(LONG BRANCH, NJ) -- New Jersey Repertory Company (NJRep) is pleased to announce their West End Art Gallery will open on June 8 and run through November 10, 2024. Opened in 2017 and located in the West End area of Long Branch, the West End Art Gallery features artists from the tri-state area. Curated by Mare Akana, these four distinctly different exhibits will delight visual arts audiences with their unique perspectives.
“We are thrilled to present these four exhibits each with their own specific theme,” says Mare Akana, Gallery Curator for West End Arts. “Each show is so unique in concept it’s exciting to see such a talented group of artists interpret the theme.”
“The arts play an essential role in enriching our community. At NJRep, we are deeply committed to nurturing a vibrant cultural scene. We take pride in uplifting audiences and artists on stage and are equally dedicated to supporting the realms of fvisual artists through our West End Art Gallery.” says Gabor Barabas, NJ Rep, Executive Producer.
Exhibiting artists* include Mare Akana, Don Bradford, Bruce England, Stanley M. Glickman, Quincy Kmetz, Erin Ma, AJ Melnick, Sharon Murphy, Denise Sherman, Beverly Sirianni, and Greg Tomaini. More to be announced. *Confirmed at time of publication, subject to change.
Gallery hours are Saturday & Sunday from 11:00am – 4:00pm. Weekdays by appointment by emailing westendarts@njrep.org. West End Art Gallery is located at 132 West End Avenue, Long Branch, New Jersey 07740. Free parking is available off Sairs Avenue.
MARE AKANA (Curator) A native of Honolulu, HI, Mare Akana is a visual and performing artist. Her award-winning artwork is in private collections in France, Peru and the US, including the personal collection of renowned artist Louise Bourgeois. Her work reflects her love of the sea, her interest in zoology and her passion for horses. In Hawai’i, her work was at The Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hale Ku’ai [Waikiki & Hau’ula] and Na Mea Hawai’i [downtown Honolulu]. In New Jersey, her work has been exhibited at The Noyes Museum*, The Monmouth Festival of the Arts* [Shrewsbury], The Art Alliance* [Red Bank], Brookdale College Center for the Visual Arts Gallery* [Lincroft], Georgian Count College* [Lakewood], Ocean County Artists’ Guild* ** [Island Heights], Shore Institute of Contemporary Art [Long Branch], BE Gallery [Asbury Park], Apart Contemporary Gallery [Asbury Park], Belmar Arts Council [Belmar], LBI Foundation* [Long Beach Island], The Guild of Creative Art* [Shrewsbury], The Robert Schonhorn Art Center [Peapack], Oakland Street Gallery [Red Bank]**, Monmouth Beach Cultural Center [Monmouth Beach], Monmouth Park racetrack [Oceanport], Oceanic Free Library[Rumson], Monmouth County Library Eastern Branch** Shrewsbury], West End Art Gallery** [Long Branch] and The John Petoe Museum* [Island Heights]. In PA, the Pocono Mountain Arts Council* [Pocono Mountain, PA]. A popular demo/workshop artist, she has conducted workshops for Brookdale College, The Monmouth County Parks System and art organizations in NJ and HI. She is an Exhibiting Member of The Guild of Creative Art. Since 2007, she has been the coordinator for Long Branch’s annual Art in the Park event. She is pleased to serve on the Board of the NJ Repertory Company and as Gallery Director and Curator for the West End Arts Center and The Dappled Pony Virtual Gallery. A graduate of Punahou School and Syracuse University, Ms. Akana studied with John Marshall, Lee DuSell, Gerald Brommer, Louis Mendez, Christine Merriman and Mark Walnock. She is currently working in clay, metal, printmaking and mixed media with a concentration on sculpture and her signature Ponyware. *juried shows **solo shows
QUINCY KMETZ (featured artist) is an emerging artist working out of Jersey City, New Jersey, whose paintings, drawings, printmaking, and ceramic sculpture dive into transhistorical issues involving information, technology, and power structure. Through illustrative-like scenes, she investigates the relationship between individuals and technology. As the internet becomes the medium facilitating our meaning of connection and isolation, she contends to unveil the ill-fated reality that comes with utopia. Kmetz’s work belongs to private collections in New York City, Los Angeles, and Moscow.
UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS
OUR WAY | June 8–30, 2024 | Celebrate Pride Month at the West End Art Gallery with the return of OUR WAY. Funny, beautiful, powerful and sometimes irreverent, artists from the LGBTQ+ community share their work.
CABINET OF CURIOSITIES | July 14 – August 10, 2024 | An intriguing collection of thought-provoking art to pique your mind.
ACID | September 8–28, 2024 | A trip through the complicated artworks of Stanley M. Glickman. In 1952, Glickman was a promising young painter studying in Paris. Then one night he shared a drink with some fellow Americans, and his life fell apart. An unwitting subject to a government experiment that changed his and many other lives forever. Running concurrently will be Glickman’s real-life story, told on-stage in The Other American, a world premiere production, at in NJRep’s other location 179 Broadway, Long Branch.
Tickets for The Other American are on sale at njrep.org. For additional information, please call 732.229.3166.
DOG AND PONY SHOW | October 19 – November 10, 2024 | Pups, Ponies and Politics. Oh My! A collection of two-dimensional media, photography and sculpture closes out the 2024 West End Art Gallery season.
New Jersey Repertory Company was founded in 1997 by SuzAnne and Gabor Barabas. The theater’s mission is to develop and produce new plays and to make a lasting contribution to the American Stage. Over two decades, NJ Rep has produced 150 plays, of which 125 have been world premieres. The theater has the additional distinction of having had many of its plays produced by other theaters around the country, totaling over 200 subsequent productions in the US and overseas. In 2012 and 2018, NJ Rep was the recipient of a National Theater Company Grant from the American Theater Wing that sponsors the annual Tony Awards for Broadway in recognition of its contribution to the repertoire of the American Stage. Only seven theaters have had this distinction.
NJRep acquired a new property, a 28,000 square foot school situated on 2 ½ acres and located just five minutes from its Main Stage Lumia Theater and two blocks from the Jersey Shore. The theater plans on gradually transforming the school in stages into a cultural center that will house additional performance spaces, an art cinema, an art museum, a rooftop café, an arts education wing, and residences for out-of-town actors and playwrights. Currently, it houses the West End Art Gallery.
NJRep thanks the following for their support: The Shubert Foundation, MacMillan Family Foundation, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The Stone Foundation of New Jersey, The Horizon Foundation for New Jersey, OceanFirst Foundation, Manasquan Bank Philanthropic Fund, Investors Bank Foundation, Community Foundation of New Jersey, Jewish Communal Fund, Darien Family Fund, Citizens Philanthropic Foundation, and The Smart Family Foundation.
