February 27, 1994
"Home-grown artists show their skills at college exhibition"
by Eileen Watkins
State artists get a boost from the "Art: New Jersey" show, now in its third year at William Paterson College, Wayne.
The 1994 edition runs through March 11 in the East and Court galleries of the campus Ben Shahn Center. All 24 participants have ties to New Jersey by birth, education, residency or occupation.
The show has been curated this year by Ellen Schwartz Harris, director of the Montclair Art Museum, and Michael Bzdak, manager of art programming for Johnson & Johnson. It is sponsored by the WPC Friends of The Gallery/Artists' Network, an alumni group, and proceeds benefit a scholarship fund for WPC art students.
Among the painters, KIlen Sherman-Zinn offers an expressionistic interpretation of "Rachel's Closet," with strokes of orange, violet and gray filling the freehand compartments. Mona Brody overlaps irregular, earth toned slabs, as a black rectangle and blue flames hover in back, for her dark oil "Journey Series Continued V."
Elongated forms that resemble plants or paintbrushes, but behave like people, interact in the mysterious oils by Rochelle Rubin. Dense, agitated strokes in deep colors reveal a white seat near a pink garden path, for the acrylic "Landscape, Bench Series" by Barbara Buschell-Petitto.
From Ludlow Smethurst come both the impressionistic oil of a dog at twilight, "Boswell on the Porch," and a realistic watercolor of a cafe with red "Tulips and Tables," Patricia Catanzaro uses a flatter style for her oils of an "Orange Chair" with brightly patterned cushions, and a "Basement Sink" near a yellow tile wall
Arie Galles is represented by two colorful drawings, "Clock Fields" and "Winter," geometric translations of aerial landscapes. Roz Hollander shows two super-realistic pastels of ripe produce, "Mac Apples" and "Orange Peppers."
Judith Landsman imposes printed phrases over illustrations taken from various sources. She pairs sentiments such as "I Always Feel Guilty" with expressionistic religious images, to suggest the sources of her personal conflicts.
Marion Lane paints in oil on formed steel for her abstract wall pieces. "Possessed" layers three distinct forms - an amorphous outline of polished steel a brown segment painted with a wavy, gray ,bar, and a folded purple layer. The parts of "Camberduct" fit together more closely, and feature more angular and hooked contours.
"San Juan River: Navajo Blanket," an acrylic by Rose Ruth Ellison, uses angled planes and strong hues of rust, orange, green, mauve and blue, to evoke a Southwestern landscape,
Marcia Wilson contributes folk-influenced, laminated wood sculptures of "My Dog Dolores" and "My Dog Ginger." Her mature "Mother Time" wears a flowered dress and stands with hands on hips, to reveal a "biological clock" ticking in her stomach.
Estelle Lackey also shows wit in her two floor pieces, done in steel and stretch lingerie fabric. "Come Here" functions almost as an animal trap, The taut black lace forming two openings that taper to dead ends, "Purr" is a cube with a center hole lined in black…
