(NEWARK, NJ) -- On Saturday, February 5th, Gallery Aferro will celebrate for the first time in the new year with three new winter exhibitions. The new shows will highlight the 19-year-old organization’s commitment to public-serving art in a community hit hard by the ongoing pandemic. The winter exhibitions (on display until April 1) will feature artists who expertly combine personal reflection and social commentary wrapped in the brilliance of artistic ingenuity. This delight for the eyes and ears offers amazing musical and visual creations to help you start off your new year (solar or lunar) just right. 

Guests are welcome to visit the exhibitions starting on Saturday, January 22nd, but the opening reception has been moved to Saturday, February 5th, in hopes of a possible decline in health-related stats that will create a more comfortable and safe atmosphere for all who wish to attend.

The Main Gallery exhibition, In Time and In Tide, is a uniquely powerful reflection of Armisey Smith’s deeply brave commitment to expressing and exploring her own times through familiar and visceral visual cues that underscore the causal relationship between the Covid-19 pandemic and systemic racism. Smith’s artwork often takes a critical view of social, political and cultural issues of African-American women and other women of color, including referencing her personal experiences to articulate the weight of America’s social ills.

In the Memorial Gallery, Drawn In: Caren King Choi is an exhibition that presents two visually divergent bodies of work by one artist. King Choi applies drastically different techniques from the meditative and studied Red Portraits to the quick and humorous Motherhood Doodles. Nevertheless, both are a part of the artist’s overarching attempt to truthfully portray elements of her identity which remain largely underrepresented in the dominant visual culture. 

And last, but far from least, step inside the third exhibition, Elevator Music 8: Boston Typewriter Orchestra, to enjoy the creative rhythms and playful whimsy of one of America’s most eclectic musical troupes. Seeking to educate and evangelize the archaic machines they use, BTO grants audiences an opportunity to experience a connection to history and industrial technology with new evocative sounds, callouts and textures all within the 150 cubic feet of an early-1900s Otis Elevator.

The free, all-ages event scheduled from 6:00pm-10:00pm will serve refreshments. Masks will be required at all times, except when eating and drinking.  Gallery Aferro is located at 73 Market Street in Newark, New Jersey.

IMAGE: Whatchu Sayin by Armisey Smith