Sunday Comics: The Creative Page explores both the history of the single, full-page comic in the early twentieth century, and the ways in which that iconic format has been interpreted by comic artists in the twenty first. Deceptively simple in design, Sunday comics employ an entire newspaper page, or broadsheet, to convey short but visually complex narratives. Artists such as George Herriman and Winsor McCay, among many others, saw the unlimited artistic potential of that single page. Contemporary comic artists have continued to explore and expand upon the broadsheet format. This exhibition, curated by WPU professor of art history Claudia Goldstein, combines early twentieth-century examples from the Jerry Robinson Papers in the collection of the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University with the work of contemporary comic artists Bodie Chewning, Maëlle Doliveux, Charles Fetherolf, Geoff Grogan, Gideon Kendall, Benjamin W. Morse, and Robert Sikoryak, who continue to transform this simple format and showcase its truly limitless nature.
Before, After traces generations of Armenian resiliency through the common threads of loss and survival. The exhibition examines connections passed down through blood, migration, and history, from genocide to diaspora to belonging. Artists John Avakian, Anush Babajanyan, Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, Vahagn Ghukasyan, Jackie Kazarian, Diana Markosian, Talin Megherian, Marsha Nouritza Odabashian, Ara Oshagan and Levon Parian, Jessica Sperandio, Scout Tufankjian, and Mary Zakarian integrate artifact with abstraction, witness accounts with recreation, old materials reused, and new molds made. The Armenian experience—both past and present, before and after—is showcased through a range of mediums and practices, reflecting the repeating patterns of grief, healing, and reflection.
One Family's Story traces the journey of Arek and Moses Zakarian from the turn of the 20th century during the Ottoman Empire through genocide, survival, migration, and reemergence in the United States. Visitors will engage with the family’s personal photos, memoirs, musical instruments, artifacts, and artwork which serve as a backdrop to the broader history of the Armenian Genocide. The exhibition is made possible by the Zakarian grandchildren, led by Susan Arpajian Jolley and Allan Arpajian.
Juried by William Paterson Department of Art faculty members James Blasi, Andrea Geller Jablonski, Michael Rees, and Robin Schwartz, this exhibition showcases student artwork in diverse media. Artists featured in the exhibition include Fina Healy (Newton, NJ), Olivia Thompson (Glen Rock NJ), Dante Blucher (Woodland Park, NJ), Jasmine Hurtado (Garfield, NJ), Alexzander Taliaferro (Garfield, NJ), Yael Jose Tapia (Park Ridge, NJ), Cynthia Boyd (Bronx, NY), Saoirse LeFebvre (Sussex, NJ), Kate Maitland (Hopatcong, NJ), Gianna Ballesteros (Waldwick, NJ), Katrina Pascale (Newton, NJ), Jonelly Campos (Hackensack, NJ), Ray Bruton-Moore (Burlington, NJ), Samir Hargrove (Somerset, NJ), Christina Lavorini (Sussex, NJ), Bobby Fenton (Hawthorne, NJ), Gianluca Vittorioso (Wayne, NJ), Rana Kizil (Wayne, NJ), Kimberly Cardenas (Clifton, NJ), Ariel Vallejo (Montague, NJ), J. Dylan Wilson (Wayne, NJ), Jeschelle Manansala (Hackensack, NJ), Jolie Conerly (Fair Lawn, NJ), Nicolas Minadeo (Totowa, NJ), Oliver Bornheimer (Lyons, NY), Nicole Prior (Hopatcong, NJ), Abby Herring (Wayne, NJ), Christian Montanez (Paterson, NJ), Rachel Kim (Sicklerville, NJ).
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