The Daily Newarker

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact – Jeanne Brasile 973-275-2033 or jeanne.brasile@shu.edu
Walsh Gallery, Seton Hall University, 400 S. Orange Avenue, S. Orange, NJ 07079

The Walsh Gallery Presents
DRIVING WITHOUT DESTINATION
SEPTEMBER 7 –OCTOBER 2, 2010
OPENING RECEPTION – THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 5PM TO 8PM

The Walsh Gallery is pleased to announce a group exhibition of contemporary art in collaboration with the G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture. Exhibiting artists were inspired by an essay written by Dr. Dermot Quinn, in which he ponders the ramifications of global culture. Quinn’s essay reflects upon G.K. Chesterton’s seminal essay, “The Outline of Insanity” which although published in 1926, accurately predicts the effects of cultural and political homogeny. Curators, Tony Capparelli and Jeanne Brasile were motivated to produce the exhibition due to the timely subject matter that ponders the thought that “oneness” denies the beauty and glory of diversity in an increasingly homogenous world.
Participating artists include: Shannon Bellum, Ellen Denuto, Billy Friebele, Kathleen Gerard, Allan Gorman, Max Heller, So Yoon Lym, Tony Murray, Mary Ann Reilly, Ryan Roa, Larry Ross, Joan Sonnenfeld, Bill Westheimer and Heidi Younger. The artists were selected through an open call process and juried by the curators, Father Ian Boyd, C.S.B. and Director of the Chesterton Institute, Gloria Garafulich-Grabois and Dermot Quinn, Ph.D, Professor of History at Seton Hall University. The jury panel aimed to present a balance of themes and media in the exhibition. A symposium will take place on Saturday, October 2nd at 2pm in the Walsh Gallery. Speakers include Father Ian Boyd, who is also Editor of the Chesterton Review and Dr. Dermot Quinn. All events are free and open to the public.
For 150 years, Seton Hall University has been a catalyst for leadership, developing the whole student, mind, heart and spirit. Seton Hall combines the resources of a large university with the personal attention of a small liberal arts college. Its attractive suburban campus is only 14 miles by train, bus or car to New York City, with the wealth of employment, internship, cultural and entertainment opportunities the city offers. Seton Hall is a Catholic university that embraces students of all races and religions, challenging each other to better the world with integrity, compassion and a commitment to serving others. For more information, see http://www.shu.edu. The Walsh Gallery is located on the campus of Seton Hall University, 400 S. Orange Avenue, South Orange, NJ 07079. For more information call 973-275-2033 or jeanne.brasile@shu.edu.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Emma Wilcox
Ph. (646) 220-3772
ewilcox@aferro.org

Gallery Aferro
73 Market St
Newark NJ
07102
aferro.org

ALL OF IT: Dahlia Elsayed
Midcareer NJ artist re-arranges over 100 paintings for “humorous, anxious, lusty poem.”

Main Gallery 9/11/10-10/2/10
Opening Reception September 11, 2010, 7-10 PM

Gallery Aferro is pleased to announce the opening of All Of It, an ambitious floor to ceiling exhibition of the work of New Jersey artist Dahlia Elsayed. Ms. Elsayed worked for a month in the 2000 sq. ft space to arrange and rearrange over 100 paintings from the last decade alongside new work to create an experience of “being bombarded by text” and physically walking through a “humorous, anxious and lusty epic poem.” Ms. Elsayed is the inaugural recipient of the 18-month Aferro Studio residency for midcareer New Jersey-based artists.

Ms. Elsayed’s painting process is closely linked with writing and in this show the artist performs a kind of editing and revision to selected works to create new and altered meanings. The exhibition will include new site-specific pieces and will be accompanied by an exhibition catalog with essay by short story writer and novelist Alice Elliott Dark.

The impetus for the exhibition comes from a flood that damaged the artist’s studio where she had been working for 14 years. In the frantic effort to remove work, Ms. Elsayed had the realization that “all the work is really just one big piece” and that work from years ago formed a connected narrative to the most recent paintings. Materiality, scale and language have all been choreographed here to function together as a massive meta-narrative.

Ms. Elsayed combines text and imagery to create visually narrative paintings that document internal and external geographies. Her work, influenced by conceptual art, comics, and landscape painting, is informed by autobiography and environment, to create illustrated documents of places and memories. Her paintings, prints and artist books have been shown widely at galleries and art institutions throughout the United States and internationally, and is in numerous public collections. Ms. Elsayed has received awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Edward Albee Foundation, Visual Studies Workshop, Women’s Studio Workshop, Headlands Center for the Arts, and The NJ State Council on the Arts. She received her MFA from Columbia University.

Gallery Aferro is located at 73 Market St, Newark, NJ.
Gallery hours are Thurs – Sat, 12– 6 PM and by appt