Saturday – beyond Downtown Jersey City
Most of the exhibition spaces outside of Downtown Jersey City are walkable from Journal Square, which is a PATH and bus hub and also has numerous public garages.
ESKFF – the Eileen Kaminsky Family Foundation, hosts artists in residence on the second floor of Mana Contemporary at 888 Newark Avenue. The current artists with ESKFF studio space are Leonard Cicio, Sabine Kuehner, Itzhaq Mevorah, Diana Nicolaie, and Jenny Nolan.
Heading south, you will visit Jersey City’s two most experimental, community drive and exciting galleries, Eonta Space at 34 Dekalb Ave and SMUSH gallery at 340 Summit.
Eonta’s current show is called Artist Tree: Curation by Connection. One artist is selected for exhibition, they in turn select two other artists, who select two other artists, for a total of seven artists showing artwork in a combination of serendipity and strategy.
SMUSH is showcasing textile art in “Of Our Being: Fiber Art in the Immediate.” 11 innovative fiber and textile artists are participating, and additionally a community quilt created in the gallery.
It’s worth getting an Uber to the last space on the list – the New Jersey City University Galleries. The show Modulations has its opening reception on Saturday at the Lemmerman and Visual Arts Galleries. It’s a group show of 23 emerging artists, all of them in the BFA program at NJCU. The artwork on display includes ceramics, illustration, graphic design, painting, and photography.
Sunday – Downtown Jersey City
The greatest concentration of walkable art spaces in Jersey City is the Powerhouse Arts District in Downtown JC, just a couple of blocks from the Grove Street PATH station and with multiple parking garages as well as street parking. There are also numerous terrific restaurants and bars in the area.
Start at the150 Bay building – entrances for multiple GSAW participants are on the1st Street side of the building, between Marin Blvd and Provost St, 2 blocks from the PATH.
First up is Juice Box Gallery at 157 1st Street, featuring the Venezuelan Contemporary Arts group show.
Next door at 157B 1st Street is the entrance to Project 14C, a new artist live/work residency program which is having open house events during GSAW. The residency program is taking over the 81 dorm rooms and multiple amenity spaces, newly constructed for the athletes of Alliance University, which closed permanently in 2023.
Then head one more door down to Art150 at 157A 1st Street.
The art starts right as you enter the building in the descriptively named Art150 Lobby Gallery, where Frank Ippolito has a conceptual solo show that combines light and image and painting and sculpture called “Cautionary Tails.”
Take the elevator to the second floor of Art150, where many of the 50+ artist studios will be open and the Art150 Gallery and Gallery 14C feature strong group exhibitions.
Art150 Gallery’s show is RE:Growth, an exploration of the balance between decay and renewal, while Gallery 14C’s show Static Motion showcases the sense of movement that can be achieved through static media like paint and paper and thread.
You’ve already seen a lot of art in one building in one evening – but three blocks away at 110 Morgan Street is Novado Gallery, the largest contemporary art gallery in Jersey City and always worth a visit.
You’ll have to wander out of the Powerhouse Arts District to get to the last downtown gallery, IMUR gallery at 67 Greene Street in the Paulus Hook neighborhood. The group show there is “Flow State” focusing on the work of four artists: Daniel Morowitz, Greg Brickey Nicole Basilone and Sue Eldridge Ward.
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