Through the alchemy of welding and traditional blacksmithing, Michael Malpass commanded steel, bronze, copper, and brass with a sculptor’s precision. He elevated these industrial remnants, liberating them from their utilitarian past, and reimagined them as vibrant works of art— imbuing them with new life and meaning.
Opening Reception: Friday, February 7, 5:30pm – 7:30pm
Join us! 8th Annual Ink & Electricity: Advancing Liberal Learning in the Digital Age lecture
A talk by Kristin Bluemel, Ph.D.
The enchanting black and white pictures featured in this talk tell a forgotten feminist tale of personal freedom and commercial success achieved by women artists whose creations of wood, ink, and paper brought joy and beauty into the dark days of the Great Depression and World War I.
This fall the DiMattio Gallery is hosting an exhibition of Sheryl Oring’s “I Wish to Say” and related works. Since 2004, Oring has traveled with her typewriter, asking the public to dictate and mail postcards to the US President. To date, she has typed over 4241 postcards in her attempt to use art as a catalyst for social change. Part of our exhibition programming will be a teach-in series from Monmouth University faculty, including Bluemel, about topics related to themes that intersect with Oring’s project as art reaches across disciplinary bounds.
This event is free and open to the public. Typists will be available so guests can dictate their own postcard to the US President.
For more information, please contact Dr. Corey Dzenko or Dr. Kristin Bluemel.
Bronx-born and raised Chazz Palminteri wrote A Bronx Tale in 1988. The powerful one-man stage play depicted his bruising childhood which included witnessing a gangland killing when he was nine years old.
Palminteri played 18 characters and brought them all to life in his autobiographical play. His friends, enemies and family came alive on stage. Hollywood Studios went crazy after seeing it and offered him millions of dollars to turn it into a major movie. There was one catch. They wanted to put a star in the role of Sonny and someone else to write the screenplay. With $200 dollars in the bank…Palminteri said No… he would hold out and wait. He wanted to play Sonny and write the screenplay. Then one night Palminteri walked into his dressing room and sitting there was Robert De Niro who just saw the show. Robert DeNiro gave Palminteri the chance he was waiting for; and as they say in Hollywood the rest is history.
Palminteri wrote the screenplay for the film A Bronx Tale and then most recently wrote the book for the Broadway Musical. It was the first time in history that the same actor wrote the one-man play, the movie, and the Broadway Musical and starred in each one.
In the past 35 years, Chazz has appeared in over 60 films. To name a few – The Usual Suspects, Analyze This, Mulholland Falls, Jade, Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Legend, and Bullets over Broadway, which he was nominated for an Academy Award. He has starred in over 20 television series and has won 3 Emmy’s. Chazz is most recently seen in Modern Family, Godfather of Harlem, Law & Order and Gravesend.
The play is set in the backyard of two adjoining houses in the working class neighborhood of South Philadelphia. They are about to celebrate the 21st birthday of Francis Geminiani, a Harvard student, when two classmate friends from Harvard and Yale, Judith and Randy, show up unexpectedly. Since there isn’t a spare bedroom in either house they pitch a tent in the backyard. Francis’ classmates, the wealthy Judith seeks romance with Francis not realizing that her brother Randy is the object of Francis’ unexpressed affection. Each of the characters in the play are dysfunctional to some degree and their celebration of Francis’ birthday brings out the best of comedy and drama. The birthday party is a series of comic incidents that provide laughter and serious realizations that lead up to the final joyous ending. The crazy fast moving celebration leaves each character a bit wiser and happier having celebrated Francis’ 21st birthday.
Feb. 28 – March 4 & March 6-8, 2018
All shows 8 PM except Sun. matinees at 3 PM.
Sylvia is one of A.R.Gurney’s funniest plays. Greg and Kate move back to New York city after raising two children and wanting the active life of Manhattan. Greg finds an adorable mutt while on a walk and decides to bring the pooch home. Sylvia immediately becomes an issue for Greg and Kate and begins to test their marriage in both funny and touching ways. Gurney is an expert at examining middle class life as we watch Sylvia bring Greg and Kate back on track in their new but lonely city life.
November 10-12 &
15-19
All
shows 8 PM except Sun. matinees at 3 PM
HAIR celebrates the sixties counterculture in all its barefoot, long-haired, bell-bottomed, beaded and fringed glory. To an infectiously energetic rock beat, the show wows audiences with songs like “Aquarius,” “Good Morning, Starshine,” “Hair,” “I Got Life,” and “Let The Sun Shine.” Exploring ideas of identity, community, global responsibility and peace, HAIR remains relevant as ever as it examines what it means to be a young person in a changing world. Directed by Sheri Anderson.
Join us for a fun improve show on Friday nights in November! A cast of five will use: your suggestions, props, “Cards Against Humanity”, music, something you throw at them and miss, and actually YOU on stage! Their quick-wits and dangerous minds to keep you entertained for AT LEAST AN HOUR!
Mike Richison’s Election Collection: 2004-2020 showcases 20 years of design and video art inspired by the presidential election cycle. Richison began working with this topic in 2004 when he created a short video loop of George W. Bush drinking water during the debates. This evolved into performances and interactive video projects that break down language into musical and abstract elements.
The culmination of these explorations is Electo Electro 2024, an interactive installation that enables participants to produce techno-inspired beats using video clips of presidential candidates. This project combines iMacs, iPads, custom software, and the housing from decommissioned Diebold AccuVote TS voting booths. Users can remix videos from political rallies and debates in a structured sixteen beat loop. An iPad-based touchscreen design parodies the system employed by the AccuVote, a voting system that was difficult to audit and susceptible to hacking.
As a parody, the format of Richison’s installation resembles a polling station, while the branding and graphic elements of the project hearken back to vintage electronic devices. The AccuVote debuted in the early 2000s as the poster child of the Help America Vote Act. After its widespread adoption, a group of researchers discovered a long list of vulnerabilities that can lead to stolen votes, lost votes, or a failure of the computer itself. The project deals with expectation, failure, and vulnerability
On the opening day and throughout the run of the exhibit, Richison will perform and demonstrate this project. His goal is to “encourage users to examine media and become individuals who can control media, rather than be controlled by it.”
This event is being held in conjuction with ArtNOW’s Mike Richison, Electo Electro 2024 on October 4 at 10:15 AM.
About the artist, Mike Richison: Mike Richison is a multimedia artist and an Associate Professor at Monmouth University, where he teaches motion graphics. He employs a variety of approaches to artmaking, including sculpture, graphic design, and interactive video. His work utilizes found objects, such as turntables, voting booths, and scavenged video clips as well as the Max MSP Jitter programming environment. Richison has exhibited at Autonomous Cultural Centre Medika (Zagreb, Croatia); Figment NYC and Art in Odd Places (New York); and Peters Valley School of Craft and Morris Museum (New Jersey). His projects have received attention in outlets such as Leonardo, VICE, FACT Magazine, Hyperallergic, WABC-TV Channel 7 News New York, and The Washington Post. Before moving to New Jersey in 2007, he lived in the Detroit, MI, area for several years.
John’s debut novel, Three-Fifths, was named one of the best books of 2019 by the Chicago Tribune. In the U.K., Three-Fifths was named a Book of the Year by The Sunday Times, The Financial Times, and The Guardian. His second novel, After the Lights Go Out, was published by Soho Press. It’s been called “simply brilliant” by Publishers Weekly in a starred review, “shrewd and explosive” by The New York Times, and was named an Editors’ Choice in Adult Fiction for 2022 by Booklist. His third novel, Devil Is Fine has received starred reviews from Booklist and BookPage, was named a Best New Book of the Summer by TIME Magazine and The Root, an Indie Next pick for July, and one of the Top Ten Books to Add to Your Reading List in June by the Los Angeles Times. Additionally, Devil is Fine was a June book pick by The Center for Fiction, one of the 12 Must-Read Books of June by The Chicago Review of Books, a Book of the Day for July by NPR, and was featured on NPR’s It’s Been A Minute.
