Curious Matter Gallery

Curious Matter Gallery

Leona Strassberg Steiner

Curious Matter is a contemporary art gallery located at 272 5th Street in downtown Jersey City. This gallery is very unique foremost because of its small size, encompassing a small room in the entryway of the owners’ apartment. The gallery space is pristine with an eclectic touch much like the owners, Raymond E. Mingst and Arthur Bruso, vision of their gallery and art in the world today. “Curious Matter examines fantastic notions, confounding ideas and audacious thoughts”.

Coming from different gallery settings and backgrounds, the owners have fused together an eclectic gallery that shows work by local, national and international emerging and established artists. Their exhibitions are evidence to the pursuit of understanding and articulating individual and collective experiences of the world, real or imagined.

Both artists were exploring, at the time, new directions in their work. They found likenesses through their interests in museology, cabinets of curiosities, religious iconography and Catholic household devotions. A vision evolved for a contemporary art gallery and Curious Matter evolved in 2007 when they began to invite other artists to take part in exhibitions.

       

Curious Matters’ inquiry-based group shows are a cornerstone for Jersey City art today. Each exhibition theme is carefully created and selected to serve as a departure point, for artworks that may intersect with the subject under investigation in myriad ways, explicit and covert. Curious Matter also publishes catalogues, artist monographs and broadsides. The gallery is open on Sundays from 12 – 3pm or by appointment, and also collaborates with other Jersey City entities for the promotion of the arts in our community.

Call for Entries

Curious Matter has put out a call for entries, which I am applying for. The show is called “A Time in Acadia”.

From Eden to Monsanto, plants are entwined in virtually every aspect of our lives and culture –– whether for nourishment, their medicinal properties or decorative appeal. In sources as divergent as Dutch landscape painting, herbals, or in the work of Andy Goldsworthy, Agnes Denes, or Rob Carter, plant life is abundantly represented in visual art. With the exhibition “A Time in Arcadia” Curious Matter will explore how contemporary artists engage with botany. We’re interested in looking beyond, or subverting, traditional approaches to the subject. The conceptual and unexpected is most welcome. A color catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

I have chosen four photographs to enter for the show:

 

 

Leona Strassberg Steiner
http://www.leonastrassbergsteiner.com

Email: leonastr@gmail.com Phone: (201) 240-2190
323 4th Street, #2, Jersey City, NJ 07302

Solo Exhibitions:

2013                        BFA Thesis Show, NJCU Visual Arts Gallery, New Jersey City University,
                                    Jersey City, NJ

Group Exhibitions:

2012                        A Path Home, SPE Regional Conference, NJCU Visual Arts Building,
                                    Jersey City, NJ, Curated by Deborah Jack

2012                        The Way We Were, ProArts Member Show, Tenmarc Building,
                                   Jersey City, NJ

2012                        Constructed Ambiguity, Center Without Walls Gallery, Newark, NJ                                                                     Curated by Gary Garrido Schneider, (catalogue)

2012                        Urban Legends, Center Without Walls Gallery, Seton Hall, Newark,  NJ,                                                                        Curated by Mollie Thonneson

2012                        BackLash - On Women’s Basic Rights and Freedom, Soho20 Gallery,

                                    New York City, NY

2012                        Voyeurism & Intimacy, SPE Member Show, RayKo Gallery,

                                    San Francisco, CA, Curated by Todd Hido

2008                        From Darkness to Light, Artists’ Beit Midrash, New York, NY

                                    Curated by Tobi Kahn

2006                        The Wall, Jersey City Artists Tour, Jersey City, NJ

2003                        The Sinai Desert, New City Gallery, New York, NY

1999                        Windows of Neveh Zedek, Givat Haviva Art Institute,

                                    Kibbutz Givat Haviva, Israel

Collaborative Projects:

2012                        Beyond the Garden, JC Fridays Art Tour, Jersey City,

                                    NJ @ Art in the Garden Space, with Mollie Thonneson (painter),

                                    Steven Singer (sculptor), and myself

Artist Talks

2011                        Research Symposium, New Jersey City University, exemplary students                                                                           speak about their respective projects, With a Little Help From my Friends, advisor, Deborah Jack

2012                        Artists speak about their work, Constructed Ambiguity, Center Without                                                                     Walls Gallery, Newark, NJ, panel led by Gary Garrido Schneider

Leona Strassberg Steiner lives and works in Jersey City, New Jersey. Leona was a professional modern dancer who turned to photography while documenting her student’s performances. After living in Israel for twenty-seven years she returned to the United States in 2001, earning her BFA in Photography from New Jersey City University. Recently she opened Alley Arts, an after school art program for children in the neighborhood. Her experiences from residing in Israel and the United States are what propel her photographic projects, which look at memories, displacement, transitions, and land.

Image List

Leona Strassberg Steiner

A Time in Acadia

1.              Leona Strassberg Steiner, “Kale” 2010, Archival Ink jet print, scanned from 4x5 b/w negative, 6x6 (print), $250

2.              Leona Strassberg Steiner, “Corn Stalks”, 2010, Archival Ink jet print, scanned from 4x5 b/w negative, 6x6 (print), $250

3.       Leona Strassberg Steiner, “Weeds”, 2010, Archival Ink jet print, scanned from 4x5 b/w negative, 6x6 (print), $250

3.              Leona Strassberg Steiner, “Hibiscus”, 2010, Archival Ink jet print, scanned from 4x5 b/w negative, 6x6 (print), $250