Marjorie @ Cornerstone Open Studios 2023

CORNERSTONE OPEN STUDIOS
Saturday, June 24, 2023 from 11am to 5pm.

Location: 178 Bennett Ave, Third Floor, New York City


Join me and 14 other talented member artists for our bi-annual open studios event!


This event is part of NoMAA's 2023 Uptown Arts Stroll and is free and open to the public. All are welcome!


@nomaanyc @osanyc @martablair @marjorievancura @lindacsmithstudio @vickyazcoitia @galshugon @hampsj @samuelzanger @wildrianaaa @paulbirbil @atelier_crick @danathethird @jfjalandoni.art @mattjonesstudio @katitamiller

Marjorie @ Art from the Upper Rooms

ART FROM THE UPPER ROOMS

June 1-30, 2023

Our Saviour's Atonement Lutheran Church

178 Bennett Ave, New York City


The exhibition in the OSA church sanctuary features recent work by all 15 of our Cornerstone Studio artists.


@nomaanyc @osanyc @martablair @marjorievancura @lindacsmithstudio @vickyazcoitia @galshugon @hampsj @samuelzanger @wildrianaaa @paulbirbil @atelier_crick @danathethird @jfjalandoni.art @mattjonesstudio @katitamiller

 
For more information email info@cornerstonestudios.nyc.

Marjorie @ NoMAA's "Women of Substance"

WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE

March 23 - June 29, 2023

Curator: Andrea Arroyo


Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA)

Gallery@4140, United Palace, New York, NY

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 23 / 6-8pm

nomaanyc.org/2023/01/2023-women-in-the-heights


NoMAA’s newest exhibition features the work of over 50 Women Artists representing Washington Heights, Inwood and Harlem. This 14th annual exhibition will be installed in NoMAA’s gallery space on the ground floor of the historic United Palace and may also be viewed at nomaanyc.org. I am thrilled that the show will remain on view during this year's Tony Awards ceremony, held at the United Palace on June 11, 2023, the first time the event has not been held in Times Square, New York!

tonyawards.com/news/the-76th-annual-tony-awards-to-air-live-sunday-june-11-2023-at-united-palace/


Gallery hours: Tuesdays and Saturdays, 1-5pm or by appointment.


PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Yael Ben-Zion, Julie Berman, Barbara Brocklebank, Miggy Buck, Jacinta Bujanda-Suárez, Eileen Burgess, Lisa Candela, Arcadia Caraballo, Susan Cottle Alberto, Jaynie Crimmins, Alanna De La Cruz, Rose Deler, Sika Foyer, Claudia Gill, Lauren Gohara, Keena Gonzalez, Wilhelmina Grant Cooper, Laurence Elle Groux, C’naan Hamburger, Josefina Hernandez, Julia Justo, Chae Kihn, Yeon Jin Kim, Rina Kim, Tafy LaPlanche, Emily Linares, London Long-Wheeler, Elizabeth Lorris Ritter, Marne Lucas, Laurie Markiewicz, Patricia Miranda, Tomo Mori, Umazi Mvurya, Rosa Naparstek, Jennyfer Parra, Leah Poller, Sarah Quinones, Kathia Regalado, Cinthia Reyes, Darcy Rogers, Kaé Sato, Diana Schmertz, Alannah Sears, Uniqua Simmons, Elizabeth Starčević, Yasuyo Tanaka, Ibtisam Tasnim Zaman, Debbie Taylor-Kerman, Carla Torres, Marjorie Van Cura, Tamara Wasserman, Devynity Wray


Read a review in the Manhattan Times, March 23, 2023 HERE.

Artwork: Marjorie Van Cura, Untitled 0122, 2022, graphite and ink on translucent film, 17 x 14 inches

Photo: Courtesy of United Palace and tonyawards.com

Marjorie @ Invisible Attraction

INVISIBLE ATTRACTION

September 4 – October 23, 2022

Curator: Michael Lee


Reception: Tuesday, September 13 / 6-8pm

Church of Heavenly Rest, 1085 Fifth Ave (@ 90th St), New York City

heavenlyrest.org/artsatheavenlyrest


Link to installation photographs HERE.

Link to video of exhibition HERE.


From curator Michael Lee:

Many casual art viewers gravitate towards art that shares at least a passing resemblance to photographic reality. Images of things, people, landscapes are pictures of things seen. But what of all the undeniably real yet unseen things in this world? The artists in the exhibition share a focus on abstraction and the challenge of making work that is informed by invisible phenomena: notions of memory and consciousness or the webs of relationships among things and individuals. While many of them also look to the natural world or human-made built environments and systems for inspiration, it is a desire to tap into the experiential quality of being present in a moment of discovery that drives these artists to create.


Emotion can be hard to pin down so it is often played down when discussing or writing about art. Rather than any academic thesis though, it is the fundamental animating force behind this art and these artists. The setting and influence of sacred space helps provide an opportunity to consider their works as conduits through which a dialogue concerning belief and trust—a sort of reciprocal generosity between artist and viewer—can be made. With over thirty works by twenty-five artists whose practice centers on abstraction, this exhibition makes a case for how artists attempt to communicate seemingly inexpressible ideas through physical form and ultimately visualize the invisible.


Artists in the exhibition: Nils Folke Anderson, Inna Babaeva, James Bills, Jimbo Blachly, Rick Briggs, Vince Contarino, Linda Ganjian, Sue Havens, Elana Herzog, Erick Johnson, Todd Knopke, Elisa Lendvay, Abraham McNally, Ryan Sarah Murphy, Keiko Narahashi, Erin O’Brien, Jim Osman, Gary Petersen, Taney Roniger, Christopher Saunders, Karen Schifano, Marjorie Van Cura, Sarah Walker, Rachael Wren, Daniel Zeller.


All of these artists have participated in the Artist Lecture Series, a project conceived in 2011 as part curatorial showcase, part community building exercise, and part show-and-tell by New York City based artists Michael Lee, Christopher Schade and Zoe Pettijohn Schade. On a near-monthly basis two related artists were asked to share their work through in-person digital slide shows. Over a decade and 130 artists later, the project was put on indefinite hiatus by COVID just prior to its March 2020 offering. At present the trio is attempting a series re-boot as the world slowly attempts to recover from the pandemic and repair so much more.


Michael Lee is an artist based in New York City. He holds a BFA from the University of Texas, Austin and an MFA from Hunter College (CUNY), New York City. Lee has shown his work nationally and internationally, most recently in the exhibition Confluence: Tradition in Contemporary Art, which traveled to the Luo Zhongli Museum in Chonqing China and will continue on to the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art Museum at the University of Dundee, Scotland later this year. In 2021 Lee began a new project, Hudson Presents: Conversations with Contemporary Artists, a one-on-one interview series that is live-streamed by Hudson County Community College. He is an adjunct professor of art at Hudson and Montclair State University (both in New Jersey).


Image: Untitled 0220, ink and graphite on translucent film, 17 x 14 inches

Marjorie @ Small Works Showcase 2022

SMALL WORKS SHOWCASE 2022

July 15-September 15, 2022

Gibson Contemporary, New York, NY

gibsoncontemporary.com


ANDREA BURGAY

THOMAS FRONTINI

JOANNE LOBOTSKY

MARGARET PETTEE OLSEN

BERNICE SOKOL KRAMER

MARGOT SPINDELMAN

MARJORIE VAN CURA


Curator David Gibson writes:

"MARJORIE VAN CURA makes drawings inspired by and culled from real time events and their satellite suggested optics. Van Cura is one of a limited number of artists I have encountered who have access to internet based information dramatized by real life events, and not only informed by information systems and methods of documentation available through projective media, but have used it to create new forms of art. Van Cura culls a variety of images from newsworthy events that may include natural disasters, man-made accidents, and social protests. She then completes an aesthetic examination of each photograph, mining it for certain visual structures that could be said to underlay the structure of each image, and she then undertakes a ghost tracing of these structures, creating sequential traces from each image until she has collected a rich aggregate of abstract forms. What Van Cura brings to her practice is a measure of restraint that manifests as a reductive aspect in the selection of forms. She pursues a variety of scenarios in which tragedy has transformed the everyday, prosaic appearance of ordinary locales, which she then mines for the multiplicity of possible vestigial tracings to inform a diverse and polymathic vision that expands upon our comprehension on the making of expressive marks."


Image: Marjorie Van Cura, Untitled 1621, 2021, graphite and ink on translucent film, 6 x 6 inches

Marjorie @ Cornerstone Studios OS

Cornerstone Open Studios - In Person This Weekend!
Saturday, June 4, 2022 / 11am to 5pm
178 Bennett Ave., Washington Heights, NYC
@cornerstone_studios

Our member artists:

Marjorie Van Cura: Can't Look Away

Marjorie Van Cura: Can't Look Away

Presented by Gibson Contemporary

@ DFN Projects, 16 E. 79 Street, New York City

January 13 - February 11, 2022


gibsoncontemporary.com

dfnprojects.com


I am pleased to announce the opening of my solo exhibition presented by Gibson Contemporary at DFN Projects in New York. The presentation includes 12 mixed media drawings completed since 2018, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated exhibition catalogue that features an essay by Valentina A. Spalten.


“Marjorie Van Cura is driven by the ever-evolving realities of the present day. The culmination of thirty years of painting, Van Cura’s recent landscape-based abstractions are inspired by pivotal moments in contemporary history as represented by an inescapable ubiquity of mass media. Deeply impacted by environmental and sociological phenomena that continue to transform humanity, Van Cura pinpoints real life current events-based images that are striking in both conceptual paradox and aesthetic complexity, using them as a departure point for her densely-layered paintings.”

~ Valentina A. Spalten


Link to digital catalogue HERE.

Download digital catalogue HERE. (view as 2-page spread)

Link to installation photographs HERE.

Marjorie Van Cura: Crossing The Line

Marjorie Van Cura: Crossing The Line

September 17 – October 31, 2021


Gibson Contemporary Gallery

gibsoncontemporary.com

I am pleased to announce my next solo exhibition at Gibson Contemporary, which features nine new works completed since January 2021. The Untitled series of mixed media drawings, with graphite, ink or Micron pen on translucent film, are inspired by recent world-wide protests surrounding issues pertaining to social justice, racial equity and police reform.


For the exhibition at Gibson Contemporary, David Gibson writes:


“(Van Cura’s) work establishes a new way of using abstraction to reflect historical events and the ‘optics’ we give them. People in ideological conflict with one another, banners and fists raised, marching and dashing into the history books. We read in these images the story of humanity, of the necessary change that presages progress, and we are made to feel the weight of the moment just as we thrill to her formal mastery in color and form.”


Produced during this post-COVID era, my recent work references photography from protest demonstrations and the response of police officers, who are often fitted with combat uniforms and military weaponry. I am encouraged that people are using their voices to demand change and accountability, even when it is dangerous to do so. It is a reminder that democracy is messy and fragile, and one should not be complacent against authoritarianism.

In response to such uncertain and challenging times, I find that the imagery in my newest work has become more chaotic and frenetic. Although the layered complexity has a kinetic effect and the forms are abstracted, the final drawing retains enough information so that it is somewhat recognizable, at least to me. It is important that each line references a specific shape and describes something meaningful, which I hope translates to the viewer.

View the 4-minute video presentation on my work and studio practice here:

https://bit.ly/2VFi2yF

Image: "Untitled 0821," 2021, graphite and ink on translucent film, 14 x 17 inches


Promo Video - Fall 2021

Ahead of my forthcoming exhibition at Gibson Contemporary, I produced a promotional video to further introduce my current work and studio practice. Here, I discuss my mixed media drawing technique, the impetus for my current series begun in 2012 following Hurricane Sandy, and my newest drawings inspired by the world-wide protests surrounding issues pertaining to social justice, racial equity and police reform.


“Crossing The Line” is on view from September 17 through October 31, 2021 at gibsoncontemporary.com


View the promo video HERE.


Marjorie @ Some Are Drawing

Some Are Drawing

June 23 – July 30, 2021


Gibson Contemporary Gallery

https://www.gibsoncontemporary.com/some-are-drawing


Two of my ink drawings are included in the summer exhibition at Gibson Contemporary.
SOME ARE DRAWING presents the work of eleven contemporary artists whose practice expands the expressive authority of a timeless creative genre. Not only for likenesses or to show technical detail anymore, drawing steps into the light with this exhibition, presenting newly envisioned worlds, views of unseen reality made manifest, and models for esthetic joy.


Featured Artists:


Susanna Baker

Lauren Bakoian

Ellen Claes

Jon Elliott

Julie Harrison

Emma Larsson

Svetlana Rabey

Taney Roniger

Ellen Sylvarnes

Marjorie Van Cura

Vargas-Suarez Universal


Image: Untitled 0321, 2021, graphite and ink on translucent film, 14 x 17 inches

Marjorie @ Cornerstone Virtual OS

Marjorie @ Cornerstone Studios Live! via Zoom


Join me live via Zoom on Sunday, June 20 from 8-9:30pm for Cornerstone Studios 2021 Virtual Open Studios, part of NoMAA's 2021 Uptown Arts Stroll! I have prepared a 5 minute video presentation of my work, which will be presented alongside all of the other brilliant member artists:


Marta Blair
Linda Smith
Marjorie Van Cura
Vicky Azcoitia
Sam Zanger
Jeff Hoppa
Paul Birbil
Christine Kuper
Tom Monsees
Jyoti Gupta
Jeannie Jalandoni
Maria Providencia Casanovas
And featuring 2021-22 Studio178 resident artist Dana Michele Hemes.
Marjorie @ 6 x 9 Exhibition
6 x 9 
June 3-12, 2021
EQUITY GALLERY
245 Broome Street, New York, NY
nyartistsequity.org/6-x-9

A new graphite and ink drawing from my Untitled "Industry" series will be included in the "6 x 9" NYAE Benefit and Fundraiser exhibition @equitygallery. Opening Reception June 3, 2021 from 6-9pm! Composed of 50+ donated works by the NYAE association of artists, illustrators and allied makers all measuring 6 x 9 inches, the show will run from June 3rd — June 12th, 2021.
Marjorie @ The Other Side of the Desk

"Courting Complexity"
The Other Side of the Desk
by David Gibson
March 5, 2021

I am excited to share that writer and curator David Gibson has included extensive thoughts on my work in his first article for The Other Side of the Desk, a series of discussions about contemporary art and artists that he debuted on February 25, 2021.

Gibson writes:
“What Van Cura brings to her practice is a measure of restraint that manifests as a reductive aspect in the selection of forms. She pursues a variety of scenarios in which tragedy has transformed the everyday, prosaic appearance of ordinary locales, which she then mines for the multiplicity of possible vestigial tracings to inform a diverse and polymathic vision that expands upon our comprehension on the making of expressive marks. Even though her work utilizes source material culled from technology, her process relies upon touch, gesture, and intuition.”

The piece coincides with my solo exhibition at Gibson Contemporary, Marjorie Van Cura: Unknown Territories. On view through Friday, March 26, it features 16 of my recent mixed-media ink and graphite drawings on translucent film and is my first solo show in ten years.

Read the full article here. Don't forget to sign up for future issues!

Marjorie Van Cura: Unknown Territories

Marjorie Van Cura: Unknown Territories

February 12-March 26, 2021

Gibson Contemporary Gallery

gibsoncontemporary.com


Gibson Contemporary presents an online exhibition of my recent work, opening Friday, February 12, 2021. It features 16 of my recent mixed-media ink and graphite drawings on translucent film and is my first solo show in ten years. Included are 4 works I created since the pandemic and government shut down in New York. Away from my Upper Manhattan studio for several weeks, these drawings were completed between June and December, after I was able to return.


Curator David Gibson writes: “Standing between the two poles of discipline and chaos, Marjorie Van Cura traces the outline of a palimpsest. The precisionist methods at hand…would seem to infer an orderly process but the end result aims toward complexity and ambiguity…(presenting) an aperture perspective of dramatically focused imagery suggestive of geographical map forms floating in space. Yet they are anything but—they are anchored by their subject matter and its transliteration into a more complex visual product.”


Four of my newest works, numbered 0220, 0320, 0420 and 0520, each have an increased complexity and more frenetic quality than my earlier work. This shift in imagery has happened since the pandemic (and social justice protests) and was not necessarily intentional. It is more of an intuitive, emotional response that I have to these challenging times of shifting crises and the necessity for rapid growth.


My artistic affinities are aligned with artists who layer graphic patterns and employ hand-drawn linear elements, such as Franz Kline, Agnes Martin, Julie Mehretu, Terry Winters, and of course Jackson Pollock. Strong influences during my early development were the German and Figurative expressionists, like Max Beckmann, Richard Diebenkorn, Klimt, Modersohn-Becker, and Schiele. I have always loved Op-Art, although mine is more of an organic geometry, and I admire colorists with electric palettes like Bridget Riley, Frank Stella and Wayne Thiebaud.


I often think of the essay written by Dave Hickey for "Optic Nerve" at the Columbus Museum, where he writes about the disorientation of Op-Art and trying to understand something one cannot, because it is beyond human consciousness. While looking at my work, I hope one can see the individual layers, as well as the overall effect of the layers together, simultaneously. I seek to create an illusion of depth and movement, and ultimately, disorientation.
Recent Works - June - December, 2020

Recent Works

June - December, 2020


View 4 recent works that I created during the pandemic. I was not able to be in the studio for several weeks during the height of the government shutdown in New York. Since returning in June, I created Untitled 0220, 0320, 0420 and 0520, which you can see on my page:


Thanks for looking!

~ Marjorie



Representation @ Gibson Contemporary

Marjorie Van Cura Now Represented by Gibson Contemporary Gallery

August 4, 2020


ABOUT DAVID GIBSON
David Gibson is an art dealer with a long and varied history in the contemporary art world. He grew up in a family that ran a gallery for over 30 years, for which he performed every level of duty.

He began to write about art (1996-) and to curate exhibitions independently (2000-) which brought him access to new communities of artists and different walks of life in New York and beyond. He continued to write and curate profusely, organizing exhibitions in commercial galleries and non-traditional spaces; he joined historically important artist-run nonprofits as a board member; he organized artist lecture and panel series; and he traveled to lecture and curate at many state universities and regional nonprofit galleries.

After nearly two decades of activity, he took a break and began private consulting. Now in 2020 he is establishing an online art gallery under the same name, working long term with select artists who are new to his focus but who have been in his view for some time. Some have appeared in his past group exhibitions, or met him through artists of prior familiarity.

Look for an upcoming exhibition online soon!

Carry Weight, Hold Light

Carry Weight, Hold Light: Collaborative Installation Exhibition

January 10-February 21, 2020


CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER

305 SW Water Street, Peoria, IL

peoriacac.org


CURATOR/ARTIST: Heather Brammeier


Carry Weight, Hold Light began as a collaborative exhibition in her studio while Brammeier was an artist in residence at International Studio and Curatorial Program in Brooklyn NY. In ISCP’s Studio #222, she created a large, vertical installation that integrated miniature works by other artists. Inspired by the common practice that artists have of gifting or trading small versions of their work, she invited artists to contribute either a miniature work that could sit on a shelf (made from a folded piece of painted canvas), or a work made on or attached to a pink triangle (also made from painted canvas).


ARTISTS:

Peter Ahart, Jessica Bingham, Brandi Bowman, Michael Brown, Erin Buczynski, Randy Carlson, Jack Crouch, Alexandra Dupont, Alfonso Gozalbez, Nichole Gronvold-Roller, Emily Hoerdemann, Pei Hsuan-Wang, Chris Hutson, Anna Hutson, Doug Johnson, Yasemin Kackar Demirel, Susan Klein, Paul Komada, Margie Livingston, Nana Ekow Maison, Alexander Martin, Susan Moore, Martina Nehrling, Susanne Nestory, Nicholas Nyland, Carrie Patterson, Mark Rospenda,

Marjorie Van Cura and Natalia Zaluska.


View installation photos here.

GREEN: The Impossible Color

GREEN: The Impossible Color

April 23 – May 18, 2019


THE PAINTING CENTER

547 West 27th Street, Suite 500, New York City

https://www.thepaintingcenter.org/green-the-impossible-color

CURATOR: Rachael Wren
 
The Painting Center presents GREEN: The Impossible Color, a group exhibition that brings together diverse works by 41 contemporary artists exploring the color green through a wide variety of material, formal, and conceptual approaches.
 
Curator Rachael Wren writes: “Of all the colors in the rainbow, green is perhaps the most mutable and multifaceted. As a color, it can lean towards yellow, blue, gray, or brown, while still remaining unquestionably itself. Green evokes associations of landscape and nature – everything from the palest new spring buds to the dark evergreens of deep winter. Yet it can also remind us of cities and the manmade – green glass skyscrapers, copper rooftops, the Statue of Liberty, and printed money. Emotionally, green has long signified envy, a pit of snakes coiled in the body. But add white and the color turns minty, suggesting more pleasant and peaceful states of mind.”
 
The works shown in GREEN: The Impossible Color encompass a range of media: painting, photography, collage, video, and sculpture. They run the gamut from landscapes to portraits, from minimal abstractions to heavily patterned images, and from quiet meditations to political commentary.  Yet, for all their differences, they are united in using green not merely as a hue, but rather as an integral character. In each piece, each in its own way, color becomes content.
 
Artists include: Ky Anderson, Jessica Bartlet, Lynne Campbell, Alexander Churchill, Ann Cofta, Elaine Coombs, Andrea DeFelice, Grace DeGennaro, Rodney Durso, Andrea Ferrigno, Deborah Freedman, Fukuko Harris, Will Hutnick, Jeffrey Cortland Jones, Keri Kimura, Anki King, John Lee, Joe Morzuch, John Drew Munro, Patrick Neal, Douglas Newton, Carrie Patterson, Leslie Roberts, Marcy Rosenblat, Christopher Schade, Stacy Seiler, Naz Shahrokh, Fran Shalom, Julie Shapiro, Sarah Shirley, Francis Sills, Anne Spalter, Craig Stockwell, Rella Stuart-Hunt, Amy Talluto, Marilyn Turtz, Ed Valentine, Marjorie Van Cura, Lauryn Welch, Andrew Werth and Becky Yazdan.

Download catalogue here.

View installation photos here.

Read the press release here.

Favorites @ Flow 305 / Artsy

Favorites

March 11 - April 11, 2019


FLOW 305 GALLERY on ARTSY

www.artsy.net/


"Untitled 0517 is one of my favorite works because I used a new technique that was very challenging with a satisfying result. I may not be able to make another quite like it, since it was so physically demanding to create the spiraling lines. The dark ink creates a graphic image that I find quite nice. The image contains an illusion of depth, yet it still remains abstract."


- Marjorie Van Cura, Artist Statement for Favorites @ Flow 305 Gallery

Drawing Obsessions

Drawing Obsessions

March 9 - April 14, 2019


PATCHOGUE ARTS COUNCIL GALLERY

20 Terry Street, Patchogue, NY

patchoguearts.org/patchogue-arts-gallery


CURATOR: Jason Paradis


ARTISTS:

David Ferris / Bryon Finn / Cal Fish / Mark Kremer
Emily Noelle Lambert / Michelle Mackey / Marjorie Van Cura

"Drawing Obsessions explores and questions the driving factors that artists use to create their work. Many would see these tendencies and consider them to be obsessive. Artists, however, may feel that it’s simply what drives them to create; an inspiration worth returning to. This exhibition looks into those driving factors and tries to reveal the impetus and mechanisms which allow artists to visualize in the way they do...


Calligraphic line is...an obsession for Marjorie Van Cura. Using photographs of
landscapes, fraught with damage from natural disasters or seemingly disordered
construction sites, she builds up linear contours of the disarray on translucent film. She
then repeatedly traces the result to create complex visual fields of pattern."

- Curatorial statement by Jason Paradis


Read the press release here.



New Work @ Flow 305  / Artsy

New Work

February 12 - March 10, 2019


FLOW 305 GALLERY on ARTSY

www.artsy.net


Flow 305 Gallery debuts with the exhibition, New Work Owner and director Nicole Maynard-Sahar launches Flow 305 to bring attention to outstanding emerging and mid-career artists

"Artist Marjorie Van Cura's bold work stands apart for its graphic savvy. Her dynamic aesthetic is a constant force as she explores the chaos and order in natural disasters through continuous line drawings."

de/Constructing Worlds @ NYPOP

de/Constructing Worlds
November 8 – December 15, 2018


UMASS NYPOP GALLERY

526 W. 26th Street, Suite 314, New York City

umass.edu/art/event/deconstructing-worlds


CURATOR: Amanda Tiller


ARTISTS:
John Michael Byrd
David Hannon
Ben Pederson
Marjorie Van Cura
Annie Varnot
 
UMass NYPOP Gallery is proud to present de/Constructing Worlds, an exhibition of the work of five UMass Amherst alumni artists based in New York City. 

The meaning of the word “world-building” has evolved in the 200 years since it was first introduced. Today, the term most often refers to entire fictional worlds complete with their own histories, languages, ecologies, and even laws of physics. Popular culture is so inundated with these fictional worlds that we have almost come to expect them as an integral component of our literature, film, television, and games.

But in the 19th century, world-building described the imaginative realm of artists and poets. This realm was a personal one, an individual mental state entered into by the artist. Hamilton Wright Mabie wrote, “To this world-building all the great poetic minds are driven; within this invisible empire alone can they reconcile the life that surrounds them with the life that floats like a dream before them.”
 
The artists in this exhibition exist somewhere between these two definitions. Their work reads like specimens or artifacts taken from some imagined world - incomplete relics that only tell us a part of the story.


View installation photos here.

Fever: Artists Take On Climate Change

FEVER: Artists Take On Climate Change
August 30 – September 30, 2018
 
PLAXALL GALLERY
5-25 46th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
 
CURATORS: Franco Repetto & Ivana Larrosa

LiC-A/The Plaxall Gallery is pleased to announce fever, an exhibition by a selected group of artists that explore the different takes on climate change/global warming through thought provoking and poetic interpretations on the subject. Featuring painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation, along with informative quotes from world leaders, that challenge and bring awareness to an issue that affects us all.

ARTISTS:

J.F. Bautista, Violet Baxter, Patricia Bouley, José Carlos Casado, Carol Crawford, Joseph De Leo, Everything Is Collective, Jean Foos, Orestes González, Jean-Marie Guyaux, Ivana Larrosa, Jim Lee, Guido Manuilo, Nancy Miller, Cristián Pietrapiana, Mary Pinto, Nancy Rakoczy, James Seffers, Andrés Senra, Ruth Somalo, Sharon Taylor, Marjorie Van Cura, and Zelda Zinn

Read press release here.

View installation photos here.

Making Connections

Making Connections II
October 26, 2017 - January 30, 2018

CITIBANK DEFORD GALLERY
One Court Square @ 44th Drive
Long Island City, Queens

Making Connections I
August 31 - October 1, 2017

PLAXALL GALLERY
5-25 46th Avenue
Long Island City, Queens

JUROR: Elizabeth Hoy, Director, Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College


View poster here.

View installation photos here.

Art Above the Sofa

Art Above the Sofa

April 27-30, 2017


NEW YORK ARTS EXCHANGE

Pop-up space at 171 Elizabeth Street, New York, NY

nyarts-exchange.com


CURATORS: Beth S. Gersh-Nesic and Patrick Hankin


JURORS/ARTISTS:

Gerri Davis, Kathleen Gilje, Wilhelmina Grant, Sasha Meret, Toni Quest, Ruby Silvious,

Christina Thomas, Marjorie Van Cura


AWARDS TO STUDENT ARTISTS:

First Place: Wa Liu, Yale University

Second Place: Vicci Weixi Zhang, Trinity College




Over the Bridge III @ Atlantic Gallery

Over the Bridge III
February 7-25, 2017

ATLANTIC GALLERY
548 West 28th Street, Suite 540, Chelsea, New York City

atlanticgallery.org/exhibitions/lica-2017


Opening Reception: Thursday, February 9 / 6-8:30pm
Meet the Artists: Saturday, February 11 / 2-5pm
Art Salon: Saturday, February 18, 2-5pm


View installation photos here

2017 Juried Exhibition @ Blue Mountain Gallery

2017 Juried Exhibition
January 3 - 28, 2017

BLUE MOUNTAIN GALLERY
530 West 25th Street, Chelsea, New York City
bluemountaingallery.org/2017-juried-exh


CURATOR: Priscilla Vail Caldwell

Blue Mountain Gallery is pleased to announce the 2017 Juried Exhibition. It features the work of thirty-two artists who represent a range of styles and a truly national reach. The work was selected from over a thousand entries by independent curator, Priscilla Vail Caldwell. Blue Mountain was privileged to have her serve as juror. Caldwell is an independent curator, advisor, writer and former Director at DC Moore Gallery in Chelsea. She has written extensively on modern and contemporary American painting and sculpture and has curated hundreds of solo and group exhibitions.

ARTISTS:
Arshes Anasal(NY), Nancy Anderson(MA), Andrea Anderson(CA), Carol Baum(MA), Madeleine Bialke(NY), Rachel Citrino(NJ), Kara Dunne(MA), Walter Early(IL), Michael East(FL), Chloe Feldman Emison(MA), Tara Flores(WA), Benny
Fountain(TX), Marilyn Fox(PA), Chelsea Gibson(NY), Emily Herberich(CT), Ellen
Irvine(VA), Stevie Love(CA), Rachel Marcotte(NJ), Megan Marden(CT), Russell
Mehlman(NY), Marina Mozhayeva(PA), Sara Pedigo(FL), Pierce Scantlin(MD),
Nataliya Scheib(TX), Meghan Sheehan(NJ), Jennye Stubblefield(TX), Holly
Sturges(MI), Julio Suarez(IN), Mary Tooley Parker(NY), Marjorie Van Cura(NYC), Jim Weidle(IA), Judith Wyer(CT)


View installation photos here.

View exhibition checklist here.


Connection: Artists Selecting Artists

Connection: Artists Selecting Artists
An Invitational Exhibition

July 12 - July 30, 2016

ATLANTIC GALLERY
548 West 28th Street, Suite 540, Chelsea, NYC
atlanticgallery.org/exhibitions/connection-2

Featuring 110 artists...painters, sculptors, graphic artists...exhibiting works no larger than 12 inches square, in a wide range of materials and creative expression. I will show a 2014 ink on rag paper painting from my Superstorm Series.

View installation photos here.

PRESS: Norte Maar, May 19, 2016

"LIC Open Studios: 10 Must See Artists"
by Jason Andrew


NORTE MAAR

May 19, 2016


“This weekend the 6th Annual LIC Arts Open is happening! Since 2011, LIC Arts Open (Queens’ largest arts festival) has been bringing together artists, residents, businesses, tourists, local government, art enthusiasts and collectors to help foster Long Island City’s cultural and economic development. The festival has done much to raise the profile of Long Island City, home to one of the largest and most diverse arts communities in New York City.”

Read the article online here.

Download the pdf here.

LIC Arts Open 2016

Marjorie @ LIC Open Studios

I was in studio on Saturday and Sunday, May 21/22 from 12-6pm. I exhibited 3 diptychs, 4 paintings and 14 graphite or ink drawings.

 

Marjorie @ LIC Artists Exhibition
Curated by Richard Mazda for LIC Arts Open. I exhibited one of my new diptychs at the Long Island City Artists Group Exhibition, May 18-22, 2016 at The Falchi Building, 31-00 47th Ave, ground floor.


[Photo by Mark Ostrander]

PRESS: Hyperallergic, May 15, 2015

"An Antidote to the Art Fairs: Open Studios in Long Island City"
by Patrick Neal


HYPERALLERGIC
May 15, 2015

"Some highlights of the evening were the very different urban landscapes of artists Violet Baxter and Marjorie Van Cura. Baxter’s were like tone poems of the streets and buildings around her studio, while Van Cura presented lyrical and minimal environments rendered in mixed media on film."


[Photo by Patrick Neal]


Read the article online here.

Download the pdf here.

LIC Artists @ The Historic Falchi Building

Long Island City Artists @ The Historic Falchi Building

May 13-17, 2015


THE FALCHI BUILDING
31-00 47th Ave, 4th Floor, Long Island City, NY

licartists.org


CURATOR: Jorge Posada

Celebrating Queens Artists & LIC-A’s 30th Anniversary - the exhibition featured a survey of artwork by 34 members of Long Island City Artists. I showed two recent paintings on polyester film from my Untitled Drought Series.

View installation photos here.

Scope New York 2015

Marjorie Van Cura @ Scope New York 2015

March 6-8, 2015

MADELYN JORDON FINE ART

Booth B21

629 W 46th St., 2nd Floor, New York, NY

scope-art.com


ARTISTS:

DJ Leon /Antonio Carreno / Stan Munro / Abigail Goldman / Marjorie Van Cura


View installation photos here.


MADELYN JORDON FINE ART

37 Popham Road
Scarsdale, NY 10583

info@madelynjordonfineart.com

Over The Bridge @ Atlantic Gallery

Over The Bridge

January 5 - 17, 2015

ATLANTIC GALLERY
548 West 28th Street, Suite 540, Chelsea, NY
atlanticgallery.org
licartists.org

A group exhibition featuring the works of 39 Queens-based artists, all of whom are members of LICArtists, Inc., opens January 5, 2015, at Atlantic Gallery, 548 West 28 Street, suite 540, in the Landmark Arts Building in Chelsea, Manhattan, NY 10001.

A reception for the artists will be held on Thursday, January 8, from 5-8pm. An informal Art Talk event will be held Thursday, January 10th, from 2-5pm, to meet the artists, who will introduce themselves and discuss their works and the new growing art scene in Long Island City with those attending. In addition a continuous digital slide show will provide a brief tour of the some of the art venues in Long Island city. A closing reception will be held Saturday, January 17, from 2-5pm. All events are free and open to the public.

Read the press release here
View the poster here

View installation photos here.

Outlet Brooklyn Annual Invitational


Outlet Brooklyn Annual Invitational

December 12, 2014 - January 4, 2015


OUTLET BROOKLYN

253 Wilson Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn


CURATORS: Jason Andrew, John Silvis and Julian Jimarez Howard


Featuring work by 14 international contemporary artists exploring the theme of the human relationship to technology.


ARTISTS:
Ryan Brennan
Marjorie Van Cura
Copper Holoweski
Norman Jabaut
Joshua Johnson
Leslie Kerby
Alan Kleinberg
Gazoo to the Moon
Joseph Moore
Natalie Simon
Phillip Stearns
Bai Ye
Ashley Zelinskie
Jamy Van Zyl

View installation photos here.

Kolektiv1 Art and Jazz Event

Kolektiv1 and the New York Arts Exchange


invite you to


ONE NIGHT-
WINE + JAZZ
FOR ART


to support emerging art + artists


NOVEMBER 20, 2014 / 6-9 PM


Liederkranz Club at the Phipps Mansion
6 E. 87th Street


Wine tasting with 100+ different wine/food pairings
to support kolektiv1's artists + spring art shows


PERFORMANCE BY
The Legendary Brad Baker Jazz Ensemble


ARTISTS


Mane Sakic * Slobodan Miljevic * Valentina Brostean * Robert Dandarov
Gerri Davis * Gregory de la Haba * Clarity Haynes * Esther Ruiz
Fabian Tacuri * Max Tzinman * Marjorie Van Cura


Summer Remix @ MJFA

Summer Remix

July 10 - August 30, 2014


MADELYN JORDON FINE ART
37 Popham Road, Scarsdale, NY

madelynjordonfineart.com/exhibition/focus/summer_remix_a_group_salon


ARTISTS:

Antonio Carreno, Diane Cherr, Joellyn Duesberry, Kathy Ferguson, Stanford Kay,

Anne De Villemejane, Ken Elliott, DJ Leon, Marjorie Van Cura, Joyce Weinstein, Kenneth Noland

View installation photos here.

LIC Arts Open 2014

Long Island City Artists Open Studios

Saturday-Sunday, May 17-18, 2014


REIS STUDIOS
43-01 22nd Street
Studio #239
Long Island City, Queens


Color My World

Color My World

September 26 - October 2, 2013


SPACEWOMB GALLERY
57 Stanton Street, New York, NY


View installation photos here.


Adieu September

Adieu September

September 14 - 27, 2013

SPACEWOMB GALLERY

22-48 Jackson, Ave., Long Island City, NY


Artist Lecture Series

Marjorie Van Cura and Jackie Hovig

June 2, 2013


ARTIST LECTURE SERIES

152 Eagle Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn


CURATORS: Zoe Pettijohn Schade, Christopher Schade and Michael Lee


View email announcement here.


Calicornucopia

Calicornucopia

December 7-9, 2012

CALICO BROOKLYN
67 West Street #206, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY


GO! Brooklyn Art Open Studios

GO! Brooklyn Art Open Studios

September 8-9, 2012

Organized by the Brooklyn Museum


Read my GO! Brooklyn artist feature here.


Slideluck Northside Artist Presentation

Slideluck Northside Artist Presentation: Marjorie Van Cura

Thursday, July 19, 2012


BROOKLYN BREWERY
79 N 11th St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY


What I Know @ NYCAMS

What I Know

February 15-March 16, 2012

NYCAMS

Bethel University, 44 West 28th St, 7th Floor, New York, NY


CURATOR: Jason Andrew


The
 New 
York 
Center
 for 
Art 
& 
Media
 Studies
 (NYCAMS) 
presents What 
I
 Know,
 an 
exhibition 
curated
 by Jason
 Andrew,
 opening 
Friday, 
February 
17.
 From
 painters 
to 
choreographers,
 photographers
 to 
potters, 
sculptors 
to 
installation
 artists, What 
I
 Know represents
 a 
throng 
of 
artists 
with 
whom 
Andrew 
has 
been 
actively
 engaged
 since 
his 
move
 to 
New 
York 
City
 in 
the 
early
 1990s


Read the press release here.

View installation photos here.


Surrealism @ Factory Fresh

Surrealism: twenty artists from the neighborhood wrestle their unconscious

June 4-26, 2011

FACTORY FRESH
1053 Flushing Ave, Brooklyn, NY


CURATORS: Jason Andrew and Ali Ha


ARTISTS:


Jim Avignon, Kevin Curran, Ryan Michael Ford, Paul D’Agostino, Jake Genen, Ben Godward, Tamara Gonzales, Andrew Hurst, Amy Lincoln, Rebecca Litt, Francesco Longnecker, Norman Jabaut, J.P. Marin, Brooke Moyse, Garry Nichols, Patricia Satterlee, Pufferella, Kevin Regan, Skewville, John Sunderland, Sweet Toof, Tyrome Tripoli, Marjorie Van Cura & Veng


View installation photos here.

Read the website article here.


INTERVIEW: In the Studio

In the Studio: Marjorie Van Cura

interview by Peter Gynd


NORTHSIDE OPEN STUDIOS

May 7, 2011


Read the interview here.


[Photo by Peter Gynd]

Science Fiction @ Storefront

Science Fiction

November 19-December 19, 2010

STOREFRONT GALLERY
16 Wilson Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY


a group exhibition featuring new work by Nancy Bowen, dNASAb, Ben Godward, Meg Hitchcock, Jeff Hoppa, Linda Herritt, Marjorie Van Cura, and Letha Wilson


View installation photos here.


Rhythm: Marjorie Van Cura

Rhythm: Marjorie Van Cura

November 18-December 10, 2010

YES! GALLERY
147 India Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY


View installation photos here.


Marjorie Van Cura: Recent Work

Marjorie Van Cura: Recent Work

June 16-30, 2010

KILL DEVIL HILL BOUTIQUE
170 Franklin Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY


View installation photos here.


PRESS: The New York Times, June 10, 2010

"A Greenpoint Stroll"

by Mary Billard


THE NEW YORK TIMES

Style Section

June 10, 2010


Download the pdf here.


Freedom's Feast @ CMOM

Freedom's Feast: Children's Dinner Plate Collection

November 21-29, 2009

CHILDREN'S MUSEUM OF MANHATTAN
212 W 83rd Street, New York, NY


This celebration at the Children's Museum of Manhattan encourages families to bring their imaginatios to the table when honoring Thanksgiving. Inspired by the online program Freedom's Feast (freedomsfeast.us), which provides historical information and songs to help young learners create their own commemorative events, the festival is accompanied by an installation of dinner plates created by artists and children's book illustrators depicting what they're thankful for.


ARTISTS:

Michael Albert, Paulette Bogan, Nick Bruel, R. Gregory Christie, Tracey Dockray, Francis Estrada, David Rios Ferreira, Dr. Bob Hieronimus,  Philomena Marano, Carlos N. Molina, Nina Meledandri, Matt Nolen, Faith Ringgold, Peter Reynolds, Justin Roth, Susan L. Roth, Louise Sagalyn, David Ezra Stein, Sloane Tanen, and Marjorie Van Cura



View The New York Times and NY1 press articles here.


Unsound Practice

Unsound Practice

September 1 - 14, 2009


DUTCH KILLS GALLERY
Long Island City, Queens


CURATOR: Christine Kennedy


Dutch Kills is pleased to announce “Unsound Practice,” a group exhibition curated by Christine Kennedy showcasing six artists whose work investigates the interplay of visual art, sound and text.

 

Featuring the work of Matthew Callinan, Jools Johnson, Tom McCloskey, Jo-ey Tang, Mikel Telleria and Marjorie Van Cura, this exhibition takes as its point of departure the contemporary experience of an excess of “noise.” If the phenomenon of “noise” characterizes the information age, constituting a soundscape of competing voices, textual and discursive networks, transmissions and communications— how has this transformed both what and how we "see;” how do such plurivocal emissions –as well as their suppression, loss or erasure-- influence contemporary image-making and the cultural production and status of works of art?


Read the press release here.


INTERVIEW: Marjorie Van Cura Online Podcast

Marjorie Van Cura: Artist Interview Online Podcast

interview by Julie Vick


UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Career Services

April 3, 2009


Hear the podcast here.


PRESS: NY Arts Magazine, Jan/Feb 2009

"The Ties That Bond Us"

by Jill Smith


NY ARTS MAGAZINE
January/February 2009


Download the pdf here.


Painting Pink Pajamas

Painting Pink Pajamas

November 8, 2008 - January 3, 2009


CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER

Preston Jackson Gallery, 305 Water Street, Peoria, IL


CURATOR: Heather Brammeier


View installation photos here.

Read press article here.



Together Forever

Together Forever

September 16-30, 2008

BROADWAY GALLERY
473 Broadway, 7th Floor, New York, NY


CURATOR: Christine Kennedy


ARTISTS:

Alice Lang, Gertrud Alfredsson, Leah Beabout, Ronda Johannessen, and Marjorie Van Cura