Closing Reception, Guests mingle among paintings, neon, and a vintage car, the grungy garage space alive with conversation, community and shared food. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Miller
Aleksandra Scepanovic’s story begins in then-Yugoslavia, where the stark presence of brutalist architecture shaped her early sense of form and space. As a journalist during the 1990s she reported on the Balkan conflicts, bearing witness to the fractured landscapes of cities such as Sarajevo.
Installation view of Caroline Burton: Way Finding at the New Jersey State Museum (September 23, 2023 – March 31, 2024). Photo courtesy of Sarah Vogelman
The New Jersey State Museum, part of the NJ Department of State, has served the public for nearly 130 years, showcasing diverse collections in Archaeology & Ethnography, Cultural History, Fine Art, and Natural History. Assistant curator Sarah Vogelman dedicates herself to the Fine Art collection, focusing on its care, expansion, and exhibition. With over 12,000 works, the collection emphasizes American art and notably highlights New Jersey artists, positioning their contributions within the broader American art history context. Through the New Jersey Artist Series, featuring exhibitions like Caroline Burton: Way Finding, Vogelman aims to spotlight New Jersey’s vibrant contemporary art scene and foster local artist collaboration. By curating this series and organizing exhibitions that offer wider or even global art historical perspectives, she strives to convey that New Jersey’s art is a vital part of a broader cultural dialogue. “I want our visitors to see that art from New Jersey transcends our state’s borders,” says Vogelman.
Dana Yoeli in her Tel Aviv studio, 2022, photo by Roni Cnaani
In her installations, sculptures, and drawings, the Tel Aviv based artist, Dana Yoeli, digs into collective and biographical memories, to create multi-layered environments which prompt us to discover a rich array of interconnected references—from theater and cinema to history, place, and architecture. In Yoeli’s visual universe the “I”, “we”, and “they” entangle to form a new entity, offering us complex shifting perspectives.
Surveillancescapes, Archival pigment print on cotton paper, 2019
Tim van den Oudenhoven is a Belgian-born artist who currently lives and works in Berlin. His photo-based depictions of desolate landscapes with a strong suggestion of surveillance inspire conversations on the dynamic between the visible and the invisible, the witness and the witnessed: in brief, the nature of being seen.