Exhibition on Display: October 26th– January 15th, 2022
Virtual Opening Reception: November 4th from 6:30pm to 9:30pm
VIP In-Person Opening Reception: November 12th from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
The “Mirror to the World” exhibition has been a part of the ongoing success of Alfa’s New Brunswick Art Salon (NBAS) program since 2010. Over the years, the NBAS has not only exhibited works from both established and emerging artists but has also made fruitful connections locally and internationally through its successful programs. The Alfa Art Gallery invites you to join us on a mesmerizing trip through a transparent world of imagination.
This exhibition showcases translucent worlds and new dimensions created from an amalgamation of fragmented imaginations and the physical world. The “Mirror to the World” exhibition features some of the most distinguished and esteemed Tri-State artists in watercolor and mixed media, abstract too figurative. “Mirror to the World” explores the nature of various artistic media, including watercolor, acrylic, ink, rice paper, and much more. In contemplating the artworks on display, viewers are encouraged to dive deep into an ethereal world of their fascination.
Mirror to the World Virtual Opening Reception
NBAS: Mirror To The World – Watercolor and Mix Media Virtual Exhibition
- Click on the images (artwork and graphics) to bring up an information text box (the “wall label”).
- Click different areas of the floor to “walk” around. Footprints will appear on the ground to show where you will move to.
- Click, hold, and drag your mouse to rotate or “turn your head”.
- Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move forward, backwards, and side to side.
Featured Artists:
Alice Harrison is a New Jersey mixed media artist who has been recognized in private and public establishments throughout the United States and Europe, Mexico, South Africa, Israel, Dubai, and New Zealand. Harrison started her artistic prowess through a traditional lens then later converted her style into abstract art. Her creative process is intuitive; she can explore the inharmonious pieces before her by laying down materials and marks. She finds “Combining things with a former life with new materials is a wonderful challenge.”
Alaiyo Bradshaw is a visual artist that allows her work to make meaningful connections to the world around her. Her works incorporate dreams, children’s stories, cultural iconography, ethnography, and social issues. Though trained in both illustration and graphic design, Bradshaw found her voice working as a fine artist. She sees her paintings as single-frame narratives, and her medium allows her to create a vibrant mirror in the subject. She uses watercolor as a medium to create depth and transparency in her work.
Aprajita Lal creates her work through inspirations from nature. Her viewers have the privilege to peek through a door of serenity, joy, and stillness in the world. Although Lal uses acrylic and oil in some of her works, she adores watercolor the most. Her works have been featured in both solo and group exhibitions and are a part of private collections. “Nature can enable the minds to explore the infinite possibilities that exist in time and space. But only a few are bestowed with the gift to actually harness this enigmatic force and transform it into a relatable masterpiece.”
Maryann Burton developed her artistic interest at a young age; it was only until she reached high school that Burton was motivated to foster her talents further. Thus, continuing her studies of art at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art. Burton has maintained a successful art career, allowing her to receive awards in corporate and private collections. She approaches her creations by observing the world through an intimate lens. These inspirations often come from light shining through, creating bents, reflections, and dissipating colors. She challenges herself by expressing and transferring what she observed onto paper. “Whether evoking a feeling or a memory, bringing someone a sense of peace or joy, or reminding them of a familiar time or place, I like to make an emotional connection through my artwork.”
Deborah Maklowski started her education in art at the age of nine and furthered her studies in fine arts at art schools and colleges. Her works have appeared in many publications and exhibitions and are best known for her figurative works. Maklowski uses mixed media such as acrylics, papers, markers, metal leaves, stones, beads, and found objects to express her deep love of the landscape and the inspiration she finds in painting outdoors. Intense compositions, texture, color harmonies, emotion, and depth are something that one can find in observing Maklowski’s work. Instead of directing her viewers’ specific messages with her art, she encourages them to find their own compelling story in work.
Onofua Dennis is a multidimensional, figurative impressionist, and abstract expressionist painter specializing in drawing and painting. He explores acrylics mediums as well as mixed media. He uses primarily figurative life models, studies, and compositions as his central concept of creation to convey a message that addresses society. Olowaseyi picks up his inspirations through daily life experiences, activities, challenges, historical events, records, and documentation related to modernism, African styles, cultures, and traditions. He has also participated in several exhibitions in and out of the country.
Doris Ettlinger graduated in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design and later received an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She creates figurative works through the inspirations from her surroundings and the world. The subjects of her paintings are diverse and can include people such as her friends to the sceneries of nature. Ettlinger works in a way where she edits, composes, plans and sketches before she wets the brush. Through planning and courage, she can avoid overworking a painting and create fresh and lively works. She believes that it is essential for her subjects to look alive even if they are unanimated.
Gwynn Walker Di Pilla received a Bachelor of Arts in Art Education from Temple University and Tyler School of Art. Over the years, Gwynn has not only been a teacher but has also remained an active artist who mainly works with colored pencils, watercolor, and oils. There is a sense of peacefulness in her works and in which she brings her patrons to a place of serenity and beauty. Starting from late 2010, her works have been recognized in exhibitions and shows. She has received Best Artist from South Jersey Magazine in 2011 and was also a signature member in PWCS and NJWCS.
Hana Aviv sees the world around her in terms of shapes and composition. She constantly challenges herself to create the most exciting combination of shapes and colors. Through all the years of practicing art, she discovered watercolor to be the best medium to translate her world view into colorful artworks that feature natural subjects. Aviv focuses on the overall design of her work, including lines, shapes, and the unity of design and color. Her inspiration from nature has allowed her to discover her specialization in floral arrangements and landscapes. She loves to travel and find inspirations in the landscapes she encounters; putting them in small sketches while in the field allows her to finish later in the studio.
Joel Rudin is a mixed media artist who primarily uses pastel and mediums such as watercolor, graphite, crayon, oil pastel, gouache, and acrylic to create imaginary landscapes that provoke the feeling of a mystical world. His works often evoke the faded look of old color photos, prints, and films. Starting as a cartoonist, Rudin transitioned his style from using pen and ink to exploring pastel palettes over the years. This transformation is a reflection of not only his experience and life but also the world around him.
Libby Ramage completed her education in arts with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston. Originally from Youngstown, Ohio, Ramage now resides in New York/New Jersey area. Ramage is a storyteller who applies the technique of building layers of materials and old photos to convey a phycological and emotional connection to her memories, relationships, and the visual depiction of the passage of time. Her works have been exhibited locally and nationally at the Mercer County Artists Exhibit and the City of Trenton’s Ellarslie Museum. Ramage is not only an artist but also an exhibitor, instructor, and illustrator.
Maria Morales received her education at the Parsons School of Design in 1982 and started as a traditional painter focusing on creating realistic style using oil on canvas and wood. However, she, later on, discovered the joy and freedom in creating abstract art. The process of transitioning from practical skills to abstract arts challenged her and excited her as an artist. The forms of abstract arts have enabled Morales to express herself and let her wildest imaginations run free. She has been active in exhibitions from 2008 till today.
Mark De Mos finds joy in working with the organic nature of watercolor. Whether it be the transparency of watercolor, the kinds of washes, or the fluidity of it. Creating art for him captures the sense of life in the object and transfers that onto the canvas. He presents his works through underpainting, complementary colors, light and dark, and through creating textures. He has studied watercolor with numerous artists and has been continuously learning in the area over the years.
Michael McFadden is a western New Jersey-based mixed-media artist, craftsman, and fine arts educator who received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin. His mixed-media collages are inspired by his imagination and memory of poignant events, in which he repurposes traditional themes by employing an artistic language of pictorial abstraction. He transforms these intensely personal emotional experiences into high contrast compositions that capture memories that transcend the boundaries of space and time and appeal to collective emotional experiences that are defining aspects of humanity, thus provoking a profound emotional response in his viewers. He utilizes a vocabulary of poetic abstraction characterized by a bold color palette and expressive, linear marks and abstract shapes in his work. His colorfully imaginative compositions are open-ended journeys in improvisation and discovery that invite viewers to reflect on their own emotional experiences.
When Miriam Lefkowitz is not drawing, she hikes and swims among the river and mountains. Since a young age, she has been drawing abstract shapes and creating artworks using gouache and mixed media along the Delaware River for the last two decades. Instead of drawing what she sees, Lefkowitz transforms her emotions and feelings into abstract forms on canvases. Her creations are almost always instinctive and intuitive. Combining the body, the mind, and the soul creates the artworks her viewers are seeing.
THE BOAT WILL COME III
Paul Ching-Bor is a contemporary watercolor artist who has captivated the world with his dynamic cityscapes. Born in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, Ching-Bor began studying art at the age of 12 and followed his artistic passion through high school and college, where he learned traditional techniques of fine art. His painting explores the medium of watercolor, building from his inspiration of Eastern and Western art. Ching-Bor works on a large scale using the most prominent and heaviest papers he can find, thus not compromising the conventional watercolor principles. He has such respect for the medium of watercolor that he harnesses the sensitive and transparent nature of the medium in each of his works.
Samar Hussaini is a first-generation Arab-American female artist born in America to an Arab refugee parent and an Arab immigrant parent. The West Orange, NJ-based artist studied art and art history at the University of Maryland and received a Master’s in communication design from the Pratt Institute. Through her luminous mixed-media compositions, Hussaini re-envisions what it means to be both an Arab-American and a woman working and living in 21st-century America. She layers acrylic paint, ink, collage, charcoal, and gold leaf on her canvasses to create thought-provoking and ethereal abstract compositions that celebrate the beautiful, complex history of Arab culture.
About the “New Brunswick Art Salon” Exhibitions:
Alfa Art Gallery utilizes New Brunswick Art Salons (NBAS) to unify the local art community and beyond. Within this non-profit organization, Alfa Art Gallery maintains its mission to uplift artists by providing an open and innovative environment. These exhibitions are free and open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm.
NBAS’2021 is sponsored by:
With the assistance of grants from organizations such as Amboy Bank, Magyar Bank, Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick City Center, Middlesex County Cultural, and Heritage Commission, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Pfizer Inc. Alfa Art is confident that all who come to the 2020 Oil Painting New Brunswick Art Salon will leave with a greater appreciation of the arts and the gallery’s showcasing of a variety of artists.
