(MORRISTOWN, NJ) -- Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) presents two new visual art exhibits in its Art Upstairs and Starlight Galleries beginning October 17 and running through November 28, 2023. Morris County Art Association will exhibit in Art Upstairs; photographer Xiomaro will exhibit in the Starlight Galley.
A reception for the new exhibits will take place on Sunday, October 22 from 2:00pm – 4:00pm at MPAC. The reception is free and open to the public. The galleries are open to ticketholders during MPAC events, and to the public by appointment. There are also open visitation hours on Tuesdays from 12:00pm – 2:00pm.
Exhibiting in Art Upstairs: Morris County Art Association (October 17-November 28, 2023). MCAA continues its mission as a non-profit organization providing professional fine art instruction to people in the community. In September of 1935, local artists and professional painters formed the Morristown Art Association. Meetings were held at members' homes and various other sites until 1956 when it purchased "The Studio", on 10 Catherine Lane. MCAA classes run year round. Membership offers discounted costs on classes, entrance to weekly Life Drawing Classes at the Studio, weekend workshops conducted by artists in their field of expertise, Members' Art Exhibits on and off-site and workspace in Open Studio and so much more! Morris County Art Association holds an annual weekend Fine Arts & Crafts Festival every June at the grounds of the Vail Mansion on South Street in Morristown where juried fine artists and artisans from Florida to Maine show and sell their works of watercolors, oils, photos, pastels, sculptures, printmaking, jewelry, woodwork, handmade clothing, etc.
Exhibiting in the Starlight Gallery: Xiomaro (October 17-November 28). Xiomáro's Street Haunting: Photographs Virginia Woolf Might Have Taken. The artistic roots of street photography can be traced as far back as da Vinci’s street sketches. Even Virginia Woolf was inspired to write “Street Haunting,” a 1927 essay describing the profound impact of wandering through London. Likewise, for Xiomaro, New York City is a source for creating candid photographs of dramatic, weird, and ghostly moments – all while not using Photoshop, filters, or other manipulations. If Virginia Woolf were alive today and substituted her pen for a camera, she might have taken photographs that look something like the 16 large prints on view in this exhibition.
Xiomaro (SEE-oh-MAH-ro) is an artist whose photography covers two specialties: bucolic National Parks and surreal urban streets. Harvard University, Morris Museum, and many institutions in the U.S., England, Scotland, and Italy have exhibited and collected his work. A frequent guest on television news programs such as ABC, CBS, PBS, and Fox, his work has also been reported by the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and Fine Art Connoisseur magazine. The artist, of Cuban-Puerto Rican descent, notes that his exhibit “Xiomaro’s Street Haunting” overlaps with three events – Hispanic Heritage Month (and the Mexican community’s anticipation of The Day of the Dead), Halloween, and diminishing daylight as we turn back the clocks. “So I thought it was fitting to select my darker street photographs for the show.”
Mayo Performing Arts Center (MPAC) is located at 100 South Street in Morristown, New Jersey. MPAC, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, presents a wide range of programs that entertain, enrich, and educate the diverse population of the region and enhance the economic vitality of Northern New Jersey. The 2023-2024 season is made possible, in part, by a grant the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as support received from the F.M. Kirby Foundation, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation and numerous corporations, foundations and individuals. Mayo Performing Arts Center was named 2016 Outstanding Historic Theatre by the League of Historic American Theatres, and is ranked in the top 50 mid-sized performing arts centers by Pollstar Magazine.
