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Saturday, March 11, 2017

ART EXPRESSES THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF US ALL IN MORRISTOWN

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COMMON GROUND

WHEN: March 8 – August 24; Monday-Friday from 10am to 4pm and by appointment
WHERE: 
Gallery at 14 Maple, a distinctive space located on the 3rd floor of the LEED certified “green” building at 14 Maple Avenue in Morristown
ADMISSION: free
Visit www.morrisarts.org or call (973) 285-5115 for additional information, including the exhibit catalogue which contains details and sale prices for all works. The Gallery at 14 Maple is a barrier-free facility. Individuals needing special accommodation should contact Kadie Dempsey at (973) 285-5115, x 17 or kdempsey@morrisarts.org.

The Exhibition Committee of Morris Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, with guest curator, Jeanne Brasile, selected works by six outstanding New Jersey artists, including Alaine Becker (South Orange); Dominant Dansby (Jersey City); Dahlia Elsayed (Palisades Park); Heejung Kim (Bogota); Mel Leipzig (Trenton) and Alex Piccirillo (Nutley). As Curator Brasile states, “There are many sayings in many cultures that note the importance of the collective.  Unfortunately, in difficult times such as now, we tend to focus on the things that divide us...This group exhibition, Common Ground endeavors to express the interconnectedness of the human experience through a variety of artistic impressions.” 

Using charcoal on paper, Alaine Becker suggests flesh and bone with her intriguing organic forms that investigate the body and its internal structures while Dominant Dansby bridges nature and artifice with his found materials assemblages that evoke compartments of the brain and the way we store and retrieve information. With whimsy and sly humor, Dahlia Elsayed draws on pop culture, using thought clouds to capture random sensations we all have had throughout any given day. Taking a more spiritual approach, Heejung Kim’s works reference the meditative aspects of mandalas and, with great delicacy, reveal the very neurons that power our thoughts and feelings.  By contrast, Mel Leipzig’s works focus on the human experience, portraying friends and family and the places they inhabit, utilizing the external landscapes to illuminate the internal qualities of each individual portrait. By contrast, Alex Piccirillo’s portraits exclude a “setting” and focus entirely on the individuals portrayed, capturing the mood and emotion of private moments, of stillness and solitude.