Take a day trip to area art galleries

Photo by R. Kennedy for GPTMC
The colorful Eye’s Gallery on South Street in Philadelphia is known for its wide selection of Latin American clothing, accessories and crafts.

by Lisa VillaMil, Gazette Contributing Writer

As the hotter summer months draw near, one cannot help but look for an alternative to day trips to the shore or community pool. Luckily, there is a place that offers a cool getaway as well as a novel, cultural and sensational atmosphere; this type of place can be found in great abundance in the southern New Jersey-Philadelphia area.
Art galleries are situated all around the area. Their atmospheres range from trendy to sophisticated and, depending on their size, can take anywhere from a couple hours to a full day to fully experience. Best of all, while having a good time looking around and observing artworks, you will be learning and be inspired along the way.
An art gallery is not an art museum. Many times art galleries feature a theme and showcase the works of modern, sometimes local artists, as opposed to a museum, which focuses on the historical side of a piece or on the history of he or she who created said piece. Also, galleries are there to help sell art, even to those who are not collectors or connoisseurs. Some galleries can offer a hands-on experience as well, and often offer classes in technique to any age group from children to adults. They are made accessible to all types of people, and attempt to share beauty and meaning with a visitor. Some guests may even find a surprise passion for featured artworks, or an inspiration to create their own.
Besides being a place to enhance your own creative appreciation, an art gallery or showcase is an excellent place in which to expose children to art. It is a place that can stir their imaginations and teach them about many art forms. They, along with adults, will be introduced to drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and numerous other mediums. One may even awaken a passion in their child for such an activity.
If you grow weary of the usual summer daytrips and desire something a little different (complete with air conditioning), here are some museums located not too far from Hammonton that could appeal to you.
For a sophisticated art outing, a place that the potential adult purchaser should keep in mind is the Grace Fine Art Gallery in Morristown, which houses more than one hundred 20th century Impressionist oil paintings, from about thirty “emerging artists,” both in Europe and America. The gallery has four rooms and a special showing room which allows certain paintings to be viewed in different lighting situations. The atmosphere at the Grace Fine Art Gallery is tranquil and clean. Its main focus is interesting buyers in taking home an “emotional” painting that will timelessly illuminate an office or bare wall in a home. They vie to attract art consumers wanting to own a little piece of the magic that is artwork.
Although the Grace Fine Art Gallery boasts its Impressionists, watercolor portraits and romantic artwork pieces are also featured in exhibits. The majority of all works are landscapes, although whatever interests you there, the gallery assures that it will release emotion inside of visitors. The Grace Fine Art Gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This month, seven artists, ranging in style from Impressionists to Realists are being featured in the gallery’s exhibit rooms. For more information on the Grace Fine Art Gallery, visit www.graceartgallery.com.
Another Morristown gallery, one that has been devoted to mainly promoting New Jersey artists, as well as the general arts in New Jersey, since 1996, is the Simon Gallery. Here, only American Contemporary art is showcased, mostly from the Garden State itself (although artists from New York and those from around the country have been featured there, too). What makes this gallery even more attractive is the fact that more than two-dimensional paintings are shown; guests at the gallery can also see modern sculpture, and photography.
Some people argue that they do not “get” contemporary abstract or representational art. The Simon Gallery, however, was established to promote such works as “fine art,” which indeed they are. Each year the gallery hosts eight exhibits, the latest of which was Bret Baker, who showed his oil on canvas. The only downside to visiting this gallery in the coming summer months is that visits must be made by appointment, and one cannot simply stroll in and look around, still; if you are someone intrigued by modern art with an American influence, making a reservation to see the art up close may be worth your while.
During the rest of the year the Simon Gallery is open Tuesday to Friday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. For a sample taste of the featured contemporary art yearly showcased, visit www.simongallery.com.
If you are spending some time down the seashore this summer, particularly in Ocean City, you may want to take a visit to a few art galleries in the area. If so, at the top of your list should be the thirty-five year old Accent Gallery, which has specialized in “turning houses into homes.” Similar to the Simon Gallery, the Accent Gallery features a host of American and fine art. Differing from it however, this gallery focuses on American crafts, showcasing around forty craft artisans, as well as more traditional artworks in various paint mediums and pastels. Both shown and sold in the Accent Gallery is an array of “functional and sculptural handcrafted works in glass, ceramics, metal and wood.”
As far as the types of art publicized in the Accent Gallery, viewers can experience anything from landscapes, to still-lifes, to European works, to abstract and figural pieces; however, it is the various media of sculpture that are truly amazing. Whether the sculptures are functional or decorative, each is unique and bold.
One refreshing aspect about the Accent Gallery is its promise and dedication to making a visiting experience (or consumer transaction) a personal one. Gallery workers pride themselves in their customer relations and attempt to bring a bit of beauty to every dreary room or “dead space.”
Sample artwork and crafts from the Accent Gallery can be viewed on its website: www.accentgallery.com. Gallery hours are Monday to Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Also located in Ocean City is the Sagemore Surf Gallery. Here, every creation depicts a surfing image, whether it is on a poster print, a watercolor or acrylic painting or a photograph. What makes the works of the gallery still more intriguing is that every one was done by an artist who is also a surfer. All of the paintings, best of all, are original and one of a kind. According to the gallery they “capture the essence of the surfing lifestyle.”
Easily the main event of the year for the Sagemore Surfing Gallery is the Art of Surfing Festival at the Historic Ocean City Music Pier (the event was originally held at the gallery until, after only two years, participation finally exceeded building capacity), which will take place this year from July 31 to August 2. This event is one where goers can meet the artists, enjoy in the art work and understand the form expression that is surfing through the artists’ depictions. Store02.prostores.com/servlet/sagemoresurfgallery/StoreFront gives more information on the gallery and event.
Ocean Galleries is an art gallery with locations both in Avalon and Stone Harbor. As the Ocean Galleries state, their mission is “to provide quality art by contemporary artists while practicing the highest standards of credibility and integrity in a comfortable and unpretentious atmosphere.” This mission has held true, as can be seen in the Galleries’ expansion to its second location in Stone Harbor. Both gallery locations show fine art in glass, bronze sculpture and paint. They also specialize in expertly executed reproductions.
Interested in having a little bit of something for everyone that will not break the bank? The Galleries put forward serious and “whimsical” artworks and crafts, constantly rotating and changing their inventory to keep the places fresh and new.
Upcoming events include Howard Behrens’ return to Ocean Galleries to hold his final gallery show during Labor Day weekend. This once in a lifetime exhibition, “Fairwell to a Master: A Retrospective Look at 25 Years of Extraordinary Art,” will feature a look back at his contemporary, Impressionistic artwork with paintings from his college years to his very first palette-knife painting and all the way through his amazing career.
The show takes place Friday, August 29 through Monday, September 1 with Behrens making two special gallery appearances.
For more information, please visit www.oceangalleries.com.
Other seaside galleries can be equally as enticing. Atlantic City houses its own art galleries in the Atlantic City Cultural Center on Garden Pier as well as further into shopping districts. “America’s Nautical Décor Company,” Resort Graphics Incorporated, located on Carson Avenue presents a wide assortment of wall décor prints, glassworks and suncatchers all with a beach and coastal theme based on popular American aquatic attractions (the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Great Lakes). Resort Graphics mainly boasts the paintings of Donna Elias, co-founder of the company, who created the vibrant celebratory collections, the Great American Lighthouses Collection and the By the Seaside Collection. The Resort Graphics website is www.resortgraphics.com.
Also in Atlantic City is The Atlantic City Art Center, located next to the Atlantic City Historical Museum on Garden Pier. The Atlantic City Art Center encompasses three galleries, each with monthly and bimonthly changing exhibits that show artists of contemporary style with “national, regional and local renown.” Current exhibitions in the Art Center include Ruth Formica (nature, landscapes, and still-lifes in oils, watercolor and gouache), Jane D’Orto (ordinary, yet “introspective” activities and scenes in oils and pastels), and Dominick Spolitino (photography on the perfection of nature and outdoor scenes). In the month of July, the Atlantic City Art Center also offers art classes on Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. For more information on the Atlantic City Art Center, see www.acartcenter.org. The galleries are open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.
Whereas one originally thinks painting and sculpture comprise the elements of an art gallery, the Schotland Gallery in Flemington totally breaks with “convention.” The Schotland Gallery is solely for the purpose of artistic photography.
The photography gallery is housed in a recently restored 1858 home and has only been in operation as one of New Jersey’s few photography showcases for a little over a year. Currently, eight photographers’ portfolios are being presented there.
Gallery hours are made by appointment only. The current exhibition being carried out in the Schotland Gallery is the gallery’s founder and director Ronald S. Schotland, who takes viewers on a visual journey through Old New York: 1940s-60s. For more information on purchasing a photograph or setting up an appointment at the gallery, visit www.schotlandgallery.com.
Philadelphia enjoys its fair share of art galleries, too; art here may be even more diverse than that in New Jersey. In the Old City district of Philadelphia, for example, one will find the ArtJaz Gallery, a place whose mission is to promote artists of African American decent. The name for the gallery came from the founders’ beliefs that music and visual art are inseparably tied together and “convey artistic freedom.” The gallery exhibits a plethora of original paintings, prints, fine arts, mixed media and sculpture, currently presenting local artist Calvin Coleman’s collage-like works in a showcase of textured paintings. The ArtJaz Gallery website is www.artjaz.com.
In Philadelphia one will also find The Clay Studio, “shaping the future of ceramics.” This gallery is wholly ceramic sculpture based, and is dedicated to enhancing and supporting ceramic art in the area. In fact, the organization is completely non-profit. It aims to teach others about ceramic sculpture through classes and “Claymobile and Outreach” programs, that seek to educate people in “underserved” areas about art in a hands-on experience.
Clay Studio classes can be found for every age group. In the summer, there is a once-a-week children’s class, and year-round there are art sessions for adults. Artworks created and showcased in the gallery itself vary from functional pieces to decorative sculpture or craftwork. One of the most recently launched exhibitions is Guy Michael Davis’ “New York,” in which white ceramic sculpture depicts the “nature” of New York City: rats, birds, turtles and, most intriguing, hangings of tree branches that appear to be growing off of the walls.
The Clay Studio is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday and from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Check it out on the web at www.theclaystudio.org.
Muse Gallery and Foundation for the Visual Arts, similarly are in the Old City district, and is of a more “rebellious” vein. Here, local artists seek to make religious, political and social statements through the art that they show in their artist-owned atmosphere. In fact, from now until July 27, the Muse Gallery is featuring its annual juried exhibit just for this purpose – “Speak up!” All of the art in the gallery is contemporary, with a conceptual, abstract or representational flair. It is, to “lead us beyond ourselves.”
The Muse Gallery can be visited between 12 p.m. and 5 p.m. Wednesday to Sunday, or on the web at www.musegallery philadelphia.com.
The Eye’s Gallery on South Street, Philadelphia is yet another unique museum sprung from the inspiration of rich culture. Began by Julia and Isaiah Zagar after their finished enrollment in the Peace Corps in South America, the Eye’s Gallery helped lead to South Street’s “Renaissance.” Now, the site is a surfeit of Latin American crafts, furniture, artwork and tradition, including ethnic clothing and folk art. Sample art pieces can be seen on www.eyesgallery.com.
Finally, The Philadelphia Print Shop may impart one of the most interesting experiences of any art gallery. As opposed to the usual contemporary galleries that pepper the surrounding area, The Philadelphia Print Shop has an abundance of history in art, in rare prints and antique maps dating between the fifteenth and early twentieth century. Other works include lithography, etching and wood engraving.
At the Philadelphia Print Shop, one can also find old books and magazines all kept in good condition, as well as the artwork contained within the pages. The majority of Print Shop inventory is taken up by works dedicated to Philadelphia that document its history. The main art type, on the other hand, is lithography, many which were hand painted, adding to their uniqueness and value.
Besides teaching visitors about the gallery history and the history of its artworks, the website for the Philadelphia Print Shop, www.philaprintshop.com, is an incredibly interesting read for anyone interested in history. The Philadelphia Print Shop is open from 10 a.m. till 5 p. m., Monday through Saturday and from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
In a day and age where art seems to be fading into the background in lieu of more “serious” and “solid” pastimes, it is enthusing to see that so many art galleries still thrive, teaching culture, creativity and emotional depth to visitors. Truly, art in all its forms gives a depth to human life that nothing else can. It teaches us what it is to be beautiful, what it means to be profound, and, most intensely, what it means to be human.