This season Summit Public Art is proud to feature a new slate of exciting artworks centered on the theme ARTLocal. Like the “Shop Local” movement to support local retailers, "Art Local" spotlights works by artists from our own backyard that reflect the diversity of our community and the challenging era we live in.
In addition to bringing art to public spaces throughout Summit, we have put ARTLocal into action by hosting a number of community-wide art events over the past year. From our downtown art walks and city-wide art contests to our first-ever "Illumination Night," which brought out hundreds of Summit residents to the Green for a magical evening of art, music, and fun, we have continued to create programs that help us engage, connect, and bring us together as a community.
Thank you to all of our ARTLocal artists for their inspiring work and to the many donors and supporters who have kept Summit Public Art moving forward during this challenging time. As a 100% volunteer-run, donor-funded nonprofit, we rely entirely on the generosity of friends and neighbors just like you. We are truly thankful to live in a town that embraces artists and responds so positively to public art!
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Born in Somerville and raised in Newark, Willie Cole studied at the School of Visual Arts and the Art Students League in New York. Best known for his assemblage works made from or with ordinary domestic and used objects such as shoes, irons and ironing boards that reference African and African-American experience, Cole has exhibited widely and his work can be found in the permanent collections of the Newark Museum, the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. A sculptor, painter, printer, and visual and conceptual artist, he lives and works in Mine Hill, New Jersey.
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Current SPA Artwork:
Woman in Heels
Inspired by West African Senufo sculpture, this figurative bronze demonstrates Cole’s fondness for taking objects from western culture and recasting them in a “tribal narrative.” Modeled entirely from previously-worn shoes, this kneeling, full-bodied figure is an attempt to “extract the spirit from the original object” while exploring what one critic has called “the fantasy that high heels have always made it their business to promote.”
Location: Summit Village Green across from the train station
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Originally from France, Laurence de Valmy has lived and worked throughout the tristate area for many years, most recently in Philadelphia. Her work has been widely exhibited abroad and in the United States with solo shows in New York and Paris. In 2018, her work was exhibited alongside that of Andy Warhol in Munich at the Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art (MUCA). In 2020, some of her paintings appeared on HBO alongside Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant in the series The Undoing. When not in her studio, de Valmy writes about art for her blog (@laurencedevalmy) and is a contributor to Femmes d’Art and French Quarter Magazine.
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Current SPA Artwork: POST
Designed to look like imaginary Instagram posts between three iconic artists (Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquit, and Lee Krasner) and their contemporaries, POST invites us to reflect on the relationship between art and social media. Asking “What if Instagram had always existed?”, these interactive works pay tribute to the artists while exploring the impact of viewing art on a screen instead of in person.
Location: MONDO building on the Summit Promenade, 426 Springfield Avenue.
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A graduate of New York’s Pratt Institute and a recent recipient of a NJ Fellowship for Sculpture, Kate Dodd has exhibited her artwork widely throughout New Jersey and in New York and California. Dodd frequently works with repurposed materials, using everything from discarded books to plastic bottles to create installations for a variety of venues, from museums and parks to schools and train stations.
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Current SPA Artwork: Shared Air
Constructed from plastic strapping, this outdoor installation draws attention to the critical role trees play as “the lungs of the world.” At a time when being able to breathe is on many people’s minds, these pairs of lacy lung-shaped silhouettes (100 in all), interspersed among the trees behind Overlook Hospital, remind us how essential both medicine and the environment are to our survival.
Location: Summit Park Line behind Overlook Medical Center, 10 Upper Overlook Road near Morris Avenue.
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Based in Brooklyn, Tom Fruin is best known for his iconic stained-glass Watertower sculpture, which can be seen from the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. His work has been widely exhibited internationally and is represented in many permanent collections in the U.S., Europe, and in Argentina.
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Current SPA Artwork: Maxikiosco
Inspired by Argentina's colorful corner stores (called “kioscos"), Maxikiosco celebrates the familiar neighborhood structures that reflect the vibrancy and variety of city life. Constructed from recycled plexiglas and reclaimed steel, this illuminated art house creates a sense of wonder through the abstract collision of light and color, becoming a "kaleidoscope of color" during the day and a "beacon of light" at night.
Location: Summit City Hall at 512 Springfield Avenue.
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Born in England of Latvian parents, Karlis Rekevics grew up in Rome, Baghdad, and Seattle and received his art education at the New York Studio School and the Hochschule der Kunst, Berlin. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in shows at PS1, the Sculpture Center, and the Whitney Museum of American Art at ALTRIA and reviewed in such publications as The New York Times, Sculpture magazine, and Art in America. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
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Current SPA Artwork: Broad Ordinary Occurrences
Inspired in part by the urban architecture that Rekevics regularly encounters en route to his Brooklyn studio, this large-scale plaster sculpture is meant to evoke what he calls “the unlovelier parts of the man-made environment which we habitually encounter but almost never register.” Using these references as his starting point, Rekevics has constructed his own version of the surrounding urban landscape, subtly altering the character and proportion of his design to produce a work that is “rooted in real experience” but “tempered by recollection.”
Location: Village Green near Summit Avenue.
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Born in Queens, Theda Sandiford has lived and worked in Jersey City since 1995. A self-taught mixed media artist, she often works with found objects, transforming them into works that weave together personal narratives and contemporary issues. A 2021 recipient of a NJ State Council on the Arts Fellowship, Sandiford has exhibited widely across New York and New Jersey, including a solo exhibition at the Visual Arts Center of NJ and the 2021 N Arts Annual Exhibition at the Newark Museum.
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Current SPA Artwork:
The Baggage We Carry
These three meticulously collected assemblages of found objects (subtitled “Redistricting,” “Heights over Springfield,” and “I Can’t Breathe”) reference both the traumatic events of the past year and the artist’s own personal attempts to deal with those events through her art. “We all carry emotional baggage,” she says. “We have the choice to let it define us or to let it go and move forward.”
Location: Village Green near Maple Street across from the Summit Y.
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A graduate of Penn State University, Steve Szynal is a licensed architect, artist, and lighting designer. As the owner of the Summit-based firm S + S Lighting Design, he has created lighting for projects ranging from hotels to corporate headquarters to historical landmark buildings in New Jersey, New York, and across the United States. Steve also draws upon his design experience to create original hand-cut, multi-dimensional, mixed media collages and oil paintings, often of New York landmarks from Times Square to Wall Street. His works can be found in the collections of a number of celebrities, including Jerry Seinfeld and Michael Jordan, and also in the Baseball Hall of Fame
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Current SPA Artwork:
City Lights
These uplifting and visually appealing light displays can be seen at prominent landmarks around Summit. The displays change color (green for Earth Day, blue for nurses and other frontline heroes) to mark special occasions and to honor members of the Summit community.
Location: Summit City Hall (by Morris Avenue) and at the roundabout across from the Summit train station.
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A New Jersey native, Bryan Zanisnik grew up in Union County and studied art at Drew University, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and Hunter College in New York. His work has been widely exhibited in galleries and museums in the U.S., Europe and also in China and has been featured in Artforum, ARTnews, Time Out New York, The Village Voice, and The New York Times. He currently divides his time between Brooklyn and the Catskills though he maintains a strong connection to his home state.
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Current SPA Artwork:
Silk Monument
Drawn from rare photos and other historical documents, this multi-media sculpture explores the role that Armenian and Syrian immigrants played in the local silk industry and the impact they had on the Summit community. Consisting of two tall columns covered with metallic sheets imprinted with a multi-layered photo collage, Silk Monument is a fascinating and moving historical marker to a little-known chapter in Summit history.
Location: Village Green near Maple St. across from the Summit post office.
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From a monument to a forgotten chapter in Summit history to an illuminated "art house" that invites to you to step inside, our current season offers several must-see works by a host of internationally-acclaimed artists. For a handy map and guide to this season’s artworks, simply click the button below:
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Illumination Night on the Village Green
A fun and free evening of art and music for the entire community.
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Community Art Walks
Free docent-led tours of more than a dozen works of public art around Summit.
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City-wide Art Contests
Fun, city-wide contests to get Summit families outside and making art
during the pandemic.
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Windows Into Art
Our collaborative exhibit with Summit Downtown, Inc. featuring the work of more than a dozen local artists in the storefronts of local Summit businesses.
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City Lights
Visually appealing and uplifting displays of light at prominent downtown landmarks to mark special occasions and honor members of the Summit community.
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Summit Under Quarantine
Our specially-commissioned online and outdoor exhibit of photos by artist Joanie Schwarz chronicling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Summit community.
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RAMP Up
Our Rising Artist Mentorship Program offering Summit High School students a unique, hands-on creative experience with public art.
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Art on the Summit Park Line
Our ongoing collaboration with the Summit Park Line, bringing community-focused public art installations to Summit's newest pedestrian park.
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A limited number of tickets are still available for our upcoming "Evening in 'The City of Art'" fundraiser this Saturday, September 25th! To learn more or to purchase tickets, simply click on the button below:
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