(MONTCLAIR, NJ) -- The Gallery at Hillside Square presents Memory in Form, a solo exhibition by Leslie Adler, a mid-career visual artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores the intersection of natural systems, built structures, and the intuitive mind. The show runs through December 12, 2025 and features Adler's latest series of mono prints created through block-printing techniques, which evoke ethereal visions of abandoned places and quiet moments suspended in time.
Rooted in two studios—her space at Manufacturers Village in East Orange, NJ, and her home-based printmaking lab—Adler creates work that balances structure with spontaneity. Her process, shaped by a background in advertising and design (B.S.) and a Master of Fine Arts, fluidly moves between drawing, painting, printmaking, and occasional installation.
“Intuition is my home,” Adler says. “I’m drawn to the organizing beauty of the natural world and the ways human-made forms echo and disrupt those rhythms. I am inspired by nature, and the nature of things—the infinite organizing power, beauty, interconnectivity, and freedom expressed in the natural world. It is in the way birds fly, how trees support one another, and how we co-create. I am especially interested in the interplay between human-made constructs and natural systems. Architecture, both organic and built, becomes a metaphor for personal and shared space. These are the forms we create every day.”
Her current prints invite viewers into a reflective visual space where memory and imagination converge. Using layered color, symbolic iconography, and the tactile marks of hand-carved blocks, Adler reimagines decaying or deserted architectural sites—suggesting not loss but transformation. These places, though uninhabited, feel strangely familiar, almost mythic. They serve as metaphors for the internal structures we build, dismantle, and carry with us.
“I’m especially interested in how something abandoned can still pulse with energy,” she notes. “There’s beauty in what remains.”
Though she does not exhibit her ceramic work, Adler credits it as a vital part of her studio practice—“the best therapy out there,” she says. Her creative life reflects a duality: deliberate yet inspired, methodical yet deeply instinctive.
Memory in Form reflects this ethos: a thoughtful, intuitive exploration of place, form, and emotional resonance.
The Gallery at Hillside Square is open Monday - Friday, 7:00am - 7:00pm. Located in the heart of Montclair, NJ, the gallery showcases works by emerging and established artists and fosters a vibrant cultural community.
Hillside Square is located at 8 Hillside Avenue, Montclair, NJ. Originally the First Church of Christ, Scientist church, the property was converted into a Silver LEED-certified professional office building and provides a community art gallery space. Hillside Square received the 2013 NJ Smart Growth Award for Creative Adaptive Re-Use, the 2012 Downtown NJ Excellence Gold Award for Built Projects, and the Montclair Historic Preservation Award for Excellence in Adaptive Re-Use.
