John Beck

2 opening receptions at Artworks Trenton this Saturday, May 10th 2014, 6 to 8pm.

A forest of large painted and individually collaged prisms will be literally hanging throughout ARTWORKS in Trenton May 10 to June 7.

This massive interactive installation is the centerpiece of a one man show featuring local artist Alan Goldstein. The show features work relating to 4 natural elements; Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Goldstein has based much of his life’s work on nature’s inventions and processes.

The forest was inspired by the trees the artist has studied for over 30 years walking to his Bucks County studio. “ My trees are a part of my life and I see them age and die like my friends, like myself.  Slowly they loose twigs, branches, leaves and bark until they stand like ghosts waiting to fall.”

Goldstein spent most of the 1960s in New Jersey.  He taught at St Bernard’s School for Boys, the Summit Art Center and the Morris County Art Association in Morristown.  An invited artist to the International Summer Seminar at Fairleigh Dickenson, Goldstein has been shown at the NJ Visual Arts Center and the Newark Museum.

His work was regularly shown at the Lacework Gallery in Lambertville, New Jersey and he has many works in the permanent collection of the Michener Museum in Doylestown Pennsylvania.

“Alpha Genesis” will be the first official exhibition for Allegory Lab Art Collective.

Allegory Lab Art Collective is comprised of four, self-representing artists: Melody Saccone, John A. Saccone, Bobby Bates, and Addison Vincent. The four artists decided to collaborate and form the collective in March of 2013.

“Alpha Genesis” is the first exhibition in a four year, four part series of works which will culminate into a massive body of works by 2017.
“Alpha Genesis” will showcase 5 works by each artist, and their personal styles for the 2014 season.
“Beta Genesis”, 2015 season, will showcase collaborative works as the artists pair off to create 8 works per pair.
“Omega Genesis”, 2016 season, will showcase 8 collaborative, large scale works of all four artists.
“The Genesis Series”, 2017 season, will be the culmination of the past three years, and will showcase a total of 36 works, ranging from personal works, to full collaborative works.

The purpose of working in yearly segments is to foster growth as artists through both personal and collaborative exploration and experimentation. Since each of the artist’s work in their own style and medium, the outcome of the collaborative works should be nothing short of spectacular.

Artworks Trenton, the amazing place where I work, has a matching fund challenge. Can you help us reach our goal of $5,000 by donating WHATEVER you are able using this link? Then message me to let me know (we’ve got some Board member and Staff competition going on here and you know how competitive I am). In return you will get the comfort of knowing that you’re helping an incredible small roots arts organization and possibly a foot massage from me.

Opening reception at Artworks Trenton this Friday, April 11th, 2014!

Artworks Trenton presents an exhibition of fresh work by advanced students from The College of New Jersey.  Entitled, “young galaxy,” this show will run from April 11 to May 3, 2014.  Meet the artists at the reception on April 11th, 6-8pm.

“young galaxy” is a free-wheeling, jostling, exuberant, compelling, and wild collection of fresh works.  As this cohort of advanced visual arts students at The College of New Jersey moves into artistic maturity, the results are a cocktail of newfound creative independence stirred with technical acumen. ‘young galaxy’ asks questions of how a young artist perceives the world around him/her and how do those perceptions become art.
 
The exhibition is a mash-up of drawing, painting, video, installation, sculpture and large-scale murals.  In each work, the young artist has taken on the task of creating something ‘new’, often by excavating the past or by exposing personal experience to the world.  To witness this point of creation is like witnessing the birth of a galaxy; it is explosive, and rapidly expands to fill the space around it.

The False Mirror – Surrealism Forward and Back
Curated by Frances Heinrich

Exhibiting in the Artworks Main Gallery from January 11, 2013 through February 22, 2014
An opening reception will be held on January 11, 2014  6-8pm (Snowdate Jan 18)

Almost a hundred years have passed since classical Surrealist works were first shown, and their irrational “snapshots” of the impossible were surely quite shocking back then.  Today, however, we appear increasingly attracted to similar oddities:  computer-altered talking babies, life-sized combative tacos, and flying cars probably now seem both plausible and trendy.

The False Mirror will present a wide variety of top works by a group of highly professional artists; Tom Bendtsen, John Goodyear, Benjamin S. Jones, Alan Kesselhaut, Paul Leibow, Jim and Lynn Lemyre, Adam Niklewicz, Sarah Petruziello, Frank Rivera, Anita Thacher, and Andrew Wilkinson.

Drawing, painting, sculpture, video, and installation will all be on display.  Some of these artists might deny being Surrealists, but their work demonstrates, for curator Frances Heinrich, the ideas, sensibilities, and visual freedoms originally granted by historical Surrealists and Dadaists.

At 6pm on the night of the opening reception, curator Frances Heinrich will also present a short Powerpoint talk which relates famous historical works to the current “special effects” now surrounding us in film, tv, advertising, and fashion. This will truly be an engaging event for anyone interested in their media environment.