May 13 - September 14, 2008

Works from the collections of ACA Galleries and from the Morris Museum, dating as far back as a Morristown grave rubbing done by a local high school student in 1780 to powerful contemporary paintings and sculptures by New Jersey native Chris Kappmeier, will highlight the image of the state, its people and its impact on artists who were either born or lived and worked in the Garden State.

Co-curated by Morris Museum Curator of Exhibitions Ann Aptaker and Curator for ACA Galleries Mikaela Sardo Lamarche, the exhibition will feature work by prominent artists Grace Hartigan, Ben Shahn, Faith Ringgold, Leonard Baskin, Jacob Lawrence, Henry Gasser, Joseph Mora, as well as work by artists whose names may be lesser known but whose images are unforgettable.

Lamarche and Aptaker have assembled works in a variety of media which express the full range of New Jersey’s experience; its rural grace, its urban spine, its seaside adventures and its indomitable people. Aristocratic matrons who ruled with stern visages and backbones of steel will stare from the gallery walls. Alongside them will be plebian parades, abstractions of sophisticates, lush farms and livestock of inscrutable personality, industrial power and the seductiveness of the seashore.

It was important to Aptaker and Lamarche to exhibit not only the rich legacy of fine art in New Jersey, but to show the breadth of the state’s narrative, including everything from high drama to laugh-out-loud humor. There will also be surprises in the exhibition--work by notable artists whose connections to New Jersey may have been heretofore unsuspected!

Representing the “now” of New Jersey: Then & Now will be paintings and sculptures by Chris Kappmeier. Born in Jersey City and raised in Maywood, Kappmeier is an “open air” painter, going out daily to the streets, the countryside or the shore to capture unforgettable moments of immediate experience. Using bold colors and aggressive brushwork, Kappmeier’s paintings vibrate with his passion for the act of painting and for his need to capture the drama of “now.” Kappmeier currently resides in Lyndhurst, NJ.

A free, public reception for the exhibition will be held at on Sunday, May 18, from 2 – 4 p.m.