Announcing three new exhibitions on view through spring

ArtYard is thrilled to announce two new exhibitions on view through spring featuring works by painter Alex Callender and ceramic artists Janny Baek, Brian Guerin, and Tom Hubben.

American Lawn and Soft as Earth open with a free public reception on Saturday, Feb. 22, followed by two artist talks on Sunday, Feb. 23. The weekend also marks the opening of Words That Start, an exhibition in two parts on view at ArtYard and Studio Route 29.

Alex Callendar: American Lawn (Feb. 22 – May 25, 2025)

American Lawn is a solo exhibition featuring large-scale paintings by Alex Callender, whose work examines histories of race, gender, and capitalism. In American Lawn, Callender imagines the ubiquitous familiarity of lawn grass as a conflicted terrain that frames ongoing questions of public and private space, haunted vegetation, and the legacies of settler land management in our current era of climate devastation.

Often situated close to the foreground, the lawn becomes a stage or interstitial space, filled with historical remnants, overgrowth, and folds of blue plastic tarpaulin signifying a project abandoned and not yet finished, or perhaps, not yet started. In these works, the lawn delineates a politics of middle distance — it is neither foreground nor background, you stand on it and walk in between it, only sometimes thinking about the kinds of erasure to which the space bears witness.

Callender, who teaches painting and studio drawing classes as an Associate Professor of Art at Smith College, has exhibited both nationally and internationally, and she has completed studio-based residencies with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Vermont Studio Center, Urban Glass, and DRAWinternational in France. Her work is held in the Art in Embassies Collections and the Tides Institute and Museum of Art in Maine.

Callender will be in conversation with Anna Arabindan-Kesson, an Associate Professor of Black Diasporic Art at Princeton University, during an artist talk at noon on Sunday, February 23, immediately after a gallery walk for Soft as Earth. Registration for the free event is recommended.

Soft as Earth (Feb. 22 – June 8, 2025)

Soft as Earth features the works of ceramic artists Janny Baek, Brian Guerin, and Tom Hubben. As artists, their work represents different approaches to form — a vessel, an object of the imagination, a mountain. They are risk takers, each pushing the boundaries of what the medium of clay can contain both figuratively and structurally, asking of it, and its traditions — how flexible are you, how can you be expanded, what can you become?

Baek, Guerin, and Hubben employ hand building as their primary technique, and their work suggests a direct link between neurons and fingers, translating and sculpting, speaking a language of form, scale, materiality, and wonder.

New York City resident Baek’s combined experiences in craft, pop culture, design, and architecture continue to shape her current work in ceramics. Guerin, of Bucks County, is an artist and archivist living who explores natural occurrence, touch, and the perception of forms through his use of clay, stone, and found materials. Hubben, of Hunterdon County, fuses his experience in industrial design with ceramics and has come to embrace the vessel as a sculptural vehicle.

The trio of artists will lead a gallery walk at 11 AM on Sunday, February 23. Registration is recommended.

Words That Start (Feb. 22 – June 8, 2025)

Words That Start is an exhibition in two parts featuring work by 17 contemporary artists working with text in painting, drawing, and sculpture. The spectra — from literal to abstract, demanding to dissolving, traditionally functional to highly formal — unravel into spirals like cursive loops that begin to bump into each other and ultimately raise questions of how meaning is made in the first place, and how it can be made to fall apart. This exhibition spans Studio Route 29’s Beauty Gallery and ArtYard’s Courtyard Gallery.

The exhibition features work by artists Theo Baransky, Judy Barnett, Chris Corr-Barberis, Carlo Daleo, Kayla Ephros, Gabriel Garza, Peter Harris, Otis Houston Jr., Olin Johnson, Michael Mangino, Mick McDonough, Rotimi Osinubi, Dorian Reid, Barb Riddle, Jennifer Chai Shear, Eric Spencer, and Marisa Takal.

ArtYard’s gallery hours are 11 AM to 5 PM Wednesday to Sunday and until 7 PM on Thursday. Studio Route 29 is located at 62A Trenton Ave. Public gallery hours are 11 AM to 3 PM Wednesday to Saturday or by appointment.

ArtYard is an incubator for creative expression and a catalyst for collaborations that reveal the transformational power of art. Its campus includes an arts center featuring exhibition space and a state-of-the-art theater as well as two buildings housing its residency program. ArtYard is a member of the New Jersey Theatre Alliance.