10-31-2022 11:57am

Clifton Arts Center to Display Artwork by Sculptors, Painters, Including CHS Graduate

The Clifton Arts Center will host a joint exhibit of painting and sculpture, “Seasonal Splendor and Spatial Relations,” Nov. 9 to Dec. 10, featuring the artwork of the Tuesday Painters and 20 indie sculptors.

There will be a Meet and Greet Reception on Saturday, Nov. 19, 1-4 p.m. at the Arts Center that is open to the public to celebrate the exhibit. Michael Bertelli, the president of the Clifton Arts Center’s advisory board, serves as the curator for the exhibition.

The Tuesday Painters had an exhibit at the Clifton Arts Center in 2020. The organization is a group of 30 artists that meet on a weekly basis in an art workshop at Trinity Episcopal Church in the Bergen County town of Allendale. Linda Marks, president, said the Tuesday Painters began as an art class run by Billie Samuelson. “When she retired (about 15 years ago), we didn’t want to disperse, so John Panzenhagen organized us into a club to meet each Tuesday.” Marks said members of the Tuesday Painters express themselves in a diverse range of media and subject matter. For more information about joining the group and participating in the workshops, contact Marks at (973) 962-6550.

The independent sculptor’s exhibit, with many artists of international renown, will include work by Catherine Schmitt and Richard Pitts. A native of Paris, Schmitt studied with Josee De Creef at New York’s Art Students League, followed by studies at the city’s Studio School. Her associations include the National Association of Women Artists and the Sculptor Affiliates of the Art Center of Northern New Jersey. Her artwork was part of the 2010 Clifton Arts Center’s “Passport to the Arts.” In a statement on her website, Schmitt said that sculpture “is three-dimensional poetry, a collage of symbolic objects and figures, which rise from all the shapes of nature and life experiences. Social and political events inspire me.”

After graduating from Clifton High School in the 1950s, Pitts attended the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts. In 1960 he moved to New York City, set up a studio and attended Pratt Institute. He studied in Paris and later became a teacher in the Fine Arts Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology. In 2004 he began exhibiting sculpture. Involved in sculpture and painting, sculpture developed as a major direction for Pitts after attending an artist welding workshops in Connecticut. Five years later he set up a sculpture studio on a farm in Pennsylvania for welding metals. His career spans six decades as an artist and teacher, and he continues to paint and exhibit large-scale outdoor sculpture.

The Clifton Arts Center is located at 900 Clifton Avenue (adjacent to Van Houten Avenue), on the grounds of the City Hall municipal campus. Roxanne Cammilleri is the director of the Clifton Arts Center, which opened in 2000. For more information on the exhibit, call the arts center at (973) 472-5499.