JC Friday: Rope Making Workshop Tonight

Learn to use old textiles or scrap fabric and turn it into rope.

The process is easy, slightly addictive, and most definitely meditative.

Materials provided

Date: JC Friday, March 3rd, 6:00-8:00pm

Location: Art 150, Studio #231, 150 Bay Street, Enter at Provost and 1st Street and ride the elevator to the second floor.

Tenuous Threads

I’m pleased to share that one of my new Hair Rope pieces will be included in this show of contemporary work incorporating textiles, fibers, threads and mixed media.

The show description really resonated with me… All of life is connected through networks, systems, fibers, and webs. Communication (visual, verbal, electrical, chemical, and kinetic) enables an exchange of information amongst all life forms. Tenuous Threads alludes to the delicate lines that bring us together and sets us apart; that joins us yet repels us. 

The opening reception is Thursday January 26th, 5:30- 8:00pm. I hope to see you there.


Exhibition Dates: January 24th- February 11, 2023

Location:  Atlantic Gallery, 548 W 28th St #540, New York, NY 

Blue Ribbon Sunset In St. Croix, Aqua dyed cotton rope, acrylic yarn, chanelle, cotton printed fabric, jersey fabric and ribbon, 40 x 10 x 8 in, 2021

Sensing Woman: A multisensory event for reproductive freedom  

Presented by Rosebud Woman

Curated by WoArt

Sensing Woman is a gathering to shift minds and hearts, featuring 50 contemporary visual artworks, and programs spanning culture, medicine, and governance on female embodiment.

Artworks are available for presale at SensingWoman.org.

All profits will be donated to organizations working to protect and defend autonomy over our bodies, maternal health, and care for women, including The Center for Reproductive Rights and The Center for Intimacy Justice.

Learn more about the curator, Christina Massey’s vision for the project HERE.

Exhibition Dates: September 27- October 1

Location: C24 Gallery, 560 W 24th St, New York, NY 

The gallery is free and open to the public daily from 3-6pm. 

I will be giving an Artist Talk on Thursday, September 29th 10:30am

#SensingWoman #SensingWoman2022 #OurBodiesOurFutures #ReproRights #BodilyAutonomy

Camouflage Pink Detail

Tell Me More About Yourself (Self-Portraits and other Autobiographical Endeavors)”

The exhibition casts a wide net and captures an impressive variety of interpretations on the ever-present artistic motif, offering the audience a rare treasure trove of old and new takes on the creative confessional that is the self-portrait.

Curated by Juno Zago
Exhibition Dates: June 25th – August 5th, 2022
Opening Reception – June 25th, 6-9pm
Location:
Gallery Aferro Main Gallery, 73 Market St, Newark, NJ 

Textures: The History and Art of Black Hair

I recently Zoomed Kent State University museum’s excellent research in history, fashion, art, and visual culture to reassess the “hair story” of peoples of African descent with KSU Museum with co-curators, Joseph L. Underwood, assistant professor of art history at KSU and Tameka Ellington, associate professor at the School of Fashion at KSU.

To say, I felt seen during the webinar would be a massive understatement.

The talk explored topics such as the preferential treatment of straight hair, the social hierarchies of skin, and the power and politics of display.  

Black hair has long been an visual signifier that has been leveraged, disdained, celebrated, and scrutinized for centuries.

I have been studying exhibition photos on the website. The shape of the combs, product packaging, and masterworks from artists including Sonya Clark, Lorna Simpson, Mary Sibande and Lina Iris Viktor have left me truly inspired to dig out some unfinished rope hair pieces I stashed away at the beginning of the Pandemic.

Sonya Clark
Black Hair Flag, 2010

JC Friday: I Am My Hair

  • September 10, 2021 6:00pm – 9:00pm

On Location: Art 150; 150 Bay Street, Jersey City NJ, Studio #231

Of Friday, September 10, I’m hosting my first open studio session in 18 months.

Audience participation is encouraged. Come wrap and hitch knot yarn onto rope to become a part of a hair installation and find a common denominator amongst us all, HAIR.

We are also making strings of beads made with recycled bottle caps in the 2nd floor common area of Art 150.

NOTE: Entrance lobby for the 2nd floor studios is separate from that for the residential units of 150 Bay and can be found at the NE corner of the building, at the corner of 1st St. and Provost St.

September Exhibitions: Next

FIF 2021: Future Is Female

On View: September 1, 2021 – September 30th, 2021

On Location: 175 Pearl St, 5th Fl Brooklyn NY

The 3rd annual Future is Female exhibit, curated by sk.Artspace, aims to shed light on black women visual artists who persevered and became activists through their personal choices. The exhibition will highlight women, like me who unapologetically live their lives through action, women who had no intention of being a person of influence, yet raised the bar to lead, even when no one was looking – the “Unsung Shereos.”

JC Friday : I Am My Hair

September 10, 2021 6:00pm – 9:00pm

On Location: Art 150; 150 Bay Street, 2nd floor Jersey City NJ

Of Friday, September 10, I’m hosting my first open studio session in 18 months. Audience participation encouraged. Wrap and hitch knot yarn onto rope to become a part of a hair installation and find a common denominator amongst us all, HAIR.

Inspired by an Object

Exhibit On View: September 10, 2021 – October 15, 2021.

In-Person Opening Reception: Sunday, September 12, 11:00am-5:00pm

On Location: Studio Montclair Gallery. 127 Bloomfield Ave, Montclair NJ

Threads That Bind: When The Fabric of Social Culture Unravels

Exhibit On View: September 12, 2021 – October 17, 2021.

In-Person Opening Reception:: Sunday, September 12, 12:00pm-6:00pm

On Location: 481 Van Brunt St Brooklyn, NY  11231

Recycle 2021

Exhibit On View: September 12, 2021 – October 17, 2021.

In-Person Opening Reception: Sunday, September 12, 12-6

On Location: 481 Van Brunt St Brooklyn, NY  11231

The Social Fabric: Black Artistry in Fiber Arts, An Exhibition in Homage to Viki Craig

Exhibit On View: June 4, 2021 – October 24, 2021

On Location: Morris Museum,  6 Normandy Heights Rd, Morristown, NJ

Save The Date: JC Friday 9/10/21

Join me for an interactive open studio audience participation session, to wrap and hitch knot thousands of yards of recycled yarn onto rope. Your essence will become a part of this hair installation, finding a common denominator amongst us all, HAIR.


WHEN: On Friday September 10, 2021, 6pm- 9pm

LOCATION: 150 Bay Street PH9, 10th floor Jersey City NJ

Also, I will be working in my Art 150 Studio #231 on the second floor of 150 Bay on Saturday, September 11 and Sunday, September 12 from 1:00-6:00pm both days.  Stop by

NOTE: Entrance lobby for the 2nd floor studios is separate from that for the residential units of 150 Bay and can be found at the NE corner of the building, at the corner of 1st St. and Provost St.

Morning Dew

Sunrise and Morning Dew

The ornamental grasses on my roof deck sway gently,
with the breeze.
Holding droplets of dew , while the sun rises.
The light dancing between the high rises,
in boomerang reflection.
Warming the air and evaporating the pearl like droplets,
into vapor.

250′ Cotton rope, yarn, and a string of pearls on 8′ steel structure