Studio Montclair is currently seeking submissions for the exhibition “On the Surface,” which will be on view from October 28 through November 26, 2022 at Studio Montclair Gallery, 127 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair, NJ.

Artists have stretched, manipulated, and morphed the surface in ways that challenge traditional ideas of what art can be. While surface articulation may range from flat to sculptural, there is a visual tension between the actuality of the object and the space that is simultaneously perceived. Using a variety of materials, artists are building up the plane and playing with dimensionality. They are also creating an illusion of three-dimensionality, which may require the viewer to become aware of his or her sense of form, mass, and space. Other artists allow the materials and process to create a surface that engages the sense of touch as well as sight, or they may use transparency to enable the viewer to penetrate the surface. From a limitless interiority to a built-out exterior space, the viewer experiences many aspects of spatial ambiguity as well as the intriguing intersection of medium, surface and illusion. For “On the Surface,” Studio Montclair is looking for artists who are examining the limitless boundaries of the two-dimensional and three-dimensional plane.

CURATOR
Shazzi Thomas received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Bard College in 2004. Her abstract paintings have been exhibited at Longwood Art Gallery, Broome Street Gallery, Eleven Ten Gallery, Brooklyn Artists Gym, and The Painting Center in NYC. Her work addresses the inter-relationship between design and chaos, and the parallels between our external and internal environments.

Thomas has curated numerous exhibitions at Broome Street Gallery in Soho. In 2008, she gave a lecture at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on the artist Georgia O'Keefe in conjunction with the exhibition Through Our Eyes: Wuppertal/New York. Most recently, she gave a lecture at The Maryland Institute College of Art addressing making your own luck in the art world and managing a non-profit organization. She curated the exhibitions Cultivate Your Own Garden, About Face, I Am My Best Work, and One in a Year at The Painting Center. and the NYAE 2020 Members Invitational at Equity Gallery.

She served as a juror for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and the Golden Educators Residency. In 2021, she was a guest juror for the 11th Biennial Alexander Rutsch Award. In 2022, she was offered the opportunity to nominate an artist for the prestigious Heinz Award.

Shazzi Thomas has been the Director of The Painting Center in Chelsea for 17 years. She is the Co-President of the Drawing Rooms in Jersey City and works as an assistant at Michelman Fine Art.