Jersey Arts Scene hits the Big Apple

We at New Jersey Monthly don’t often venture across the Hudson when showcasing the best of the Garden State, but for New York’s Art Expo this year, we decided to make an exception. Not just because Art Expo is celebrating its 30th year as the world’s biggest fine and popular art fair—which is exciting in itself—but because so many New Jersey-based artists are being celebrated at the Javits Convention Center event, which starts on February 28 and is open to the public from March 1 to 3. 

There’s Ning Lee of Livingston, who was born in southwest China, but has made this area his home for more than a decade. Inspired by the Renaissance masters and seventeenth-century Dutch masters, his still life and landscape paintings are serene.

Akiko Day of Turnersville aims to capture American culture in her paintings, which reflect the spirit of her Japanese heritage.

The curves and craftsmanship of Artur Moreira’s carpentry are fresh and unique. Born in Brazil, Moreira lived in London for a few years and was inspired by the architecture around him. He has taken that inspiration to his studio in Newark.

Val Dyshlov, a Serbia native who lives in Morganville, received his first art supplies as a five-year-old and hasn’t looked back since. Now experimenting in different styles and mediums, his work has evolved over the decades, reflecting his life experiences and perception of the world.

Woodbury’s Heather Rippert has been drawn to art her entire life, and many of her watercolors capture scenes from the beach—she loves the serenity and peace the shore provides for the spirit.

The resume of Mahwah’s Judith Peck is immense—her sculptures are on display in about 80 public and private collections. A professor of art at Ramapo College, Peck’s works are about people: “How they look, how they behave, how they endure hardship, and how they find the meaning, truths, and joys of life.”

Born and raised in Trenton, Lucius Frazier has been creating works of art since childhood, working mostly with pencils and pastels.

Originally from the country of Georgia, Manana N. Kligman fell in love with America on a visit in 1989 and now makes her home in Edgewater. She studied engraving and printmaking, and her lithographs are sold in galleries around the world.

Also from Georgia, Zura Bushurishvili is a sculptor and painter who now lives in Edison. Her works capture people, animals, and the abstract.

Sona Yeghiazaryan, of Montclair (and originally from Armenia), says she paints the music that she hears when listening to jazz standards, Luis Armstrong's trumpet, and the vocals of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald.

The oil paintings of Zhi-Yue Zheng, who lives in Egg Harbor, capture scenes from Tibet.

M.D. Abroamowitz of Keyport—who has worked as a children’s book illustrator—keeps nature and the environment at the center of all designs.

Whitehouse Station’s Melinda Nye specializes in outdoor and nature photography, capturing collections of natural objects, such a flowers, bird eggs, and pine cones.

Hoboken’s Ocean Clark creates pop-art paintings on canvas, room-dividing screens, linocuts, and silkscreens.

In addition to the participation of artists from the New Jersey, several of the state’s galleries are also a part of Art Expo. A&E Fine Art of Fair Lawn, Classic Publications of Englewood Cliffs, Hoke Art Collections of Hillsborough, Holoassy Lins de Albuquerque Gallery of Jersey City, Rosea Fine Art of Hillsborough, Sin City Art House of Clayton, Vogel Pop of Clifton, and The Brazilian Collection of Passaic are all part of the festivities.

So if you must leave the confines of New Jersey’s vibrant arts scene and head across the river, make sure to browse the works of those artists who make the Garden State their home.

Open to the public March 1–3. Hours: Sat, 10 am–6 pm; Sun, 11 am–6 pm; Mon, 10 am–2 pm. $15, students and seniors $5, children twelve and under enter free. Javits Convention Center, 655 W. 34th Street, New York (888-608-5300; artexpos.com).