(NEWARK, NJ) -- Akwaaba Gallery in Newark presents Nette Forné Thomas's "Transitions and Transformations" from January 13 through February 10, 2024. This is a mixed media collection that emphasizes the strength and struggles of womanhood, often incorporating a motif of lace to represent notions of femininity.
“The focus and direction of my art revolves around the idealization of ‘woman’ and societal views of a perceived role and status, which transcends ethnic, cultural, and economic barriers,’’ said Thomas, who lives in Maplewood. “In my art I seek to portray--symbolically and compositionally--the duality of strength and delicacy, simplicity and complexity, intellectual order and emotional impact.”
Her work has been exhibited at The Studio Museum of Harlem and the Newark Museum of Art, as well as City College of New York, Seton Hall University, Rutgers University and Trenton City Museum, among other venues.
Thomas, who grew up in Belleville and attended Pratt Institute, forged her reputation as an artist in the early 1970s, when she belonged to a group called Black Woman in Visual Perspectives, which included fellow founding member Gladys Grauer, known as the “mother of Newark arts.” In 1971, Grauer opened Aard Studio Gallery, the city’s first art gallery, which helped launch Thomas’s career as an artist, along with other women artists such as Janet Taylor Pickett and Bisa Washington.
Thomas, who taught for many years at Arts High School in Newark, said her membership in the group encouraged her to evolve from portraiture, mostly centering on family members, to more thematic explorations of womanhood, particularly Black womanhood.
“We all had our own personal focus, but even if it was abstract or minimalist or realistic, it seemed to have a common thread of a naturalistic Black or African presence,’’ said Thomas, a former member of the Board of Directors of the Maplewood Arts Center and the George Segal Gallery at Montclair State University, her alma mater. For the past ten years, she has also been president of Pen and Brush in New York City, an organization of women in the arts.
The work in “Transitions and Transformations” includes some earlier pieces by Thomas, dating back to the 1970s, but also many new pieces, including an expansion of how she evokes the texture and patterns of lace. Often, she creates dry point hand etchings on an acetate or plexiglass surface that is overlaid on the surface she paints. Recently, she has been experimenting with different ways of creating or incorporating these lace-like elements.
In “Transitions and Transformations,’’ different figures are embedded within or superimposed over various motifs and materials, shifting perspectives and possible interpretations. “The work can be seen as one subject matter or treatment into another,” Thomas explained. “You can see a change, and then you can see a complete transformation, where it’s something entirely different.’’
The pieces in the collection range from 6 x 6 inches to 9 X 4 feet. The largest is the original rendering of a mural commissioned by PSE&G in Newark and installed last year on University Avenue. There are oil and acrylic paintings and works done in ink and watercolor, as well as mixed media pieces and installations.
Thomas hopes that the exhibition inspires viewers to see possibilities for art and creativity in their own lives and the world around them.
“I want them to take away that you can do anything and bring it up to the level of an art form,’’ she said. “Everyone can enjoy different aspects of art, everyone can appreciate it. And everyone, in their own way, can see art in everything.’’
Akwaaba Gallery opened on February 15, 2019. Akwaaba Gallery is a hidden Newark gem located at 509 South Orange Avenue in the historic Fairmont neighborhood. The gallery features diverse and eclectic contemporary works of art in various mediums. Akwaaba's mission is to engage the community and public with exhibitions featuring emerging local, regional, national and international artists. Akwaaba Gallery is quickly becoming the art hub of the West Ward and a welcoming venue to the community and surrounding towns.
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