Dub-ble vision: The landmark Dublin House is among the people, places and things rendered in ecstatically bold strokes by illustrator Mike Quon, in a first-ever art installation at NovelTeas in Red Bank.
It’s time once again for a virtual “Artwalk” — come on in, the watercolor’s fine — and what follows here are some picks for the coming days and nights at the storefront galleries and public spaces of the Green.
• FRIDAY: Photographer Michael Hynes at The Monmouth Museum. As part of the Emerging Artists series, the Monmouth Museum (on the Lincroft campus of Brookdale Community College) spotlights a set of compelling black and white images by Middletown-based lensman Hynes — featuring scenes of his native Ireland as well as his adopted home on the Jersey Shore. Hynes is expected to be present at the opening, from 6p to 8p, and he’ll return to the museum on the evening of June 16 for another in its regularly scheduled series of Artist Talks. Exhibit continues during normal museum hours through July 3; check website for admission info.
• SATURDAY: Rahway Art Hive at JamianÂ’s Food & Drink. The Rahway Art Hive? It’d sound downright sci-fi sinister if it didn’t sound so simultaneously intriguing. Based in our sister city just up the NJ Transit tracks, the creative cooperative (and accompanying art gallery) presents its first Monmouth County “away game” show as the June feature at Jamian LaViola‘s eponymous Monmouth Street bistro, an offering curated as always by Red Bank painter (and Jamian’s mixologist) Travis Radcliffe. Beginning tonight and continuing through June 30, the work of Jim McKeon and company is on display at the restaurant that opens up its inviting “convertible” facade when the weather gets warm. Your host Jamian caters the cool cuisine at a reception at 8p.
Usually represented with oversize outdoor works in metal and wood, Rumson sculptor-painter Eric Von Arx downsizes things for June as the featured window artist at the Art Alliance of Monmouth County.
• SATURDAY: SELF IMAGE and IN MOTION at the Art Alliance. The Art Alliance of Monmouth County hosts an opening reception at 6p for a pair of themed displays for June — with this month’s featured window artist the Rumson-based sculptor Eric Von Arx. Exhibit continues through the month during regular gallery hours, Tuesday thru Saturday, from 12 to 4pm.
• SUNDAY: CLICK, CUT AND BURN at The Guild. Shrewsbury’s Guild of Creative Art continues to mark its 50th anniversary in Monmouth County (an accomplishment that makes it the oldest nonprofit arts cooperative in New Jersey), with an opening reception between 3 to 5pm for the newest group show — featuring the work of photo collagist Vicky Culver, hyperreal photographer JoAnn Lense and “metal sculptor, painter, poet, furniture designer, welder, DJ, graffitti writer, all around coolest dude on the planet” Richard M. Tierney (aka “Ricasso, the world’s greatest living artist”). Exhibit continues through June 30 during regular gallery hours.
• June 12: SUNNYSIDE UP! at Monmouth County Library Eastern Branch. It’s the Month of the Horse over at the Eastern Branch Library in Shrewsbury — a celebration of New Jersey’s official state animal (look it up) that’s been observed each June since 1998 (look that one up also). Here on a calendar of events that trots out everything from lectures on the Garden State’s horse breeding and racing industries to a special appearance by Asbury Park’s mounted police unit, the library teams with the county Park System and the Plein Air Painters of the Jersey Coast to host “Sunnyside Up!,” an exhibit of oils spotlighting scenes of Middletown’s Sunnyside Equestrian Center. An artist reception will be held Saturday, June 12, from 1 to 4p, with the paintings on display ’til June is put out to pasture.
• June 12: Bookart, Collage and Drawings by MIKE QUON at NovelTeas. The son of a golden-age Disney animator and a student of Pop Art mover and shaker Ed Ruscha, graphic designer and illustrator Mike Quon has forged a strong brand that spans the MadMan world of advertising and the no less insane world of fine art. His ecstatically bold brushwork illustrations and logos have been seen everywhere from Times Square and downtown Tokyo to the Sydney Olympics and the US Air Force Art Collection — and his subjects have ranged from the Guggenheim Museum and the Italian Alps to the Red Bank Train Station and downtown Broad Street. Beginning this weekend, the borough-based Quon becomes the subject of the first-ever art installation at NovelTeas Authors Aromas & Gifts. The Bridge Avenue book salon/ tea room/ gift boutique will be featuring the bibliophilical best of the artist from June 12 to July 12, with Quon himself expected to be in attendance at an opening reception running from 6 to 9p.
RIDERS ON MARLU ROAD by Earl Joseph Martell is among the plein-air paintings of Middletown’s Sunnyside Equestrian Center on display during Horse Month, at the County Library Eastern Branch in Shrewsbury.
• June 26: RIVER VIEWS Cocktail Gala, Exhibition and Sale. Since one never knows where theyÂ’ll be setting up easel next, the Plein Air Painters of the Jersey Coast tend to show up in the most unexpected places — and on the evening of Saturday the 26th, theyÂ’ll be showing up at an uncharacteristically great-indoors setting on the picturesque banks of the Navesink, as Riverview Medical Center Auxiliary hosts a special 6-9p reception, art show and sale featuring the works of the PAPJC. Spotlighting “paintings of views from some of the most beautiful homes on the Jersey Shore,” the event takes place inside the Blaisdell Lobby at RMC, with proceeds from the sale dedicated to the hospitalÂ’s Jane H. and John Marshall Booker Cancer Center. Attendees are encouraged to make reservations ($50) at (732)530-2480 or (732)431-1986.
