“HAKUNETSU”: This 1982 acrylic on canvas by Hiroshi Murata is among the works loaned to The Art Gallery at The College of New Jersey by the New Jersey State Museum Collection. The exhibition titled “Abstract Expressions: Selected Works from the New Jersey State Museum” opens today and runs until February 28, 2016. 34 works created since 1950 will be on view. The Art Gallery is located in the AIMM Building on the campus at 2000 Pennington Road in Ewing.

The Art Gallery at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) is pleased to present a special loan exhibition Abstract Expressions: Selected Works from the New Jersey State Museum. On view from January 27 through February 28, 2016, the exhibition features 34 works created since 1950 by American artists. 

Included in the exhibition are works by Richard Anuszkiewicz, Ellsworth Ausby, Walter Darby Bannard, Andrea Belag, Frank Bowling, James Andrew Brown, Amanda Church, Victor Davson, Mel Edwards, Dahlia Elsayed, Lee Gatch, Sam Gilliam, Nancy Graves, Oded Halahmy, Clinton Hill, Ka Kwong Hui, Yayoi Kusama, Susan MacQueen, John L. Moore, Hiroshi Murata, Reginald Neal, Louise Nevelson, John Obuck, Joe Overstreet, Irene Rice Pereira, John Powell, Helen Soreff, Theodoros Stamos, Ann Starkey, and Ruth Vollmer.

Margaret O’Reilly, curator of fine art and acting director of the New Jersey State Museum, organized the exhibition. In discussing abstraction, O’Reilly references renowned artist Wassily Kandinksy, who wrote in the 1920s, “Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colors, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential.” She explains, “The works in the exhibition at TCNJ, all created since 1950, expand on the discussions begun by pioneering abstract artists, such as Kandinsky, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. The artists employ a great range of styles and techniques — geometry, gesture, expressionism, optical illusion — to convey their ideas.”

TCNJ’s Art Gallery is located in the AIMM Building on the campus at 2000 Pennington Road in Ewing. Gallery hours are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from noon-7 p.m., and Sundays from 1-3 p.m. All Art Gallery exhibitions are free and open to the public. For more information about exhibitions, for directions and parking, or to schedule a special tour, please contact tcag@tcnj.edu or call (609) 771-2633. TCNJ’s exhibitions are supported in part by the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission, through funding from the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders and the New Jersey Sate Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

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