.png)
Originally posted on NJ.com To read the full article, please click here
Art House Productions will be holding the summer edition of JC Fridays, their seasonal festival, tomorrow, June 7, featuring art events that take place in restaurants, galleries, stores, and more.The event is also part of the 2nd annual ACCESS JC Fridays, which focuses on inclusion and encourages participants to present work from artists with disabilities and/or work that celebrates disability in any of its many forms, including, but not limited to: impairments that are cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, and sensory. If only in a single entry or two, every Jersey City neighborhood is taking part in JC Fridays throughout the city.In Bergen-Lafayette, which along with adjacent Greenville has often had the fewest JC Fridays offerings, Roberta Melzl is co-organizing “As For That,” a textile-themed exhibition of three visual artists: Caroline Burton, Ibou Ndoye, and Woolpunk. The exhibition will be located on the ground floor of a house and adjacent garage in Bergen Lafayette at 475 Bergen Ave./34 Oxford Ave, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.Melzl said that “part of the point (of the show) is to try to get people to come to other neighborhoods and to bring something to (the Bergen-Lafayette) community.” By doing the show in conjunction with JC Fridays, Melzl said there’s a hope that having more people out in general will translate to an event that will include music on the back patio.“If people are coming, this should be something they can linger at,” Melzl said.In the Heights, Hudson County Art Supply, 469 Central Ave., will be presenting paintings by M. H. Yaghooti, an American contemporary mixed media painter born and raised in Jersey city. Using comics, occult books, and photographs as reference, he employs oil, acrylic, and watercolor with paper wood and canvas. The exhibit will take place from 2 to 8 p.m. “I read and traced comics when I was a child so it helped develop my drawing skills,” said Yaghooti. “Occult mysteries are something I gravitate towards for subject matter and it helps push the imagination.”While Yaghooti feels that a good turnout and selling a few pieces is always good, it’s interacting with the people that he enjoys the most.“It’s great to see the personal connections that are made when people observe my work,” he said. “It’s endearing when some one can connect one of my pieces with a story about themselves.”Lulu’s Hair Zone, 8 Thorne St. (by Central Avenue), will also be participating in the event, with its “Art Show in the Salon,” which will display the works local artist and war veteran Jim Fallon from 5 to 7 p.m. The show will be up for the next four weeks.“It’s really an honor that Art House asked me to be a part of this,” said Fallon. “Art wasn’t something I started doing until much later in my life, up to that point I could only draw a stick figure, but when I got started I realized that this was something I could do." Fallon works with other veterans where they make paper from US military uniforms and and apply artwork and poetry onto the paper made from the material. Fallon has also had exhibits at the Hoboken Historical Museum and Hob’art Gallery.In the southern section of Greenville, Project Greenville will present “Fly Your Flag,” a group art show that highlights all that can be communicated thru flags, whether it’s culture, origin, politics, protest, pride, history, or even fantasy.“A part of my inspiration for the theme was a friend’s mom, who has become a friend of mine, and her love and enthusiasm for Flag Day which is sort of a lesser-known holiday,” says Elizabeth Deegan, founder of Project Greenville. “I’m really hoping for conversation to ensue while people visit the space. Usually it begins about the work but it quickly evolves into common likes, dislikes, and experiences.”The “Fly Your Flag” event, taking place at 128 Winfield Ave., is one of few JC Fridays events that extends into Saturday, taking place 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. both days. Saturday it will also feature performances by Gary Van Miert and Malcolm Marsden of the Sensational Country Blues Wonders at 5:30 p.m. There are about 30 JC Fridays events in total, including art shows at Crossroad Community Church and The Church of St. Paul and Incarnation. For more on them all, visit www.jcfridays.com.