat. 12-5 p.m and by appointment.

---

LUCKY 7:

7th Annual Art Auction and Party
June 13th @ Gallery Aferro, 73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

VIP Preview 6pm – 7pm
Auction 7pm – 9:30pm
Afterparty 10pm -?

Regular Ticket: $25 for sale here
VIP Ticket (includes afterparty): $100 for sale here
Tickets for the Party and the afterparty: $35 for sale here*

Guest of Donating Artist Discount Ticket for sale here

If you cannot attend, but would like to donate to support, please do so here!

Gallery Aferro is excited to announce the 7th Annual Benefit Art Auction and Party on June 13th, 2015. This festive event features an exciting auction of hundreds of artworks by emerging and established artists, live music by Emily and the Ideals, fun activities including interactive performance by Jackie Du and outdoor art selfie stations, strong signature cocktails and endless icy craft beer from Hunterdon Brewery, fine catering, and dozens of wonderful door and raffle prizes including two getaway destination packages!

All proceeds from tickets and purchases make possible Gallery Aferro’s year-round exhibitions, award-winning artist residencies, publications, education program, public art initiatives, and ongoing expansion. Stay tuned via our email list, Facebook and Instagram as the excitement builds.

*Tickets purchased at the event will be slightly higher. Advance ticket purchase option will be available until June 12th, end of day.

Very special thanks to everyone who has donated! Artworks that have been donated include works by:

Alexis Adam
Happiness Akaniro
Shango Obade Akintunde
Drew Alexander Ennis
Fanny Allié
Mauro Altamura
Dara Alter
Greta Andersen
Keliy Anderson-Staley
Cossio Angeles
Abel Barroso
Amy Barr
Milcah Bassel
Aileen Bassis
Amy Becker
Anonda Bell
Katrina Bello
Patricia A. Bender
Gianluca Bianchino
Carol Black-Lemon
Joseph Boss
Winifred Boss
Jeanne Brasile
Sarah Brenneman
Daniel Brophy
Robert Brush
Doris Cacoilo
Kathy Cantwell
Karlos Cárcamo
Deric Carner
LG Carpenter
Kayla Carucci
Patricia Cazorla
Nubia Celestin
Gwen Charles
Seth Cluett
Marcy Chevali
Lawrence Ciarallo
Carrie Crow
Patricia Dahlman
Tim Daly
Evonne Davis
Michael De Brito
Rosetta DeBerardinis
Suzanne Dell’Orto
Andrew Demirjian
Dave DiMarchi
Timothy P. Dingman
Dominique Duroseau
Anne Dushanko Dobek
Kate Eggleston
Jessica Ellis
Susan Evans Grove
Alyssa Fanning
Lauren Fedorchak
Elizabeth Fennelly
Ursmar Fernandes
Tania Fleitas
Daniel R. Fleszar
Jerry Gant
Dana Gentile
Susan Gepford
Elizabeth Gilfilen
Tai Hwa Goh
Shalom Gorewitz
Allan Gorman
Robert Gould
Colleen Gutwein
Geri Hahn
Christine Heller
James Horner
Loring Hughes
Heather Johnson
Sandy Jones
Tracy Renee Jones
Michael Kaminsky
Ilona Kennedy
Bruce Kern
Nina Kuo
Robert Lach
Hal Laessig
Jeannine Laginhas
Thom Latimer
Alyssa Lawler
Niki Lederer
Jim Legge
Wendy Letven
Laura Lou Levy
Phoenix Lindsey-Hall
LNY, Mata Ruda, Gaia, and Rodolfo Diaz
Jo-EL Lopez
Melissa MacAlpin
Jacob Mandel
Victoria Manning
Ashanti Mars
Ryan Martin
Marianne McCarthy
Julie McHargue
Stephen McKenzie
Anne McKeown
Bud McNichol
Claudia McNulty
Gabrielle Meit
Angel Mendoza
Geoffrey Miller
Juan Jose Miranda
Susan Napack
Joseph O’Neal
Erica Ochsenreither
William Ortega
Andre Pace
Adrianne Paerels
Diana Palermo
Joan Pamboukes
Amelia Panico
Christopher Pratt
Sandra Ramos
Lilly Ribeiro
Ryan Roa
Stephanie Romano
Lorin Roser
Scott Ruel
Nancy Saleme
Arleen Schloss
Terri Seuss
Yoland Skeete
Jackie Skrzynski
Mike Smith
Christine Soccio
Elizabeth Sowell-Zak
Vaughn Spann
Leona Strassberg Steiner
Jacquelyn Strycker
Sylvia Taylor
Amanda Thackray
Mollie Thonneson
Stephanie Tichenor
Dora Tomulic
Denise Treizman
Emily Tumbleson
Chris Twomey
Eric Valosin
Mary Valverde
Jeanne Verdoux
Kati Vilim
Rual Villarreal
Warner Wada
Joe Waks
Anker West
James Wilson
Sarah Wolfe
Jesse Wright
Bahar Yurukoglu
Frantz Zephirin
Jeremy Zini

Thank you to our generous sponsors that have helped make this event so special and amazing!

4imprint
Alex and Ani
Alstede Farms
Anthony Alvarez
Arthur Murray Dance Studios of Montclair
Atlantis Casino Resort and Spa
Autozone
Badger Balm
Bradford Portraits
Broadway Comedy Club

Cintander Restaurant
C and H Sugar
Children’s Museum of Art
Color Maker
Fabricland
Fleischmann Planetarium
Frogg Toggs
Giffords Ice Cream
Graeters Ice Cream
GUAYAKI
Heavenly Souffles
Highlights Magazine
Hobby’s Deli
Hunterdon Brewery
Liberty Science Center

Latin Heritage Cards
Luna Stage

Medina=Citi
Minted
Nancy Seus
National Automobile Museum
New Era
NJ Symphony Orchestra
Old Sturbridge Village
Oriental Trading
Planetary Pastry

RBH Group
Rebounderz of Edison
Red Bull Stadium
Remco Press
Rook Coffee
Shakespeare Theater of NJ
Siggi’s
Soaring Adventures of America
Southwest Airlines
Spanish Tavern
STOMP!
Talenti

Thermacell
Tinyprints
Top of the Rock
Turkey Hill
Umbra

Wine Library

Studio Residency Open Studios and Artist Talks

March 28th @ Gallery Aferro, 73 Market Street, Newark, NJ

Gallery Aferro’s Annual Artist Talks and Open Studios is a great opportunity to experience a cross section of art making in Newark. Artists listed below will have their studios open to the public and a selected list will be giving talks about their work and process.

Patricia Cazorla & Nancy Salame
Alex Cumming
Anne Dushanko-Dobek
Essential Elements Collective
Sunil Garg
Gilbert Hsiao
Wendy Letven
Tasha Lewis
Jacob Mandel
Anne Q. McKeown
Elizabeth Storm
Emily Tumbleson
Amanda Thackray
Ken Weathersby
James Wilson

Canned Heat Mixer

March 6th @ =Space, 6PM
Maxblau Building, 89 Market Street, 4th Floor, Newark, NJ

Guest Speaker @ 6:30pm
Eric Nadler, JC Fablab

---

Sip and Paint

In collaboration with Essential Elements Collective
March 14th, 6pm – 9pm

A monthly group painting series with wine, food, & conversation.
RSVP to essentialelementscollective@gmail.com, $20

Co-Ed Conversation

In collaboration with Essential Elements Collective
Hosted by Ikechukwu & Tracee Thomas
February 28th, 5pm – 8pm

An interactive discussion series about love, sex, dating, and relationships.

6th Annual Holiday Party/Potluck/PopShop Sale!

Gallery Aferro, in collaboration with Essential Elements Collaborative, invites you to the 6th Annual Holiday Potluck & Closing Party!

December 13, Potluck and Party 12 – 8pm

Bring a yummy dish to share at Gallery Aferro, see Adejoke Tugbiyele’s show that is on view, shop our PopShop gift market, and enjoy live music, fun activities, and your community! Learn how to create a handmade card for your loved ones with Evonne’s mom, an experienced crafter; all materials provided by Gallery Aferro. Take a Rosie the Riveter Selfie with our handpainted backdrop and enjoy your community.

Gallery Aferro in collaboration with Essential Elements Collective is presenting, HelloBeautiful Healing PopShop Newark 2014. It will kick off November 29th and will have an amazing selection of holiday goods specifically for the holiday party!

All proceeds, including your generous end–of-the-year donations will help benefit the community arts program of Gallery Aferro, a 501 (c)3 nonprofit!

We can’t wait to see you and celebrate the end of an especially awesome year!

Liberation Arts presents an Artist Cipher
Mondays, 6:30 PM

A Conversation with Artist Adejoke Tugbiyele and
Christa Clarke, Senior Curator, Arts of Global Africa
Co-presented by the Newark Museum and Gallery Aferro

Newark Museum, Billy Johnson Auditorium
Sunday, November 9, 2-3 pm

Join artist Adejoke Tugbiyele and curator Christa Clarke in conversation on Sunday, November 9^th from 2 till 3 pm as they discuss the artist’s creative process, sources of inspiration and commitment to social activism.

RSVP online at newarkmuseum.org

1-2 pm: Prior to the program, visit the Newark Museum’s galleries devoted to Arts of Global Africa for guided viewing of politically and socially engaged art work in the collection, including work by Adejoke Tugbiyele. Look for the Art for Change symbol on each object’s label. In an innovative partnership with the Newark Museum, a special rotation highlighting examples of politically engaged works has been put on display in the museum’s galleries devoted to the arts of global Africa. Works include a 1980s anti-apartheid work by South African artist Sue Williamson, a photograph by Zanele Muholi from her series of portraits of the LGBT community in South Africa, and a printed textile dress made to protest female circumcision in Mali. Also featured will be AFRIKEA, an earlier work by Tugbiyele.

3:30-6 pm: After the program, guests are invited to attend a performance by artist Shola Cole at nearby Gallery Aferro, followed by a reception and tours of Election/Erection, a solo exhibition of recent works by Adejoke Tugbiyele presented by guest curator Dexter Wimberly (Gallery Aferro, 73 Market Street, Newark, NJ http://www.aferro.org)

AfroOdyssey IV: 100 Years Later

Performance by Olushola A. Cole
Sunday November 9th, 3:30pm

A daughter of Nigerian and Caribbean parents, Olushola A. Cole was born in the United Kingdom. Cole’s work is infused with multidisciplinary materials and methods, bridging the world of theater, place making and visual art. Her body of work Jenny.Was.A.Pirate.Hater uses sculpture, photography, sound, video, drawing, performance and installation. These mediums, along with the emergence of her alter ego Pirate Jenny, explore motifs of identity while serving to create an expressive, interdisciplinary and socio-political look at the Golden Age of Pirates intersection with the Atlantic Slave Trade.

Projects and current collaborations include co-producing and performing in the experimental film project AfroOdyssey III, screened at the Jewish Museum of New York’s  Sights and Sounds: Global Film and Video Series (2013) ; AfroOdyssey IV : 100 years later at the Goethe Institut’s Black to the Future exhibition and  LOOP ’14 international film festival in Barcelona  (2014).  Classical training in piano, trombone, movement and voice has laid strong foundations for performances withCarnegie Hall’s McFerrin Instant Opera Concert (2008) Jacobs Pillow’s Hip Hop Cultural Traditions Dance Program (2009) and with the off-Broadway hit STOMP.Embodied inquiry into physical theater, yoga, Gaga, Alexander Technique, contact improvisation, ballet and modern dance underwrite Cole’s belief in a community’s ability to positively change their environment through movement. Studies of social rebellion and forays into social movements such as house dance, samba, West African dance, hip-hop, tango and capoeira – have propelled Cole to always seek the various connection between the creative code of oppressed groups and their oppressive environments. Cole graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of General Studies, minoring in Women’s Studies. She performs with the Elm City Dance Collective and also facilitates her  Body Vocality Improv Workshops . Cole is a proud collective member/owner of the anarchist project Red Emma’s Bookstore and Coffeehouse. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at  Mount Royal School of Art  at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Gallery Aferro Fall 2014 Open Studios for Newark Open Doors

October 12, 11-5
Gallery Aferro

As part of Newark Open Doors, 17 current resident artists at Gallery Aferro will open their studios from 11-5 on Sunday October 12. Meet the artists and learn about their immensely varied projects. Have a glass of wine and spend some time exploring.

Current Residents:

Patricia Cazorla & Nancy Saleme
Dahlia Elsayed
Essential Elements Creative Collective
Sunil Garg
Gilbert Hsiao
Wendy Letven
Tasha Lewis
Jacob Mandel
Anne Q. McKeown
Elizabeth Storm
Amanda Thackray
Adejoke Tugbiyele
Emily Tumbleson
Ken Weathersby
Jay Wilson

The Gallery Aferro Studio Residency has been running over three floors of Gallery Aferro’s 20,000 sq ft building since 2006. Residency alumni, including numerous collectives, 3 Fulbright Fellows, are artists working in a diverse cross section of contemporary media. Resident artists work in 24/7 access spaces, give talks and tours, and are exhibited in collaborative partnerships forged by Gallery Aferro throughout the tristate area.

Art and Controversy: A Panel Discussion
October 2 7PM
Seton Hall University
Nursing Amphitheatre
Caroline D. Schwartz College of Nursing

The Lennie Pierro Memorial Arts Foundation in South Orange, the BA Program in Art History, and the MA Program in Museum Professions at Seton Hall University, are pleased to present a panel discussion on the subject of Art and Controversy, with moderator Dan Bischoff, Art Critic of the Star Ledger. Joining the panel are Emma Wilcox and Evonne Davis of Gallery Aferro, artist Jesse Krimes, and Barry Schwabsky, art critic for The Nation. The event is open to students, faculty and general public at no cost.

Dan Bischoff will initiate the panel with an overview of controversies in the recent past beginning with TK and “Sensation” in 1999. Included in the overview are the numerous controversies leading to the censorship of art using images of the attacks on 9/11, raising the question whether certain subjects are too “controversial” for art and artists to undertake.

Emma Wilcox and Evonne Davis, co-founders/owners of Gallery Aferro in Gallery in downtown Newark, will discuss their decision to show David Wojnarowicz’s “Fire in the Belly” video after members of Congress protested its inclusion in “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” at the National Portrait Gallery in 2010, leading to its censorship

Barry Schwabsky, art critic for The Nation and co-editor of international reviews for Artforum magazine, will discuss the most current controversies surrounding the works of the Palestinian photographer Ahlam Shibli, a Palestinian from Israel whose work explores themes of home and belonging and Elka Sulcowicz, the art student at Columbia University who is dragging her dorm mattress with her everywhere on campus until the fellow student she says raped her there last semester is suspended or expelled.

Finally, Jesse Krimes, whose mural done on prison sheets, “Apokaluptein 16389067,” is at the Zimmerli Museum through Dec. 14, will talk about art’s deliberate use of controversy in profoundly different times. Krimes, recently released from federal prison after serving seven years for a nonviolent drug crime, will describe how and why he made the huge work, secretly, during his time in prison. His work exemplifies art working through controversy in an entirely new way, using the artist himself as symbol.

Our Words, Our Voices: Panel and Performance
Performances by Yvonne Fly Onakeme and Grace Detrevarah

Wednesday July 16th, 2014

Presented by Gallery Aferro in collaboration with the Department of African American and African Studies and the Program in Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers University – Newark

---

Gallery Aferro hosts 6^th annual Benefit Art Auction and Party!

An even bigger and better night of culture and cocktails for a cause!

June 14, 2014, 7-10 PM

VIP Preview Hour 6-10, Afterparty 10-?

Tickets for party and afterparty on sale here

Gallery Aferro is thrilled to announce the 6th Annual Benefit Art Auction and Party on June 14th. This festive event features an exciting auction of hundreds of artworks by emerging and established artists, live jazz performance by the William Spaulding Quartet as well as surprise performers, fun activities including interactive performance by Jackie Du, strong signature cocktails and endless icy craft beer from Hunterdon Brewery, fine catering, and 30+ wonderful door and raffle prizes.

All proceeds from tickets and purchases make possible Gallery Aferro’s year-round exhibitions, award-winning artist residencies, publications, education program, and public art initiatives. Stay tuned via our email list, Facebook and Instagram as the excitement builds.

Gallery Aferro is a nonprofit alternative arts space founded by artists Evonne M. Davis and Emma Wilcox in 2003. Within a decade of existence, Newark, NJ-based Gallery Aferro has received 3 consecutive Citations of Excellence from the NJ state arts council for our ambitious annual roster of 12-15 exhibitions, with connected artist talks, performances, panels, workshops, and screenings, our year-round artist residency program, educational offerings including arts intensives and school tours, a public art initiatives, and a publication line of artist books, exhibition catalogs, essays, a sound art CD. We collaborated with more than a dozen organizations in 2013 alone!

A 2011 full-length, illustrated profile in Inside NJ magazine described our “dizzying array of contemporary art,” and Hyperallergic, Two Coats of Paint, The Star Ledger, The Daily Record, Fast Company, and the College Art Association are among others to take notice as well. The Co-Directors were invited to join the  2013 convening of the Gustav Heningburg Civic Fellowship, Rutgers Institute for Culture, Ethnicity and the Modern Experience, and jointly shared the honor of the Printmaking Center of NJ’s 2013 Erena Ray Award for Art and Social Justice. During February 2014, Artistic Director Evonne M. Davis was interviewed on NBC 4 New York News with Newark artist Jerry Gant.

Despite our comparative organizational youth, we’ve served as the sole Newark and even NJ representation as part of larger nationwide initiatives such as 2009 nationwide screenings of a censored film organized by PPOW Gallery (NYC), and 2013’s GhostFood Truck, part of Marfa Dialogues on Climate Change from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation (NYC) and Ballroom Marfa (TX). To date, four Fulbright fellows, one Joan Mitchell awardee, and two of Eyebeam’s only female fellows have participated in our studio residency, adding to a growing brain trust of Newark-connected talent.

For one night only unique artworks will be available for sale at prices that will enlarge or establish your collection. Delight a friend, colleague or loved one with the gift of artwork. Bring someone who’s never been to the gallery, or to Newark, or someone you come with every year. Bask in the knowledge that you’ve supported downtown vibrancy, the free exchange of ideas, and arts access for the next generation. Dance and have fun.

Donors and supporters for the event to date include: Alex and Ani, Alstede Farms, Arthur Murray Dance Studios, AutoZone, Bradford Portraits, Broadway Comedy Club, Canvas on Demand, Children’s Museum of the Arts, Chipotle, Clementon Splash World, CVS, Eastside Distillery, Fabricland, Green Kids Crafts, Jones T Shirts, Libre Tea, Looney Labs, Luna Stage, McCarter Theater, Minted, New Era Caps, Old Sturbridge Village, Rebounderz, Scout by Bungalow, Shy Brother’s Farm, Stampin Up!, Stash Tea, Stomp!, The Shannon Rose, Tinyprints, True Citrus, Turkey Hill, Zoo Books and others.

Unusual Suspects: Jerry Gant
An Artistic Meditation of the Black Male Image in America
Curated by Linda Street and Gallery Aferro for Activate: Market Street
February 22 – May 24, 2014

Maurice Chestnut Performance
April 11, 6 PM
85 Market Street

One of tap’s brightest young stars, Maurice Chestnut is an original member of the New Jersey Tap Dance Ensemble. Straight from Newark, New Jersey, he introduces tap as an instrument. Maurice takes from his classical rhythm tap training and infuses hip-hop, funk and soul. His extensive list of credits includes his appearance at Carnegie Hall and throughout Europe with the Geri Allen trio as a featured soloist, and his performances in productions with Savion Glover such as Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk, Improvography, Classical Savion, Tappin’ Into Monk, Invitation to the Dancer and on “ABC-TV’s Dancing With The Stars.” At the turn of the 21st century, the Newark Star Ledger’s arts reviewers named Maurice “one of the twenty New Jersey faces to watch for in the new century.”

Creative Mashup
April 18, 3 PM
85 Market Street

Continuing Gant’s investigation of performance, audience, agency, and tropes of Black masculinity, this performance will feature some unexpected guests. For more information visit aferro.org

Market Street Blueprint Cypher
April 26, 3 PM
Gallery Aferro
 
Participants in this activity will use images and symbols provided by artists Jerry Gant and Terry Boddie as well as make their own, to make unique cyanotype prints.  This activity will provide an opportunity for creative collaboration with the artists in the moment. Please RSVP to info@aferro.org to participate. A series of original prints by Gant and Boddie will also be available for sale in art shop.

A Gathering of the Unusual Suspects: 100 Black Males in America

May 3, 10 AM
Essex County Courthouse Steps 465 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Presented by Gallery Aferro and Activate: Market Street
Photographer of Record, Akintola Hanif, Hycide Magazine
Art Director Jerry Gant
Creative Director Linda Street, Pink Dragon Artist Syndicate

Gallery Aferro is proud to present A Gathering of the Unusual Suspects, a historic public event from one of Newark’s most recognizable artistic forces, artist, muralist and performance poet Jerry Gant. Extending the narrative introduced by Gant’s Unusual Suspects exhibition for Gallery Aferro’s Activate:Market Street public art initiative, A Gathering of Unusual Suspects is an invitational event that will create an historic opportunity to capture the photographic image of a highly diverse, intergenerational assembly of Black males in America. Painters, poets, writers. teachers, lawyers, bankers, politicians, fashion designers, dancers, singers, rappers, students, brothers, fathers, sons are invited to gather on the steps of the historic Essex County Hall of Records building, on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard in Newark the largest city in New Jersey.  Participants and spectators are welcome! Participants must pre-register ASAP! To register, please visit here.

Panel moderated by Lisa Bradley
May 3, 2 PM
Gallery Aferro

Bradley, Gant, and other speakers will discuss the artist’s specific philosophical and political motivations and intentions in conceptualizing the entire Unusual Suspects project, as well as the specific context of time and place: Gallery Aferro, downtown Newark, and 2014 in America.

Lisa Bradley is an interdisciplinary artist and theorist, whose practice spans the genres of performance, sculpture, sound, writing and video. Her work queries concepts of the everyday and the absurd, as expressed through the lens of popular culture and critical race theory. Her work is most compellingly informed by Dada, ethnography, post-colonial theory, and The Cartoon Network.

Lisa’s arts training includes the BFA degree in Sculpture & Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University, the MFA in Performance Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the MA in Art & Media Practice from The University of Westminster, London, UK. A National Endowment of the Arts award recipient, Lisa is a Studio Fellow alumna of the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York, as well as a former artist-in-residence at Whitechapel Gallery in London, UK.

Bradley utilizes collaboration as a tangible material in her performative installations and interventions, and has most recently collaborated in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, with master artists William Pope L. and Martha Rosler.

Bradley will moderate Jerry Gant, Exhibiting Artist, Gallery Aferro and Activate:Market Street, Dr. Akil Khalfani, Director Africana Institute, Essex County College, Thomas Owens, School Operations Manager, Eagle Academy for Young Men of Newark, Douglas Says, Fashion Designer and Photo Historian and Rafael Sanchez, Artist on Gant’s specific philosophical and political motivations and intentions, conceptualizing the entire Unusual Suspects project.

---

Spring Artist Talks, Open Studios and Closing Party, Performance by Jerry Gant
May 24, 7 PM
Gallery Aferro

Please join us for the biannual artist talks and open studios at Gallery Aferro, along with a closing party, with performance, for all spring shows.

Current resident artists speaking will be Gilbert Hsiao, Essential Elements, Wendy Letven, Jay Wilson, Tasha Lewis, Anne McKeown, Ken Weathersby, and Adejoke Tugbiyele, along with exhibiting artist and studio alumn Malik Hardaway-Whitaker. Come meet the artists, tour their studios, and learn about an exciting cross-section of contemporary artistic practice in all its variety.

4:00pm – 5:30pm Open Studios
5:30pm – 7pm Artist Talks
7pm – 10pm Closing Party with Performance by Jerry Gant

On view through May 24:

Material Memory
Curated by Barbara Madsen
Heather Hart, Sophy Naess and Nicholas Pilato

Most Likely To…
Bud McNichol

Brick City Project
Malik Hardaway-Whitaker

Unusual Suspects
Curated by Linda Street for Activate: Market Street
Jerry Gant

---

5th Annual Holiday Party/Potluck/Open House
December 14, 2-7pm

Gallery Aferro, in collaboration with Aljira, a Center for Contemporary Art, invites you to the 5th Annual Holiday Potluck & Closing Party, with Art Crawl between two Newark galleries.

Aljira Open House gallery hours: 12pm to 4pm
Gallery Aferro gallery hours: 12-7, Potluck and Party 2-7pm

Bring something to Gallery Aferro to share and feast on the yummy array. There will be a hot, boozy drink, and cold craft beer. Mustache-wearing optional. Celebrate the closing of the shows with the artists, and enjoy your community.

Current shows on view at Gallery Aferro: Reflections on Everyman: Jan Sawka, Toile News Project: Margaret Murphy, and Sowing Promise: Vikki Michalios.

Current shows on view at Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art: Birth of a Cypher: Works by Terry Boddie, Temporality and Objects: New Installations and Photographs by Carl E. Hazlewood

Art Shop will be stuffed with a newly expanded selection of prints, plus cards, tee-shirts, wallets, gifts, jewelry, and books, many at 50% off!

All proceeds, including your generous end–of-the-year donations will help benefit the community arts program of Gallery Aferro, a 501 (c)3 nonprofit!

We can’t wait to see you and celebrate the end of an especially terrific year.

---

Jan Sawka: The Artists’ Role in Changing The World Symposium
November 16th 12-5pm
Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University
350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Newark, NJ

Gallery Aferro, the Newark Arts Council, and the Paul Robeson Galleries of Rutgers University present a free symposium using the sociopolitical context of the late Polish American artist Jan Sawka’s work as a jumping off point to look at art and activism. Speakers Frank Boyer, Jeffrey Goldfarb and Cynthia Nadelman will present on The subversive power of writing, letters, and coded language as manifested in Sawka’s visual art,(Nadelman), Living in Truth through Art: The Power of the not so Powerless (Goldfarb), and Art in the political and public space, then and now (Boyer). Public art and the artist’s role in its creation are at the heart of promoting civic dialogue everywhere. At its June 2013 artist development workshop Re-Source 3, the Newark Arts Council (NAC) initiated the discussion about public art and its importance in Newark’s continuing renaissance. NAC’s partnership with Gallery Aferro and Rutgers Newark’s Paul Robeson Galleries is a means of expanding on this important discourse. For the past decade, the Newark Arts Council has championed for the recognition and creation of public art in the City of Newark as part of its ongoing revival.

Sawka’s career began with work that expressed artistic opposition to the totalitarian communist regime of his native Poland, leading to his being included in the Polish School of the Poster, but also to his exile by the age of 30. Upon reaching the United States, his creative collaborations merged into counter-cultural, activist, avant-garde and alternative movements within the country he would call home for the majority of his career. This included collaborations as diverse as off-Broadway set designs and working with Samuel Beckett, to creating a historic art installation set for the Grateful Dead.

He continued to create work that would ultimately help change the political system of his homeland and that would bring attention to issues as diverse as a non-nuclear future, human rights, apartheid and Mid-East peace. In the meantime, he created paintings and fine-art prints that confronted issues of freedom on societal, cultural and deeply personal levels that were shown in over 70 solo shows at galleries in New York, Los Angeles and other cities. His work is in over 60 museum collections around the world. The last award of his life was from the American Institute of Architects for his design for an inter-faith peace monument for Jerusalem. This symposium is an event of “Reflections on Everyman: The Work of Jan Sawka,” a large exhibition of the artist’s works that is on view at Gallery Aferro until December 14, 2013. This symposium is made possible by the support of the Polish & Slavic Federal Credit Union, the Polish American Business Club, the Polish Cultural Institute New York, the Kosciuszko Foundation, the Polish National Tourist Office and the Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes, Rutgers University.

The presenting speakers, their topics and biographies:

Cynthia Nadelman: The subversive power of writing, letters, and coded language as manifested in Jan Sawka’s visual art.

Ms. Nadelman is an art critic, curator and poet based in New York, a contributing editor of ARTnews for over 25 years. Her art writing has also appeared in Drawing, American Heritage, Arts, Elle, Manhattan, Inc., Sulfur, American Ceramics and numerous museum and gallery catalogues. Her poetry has been published in The Paris Review, Pequod, The Gettysburg Review, New American Writing, Denver Quarterly, and Partisan Review. She first became acquainted with Sawka’s work in the early 1980s. Ms. Nadelman, whose parents were with the U.S. State Department, was born in Italy and grew up in Poland, Germany, Liberia, and Washington, D.C. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1975, majoring in German. She has received fellowships from the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. Ms. Nadelman is an authority on the work of her grandfather, the Polish-American sculptor Elie Nadelman.

Jeffrey Goldfarb:  Living in Truth through Art: The Power of the not so Powerless.

Mr. Goldfarb is the Michael E. Gellert Professor of Sociology at the New School for Social Research and he teaches “Media and Micro-politics” and the “Advanced Seminar in Sociology of Culture.” His most recent publications include “The Politics of Small Things, Left and Right” (2006), The Politics of Small Things: The Power of the Powerless in Dark Times (2006) and Civility and Subversion: The Intellectual in Democratic Society (1998). He also studied the freedom movements of Central Europe and one of his books deals with the transitions of the political systems there: “After the Fall: The Pursuit of Democracy in Central Europe” (1992). (Title references the essay “The Power of the Powerless” by the Czech playwright, political activist and first president of a free Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel.)

Frank Boyer: Art in the political and public space, then and now.

Mr. Boyer’s presentation will provide an overview of how the place of artist expression, and thus that of the artist’s role in society, has undergone change since the 1980’s to today within the art scene of New York and its surrounding area.

Frank Boyer holds an MA in Humanities and DA (Doctor of Arts) from the Program in Art and Art Professions in The Steinhardt School of Education at NYU. He teaches art-related subjects at SUNY-New Paltz and SUNY-Ulster, and in addition to poetry, fiction, and drama, writes art theory and cultural criticism. Dr. Boyer participated in the performance art scene of the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1980’s. He has worked as an arts administrator and grant-writer, particularly in the realms of art in education.

---

Gallery Aferro and RBH Group launch new public art series lighting up Market Street corridor!

“Activate: Market Street” features new media art and installation in multiple downtown Newark storefronts!

Newark, NJ- Gallery Aferro is thrilled to announce “Activate: Market Street,” a new, year-round public art project transforming hundreds of linear feet of vacant storefront windows in Newark’s historic downtown district. Four storefronts owned by RBH Group on Market Street between Washington and University Streets will be activated nightly with films, animation, neon sculptures, kinetic and interactive art, and other kinds of self-illuminated artworks from local, national and international artists. Supported by RBH Group, and created by Gallery Aferro, the project delivers arresting, unexpected, and highly memorable experiences with contemporary art directly to the public, whether residents, students, workers or first-time visitors. The project launch coincides with Gallery Aferro’s 5^th annual benefit art auction and party on June 15th, connecting attendees and passersby’s alike with a tangible example of the work of local arts nonprofits to advance vibrancy in the city.

Launch locations: 73 Market Street, 75 Market Street, 77 Market Street, 85 Market Street, 93 Market Street. Hours: dusk till late, Thursday to Saturday, beginning June 15^th at dusk.

The project will rotate seasonally, corresponding with Gallery Aferro’s award-winning exhibition programming and events taking place in an RBH building at 73 Market Street, where the gallery has been headquartered since 2006. Artists featured for the first rotation from June through September are Fanny Allie, Dave Beck, Matt Broach, DmitryMorozov, Katie Truk. Additional artists selected by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne of CologneOFF, a European programmatic collaborator are Ezra Wube, Stine Gromshott, Johanna Reich and Signe Lillemark. In addition to offering nightly storefront art viewings, the gallery plans to create additional innovative events that will utilize the block’s sidewalk as a community space.

According to Evonne M. Davis, Gallery Aferro Co-Founder and Artistic Director, “We want to bring art directly to any willing audience. This project represents something we at Gallery Aferro have been working towards for many years. I’ve guest-curated guerilla film screenings in storefronts in Brooklyn and Jersey City, and am proud to be curating for a Newark audience on such an ambitious scale.”

Inspired by Gallery Aferro’s recent spring exhibition featuring neon sculptures by French artist Fanny Allie in the windows along Market Street, RBH Group wanted to see more of such activation of the streetscape.“We are excited to be working with Gallery Aferro on this innovative project”, says RBH Group CEO Ron Beit. “With our Teachers Village Project currently under construction and the Four Corners Millennium Project now underway, the Activate Market Street initiative is a precursor to the transformation this part of downtown will be experiencing in the months and years to come.”

In collaboration with RBH Group, Gallery Aferro conceptualized the project from a deeply felt understanding of a 24-hour city. Cities that are vibrant and livable have streetscapes that provide both unexpected excitement as well as spaces for peaceful contemplation. We believe in art experiences that are simultaneously accessible, challenging, and pleasurable. Gallery Aferro has executed numerous successful projects that activated vacant or underutilized spaces for cultural experiences open to all. These have included storefront and building exterior projection screenings, community drop-in tintype portrait days and the 48 Hour Line, an all night nonstop drawing fest. We draw inspiration from sources such as Creative Time’s early work in Times Square, from the European tradition of all-night art festival Nuite Blanches, from the use of neon and film by the Kunsthalle Detroit Museum of Multi-Media and Light-Based Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, from New York City’s Lumen Festival, and from the nationwide placemaking movement.

Get involved: The public are asked to tag all photos they take of the project and/or themselves with it with @GalleryAferro and @Activate:Market to take the project from the street to Facebook!

For more information about Gallery Aferro, see:
www.aferro.org
www.facebook.com/GalleryAferro
www.activatemarketstreet.org
www.facebook.com/ActivateMarketStreet
www.activatemarketstreet.org

For more information on RBH’s Teachers Village Project, see:
www.facebook.com/pages/Teachers-Village/185479814885275
www.twitter.com/SoMaNewark
www.instagram.com/teachersvillage

---

5th Annual Benefit Art Auction and Party
June 15, 2013, 7-10 PM(VIP Preview 5:30-7)

Regular Advance Tickets $25 / Regular Tickets at Door $30
Advance VIP Tickets $100 / VIP Tickets at Door $150
On Sale Now Here: www.aferro.org and by mail to PO Box 5668 Newark NJ 07105

Gallery Aferro is thrilled to announce the 5th Annual Benefit Art Auction and Party on June 15th. This festive event features hundreds of artworks and experiences by emerging and established artists, live jazz by the William Spaulding Quartet, seasonal foodstuffs, strong signature cocktails as well as icy beer from Hunterdon Brewery, and many, many wonderful door prizes including but not limited to fine dining experiences, theatre tickets, and gifts from McCarter Theatre, Stencil1, Shy Brothers Farm and others.

All proceeds from tickets and purchases make possible Gallery Aferro’s year-round exhibitions, award-winning artist residencies, publications and expanding education program. Gallery Aferro is a nonprofit alternative arts space founded by artists Evonne M. Davis and Emma Wilcox in 2003, offering engaging exhibitions that connect new audiences in a welcoming environment that builds community and reflects a positive image of Newark.  The gallery has received two back-to-back Citations of Excellence from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and has been described by Inside New Jersey magazine as offering “a dizzying array of contemporary art.” The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has praised our “expansive vision, impact in Newark as well as regionally and even internationally”, and our “exemplary mentoring opportunities for young artists.”

For one night only unique artworks by emerging and established artists will be available for sale at prices that will enlarge or establish your collection. Delight a friend, colleague or loved one with the gift of artwork. Bring someone who’s never been to the gallery, or to Newark, or someone you come with every year. Bask in the knowledge that you’ve supported downtown vibrancy, the free exchange of ideas, and arts access for the next generation. Dance and have fun.

Gallery Aferro has exhibited over 500 local, national and international artists, granted workspace to more than 60 artists, created 21 publications including a sound art CD and feminist art history handouts, collaborated with dozens of other community-based organizations, galleries and museums, hosted and created talks, screenings and demonstrations for high schools, colleges, universities, professional and senior groups, created off-site exhibition opportunities for NJ artists and expanded our educational offerings, starting with our program connecting Newark’s young women with creative experiences and computer literacy.

Sponsors: AMC, Cabot, Canvas on Demand, Canvas4Life, Clearview Cinemas, Field Station Dinosaurs, Fresh Direct, Hunterdon Brewery, Larry Litt, McCarter Theatre, Minted, NJ State Theatre, Old Sturbridge Village, Panera Bread, Portrait Innovations, Redbox, Remco Press, Shy Brothers Farm, Spanish Tavern, Stash Tea, Stencil1, Tom Binh, Two River Theatre.

Thanks for your support! We can’t wait to see you on June 15th.

If you are interested in volunteering, donating art or sponsoring this event, please let us know at info@aferro.org!

---

The Children’s Games Project: Louisa Armbrust
A Visual Dictionary to Bruegel’s Children’s Games

Children’s Games, painted by Pieter Bruegel in 1560, shows over 80 games being played in a town square. For the Children’s Games Project I have created a set of drawings cataloging the individual games shown in the painting. These drawings serve as a guide for participants to pick their favorite game to re-enact. Participants may play the game, or simply re-create the pose as shown in the painting. In either case the results are captured on camera and shared : http://www.childrensgamesproject.com/

The goal of the CGP is to create a contemporary archive of re-enactments and reinterpretations of the play in Bruegel’s painting. The CGP examines, playfully, the humanism and wit of an early Renaissance masterwork that is still current today.

---

Carbon Corpus: Michelle Wilson

Carbon Corpusis an ongoing project examining environmental issues and alternative economies. This project aims to examine the choices inherent lessening a carbon footprint, and also to critique the difficulties therein in modern society.For Carbon Corpus, Michelle Wilson is offering for sale the animal-based carbon credits to her body to purchasers. For the initial public offering (IPO), a share, defined as one week of purchased time, are offered at $50/share. In exchange for their purchase, Michelle will eat a vegan diet for the period of time purchased. Buyers will also receive certificates to the authenticity of her commitment and the amount of carbon offset, approximately sixty pounds of carbon dioxide per share
To get involved and for more information please visit carboncorpus.blogspot.com or email michelle@michellewilsonprojects.com

---

Homegrown Security
10 free window boxes for Newark residents from artist Moira Williams through May 31, 2013.

For an on going work that will be in Gallery Aferro’s front windows at 73 Market Street. You can be a part of Homegrown Security! Homegrown Security is about celebrating heritage, cultural beliefs and knowledge through and about plants. Homegrown Security are window boxes as an invitation to share plant knowledge, folklore and recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation and meant to secure the lively vitality of plant knowledge and language. To secure, share and continue a culturally rich and diverse plant knowledge each person who wishes to participate will receive a custom made window box that will be fitted into their window. In exchange, I will ask people to share their knowledge about the plants they choose to grow.
Please contact: Moira Williams (631)-891-9144 

---

Urban Foraging to Urban Table with artist Moira Williams
April 7, 14PM

Do you like Nature?
Do you want to learn how to forage?
Do you want to learn how to cook what you forage?

Join Forager Dan Farelle and Artist Moira Williams for an urban foraging walk. Where we will discover wild edible and medicinal plants living with us in Newark! We will learn how to identify many plants revered in the herbal traditions for healing and how to forage for nutritious wild food from Branch Brook Park! Following our urban foraging we will go to Gallery Aferro where Moira will cook up a meal from our foraged foods.

Where: Branch Brook Park – Please meet us on the corner of Bloomfield and Lake St. across the street from Meineke. Additional parking is located in the Branch Brook Park. We will leave promptly at 1pm! Please contact Moira 631.891.9144 or moira670@gmail.com

Please bring a camera and notebook for recording the plants we find. We will make a foraging map together to leave in Gallery Aferro!

Dan Farella is a Forager, Herbalist, and Musician dedicated to working with Nature to further the healing of the planet and the soul. Dan teaches foraging, how to make medicinal products from wild herbs, fire making, and survival in the wild through Return to Nature.He also sells his own wild herbal products, teaches music, yoga, chanting, and meditation.

---

4th Annual Holiday Potluck & Closing Party
Gallery Aferro invites you to the 4th Annual Holiday Potluck & Closing Party on December 15, 2012 from 2-8 PM.

Open Studios from 2-4
Artist Talks from 4-6
Potluck & Party from 6-8

Bring something to share and sip on a very festive Nutella(!) hot chocolate cocktail and scarf down a bangin’ potluck spread. Those who have attended before can attest to the amazing array of yumminess that will ensue.Join the artists for the closing reception of our current shows: Seth Ellis: Estimated Distance, Newark Scene and Heard: Narratives of an Artists’ Community curated by Bianca Monet, Steve Rossi: Sidewalk Alchemy, Lane Cooper: What Persists (Lillian).Resident artist talks will commence at 4PM, featuring Dahlia Elsayed, Anne Q McKeown, Ibrahim Ahmed, Alexandra Desipris, James Horner, Bud McNichol, Jacob Mandel and Ken Weathersby.

A fun selection of hand made gift items will be for sale at our Art Shop Pop Up Craft Sale! Artisans include Vasquez, Blue Moon Creations and the extended Davis family including new, masculine crafts.

All proceeds, including your generous end–of-the-year donations will help benefit the community arts program of Gallery Aferro, a 501 (c)3 nonprofit!

We can’t wait to see you and celebrate the end of another terrific year.

---

Winter 2012 Artist Talks
December 15, Open Studios 2-4, Artist Talks 4-6

Meet the artists and learn about their motivations, approach, and the trajectory of their current projects. Each artist will speak for 10 minutes only, leading to a compact taste of contemporary practice.

Participants: Ibrahim Ahmed, Alexandra Desipris, Dahlia Elsayed, James Horner, Jacob Mandel, Anne Q McKeown, Bud McNichol and Ken Weathersby.

---

The 4th Annual Benefit Art Auction and Party
June 16, 2012 7-10 PM

Advance Tickets on sale now online/by mail**

Regular Tickets are $20 now or $25 at the door

VIP* Tickets are $100 now or $150 at door

*VIP Tickets include advanced preview and auction bidding options, free hand delivery within the tri-state area of artwork purchases over $200, and private tour of Gallery Aferro studio resident’s studios.

Gallery Aferro is delighted to announce that our 4th annual silent auction and unsilent party, with live jazz by William Spaulding Quartet, will be held on June 16th. This festive event, quickly becoming a local tradition, features hundreds of artworks for bid, novel entertainments, yummy foodstuffs and strong signature cocktails as well as icy beer from Hunterdon Brewery.

All proceeds make possible Gallery Aferro’s year-round exhibitions, award-winning artist residencies, publications and expanding education program. More than 80 local, national and international artists have donated artworks and experiences, including a custom 140-character letterpress “tweet,” a USB drive of sound art from Finland, artist-led tours from Iron Maiden Artist Tours and other offerings impossible to classify but sure to thrill.

Gallery Aferro has exhibited over 500 local, national and international artists, granted workspace to more than 60 artists,created 19 publications including a sound art CD and feminist art history handouts, collaborated with dozens of other community-based organizations, hosted and created talks, screenings and demonstrations for high schools, colleges, universities, professional and senior groups, created off-site exhibition opportunities for NJ artists and expand our education program connecting Newark’s young women with creative experiences and computer literacy. Work by Gallery Aferro students will be included in the Newark Museum’s major exhibition, “Angels and Tomboys: Girlhood in 19th Century American Art,” on view in September 2012.

Donating artists:

Alicia Ackerman
Josef Albers
Ben Altman
Ruby Amanze
Kenseth Armstead
Les Ayre
Raymond Bally
Anonda Bell
Katrina Bello
Gianluca Bianchino
Terry Boddie
Sam Bornstein
Justin Borucki
Nicole Helen Brunner
Maria Buyondo
Karlos Carcamo
Patricia Cazorla
Marcy Chevali
Lane Cooper
Christine DaCruz
Kevin Darmanie
Andrew Demirjian
Florine Demosthene
Dahlia Elsayed
Alyssa Fanning
Jerry Gant
Doron Gild
Tai Hwa Goh
Allan Gorman
Christopher Guerra
Malik Hardaway-Whitaker
Christine Heller
Daniel Patrick  Helmstetter
James Horner
Lisa Iglesias
Joe  Iurato
Darren Jones
Mona Kamal
Suzanne Kammin
Hiroshi Kumagai
Rob Lach
Valeri Larko
JC  Lenochan
Ann LePore
Laura Lou Levy

Nancy Mahl
Nadja Marcin
Karen Margolis
Anne McKeown
Maria Driscoll  McMahon
Bud  McNichol
Vikki Michalios
Geoffrey Owen Miller
Naomi Miller
Traci Molloy
Alex Morel
Kate  Okeson
Marshall Okin
Yoko Ono
Nell Painter
Meera Lee Patel
Sarah Nicole Phillips

Jon Rappleye
Ryan Roa
Angela Rossi
Steve Rossi
Seth Ruggles Hiler-Destino

Henry G. Sanchez
Liz Sales
Tania Sen
Lee Sherry
Abigail Simon
Laurinda Stockwell
Stan Sudol
Calla Thompson
Kai Vierstra
Christine Wagner
Joe Waks
Barbara Wallace
Emma Wilcox
Andrew Wilkinson
Bahar Yurukoglu
Polina Zaitseva

Sponsors:

Hell’s Kitchen Lounge
Hunterdon Brewery
Jerry’s Artist Outlet
Krug’s Tavern
Robert’s Pizzeria
Seton Hall University
Spanish Tavern
StepOn To Design LLC

*Please send checks to PO Box 5668 Newark NJ 07105

---

Gallery Aferro Studio Residency Artist Talks: Fall 2011
December 3, 1 PM

Featuring Katrina Bello, Marcy Chevali, Dahlia Elsayed, Nadja Frank and Jomar Statkun, Elizabeth Gilfilen, Vikki Michalios,
Nell Painter and Ken Weathersby.

Artists will be talking about past or current projects, processes, material, memory, scale, history, (missed) collisions, self representation and creation. Hot cider and Baklava will be served. Studios will be open after the talks for questions and mingling with the artists.

---

The 3rd Annual Holiday Party/ Sale / Potluck / Shindig
December 17, 5-9 PM

Gallery Aferro invites you to the 3rd Annual Holiday Party on December 17 from 5-9 PM. Join us for a killer potluck spread with hot drinks and shop for (heavily discounted) artist-made items for all your holiday gifts.

All proceeds, as well as your generous end-of-year donations benefit the community arts programs of Gallery Aferro, a 501 (c)3 nonprofit!

Art Shop’s selection of unique artist-made items includes jewelry, gift items, art, prints and cards, pottery, artist books, pillows, decor and housewares, wallets and bags, tees, clothing and accessories for men, women, kids and babies, plus, of course, the famous record bowls!

10% off everything in shop with nothing held back and 50% off on many items!

Join the artists for the closing reception for three shows on 2
floors: Relexification, Vital Signs: Eve + Bowie, Two Moons: Elizabeth Gilfilen.

What will you bring to share? See you soon.

2009-2011, 2008, 2007-6, Storefront Films

2009-2011

Art Outside School: Local Resources for Local Kids
October 27, 8 PM

This intergenerational panel as part of Identity Blueprint at Pierro Gallery presents an array of important voices currently engaged in teaching and learning about art in non-school settings. Join in the discussion and find out about the local resources that are available to area students.

Panelists include teaching artist and Ramapo College Professor Ann LePore; Deputy Director for Education at the Newark Museum, Ted Lind; Director of Education at the Montclair Museum Gary Schneider; and college freshman Claudia Phillips, who as a high school student participated in Gallery Aferro’s Identity Blueprint program. Moderated by Evonne M. Davis and Emma Wilcox, co-founders of Gallery Aferro

---

2011 Gallery Aferro Studio Residency Artist Talks and Open Studios
May 21, 12-3 PM

On Saturday, May 21, 2011 Gallery Aferro will host the 2011 Gallery Aferro Studio Residency Artist Talks and Open Studios. Featuring five current Artists-in-Residence, this event will focus on showcasing the work of Patricia Cazorla, Marcy Chevali, Don Edler, Ken Weathersby and Walter Zimmerman.

Beginning at noon, each artist will give a brief presentation on their work. These informal talks may include introductions of past and present bodies of work, discussions on conceptual and thematic concerns and Q&A. Following the Artist Talks, you will be invited into the artists’ studios form 1:30 -3:00 PM to view the work in person and for further in-depth discussion. Refreshments will be served. Please join us Saturday, May 21st for this exciting opportunity! Meet the artists, see their studios, and catch the current shows on exhibition if you haven’t already.

Featured Artists:

Patricia Cazorla is a Venezuelan-born artist who will present her latest series of mixed media-drawings. A collaborative project with artist Nancy Saleme, the works reflect on issues of migrant farm workers in the US.

Marcy Chevali will share her work in which she creates parallel maps for things that are not tangible.  She arranges string, water, tea leaves, turmeric, words, fabric and tracing paper to re-create emotional situations from her own life.

Don Edler will present a new body of large-scale sculptural works that investigate compounding structural systems in our world. Made of recycled commercial materials, the works imply physical struggles.

Ken Weathersby will discuss the development of his painting over the last several years. This body of work is primarily involved in pulling apart the given syntax of “painting”, exposing or recombining aspects of painting’s conventions.

Walter Zimmerman will present his on-going body of work that incorporates various industrial materials to create personified armatures for heat-shrunk plastic skins. The Artist Talks will begin at 12 PM, followed by refreshments and the Open Studios event from 1:30 PM- 3 PM.

---

3rd annual benefit art auction Saturday June 18, 7-10

Tickets on sale NOW

Join us for Art Reaction, our 3rd annual party and auction. For one night only unique artworks by emerging and established artists will be available for sale at prices that will enlarge or establish your collection. Delight a friend, colleague or loved one with the gift of artwork. Enjoy music, novel activities, local food, strong signature drinks and your community. Please contact us for more information at info@aferro.org

This June, we celebrate our 5th year on Market Street.

In that time, Gallery Aferro has:

-become a 501(c)3 nonprofit
-exhibited over 500 local, national and international artists
-granted workspace to 54 artists
-created 19 publications including a sound art CD
-collaborated with dozens of other community-based organizations
-hosted and created talks, screenings and demonstrations for high schools, colleges, universities, professional and senior groups, recovery programs, and others
-created off-site exhibition opportunities for NJ artists
-launched a gift shop that encourages civic pride and creates income for local artisans
-launched an education program connecting young women with creative experiences and computer literacy
-participated in a nationwide protest against the censorship of art

---

Promises, Promises III
Anne Dushanko Dobek

Gallery Aferro will be a collection point for donated petticoats/ dresses being collected by the artist for her upcoming installation, as  part of an ongoing series titled “Silent Voices.”Drop off donations at Gallery Aferro from March 5 – April 2 during regular gallery hours of Th – Sat 12-6. Promises Promises III is based upon a real incident: In March 2002 four young girls were found enslaved in brothels in Plainfield and Elizabeth NJ. The horror of their story was the motivation for this work which is a larger scale variation of site specific installations in the garden of the Pen and Brush Club in NYC (2009) and the New Jersey Arts Annual (2010)

Promises, Promises III consists of several hundred net petticoats from donated wedding, bridesmaid and Quinceanera gowns. Torn, dyed, shredded and painted, the petticoats hang haphazardly from the ceiling. This seductive cloud reminds us of girlish dreams: weddings, ballerinas and princesses.This work symbolically references a real event: four young girls trafficked into the country with promises of marriage. Their gruesome life in a brothel was not a rarity.

Promises, Promises III was designed to raise awareness of this depraved international business. Join others in donating your net petticoats from wedding, bridesmaid or Quinceanera dresses, tutus or costumes. Please email anart@aol.com with any questions.

---

Please join us in the new media room for a three part series of artist talks by current participants in Gallery Aferro’s studio residency program, plus a reading of new material by exhibiting artist Greg Leshe. A series of eight talks focusing on current residents will provide a look into the creative life of the gallery. In conjunction with the talks, residency studios will be open to the public. Drinks will be served!These artists represent the gamut of contemporary art practices and discussions will undoubtedly reflect a full spectrum of how artists conceive of making work.

November 20th:
Ann LePore
Lane Cooper
Dahlia Elsayed

December 4th:
Steve Rossi
Greg Leshe

December 11th:
Blithe Riley
Peter Owen
Alison Owen

---

2nd Annual Holiday Party
December 11, 2010 5-10 PM

Gallery Aferro invites you to the 2nd Annual Holiday Party on December 11 from 5-10 PM. Join us for a potluck spread with roasted chestnuts, organic hot chocolate and a hot signature drink and shop at Art Shop for all your holiday gifts.

Your purchases support Identity Blueprint, Gallery Aferro’s new educational program for Newark public high school female students! Listening Party and Launch for our first sound art project, “Elevator Music,” juried by Adam Trowbridge with CD design by Andrew Wilkinson. Buy the CD, and you too can hear what will be on indefinite loop in our freight elevator. Join the artists for the closing reception for Greg Leshe’s “Ground-over Skies,” Irys Schenker’s “You’re a Big Girl Now” and Anonda Bell and Tara de la Garza’s “Ripe: Conception and Perception” Art Shop’s selection of unique Artist-made items includes jewelry, gift items, art, prints and cards, pottery,books, pillows, decor and housewares, wallets and bags, tees, clothing and accessories for men, women, kids and babies, plus, of course, the famous record bowls!

Sponsor:

Storefront Films

Storefront Films

Storefront Films is a project instigated by Evonne M. Davis taking place in multiple locations: gallery venues donated or underutilized spaces, and vacant lots. Moving imagery in all genres, from around the world, is screened from dusk till late, offering an alternative to the glut of commercial imagery pedestrians are exposed to daily. The transient nature of the screenings makes them highly democratic, as viewers can decide how to interact with the temporary environment.

So far, viewers have used their cars as viewing booths after slamming on the brakes, ordered takeout, brought chairs from home, called up friends, offered critiques, and generally made the project their own.

We would like to thank Vikki Michalios of Studio 411 for her support of this project.

---

Studio 411
June 6, 2008, from 7-10pm
Video work by Michael Amter

Studio 411, 411 Monmouth Street, Jersey City, NJ as part of JC Fridays

---

Studio 411
March 7, 2008, from 7-10pm
Work by Andrew Demirjian of Palisades Park, NJ and Anne Schiffer of Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Studio 411, 411 Monmouth Street, Jersey City, NJ as part of JC Fridays