Here, the Noyes (Museum of Art)

Inspired (actually required) by the massive open online course (MOOC) I'm taking, I visited an art museum this weekend in search of one attention-grabbing work. Since I was in the neighborhood, kinda, I drove up the Garden State Parkway to the Noyes Museum of Art of Stockton College. I expected it to be small, but I didn't expect it to be so pleasant and inviting. The museum is adjacent to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, and features a deck overlooking Lily Lake. That's a Barnegat Bay Sneakbox parked on the bank in the picture.

Lily Lake from the Noyes Museum of Art

Inside the museum are four galleries featuring temporary exhibits of contrasting styles and media. I was especially interested in the work of Trenton-born Eric Schultz who creates sculpture out of found objects. I read signs, usually, and noticed one that warned me not to take photographs, but I can show you his video:

I chose his "Magic Lantern" to write about since it dominated the gallery and I could see it from the bench I was sitting upon. (I was required to spend time with my chosen piece of art.) This sculpture is a large ogre-like figure sitting on his haunches and holding an illuminated red lantern. I enjoyed studying Schultz's creations identifying the objects he used, but there's another level of interest here. Schultz uses materials appropriate to the theme of the work. For his angel sculpture he used items related to air, for example. I didn't notice this so much in "Magic Lantern" but I did notice that the found objects matched the shape and contour of the part of the body they represented: two red car ramps for the ogre's back, for example, green and blue wire for his braided hair, and pitchfork feet. Good news: "Magic Lantern" is pictured on Schultz's website here. He is the one with the lantern.

Two artists, Nancy Staub Laughlin and Peggy Fox, were featured in the next gallery. Laughlin works with pastels on paper and adds sparkly bits and details from landscape photos, creating her own worlds mindful of theories of aesthetics. Fox is a photographer inspired by theories of physics. By the way, each gallery offered me two-sided guides to the exhibits to help illuminate each artist's purpose and background.

Curlee Raven Holton works with paints and printmaking as he explores life's realities. His exhibit is entitled "Curlee Raven Holton: In the Sahdow of Contemplation." A recent series of prints on display here are inspired by Shakespeare's Othello. You can see some of his art on this flyer for a teacher's workshop. "Blind Spots" from 2004 is a highlight of this exhibit and can be seen on the linked flyer.

The exhibit "Fabio Mazzieri: Memory of Material" consists of painted strips of fabric, around 70 centimeters wide, draped over ceiling beams and lying on the floor, under and around which the visitor can walk. Thanks to the handout, I learned that this fabric had been woven in Perugia, Umbria, Italy by the artist's mother and grandmother. Some of the fabric is 100 years old. Mazzieri discovered the stash in a chest, probably intended for a wedding dowry. Here's a video showing Mazzieri's work exhibited not at the Noyes, but in an old monastery which now houses his studio. This is hard to describe with words, so watch the video, please.

All of these artists would have kept me interested for an afternoon, even if the Noyes Museum wasn't such a welcoming place, but I haven't even mentioned the music yet! Singer-guitarist Nicolas Castillo was performing in a strategic central location and I enjoyed his R&B and Indie Pop as I made my way through the galleries. Castillo wasn't just some guy with a guitar pulled off the street to lend some ambiance--he sounded as if he had just emerged from a radio station (WWFM for example) to grace the museum. Evidently, the music is a Sundays-in-March thing, so don't expect to be as lucky as I was when you go!

Outside the Noyes

Required Assignment 1: Thick Description (Eric Schultz at the Noyes Gallery)

Eric Schultz, MAGIC LANTERN, 2014, compressor, car ramps, lantern, pitch forks, pipe and other found objects

The Noyes Museum of Art, Galloway Township, New Jersey

Artist Eric Schultz from Trenton is featured at the Noyes Museum of Art in Galloway Township, New Jersey. This museum is situated next to Lily Lake in New Jersey’s unique Pine Barrens region. The ride to the museum took me through a world of forests, wetlands, and tall phragmites within minutes of the contrasting world of glamour and conspicuous consumption known as Atlantic City.

Eric Schultz’s work would be at home in either world. He makes brilliant art from found objects. “One man’s trash is another person’s treasure,” Schultz says. “I enjoy making art that makes people wonder why I made it. I like to evoke some kind of wonder in people, (sic) I like it when they make up their own stories.” The colorful figure of the Magic Lantern (2014) looks over the Schultz exhibit and features pitchfork feet, yellow air-tank cheeks, gauges for eyes, and braids made from blue and green electrical wire. The found objects share size, weight, and texture with the body parts for which they are intended. Red auto ramps represent the hulking figure’s shoulder blades and back. A shiny, flesh-colored retired Hoover floor polisher plays the part of the creature’s buttocks. The Magic Lantern creature is still taller than me as he sits on his haunches. He dominates the gallery as a monster would, holding his illuminated lantern. Perhaps this mysterious creature is an inhabitant of the magical, mysterious Pine Barrens where I spotted him today. The region has a rich culture of its own complete with a fantastical creature known as the Jersey Devil, and a unique environment home to a certain species of tree frog who lives nowhere else. The Magic Lantern with his gravitas would be a natural leader.

While in the presence of the hulking lantern-monster, the mismatched ambient sounds included children’s voices, footsteps on wooden floor, Eric Schultz's own voice coming from a small video screen, and the R&B/indie-pop song stylings of singer Nicolas Castillo. The music did not fit into the Magic Lantern’s implied world, but it was a perfect match for the rest of the skylit museum which featured contemporary artists in its four other galleries.