l TO (NOT) BE SEEN l


""The Anointed in D Minor: Dyke Christ" , sdnicholas,
2006, (40 X 30 inches) ,Acrylic paints, copper wire,
metal and brass, frankinsence and myrrh incense.


To (Not) Be Seen

To (Not) Be Seen: Queer and Straight Artists Illuminate and Destroy the Visibility Rules of Masculine, Feminine and Sexual Expression.

June 5 - June 22, 2006

CLOSING RECEPTION
6.22.06
6:30 - 9:30 pm
Liberation in Truth Social Justice Center
11 Halsey Street, Downtown Newark, NJ

"NORTH STAR: Mapping Freedom"
Closing Reception for “To (Not) Be Seen: Queer and Straight Artists Illuminate and Destroy the Visibility Rules of Masculine, Feminine and Sexual Expression. “

5:00 - 6:30 - Gallery Open for Viewing

6:30 - 7:30 - Music, Dance and Reading by and about James Baldwin, Audre Lorde and other Freedom Navigators by:

Tara Thierry
Musician

Dorothea Moore
Frances E.W. Harper Literary Society and Founding Member of Newark Writers Collective

Rev. Janyce L. Jackson
Pastor, Liberation in Truth Unity Fellowship Church

Jerry Gant
Artist

7:30 - 9:30 Music and Refreshments Liberation in Truth Social Justice Center 11 Halsey Street Newark, NJ

The exhibition is a program of "Newark Pride Week" and is being sponsored by Liberation In Truth Social Justice Center and Newark Pride Alliance. It is curated by artist Noelle Lorraine Williams (REBORN).
 
“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” James Arthur Baldwin. Queer. Artist, Novelist. Activist. 1924-1987

Exhibition Visionaries

sdnICHOLAS 
 Up and coming multi-media artist from Montclair, NJ that specializes in Collage, Photography, Three Dimensional painting and poetry as expressions of the spirit self . Her art is a fusion of life experiences and societal happenings that move her to fruition, creating pieces that reflect all that has come and all that will be.


JANINE QUINLAN
Daughter of Afro-Cuban heritage, sister to all things art, distant cousin to the streets of New York, beloved child of Spirit, Janine Quinlan’s art sings the harmonies of her background. To experience her acrylics and watercolors is to be held in the bosom of the creator. One envisions glistening, brown bodies kicking up dust in a freedom dance when gazing upon her ( medium ) sculptures. Wearing her hand-made, one-of-a-kind earrings, necklaces or cufflinks invokes the spirit of those who’ve come before us. She started creating art at nine years old but her forty-four years has made of her an eclectic menagerie, a kaleidoscope of color, shape, texture and sound. She resides in Newark, New Jersey and wasted no time before establishing herself as an artist with which to be reckoned. Janine also works in Newark for an HIV/AIDS prevention organization run by her church Liberation in Truth where she is the Minister of Music. Janine takes all of life’s pain, joy, fear and wonder and pours it into her work. She endeavors to have this work heal, celebrate and praise those who are fortunate enough to experience her through her art.

RONNIE D. CARNEY
Ronnie D. Carney, by profession, is a choreographer and dance educator. Currently working at Arts High School and other dance institutions, his choreographic work leans much in the same direction as his photographic work. With it he tries to capture human emotion and human relationships. Ronnie picked up Photography as a hobby after befriending Marc Valle, an award winning British photographer. Marc, along with a few other photographers, helped Ronnie develop his photographic skill and style. In his work, he tries to capture the expressiveness of human interaction, focusing on the upper body (which he believes tells the best stories).

KAGENDO MURUNGI
Kagendo Murungi is a Kenyan feminist who works in independent partnership with artists and activists around the world to develop and produce independent film projects, festivals and other sites for creative cultural agency. She helped institute the position of Africa program officer at the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). A former international grants panel member of the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Ms. Murungi continues to work in community with PanAfrican immigrants on grassroots initiatives and in support of sexual and political dissidents. Kagendo received her BA in Women’s Studies from Rutgers University and her MA in Media Studies from the New School for Social Research. She was greatly honored to have her essay "Small Axe at the Crossroads: A Reflection on African Sexualities and Human Rights," published in Sing, Whisper, Shout, Pray!: Feminist Visions for a Just World, ed. M. Jacqui Alexander, Lisa Albrecht, Sharon Day, and Mab Segrest (EdgeWork Books, 2003), 489-501.

NOELLE LORRAINE WILLIAMS
 Noelle Lorraine Williams visual, written and community work explores the ways we use our bodies to spiritually engage the core of our consciousness, community and environment. Her work unearths the collective needs and fears that surface in the process. Though conceptual in nature her art practice is composed of event coordination, sculpture, installation and performance - she explores the rituals (religious, activist and legal) and the stories (myths, scripture and history) to see the truth of our current condition and shape new practices of compassion. Williams visual art practice builds on thirteen years of student and community cultural and political organizing and three years of art practice. Williams graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Social and Historical Inquiry from the New School for Social Research. Her body of work is conceptual in nature under the theme REBORN at www.rebornhome.com the intersections of spirituality, art and activism in addressing the most challenging individual, collective and environmental fears of living in community.

GERMAN PITRE
German Pitre works in virtually all media including painting, photography, film, and sculpture. His work includes found objects in the form of "stuffed animals" that have been used as toys. These animals are contorted, painted, and rearranged until they have lost their innocence and take on deeper meanings that examine our relationship to childhood and our own feelings about that innocence. The creatures are used as a vehicle to engage the viewer in a dialogue, and the image creates a physiological longing with a sense of inaccessibility. The titles are important in staging a social and political dynamic. The photographs represent a step beyond the paintings in that they create a space between the viewer and the object that insulates the viewer from the inherent discomfort with the imagery. Mr. Pitre's work forces us to deal with what are often uncomfortable realities in society and our relationship to them.

JERRY GANT
Jerry Gant is a visual artist and performance poet. His signature murals are in large urban centers including Newark, New York City, Boston, and London England. Working in mixed media he turns the canvas into a political statement.

KEVIN DARMANIE
WILLIAM “WINK” NEWTON

WORDS.
ANONYMOUS
S.Malik


Multimedia Art Exhibition
It is because how we are seen that dictates how we physically, spiritually and emotionally move and grow as individuals within community - that visibility plays a major part in social justice movements in the United States. This exhibition by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and heterosexual artists is a visual dialogue and destruction of the rules and constraints what it means to be masculine, feminine and transgender to the self, community, family and God. Through challenging and questioning community images and beliefs of who and what is allowed to be visible This exhibit is a revelation of how contemporary queer and straight artists have visually articulated this dialogue around visibility and invisibility. What does it mean to be visible? What does it mean to be invisible? What does it mean to be seen by God, Family, Self, Community? How do we want to be seen? How do we see? What are our fears? What are our greatest hopes?

“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” James Arthur Baldwin. Queer. Artist, Novelist. Activist. 1924- 1987

The exhibition is a program of "Newark Pride Week" and is being sponsored by Liberation In Truth Social Justice Center and Newark Pride Alliance. It is curated by artist Noelle Lorraine Williams (REBORN).