Exhibitions
Join Us for our Closing Reception:
Sunday April 6, 4-6pm
gallery hours, th/fri 4-7p, sat/sun, 2-6p through 4/5/25
DRAWING ROOMS
926 Newark Ave, #T101
Jersey City, NJ Enter on Newark Ave.
www.drawingrooms.orgMaterial Wonder: Jewish Joy and Mysticism in 2025 features drawing, painting, mixed-media fiber and light sculpture by artists Pesya Altman, Rachel Klinghoffer, Denise Treizman, Carol Salmanson and Anne Trauben.
Hatikvah Sticker Collective: A Global Movement Stickering for the Hostages and Jewish Civil Rights features stickers designed and posted all over the world since October 7th.
Drawing Rooms has a history of highlighting marginalized minority communities, and this is our fourth identity-oriented show since we opened the doors to our gallery in 2012. Now is the time to show a slice of the complexity of Jewish culture, experience and community, and to offer viewers a glimpse in. The show features the contemporary artwork of an Israeli-American Jew, Chilean-Israeli Jew, three American Jews, and a global Jewish and non-Jewish ally collective. The exhibit leads you through a narrow corridor, densely covered in black and white stickers, which may seem claustrophobic and dark, into more open spaces that are colorful, playful and joyful, full of mysticism and light.
Pesya Altman was born and raised in Israel, studied Art History at the Hebrew University and studio art at Bezalel Academy. Pesya moved to the USA in 1989, to live and work in NYC. Pesya's Stranger in Paradise series is joyful and trippy, and takes us along on a mystical adventure where her self-portrait is anchored against a backdrop of her own making– an escape into a world of her own design.
According to Pesya, "uprooted from my native land, I embarked on a journey that immersed me in unfamiliar landscapes, vibrant colors, and a new interplay of light. I sought refuge in self-created imaginative realms, while grappling with my place in the world and the pervasive loneliness and otherness often associated with the immigrant experience”.
Pesya's many larger-than-life works include elements of drawing, painting, collage, and her self-portrait with repetitive symbols, such as mushrooms, couches, palm trees, large animals and more, are set inside navigational mapping markers that attempt to guide us as we are swept up by wind gusts.
Rachel Klinghoffer, a painter who intertwines her identity as an Ashkenazi Jewish American woman with broader cultural narratives, creates a poignant discourse on personal and collective memory. Rachel’s work explores and challenges the conventional understanding of Jewish identity, weaving personal memories, photographs, and associative imagery.
Golems, hamsas, and the Hebrew letter "Shin" (ש), serve as powerful motifs of tradition, symbolizing protection, resilience, and joy, while simultaneously acknowledging a history riddled with antisemitism and persecution. Through their depiction, emerging from darkness into light, Rachel underscores the beauty of survival and the enduring spirit of the Jewish community. The letter "Shin" itself, with its deep-rooted significance in Judaism, is emblematic of this duality—representing divine protection, the essence of the Shema prayer, and the varied experiences of Jewish life.
Looking at Rachel’s works feels like peering into a mystical experience many have never had a chance to experience. Personal mementos and sparkles are encrusted onto her deep blue and purple plane (symbolic of the sacred divine), and secret symbols, including Spock’s Vulcan salute hand gesture, which Leonard Nimoy based on the priestly blessing performed by an Orthodox Jewish rabbi representing the Hebrew letter Shin, are presented for us to take in.
Denise Treizman, a Chilean-Israeli artist whose sculpture and installations incorporate found objects, ready-made materials, ceramics, weavings, and lights. Through gleaning and repurposing, she stockpiles materials without a specific purpose in mind. Similarly, her works on paper are created in a disjointed fashion, resulting in a layered accumulation of marks and gestures.
Growing up, Denise visited her grandparents, Jewish-Chilean immigrants in Miami during the 80s, saving for the yearly trips to buy bright tape, hot pink flamingo t-shirts, shiny stickers, glittery pens and neon sharpies. Now living in Miami and a mother of two, Denise creates in a familiar landscape with a fresh perspective, drawing inspiration from the matriarchal home, integrating weaving—a traditionally feminine craft—to honor the ideas of womanhood in Jewish and Latin American cultures.
Denise’s work is joyful– from balloon weavings, a colorful shiny sequin piece with a quirky worn purple sneaker embedded within, woven fabric pieces embellished with tape, pompoms and a light that adds to the fun of the work and takes on a sort of animated appearance, to her many drawings that incorporate foil and other tape markings, painted dots and dashes and wildly colorful spray paint. Many of Denise’s works on paper seem to come from a spontaneous and playful burst of energy.
Carol Salmanson is a painter and sculptor who creates imaginary worlds with the media of light and paint. According to Carol, “we live in a time that is fraught with risks to our planet and our species, and when technology can either save us or destroy us, I offer wonder, joy, and even mysticism”.
In Carol’s works, light refers to humanity’s long history of merging the aesthetics of different eras of art and architecture with contemporary technology. Carol combines light with rich color using light-emitting diodes, reflective materials, and transparent surfaces. In ambient light, the works convey a sense of playfulness and delight. In darker environments they become different, glowing objects reminiscent of ancient Byzantine mosaics, medieval stained-glass cathedral windows, and other timeless elements. The forms a viewer sees directly are as important as the light emanating from them.
Carol’s works call to mind mysticism and playfulness. Her large paintings play with color to evoke an animated sense of light. Her sculptural wall pieces play with light as color, sometimes putting unusual combinations together in layered triangles, circles, squares and other geometric shapes. Her tabletop pedestal pieces hold light differently, perhaps in a subtle and elegant way, and can be viewed from different angles.
Anne Trauben is an artist working in drawing, collage, sculpture, and installation. She is also the Curator and Gallery Director at Drawing Rooms. Anne was deeply affected by the events of Oct 7, and the aftermath, and this work was made in response, giving her the opportunity to research Jewish symbolism and history, and to create objects– many inspired by mysticism, others simply by the impulse to create and spread joy. Anne uses remnant fabric, assorted remnant trim (found in ready-made bags from a favorite fabric store, collected and stored for future use), and craft-oriented materials in nontraditional ways which seem second nature to her, connecting to a family history of sewing, dressmaking, tailoring, craft making, and a love of fashion.
Inspired by evil eye amulets and hamsas, Anne revisited embroidery hoop, pom-pom and pipe cleaner objects she had previously made, and made new ones, adding embellishments and a 7 ft silver Mylar emergency blanket to complete a large wall installation. More pieces followed, and she added yarn, remnant trim and fabric, beads, wire, paper, drawing, acrylic paint, tin foil with melted Chanukah wax, T-pins and colored map pins, etc., to make pieces that play with dimensionality and design, pairing materials, pattern, texture and shapes in unexpected combinations. Anne uses materials to create 3-dimensional objects in ways she considers relate to drawing and painting in space. A few pieces were made directly on the wall in a burst.
A strong display of stickers by the HaTikvah Sticker Collective, advocating for the hostages and Jewish civil rights, can be seen in the narrow corridor of The Alcove Gallery. Hatikvah (Hebrew word for hope) is the national anthem of the State of Israel written in 1878 by a Jewish poet.
The HaTikvah Sticker Collective, a global movement with international branches across the United States, Israel, Canada, Spain, Denmark, and the UK, is a group of 25 artists who emerged from international online Jewish spaces as a direct response to the Jewish national catastrophe of October 7th. Inspired by the Kidnapped Poster Campaign, which first placed street art directly in the hands of the worldwide Jewish public, the collective draws influence from the early Bezalel School—the first Zionist art academy—and contemporary street art movements.
The HaTikvah Collective’s defining and hallmark monochrome aesthetic is shaped and inspired by the inherent limitations of thermal printing, a new medium that has revolutionized mass sticker production. Thermal printing has opened new possibilities for public messaging, allowing for the rapid, low-cost DIY production of stickers. As one HaTikvah artist put it: “Any person with 100 dollars to purchase a printer and 1,000 labels can change their neighborhood for the better.”
This aesthetically beautiful and thoughtful show offers an introduction to the richness and struggles of this preciously small and too often misunderstood .02% of the world’s population who make up the constellation of the Jewish diaspora. It is our hope that in sharing this work and experience, viewers will be open to learning more.
Anne Trauben
Artist, Curator, Gallery Director
Curated by Anne Trauben, both shows will run from 2/13/25-4/5/25. Artist Reception will be Sunday, 2/16/25, 3-6p.
See the Exhibition Checklist, here
ABOUT THE ARTIST RECEPTION
Please join us for a reception for the artists on Sunday, 2/16/25, 3-6p.
926 Newark Ave, #T101
Jersey City, NJ Enter on Newark Ave.
www.drawingrooms.orgMaterial Wonder: Jewish Joy and Mysticism in 2025 features drawing, painting, mixed-media fiber and light sculpture by artists Pesya Altman, Rachel Klinghoffer, Denise Treizman, Carol Salmanson and Anne Trauben.
Hatikvah Sticker Collective: A Global Movement Stickering for the Hostages and Jewish Civil Rights features stickers designed and posted all over the world since October 7th.
Drawing Rooms has a history of highlighting marginalized minority communities, and this is our fourth identity-oriented show since we opened the doors to our gallery in 2012. Now is the time to show a slice of the complexity of Jewish culture, experience and community, and to offer viewers a glimpse in. The show features the contemporary artwork of an Israeli-American Jew, Chilean-Israeli Jew, three American Jews, and a global Jewish and non-Jewish ally collective. The exhibit leads you through a narrow corridor, densely covered in black and white stickers, which may seem claustrophobic and dark, into more open spaces that are colorful, playful and joyful, full of mysticism and light.
Pesya Altman was born and raised in Israel, studied Art History at the Hebrew University and studio art at Bezalel Academy. Pesya moved to the USA in 1989, to live and work in NYC. Pesya's Stranger in Paradise series is joyful and trippy, and takes us along on a mystical adventure where her self-portrait is anchored against a backdrop of her own making– an escape into a world of her own design.
According to Pesya, "uprooted from my native land, I embarked on a journey that immersed me in unfamiliar landscapes, vibrant colors, and a new interplay of light. I sought refuge in self-created imaginative realms, while grappling with my place in the world and the pervasive loneliness and otherness often associated with the immigrant experience”.
Pesya's many larger-than-life works include elements of drawing, painting, collage, and her self-portrait with repetitive symbols, such as mushrooms, couches, palm trees, large animals and more, are set inside navigational mapping markers that attempt to guide us as we are swept up by wind gusts.
Rachel Klinghoffer, a painter who intertwines her identity as an Ashkenazi Jewish American woman with broader cultural narratives, creates a poignant discourse on personal and collective memory. Rachel’s work explores and challenges the conventional understanding of Jewish identity, weaving personal memories, photographs, and associative imagery.
Golems, hamsas, and the Hebrew letter "Shin" (ש), serve as powerful motifs of tradition, symbolizing protection, resilience, and joy, while simultaneously acknowledging a history riddled with antisemitism and persecution. Through their depiction, emerging from darkness into light, Rachel underscores the beauty of survival and the enduring spirit of the Jewish community. The letter "Shin" itself, with its deep-rooted significance in Judaism, is emblematic of this duality—representing divine protection, the essence of the Shema prayer, and the varied experiences of Jewish life.
Looking at Rachel’s works feels like peering into a mystical experience many have never had a chance to experience. Personal mementos and sparkles are encrusted onto her deep blue and purple plane (symbolic of the sacred divine), and secret symbols, including Spock’s Vulcan salute hand gesture, which Leonard Nimoy based on the priestly blessing performed by an Orthodox Jewish rabbi representing the Hebrew letter Shin, are presented for us to take in.
Denise Treizman, a Chilean-Israeli artist whose sculpture and installations incorporate found objects, ready-made materials, ceramics, weavings, and lights. Through gleaning and repurposing, she stockpiles materials without a specific purpose in mind. Similarly, her works on paper are created in a disjointed fashion, resulting in a layered accumulation of marks and gestures.
Growing up, Denise visited her grandparents, Jewish-Chilean immigrants in Miami during the 80s, saving for the yearly trips to buy bright tape, hot pink flamingo t-shirts, shiny stickers, glittery pens and neon sharpies. Now living in Miami and a mother of two, Denise creates in a familiar landscape with a fresh perspective, drawing inspiration from the matriarchal home, integrating weaving—a traditionally feminine craft—to honor the ideas of womanhood in Jewish and Latin American cultures.
Denise’s work is joyful– from balloon weavings, a colorful shiny sequin piece with a quirky worn purple sneaker embedded within, woven fabric pieces embellished with tape, pompoms and a light that adds to the fun of the work and takes on a sort of animated appearance, to her many drawings that incorporate foil and other tape markings, painted dots and dashes and wildly colorful spray paint. Many of Denise’s works on paper seem to come from a spontaneous and playful burst of energy.
Carol Salmanson is a painter and sculptor who creates imaginary worlds with the media of light and paint. According to Carol, “we live in a time that is fraught with risks to our planet and our species, and when technology can either save us or destroy us, I offer wonder, joy, and even mysticism”.
In Carol’s works, light refers to humanity’s long history of merging the aesthetics of different eras of art and architecture with contemporary technology. Carol combines light with rich color using light-emitting diodes, reflective materials, and transparent surfaces. In ambient light, the works convey a sense of playfulness and delight. In darker environments they become different, glowing objects reminiscent of ancient Byzantine mosaics, medieval stained-glass cathedral windows, and other timeless elements. The forms a viewer sees directly are as important as the light emanating from them.
Carol’s works call to mind mysticism and playfulness. Her large paintings play with color to evoke an animated sense of light. Her sculptural wall pieces play with light as color, sometimes putting unusual combinations together in layered triangles, circles, squares and other geometric shapes. Her tabletop pedestal pieces hold light differently, perhaps in a subtle and elegant way, and can be viewed from different angles.
Anne Trauben is an artist working in drawing, collage, sculpture, and installation. She is also the Curator and Gallery Director at Drawing Rooms. Anne was deeply affected by the events of Oct 7, and the aftermath, and this work was made in response, giving her the opportunity to research Jewish symbolism and history, and to create objects– many inspired by mysticism, others simply by the impulse to create and spread joy. Anne uses remnant fabric, assorted remnant trim (found in ready-made bags from a favorite fabric store, collected and stored for future use), and craft-oriented materials in nontraditional ways which seem second nature to her, connecting to a family history of sewing, dressmaking, tailoring, craft making, and a love of fashion.
Inspired by evil eye amulets and hamsas, Anne revisited embroidery hoop, pom-pom and pipe cleaner objects she had previously made, and made new ones, adding embellishments and a 7 ft silver Mylar emergency blanket to complete a large wall installation. More pieces followed, and she added yarn, remnant trim and fabric, beads, wire, paper, drawing, acrylic paint, tin foil with melted Chanukah wax, T-pins and colored map pins, etc., to make pieces that play with dimensionality and design, pairing materials, pattern, texture and shapes in unexpected combinations. Anne uses materials to create 3-dimensional objects in ways she considers relate to drawing and painting in space. A few pieces were made directly on the wall in a burst.
A strong display of stickers by the HaTikvah Sticker Collective, advocating for the hostages and Jewish civil rights, can be seen in the narrow corridor of The Alcove Gallery. Hatikvah (Hebrew word for hope) is the national anthem of the State of Israel written in 1878 by a Jewish poet.
The HaTikvah Sticker Collective, a global movement with international branches across the United States, Israel, Canada, Spain, Denmark, and the UK, is a group of 25 artists who emerged from international online Jewish spaces as a direct response to the Jewish national catastrophe of October 7th. Inspired by the Kidnapped Poster Campaign, which first placed street art directly in the hands of the worldwide Jewish public, the collective draws influence from the early Bezalel School—the first Zionist art academy—and contemporary street art movements.
The HaTikvah Collective’s defining and hallmark monochrome aesthetic is shaped and inspired by the inherent limitations of thermal printing, a new medium that has revolutionized mass sticker production. Thermal printing has opened new possibilities for public messaging, allowing for the rapid, low-cost DIY production of stickers. As one HaTikvah artist put it: “Any person with 100 dollars to purchase a printer and 1,000 labels can change their neighborhood for the better.”
This aesthetically beautiful and thoughtful show offers an introduction to the richness and struggles of this preciously small and too often misunderstood .02% of the world’s population who make up the constellation of the Jewish diaspora. It is our hope that in sharing this work and experience, viewers will be open to learning more.
Anne Trauben
Artist, Curator, Gallery Director
Curated by Anne Trauben, both shows will run from 2/13/25-4/5/25. Artist Reception will be Sunday, 2/16/25, 3-6p.
See the Exhibition Checklist, here
ABOUT THE ARTIST RECEPTION
Please join us for a reception for the artists on Sunday, 2/16/25, 3-6p.
Rachel Klinghoffer
|
Pesya Altman
|
Hatikvah Sticker Collective
|
Carol Salmanson
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Denise Treizman
|
Anne Trauben
|
Past exhibitions 2025-
VISIT THE RAINBOW THURSDAYS ARTISTS EXHIBITION! January 17 through Feb 10, At Hudson County Courthouse.
Reception Wednesday Jan. 29th, 4-5pm
William Brennan Courthouse Rotunda 583 Newark Ave. Jersey City, NJ
Rainbow Thursdays Artists program, Victory Hall Inc.’s community-based weekly art education program connecting adults who have developmental disabilities with professional artists who provide them with materials, training and encouragement to express themselves through art. Program Managers/Teachers: Jill Scipione, James Pustorino, Sarah Langsam. Including works in painting and drawing by Michael W., Nicole, Elizabeth, Ashley, Marybeth, Marcello, Michael C., Sal D., Wendy D., Dennis, Azriel, Aida, Myra, Marc, Wayne L., Isaiah, Yahira, Cheryl, Alan O., Nicky P., Alicia, Keith R., Edward, Judy, Frank, Dina, Timothy, Mina, Fidelia, Dudley, Hirra, Christopher, Johnny.
William Brennan Courthouse Rotunda 583 Newark Ave. Jersey City, NJ
Rainbow Thursdays Artists program, Victory Hall Inc.’s community-based weekly art education program connecting adults who have developmental disabilities with professional artists who provide them with materials, training and encouragement to express themselves through art. Program Managers/Teachers: Jill Scipione, James Pustorino, Sarah Langsam. Including works in painting and drawing by Michael W., Nicole, Elizabeth, Ashley, Marybeth, Marcello, Michael C., Sal D., Wendy D., Dennis, Azriel, Aida, Myra, Marc, Wayne L., Isaiah, Yahira, Cheryl, Alan O., Nicky P., Alicia, Keith R., Edward, Judy, Frank, Dina, Timothy, Mina, Fidelia, Dudley, Hirra, Christopher, Johnny.
ABOUT US
Drawing Rooms is a nonprofit art space and gallery in the Topps Building on the Mana Campus in the Journal Square neighborhood in Jersey City. We show two and three-dimensional works by emerging and mid-career artists in NJ and the NY metropolitan area. Our innovative and exciting exhibitions, public programs and publications enrich the lives of our community through an appreciation of and involvement with contemporary art.
Drawing Rooms is operated by Victory Hall Inc. a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization producing exhibitions, programs and public art projects in the NJ/NY area since 2001.
Drawing Rooms is a nonprofit art space and gallery in the Topps Building on the Mana Campus in the Journal Square neighborhood in Jersey City. We show two and three-dimensional works by emerging and mid-career artists in NJ and the NY metropolitan area. Our innovative and exciting exhibitions, public programs and publications enrich the lives of our community through an appreciation of and involvement with contemporary art.
Drawing Rooms is operated by Victory Hall Inc. a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization producing exhibitions, programs and public art projects in the NJ/NY area since 2001.
