Lauren Faltas, January Artist of the Month

Gallery on Main's "Artist of the Month" series continues with an exhibition of photography by Wayne, New Jersey resident Lauren Faltas on view January 2 through 31. Admission is free, and the photographs are available for purchase.

Join us for the opening reception on Saturday, January 7, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

A high-school senior, Lauren Faltas is the youngest artist to ever be featured as a Gallery on Main Artist of the Month. She is co-president of her school’s photography club, and has her own photography business.

Jean Best, December Artist of the Month

Gallery on Main's "Artist of the Month" series continues with an exhibition of paintings by lifelong New Jersey resident Jean Best, on view December 1 through 30. Admission is free, and Best’s works are available for purchase.

Join us for the opening reception on Saturday, December 3, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

Contemporary painter Jean Best began her artistic career in the publishing field, creating numerous magazine and children’s book illustrations, as well as book jacket designs. She quickly embraced the medium of watercolor, where her impressionistic style of painting integrates the dramatic interplay of light, shadow and color.

Recently, Jean Best has exclusively been exploring acrylic pour art, which is elevated by her illustrative skill. Her use of magical patterns spill across the page and envelop the eye with vibrant hues and riot of colors. Her works have been featured in numerous solo shows and various group exhibitions and extensive outdoor shows throughout the local area.

Says the artist, “Painting in this moment is the connecting force that blends all artists, past through future. It is the divine opportunity to capture a small passage of time on paper, allowing us only a moment to become enfolded in our dreams and passions. The artist can only begin this creative process by inviting the viewer to join in the journey; the process continues as the viewer accepts the magical message which the painting speaks.”

Jean Best’s paintings have been featured in the Donald Palmer Museum, the South Orange Library, the permanent collection of duCret School of the Arts, of which she is a graduate, and the “All Women All Art” exhibition in Maplewood Village, as well as many private collections. She recently exhibited in the juried three-day show “A Return to Art” in Princeton, where her technique of creating full-size paintings on canvas without the use of any paintbrushes intrigued many viewers. Jean’s passion for life is evident in her energetic paintings, and her works are being enjoyed on the East and West coast of the U.S. as well as in Switzerland.

Nancy J. Ori, November Artist of the Month

Gallery on Main's "Artist of the Month" series continues with an exhibition of photographs by Berekely Heights, New Jersey-based photographer Nancy J. Ori, on view November 1 through 30. Admission is free, and Ori’s works are available for purchase.

Join us for the opening reception on Saturday, November 5, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

Ori predominantly photographs in the ever-changing landscape, but over the past several years has combined mixed media and abstract images into her mix of interests. Her work has been widely collected and exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the globe, and has been chosen for inclusion in numerous grant projects and important fine art exhibits including the prestigious New Jersey Fine Arts Annual. Her work is in private and museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Along with exhibiting her own work, Ori has curated and juried hundreds of exhibits at a wide variety of venues internationally.

Ori is the owner of New Jersey Media Center, LLC in Berkeley Heights, where she continues to do product, portrait, and food photography. She also enjoys teaching photography globally as well as exhibiting her fine art photographs. Nancy was taught by Ansel Adams and then affiliated for many years on the teaching staff of the Ansel Adams Workshop in California. She is currently on the faculty of local museums and art centers in New Jersey and teaches privately.

Often introduced as the ‘woman in charge of photography’ in New Jersey, in 1991, she established The New Jersey Heritage Workshops, a series of painting and photography workshops which she holds in the spring in Cape May. In 1995, she founded the New Jersey Photography Forum, which over the years under Ori’s direction has become the largest and most recognized group of fine art exhibiting photographers in the metro area.

Nancy J. Ori obtained a BA degree in Fine Arts from Elmira College, Elmira, New York and an MS degree in Visual Communications from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. For 25 years, she worked for Ciba-Geigy Pharmaceuticals and Novartis Pharmaceuticals as their in-house corporate photographer and manager of video and photography services for Novartis Pharmaceuticals.

Steve Epstein, September Artist of the Month

"Street Night"

© Steve Epstein, used with permission

"The Band Plays On"

© Steve Epstein, used with permission

"Colossus at Work"

© Steve Epstein, used with permission

Gallery on Main's "Artist of the Month" series continues with an exhibition of paintings by New Jersey-based artist Steve Epstein, on view September 1 through 30. Admission is free, and the artist’s works are available for purchase.

Join us for the opening reception on Saturday, July 3, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

Epstein’s work has been exhibited in dual artist shows at the Hamilton Gallery in 2019 (Midnight Mercury) and 2016 (Road Work), and was selected for a solo show at the Monmouth Museum for their 2014 Emerging Artist Series. While working as an x-ray technician, he had paintings on 7 covers of the trade magazine “Radiologic Technology” after being a winner in their cover contest.

Artist’s Statement

Says Epstein, “My influences start with Modern Art, that is I mean Impressionism and afterwards, Expressionism, Film Noir, and Social Realism. I particularly appreciate the masters of horror and absurdity of the 20th century; Picasso and Bacon; the spiritual isolation of Hopper and van Gogh.

“I paint what I see, feel or imagine, often trying to combine all options. My motivations are often based on contradictory impulses leading to an indefinite conclusion, rather than trying for a vision or ideal which is out of reach. I like to use heightened impressions of ordinary surroundings and circumstances and try to find atmosphere and mood in the commonplace. My paintings are places or events that I choose to dwell in for a while. I often use prints of bad digital photographs as reference points or maps that help me get to those places. I work mostly in acrylics on canvas, or hardboard when I want to get ‘physical’ with a painting. Lately I’ve been experimenting with mixed media, adding collage elements and using oil pastels on my acrylic paintings. When I paint, jazz or the blues are usually playing in the background.

“I consider myself a semi-educated artist in that I’ve taken classes at places like the Art Students League and the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan but don’t have any degrees in art and try to learn through working. To me, painting is often an adventure in a search for meaning, a record of a discourse between what’s going on inside of me and what’s going on outside of me.

A lot of more recent work was based on impressions from my long drives home from work going North up route 1 in New Jersey. My pressures and frustrations from the work day would dissolve into the colors of night as I decompressed. The neon lights against the dark streets, the penumbra of the traffic lights, the darkened geometries and odd shadows from the artificial light on the strip malls that I passed with their lit up window displays. The reflections on a wet night. I like the feeling of the boundaries dissolving between the real and the abstract. I try to put some of that magic atmosphere, mystery and mood in my paintings.

Dion Hitchings, Artist of the Month: Portraits on Recycled Trash

Gallery on Main's "Artist of the Month" series continues with an exhibition of mixed-media work by Milford, New Jersey-based artist Dion Hitchings, on view August 1 through 31. Admission is free, and the artist’s works are available for purchase.

Join us for the opening reception on Saturday, August 6, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.

Says Hitchings of his Portraits on Recycled Trash series, “Within my artwork I have found my own ‘unique world’ which has no rules or boundaries. My inspirations are varied and vast, everything from dreams and Indians, nuns and demons, the Jerry Springer Show and chickens to sins and celebrities. My world, and therefore my art, is guaranteed to be colorful, self-revealing, emotional, childlike and an ‘eye full’ to all who view it.”

Hitchings creates sophisticated works with various children's art supplies including, crayons, magic markers, highlighters and colored pens. He explains, “Using consumer boxes, discarded furniture and ‘trash’ instead of traditional drawing surfaces has enabled me to break down pre-existing print, images, and textures while allowing the type and pictures from the recycled object to become organically part of the portrait.”

He continues, “During the creative process, I discovered the need to deconstruct then reconstruct the face to fit within the shape of the surface. The results are portraits that have a shattered appearance, with broken and missing pieces, but also form a more powerful, interesting and often disturbing viewpoint.”

Jeff Hersch, July Artist of the Month

In July, Gallery on Main's Artist of the Month series features collage by New Jersey-based artist Jeff Hersch. His work will be on view, and available for purchase, from July 1 through 31, 2022.

Meet the artist at a free opening reception on Saturday, July 2, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Jeff Hersch provides what he calls “analog collages for the modern being.” Like his thoughts, these pieces are often constructed in short, frantic spurts of energy, with bursts of self-doubt, though calm and subtle. These pieces represent Hersch’s “everyday observations and conclusions about the vast world that erratically suffocates us, with little time for a quick escape or chance to relax, as we are currently inhabiting an advanced state of infinite stimulus.”

His works, says the artist, “lend themselves to your own interpretation of meaning—if any—but should also serve as inspiration and demonstrate the simple notion that you, too, can and should create something, anything, on a regular basis.”

When he’s not hunched over his desk cutting and gluing clippings, Hersch finds the time to play in bands (Glazer, Civic Mimic, Postman Agitator) and volunteer as the executive director of Flemington DIY, a non-profit community arts space in the town where he grew up.

Stanley Gavidia, June Artist of the Month

This June, Gallery on Main's Artist of the Month series features oil paintings by Bloomfield, New Jersey-based artist Stanley Gavidia. His work will be on view, and available for purchase, from June 1 through 30, 2022.

Meet the artist at a free opening reception on Saturday, June 4, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Before moving to New Jersey, Hugo Stanley Gavidia Tolentino grew up in El Salvador, and he studied visual art at National Art Center of El Salvador (CENAR).

He has participated in many collective exhibitions, including at Studio Montclair Inc, Artfront Galleries, Open Doors Newark, Bronx Pre­ Biennale Art, Queens Museum, and Hamilton Street Gallery, among others.

In his artwork Mr. Gavidia communicates knowledge through basic concepts of vitality and universal values. He also attempts to convey insight into the truth through an exaltation of the mind or the soul. Says the artist, “I can't say anything concrete about painting, what happens on the canvas is unpredictable and surprising to me. Each painting suggests something. Once I sense the suggestion, I begin to paint intuitively and when the painting is finished, the subject reveals itself. I leave it to the spectator to fix meaning. It can always be interpreted in many ways.”

Phillip T. Baker, May Artist of the Month

This May, Gallery on Main's Artist of the Month series features “Rock N’ Roll” paintings by New Jersey-based artist Phillip T. Baker. His work will be on view, and available for purchase, from May 1 through 31, 2022.

Meet the artist at a free opening reception on Saturday, May 7, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Phillip Baker, who started painting at a young age, says, “I would paint anything I could get my hands on. Overnight I went from painting Bozo the Clown to painting Alice Cooper, after seeing him on Wolfman Jack’s Midnight Special.

Music and art have inspired him his whole life. As he got older and started attending concerts, says Baker, “huge banners were permitted at concert venues, and I often painted a bed-sheet banner of the bands preforming that evening. To whomever is responsible for outlawing banners at concerts, I sincerely thank you! This is how my career of painting canvas was started.”

Baker proudly notes that the name “Rock N’ Roll Painter” was bestowed on him by Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler. He first met Tyler in the 1980s, when he painted a 42-by-60-inch portrait of the musician the gained him entrance to Tyler’s private birthday bash in Manhattan, where he presented it to the artist. Baker recalls, “The painting was well received by Steven Tyler as I introduced myself. I went on to see him on numerous occasions unexpectedly in New York City and he would say ‘Hey, Rock N’ Roll Painter! How the hell are you!?’ I was a little bothered that he didn’t address me by my name after I gave him my business card and had chatted with him when we ran into each other. (But) after several encounters and being impressed with my work, he sent me up to Boston to exhibit my art at Aerosmith’s nightclub, Mama Kins.”

Judyann Affronti, April Artist of the Month

In April, Gallery on Main's sixth annual Artist of the Month series features exuberant collage works by Glen Ridge, New Jersey-based artist Judyann Affronti. Her work will be on view, and available for purchase, from April 1 through 30, 2022.

Meet the artist at a free opening reception on Saturday, April 2, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Judyann explains "My collages reflect my world in a joyous burst of color and shapes, distilled down to their minimal components. Felt is my medium of choice, snippy scissors my paintbrush. I see the world in two-dimensional shapes to be snipped apart and glued back together in beautiful patterns, a kaleidoscope of color, texture and pattern. Art is collage; relationships collage; travel is collage; life is collage."

She finds inspiration in her surroundings, and seemingly mundane objects become subjects for collage—still lifes of her favorite tulips and fanciful flowers in a mix of color and rhythm; animals in whimsical settings; crisp geometric assemblages with centers of vintage and handmade buttons.

Many trips to Oaxaca City have influenced Judyann. Her work reflects her personal reinterpretation of the traditional arts of central Mexico: Otomi and Tejuantepec embroidery, Zapotec alebrijes, Talavera pottery, and Teotitlan weaving.

In 2021, she began a series of introspective portraits reflecting on the feelings of sadness and hopelessness in women burdened with additional responsibilities under COVID restrictions. As a series, they portray an ascension from despair to optimism. Despite the darker subject matter she never abandons her signature colorful palette.

Born in Brooklyn with a passion to create, Judyann drew chalk animals on the sidewalk while her friends were making hopscotch boards. Her education at CUNY included art history and painting, but she discovered a greater love of collage, for which she received awards at juried exhibitions in the northeast, including the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit. Earlier in her career, her cut paper collages were sold at B.Altman in New York City and in fine department stores across the country, and were incorporated as fabric appliqués in a line of women’s loungewear.

Judyann's passion transitioned into more dimensional forms of art, handcrafting bead and stone jewelry and home décor. After a long corporate hiatus, she eventually returned to collage but replaced paper with felt. Much of the felt in her collages is made from recycled plastic bottles.

Not content with hanging on walls, her designs leap onto one-of-a-kind wearable neckpieces (called "Sheep Thrills") that will always be noticed in a crowd.

Judyann resides in Glen Ridge, NJ with four extraordinary cats and a loving and patient husband who can deal with the needs of a very creative wife.