This exhibition presents an exciting first look at the collection of the Jersey City Museum in its new home at Rutgers. American Stories highlights works by a wide range of artists and provides an inclusive view of American art and life through a local lens. Works by Dawoud Bey, Chakaia Booker, Mel Edwards, Luis Cruz Azaceta, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Juan Sánchez are included in the exhibition. All of these artists were featured in important exhibitions organized by the Jersey City Museum during the 1990s.
Gifted to the Zimmerli Art Museum in 2018, the collection of the Jersey City Museum expands the scope and strength of the Art of the Americas collection of paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs. Including many artists who lived or worked in New Jersey, American Stories highlights the state’s unique local and national profile that is both related to, but distinctly separate from, the two neighboring cultural centers of Philadelphia and New York City. Focused primarily on works made during the last fifty years, the artists engage with urbanization and identity through such themes as immigration, community, labor, spirituality, and politics.