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Straube Center
in the News By R. Kurt Osenlund; Correspondent Posted on Wed, Nov 12, 2008 For those of you who aren't aware, there's a treasure chest currently nestled in the heart of Pennington, just waiting to be discovered. Inside its newly revamped office complex at Rt. 31 and W. Franklin Ave. lies the Straube Center's 2008 Fall Fine Art Show, a free exhibition that runs through Dec. 28 and features the work of six award-winning regional artists. Visually captivating and surprisingly diverse, the show may just be the hottest art ticket in town.Among the work now on display is that of J. Stacy Rogers, a Lambertville painter whose photo realism will fool your eye; Joy Kreves, a Ewing resident whose "Disc Series" of ink drawings blurs the lines of reality; Chris Carter, a painter from Califon who intriguingly merges the real and the abstract; and John Stinger, a "landscape architect," if you will, whose vibrant color choices give new life to familiar scenery. Stinger, an oil painter, is also the show's curator, appointed by Win Straube himself, a devout patron of the arts. According to Stinger, this is the fifth year that the center has held the exhibition, and the trend will continue into 2009 with various highlights along the way. "We're going in a new direction with this," Stinger says. "We're going to be having more shows and more events in which guests can learn the technique behind the work." One such event took place on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 1 p.m., when Stinger and Carter hosted "Meet the Artist," an hour-long presentation in which the two painters revealed the secrets of their creative processes. Carter, who brought along works from her past to illustrate her artistic evolution, went into detail about her pieces, both on and off the wall. She said that shapes inspire her most and, while she has numerous landscapes in the show, her true passion is figurative and abstract painting. She explained the transition of the collection at hand, which ranges from a sampling of a representational road series to a non-representational piece that calls to mind scattered paper clips met with shattered glass. "For us to make a living," Carter says of herself and artists in general, "we need people who enjoy looking at art and who want to understand it. Even if you're not an artist, you can allow yourself to see through the eyes of the artist." That's the idea behind Straube's ongoing shows, which are already scheduled through next fall and, according to Stinger, are "already booked with a full roster of artists from all over." The Winter Fine Art Show will be held from Jan. 8 to Feb. 8, the Spring Fine Art Show from Mar. 6 to Apr. 24, the Summer Fine Art Show from May 6 to Jun. 26 (an additional summer show is yet to be scheduled), and the New Collectors Art Show from Sept. 4 to Oct. 23. "We now have more opportunities for artists to have a venue to show their work for free," Stinger says. "No percentages of sales are taken by the center. Whatever the artists sell is theirs." All art is indeed on sale. The show is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. More information can be found by logging on to www.straubecenter.com |
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