This coming Sunday, The Mana Contemporary is opening its doors to the public for a FREE Open House & Studio tour from 1-6pm. I was invited to attend a press tour, to get a first look at all the new exhibits on display during the spring/summer time.
Before I delve the details of this experience, can we back up one second to the fact that I was invited to a press tour? Next Friday marks ChicpeaJC’s one year anniversary and when I launched it, I never thought that I would be where I am today. Invited to the Mana Contemporary as a “Press” person, and get to experience a behind the scenes look. Meeting the various curators and artists who were showing their work.
While walking through the exhibits, I kept saying to myself “I’m so lucky”. The 3 hours I spent at the Mana were absolutely magical, and inspiring. This week has been a tough one for me, but this visit changed my perspective and it was an absolute adventure of my senses. If you are around this Sunday you MUST go.
I got there at exactly 11am, and saw Summer Hortillosa, friend and Jersey Journal writer, so we walked around the Glass Studio to wait for the other press peeps.
When everyone arrived, the founders of the Mana; Eugene Lemay and Yigal Ozeri started us on the tour.
“Curator Octavio Zaya selected nearly thirty artists from 15 different countries across a range of disciplines for THEOREM. You Simply Destroy the Image I Always Had of Myself in Mana’s 50,000-square-foot Glass Gallery”
“Photorealist painter Yigal Ozeri presents a commissioned series of paintings, drawings and sculptures inspired by Monet’s gardens for Revolution at Giverny: A Return of Women in Nature;”
I started talking to Yigal in the elevator, he is a thick Israeli accent, so I had to say whats up! I asked him if I could interview him one day and he agreed!! Fingers crossed. Look at his beautiful work. His paintings are painted in oil from photographs he shoots himself… The pictures in this post don’t do it justice, you must see this exhibit in person.
“Ofri Cnaani and Nelly Agassi present Crippled Symmetry, a dual exhibition of pulsating black-and-white video art and mechanical sounds”. I love the Israeli artist representing at the Mana! It’s awesome!!
This is the only part of the exhibit I didn’t quite understand, and sort of creeped me out… but in a good way if that makes any sense? Never seen anything like it that’s for sure!!
“Choice Works gathers some of today’s most important contemporary artists for an exclusive preview of an auction to benefit Planned Parenthood”
“Photographer David Levinthal uses large-format Polaroid photography to stage female dolls as objects of fantasy in XXX: Noir et Blanc”. Two words HOT DAMN.
The Florence Academy of Art opened it’s doors in January 2015 at the Mana; “Founded in the birthplace of the Renaissance, a contemporary school trains students in the painting techniques of the Old Masters”.
This was a fun tour, we got to ride in this huge elevator between floors, we even got to go through the storage room where they keep millions of dollars worth of artwork!! They kept telling us to keep moving and not to touch anything! Eugene (one of the founders) joked and said “You can’t take that Picasso”
Thanks for having me Mana Contemporary!!
Exhibit Details taken from http://www.manacontemporary.com
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