Alfa Art Gallery puts on show with 'Color and Texture: Anthologies of Artistry'

On September 6, Alfa Art Gallery hosted the in-person reception of its Summer 2024 exhibition, "Color and Texture: Anthologies of Artistry," an oil, sculpture and mixed media experience. 

Drawing inspiration from the prestigious Art Salons of the 18th and 19th centuries, Alfa established the New Brunswick Art Salon in 2010. This broader series, held three times annually, continues the tradition of Art Salons by connecting distinguished artists with the New Brunswick community and uniting their latest achievements under a common theme. 

Featured artists include RitzB (Ritu Bajaj), Josephine Barreiro, RitaMarie Cimni, Kat Collins and Jane Dell, who explore various themes of nature, humanity and place.

Other contributors, such as Kiran Dhaliwal, Carmelita Diaz Kamin and Dan Finaldi, bring richness and depth to their oil paintings through a dynamic range of techniques. Shoshana Kertesz, Sandra Koberlein, Duane Lutsko, Lisa Marseglia-Moran and Kirk Maynard offer thought-provoking works that challenge conventional ideas.

Finaldi, a Highland Park local and featured artist, strives to bridge the gap between art and the community through his work.

Growing up in a multigenerational immigrant home in Rochester, New York, he was immersed in a working-class neighborhood of diverse backgrounds, where his early passion for art was nurtured. He began his artistic education at community college, then pursued a BFA in painting at SUNY New Paltz and completed an MFA at Brooklyn College.

For more than 20 years, Finaldi has been a high school art teacher. More often than not, he ends up painting his students.

"They're posing or eating, and I'm painting them," Finaldi said in an interview with Our Sunday Visitor.

Displayed at Alfa, "Children swimming in the river," an oil painting, reflects Finaldi's ongoing fascination with everyday moments and faces. The artwork portrays a group of young individuals, presumably enjoying each other's company on a hot summer day.

His approach to teaching high school art mirrors the community he seeks to capture.

"If the perception is that this (teacher) is a decent person and not out to bust your chops, that carries 99 percent of the weight for a teacher. Students come in relaxed," he said.

Similarly, the gallery is committed to enhancing student growth. With more than 160 colleges granting credit for gallery internships, this opportunity offers students passionate or curious about the arts a valuable and enriching experience in curatorial work, exhibition design, event coordination and marketing.

Gianna Plavier, a Summer 2024 curatorial and gallery assistant intern at Alfa, played a pivotal role in the latest exhibit. An undergraduate studying art history in the Department of Art and Design at St. John's University, Plavier was responsible for developing press materials, coordinating events and researching new artists. 

"This is my first experience ever working in a gallery, so it was really awesome to get the inside scoop on how the gallery works behind the scenes — super crucial to my future job prospects within the gallery, museum, art world," Plavier said. "So, it's a nice little first stepping stone into my career path."

This summer, Plavier worked alongside 24 interns of diverse educational and geographical backgrounds — Monica Cabanas being one of them. 

Cabanas is a business administration undergraduate with a concentration in marketing and a minor in international business at the Feliciano School of Business at Montclair State University.

As a marketing intern, Cabanas assisted in developing and implementing the gallery's marketing strategy, tasks that should foster personal and professional growth.

"I've done things from grant funding to promoting their social media, also going into different tasks like video editing," Cabanas said. "So, I would say this was a really good experience ... It had a huge impact on me, on my confidence, in doing stuff related to what I study."

"Color and Texture: Anthologies of Artistry" is free and open to the public until October 19.