exploring artists undivided City Without Walls’ Multi-Site Exhibition and Symposium

“Close to the Edge” opens in time for Black History Month and blurs the lines that separate urban artists. The curators’ vision is to “knock down ever more doors” by exhibiting “outsider” artists alongside mainstream and emerging artists.

The exhibition includes dozens of works by thirteen artists from Newark and around the world: Manuel Acevedo (Sunnyside, NY), Hervé Constant (London, UK), Jerry Gant (Newark, NJ), Janet Henry (Jamaica, NY), Chituwa Jemali (Harare, Zimbabwe), Ujima Kuumba Majied (Newark, NJ), William Morgan (Orange, NJ), Joe Mutasa (Harare, Zimbabwe), Teri Richardson (Brooklyn, NY), Kevin Blythe Sampson (Newark, NJ), Danny Simmons (Brooklyn, NY), Reynolds (Brooklyn, NY), and Florence Wint (Maplewood, NJ).

This half-day symposium will include two panels that examine the question: can artists build a future without divisions between them—trained and self-taught, black, white and Latino? Danny Simmons of Corridor Gallery and Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation will moderate a panel of exhibition artists from 2-3:30pm. Randall Morris of Cavin-Morris Gallery will moderate a panel of experts from 4-5:30pm, including: Jenifer P. Borum (Museum of American Folk Art), C. Daniel Dawson (independent scholar and curator), Charles Russell (Rutgers and Aljira), Cleo Wilson (The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art), and others.

City Without Walls (cWOW) is an urban gallery of emerging art that advances the careers of artists while building the audience for contemporary art. Founded in 1975, cWOW is New Jersey’s oldest not-for-profit alternative art space. cWOW is a three-time recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Citation of Excellence. It is easily accessible by car, mass transit, or at cwow.org.