(GLASSBORO, NJ) -- Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum presents Layers of Authenticity from November 6 - December 20, 2023. In this group show five artists create work by altering imagery pulled from print, the internet, and their own photography. Utilizing unique processes of production, they reveal authentic and insightful statements about our current political and social landscape and the ambiguousness and misconceptions about historical events, places, and people. Artists include Maria Dumlao, Gabriel Martinez, Paul Anthony Smith, Eric Toscano, and Steven Earl Weber.
Maria Dumlao is a Filipino artist now based in Philadelphia. Her work reflects on the environmental and cultural impacts of colonialism in her home country and the multiple narratives that have thus been obscured and concealed. Gabriel Martinez is based in Philadelphia of Cuban descent. His work expresses feelings of displacement experienced with immigration and explores the complexities, incongruences, and significance of Cuba’s contemporary cultural, political and social climate. Paul Anthony Smith, who is Jamaican-based in New York City, creates paintings and picotage on pigment prints that consider the artist’s autobiography, as well as issues of identity within the African diaspora. Eric Toscano is New Jersey-based. Through handmade collages using vintage images, his work evokes a nostalgic response to extreme environmental actions that allows the viewer to construct a narrative that considers the possibility that these may be actual historical events. Steven Earl Weber is based in Philadelphia and examines the invisibleness of the victims of drug addiction by using techniques to create reflections and shadows of photographic portraits of his subjects, “those that one routinely sees but tries not to notice.”
About the Artists
Maria Dumlao works with combined media, including film, video, animation, sound, photography, embroidery and installation. Born in the Philippines, Maria Dumlao immigrated to the US mainland, where she currently lives and works in the traditional territory of the Lenni-Lenape (Philadelphia area). She received a BA in Studio Art & Art History from Rutgers College and a MFA in Studio Art at Hunter College-CUNY.
Gabriel Martinez is a photo-based multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Miami, Florida with a practice based in Philadelphia. He received his MFA from Tyler School of Art in 1991 and his BFA from the University of Florida in 1998. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Fabric Workshop & Museum and the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay Art.
Paul Anthony Smith’s practice celebrates the rich histories of the post-colonial Caribbean and its people. Born in Jamaica and currently based in New York City, he creates paintings and unique picotages that explore the artist’s autobiography, as well as issues of identity within the African diaspora. His layered picotage is meant both to obscure and to protect Smith’s subjects with a purposefully perplexing effect.
Eric Toscano earned his BFA from Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ and his MFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA where he received the Richard Henkels Award. His collage work has been exhibited at numerous venues in the region. The artist lives and works in Marlton, NJ surrounded by old magazines.
Steven Earl Weber, through sculpture, print, and installation, encourages the viewer to experience, and interpret, and embody social change. Shaped by his family and his working-class background, Weber received his BFA from Kent State University and his MFA from the University of Delaware. A resident of Philadelphia, he works for the Philadelphia School District teaching art to children from kindergarten through 5th grade.
There will be an Opening reception on Thursday, November 9, from 5:00pm-7:00pm.
Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum is located at 301 High Street West in Glassboro, New Jersey. It serves as a vibrant cultural destination for South Jersey, the Rowan community, and surrounding region. We are committed to cultivating an inclusive, accessible, and just environment that encourages dialogue and collaboration between exhibiting artists, students, faculty, the general public, and other cultural institutions through the presentation of interdisciplinary art exhibitions, artist talks and other public programming. We present diverse forms of contemporary art by professional artists with content that is thought provoking, relevant, and timely. Our mission is to engender curiosity and a passion for contemporary art, enrich the quality of life for area residents, create a welcoming and inclusive cultural destination at Rowan University, and function as a resource for contemporary art throughout the region.
TOP IMAGE -- From the top: Untitled (STYLE PON DEM), ©Paul Anthony Smith. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Between 10 (Playita del Triton [South Beach]), ©Gabriel Martinez. “I need to get well. II”, ©Steven Earl Weber. Fire At Will With Snakes (RGB), ©Maria Dumlao. Untitled (Nigh), ©Eric Toscano. Images courtesy of Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum.
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