Galloway, N.J. — The Stockton Art Gallery will reopen Sept. 6 with two new exhibitions that will run until Nov. 13.

The lower gallery will feature “Preaching to the Birds: Contemporary Painting from Georgia, Romania, and the Eastern-European Diaspora.” Drawing on folk traditions and mythical subjects of eastern Europe and the Middle East, these densely patterned paintings show the influence of medieval and mystical imagery in former Eastern-bloc nations.

This exhibition includes work from the Linda and Roy Jankowski collection of Georgian art, including paintings by Sergo Tbileli and Mamuka Mikeladze, as well as Romanian paintings from the 1960s-90s by Georgeta Naparus, Corneliu Petrescu and others. Curated by Stockton professors Jacob Feige and Mariana Smith, the exhibition also includes two artists working in the United States born in Bulgaria and Ukraine.

In the upper gallery, the display titled “Do you Hear Me?” features the work of Jaime Alvarez, Natalie Lerner and Japeth Mennes. These three artists use varying media to explore themes of isolation and solitude in cities. Alvarez’s photographs show the neighborhoods of northern Philadelphia devoid of inhabitants.

Lerner, working in New York, addresses the solitude of the handwritten letter in her intimate drawings. Mennes, a New York painter, makes hard-edge paintings of the objects that mediate social connection: door buzzers, security cameras and window shades.The exhibit was
curated by Stockton professor Jacob Feige.

Additionally, local historian Vicki Gold-Levi and Wendel White, a Stockton distinguished professor of Art, will speak as part of the Al Gold Memorial Lecture at 3 p.m. Oct. 20. Gold-Levi’s talk is titled “Atlantic City: The Notables and the Notorious,” while White’s is called “Picturing the African American Presence in Southern New Jersey.” The talk will be held in the gallery and will also be available online.

An exhibition of work by senior Bachelor of Fine Arts students will be held from Dec. 4-9. A reception to meet the artists will take place 1 p.m. Dec. 4.

The art gallery is open 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

For more details contact Ryann Casey, exhibition coordinator, at 609-652-4566 or Ryann.Casey@stockton.edu.