Casey Ruble, Don Porcaro and More Among Fall 2015 Exhibitions at The Visual Arts Center of NJ

Summit, NJ -- The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey will present three new shows this fall: Casey Ruble: Everything That Rises, Adhere, and Shape of Play: Sculpture by Don Porcaro. The opening reception will be held on Sunday, September 20 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm in the Art Center Galleries and Sculpture Park, and is a free event open to all.

A recipient of a grant award from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, the exhibition Everything That Rises: Casey Ruble features a series of small-scale paper collages, depicting two types of sites in New Jersey: former safe houses on the Underground Railroad, and locations where race riots have broken out. New Jersey artist, Casey Ruble, has traversed the state researching and documenting these sites, most of which today seem historically unremarkable. Picturing hair salons, empty fields, abandoned buildings, churches, and police stations, Ruble's small-scale collages have both a quietude and an eeriness that speaks to the ways we remember-and forget-the charged events of our country's history of race relations.

The exhibition will include an interactive component where the artwork images are linked by QR codes to historical background information. Curated by Mary Birmingham, the exhibition will be on view in the Mitzi & Warren Eisenberg Gallery. A series of related programming will be held in conjunction with this exhibition. All programs are free with gallery admission: non-members $5 | members are always free.

Featured in the Main Gallery: Adhere is a series of site-specific installations will showcase art using adhesives as a distinctive and unconventional medium. The works on view incorporate various tapes, glues and stickers used for mark making, shading, color and texture. Artists from across the United States and Europe will present selected works that demonstrate the somewhat unexpected and incredibly technical aesthetic quality of this art form. Participating artists include: Tirtzah Bassel, Travis Childers, Kayt Hester, Ye Hongxing, Vandana Jain, Hong Seon Jang, Mark Khaisman, Sandra Ono, Johan Rijpma, Heidi van Wieren. The exhibition is curated by Katherine Murdock.

Shape of Play: Sculpture by Don Porcaro showcases 156 colorful, animated figures layered in rows of graduated shelves will transform Studio X into the "Cabinet of Nomads," the New York-based artist's installation along with other sculptures from his "Sentinel" and "Childhood's End" series, on view through January 17, 2016. In the Sculpture Park, a group of recent works from Porcaro's "Talisman" series will be on view through November 15. These figures of layered stone and marble with brass fittings appear both whimsical and weighty, at times resembling space aliens or pre-historic figurines.

Also on view:

Main Staircase: Stair-Gazing: Louisa Armbrust: Using a cyanotype photograph as her medium, the artist recreates poses from a swimming instruction manual published in Hungry in 1956.

Marité & Joe Robinson Strolling Gallery II: Eight is Enough: Students of Anne Kullaf - Recent paintings and drawings by some of the Art Center's talented student artists.

Visit www.artcenternj.org for more information about these exhibitions and programs.

For more than 80 years, the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey has been exclusively dedicated to viewing, making and learning about contemporary art. Recognized as a leading non-profit arts organization, the Art Center's renowned studio school, acclaimed exhibitions, and educational outreach initiatives serve thousands of youth, families, seniors and people with special needs every year.

Image: Casey Ruble, Untitled (Swedesboro), 2015, Courtesy of the artist and Foley Gallery, NY.