The way people look at Judith Kramer’s paintings, you would never guess that she had some doubts about displaying her artwork at an art fair. But this year, the 79-year-old lawyer turned artist joined an incredible roster of painters, jewelry-makers, and ceramicists participating in the Studio Tour SOMA.
“It takes a lot of courage,” Kramer said. “I finally developed that courage when I started going and seeing other artists.”
Founded in 2003, Studio Tour SOMA is always evolving, discovering new talented people in their community and adding new venues to the two-day event on Nov. 7-8. For instance, the new artist co-working space Creative in Common or CINC on Sloan Street is a welcome addition to the town and it helps that abstract artist Oksana Berzinsch is on the board of CINC and the planning committee at Studio Tour SOMA. Jeremy Moss and Dawn Williams have the same dual roles at CINC and the Studio Tour.
“We’re trying to come up with new ways to make the tour more successful, more engaging,” Berzinsch said. “This year, there are a lot of new things that we added.”
For first-timers, 34 venues might be a little daunting to cover in a weekend. If you’ve read about some artists in Arts Beats, you might want to visit one of them in particular. But if you’re coming in with a blank slate, you should visit the venues that host multiple artists like SOPAC, the Green Door, the 1978 Art Center, the Woodland, the Maplewood Senior Center, and the Dehart Community Center.
The Studio Tour does a good job of clustering the group exhibitions near the Maplewood and South Orange train stations, making it easy for those arriving on public transportation to hop on and off the Morris & Essex Line.
At SOPAC, there were 17 artists showing their arts and wares in the top-floor Loft. Unfortunately, the venue was only open on Saturday, but visitors can still see the Unveiled26 show on the second and third floors.
There’s so much variety at each of the stops on the tour. Beside Kramer’s table filled with abstract scenes of local cafes and parks, were Madalina Stefan Blanton’s mandala-inspired art and Robert Weiss’s stark portraits that combine masterful technique with absurd and hallucinated imagery. Weiss had a two-man show earlier this year with Jake Guttormsson at the Herb + Milly Iris Gallery.
For many artists, the annual tour offers a chance to show works that haven’t been exhibited and even see their own artworks in new ways. Down the street, at CINC, Burt Allen Solomon brought with him boxes of unmatted photos that few have seen before. “Occasionally I’ll hear a comment on one of my photographs and I’ll discover that somebody is seeing something that I didn’t see at all,” Solomon said.
“There have been photographers — Elliott Erwitt is a good example — who’ve particularly shot for humor,” Solomon said. “It’s a nice one when I think I have it and somebody else looks at it and smiles or laughs.”
It’s good to approach the Studio Tour with a plan — and it might be worth glancing at the map of venues that allows you to look up individual artists and where their art can be found. But leave some room for chance encounters.
Memorable discoveries this year include peeking through Guttormsson’s sketchbook and seeing how his ideas evolve from raw forms to finished products. It was fascinating to learn about Phoebe King’s use of paper napkins in her ceramics, overlaying her trays and plates with decorative patterns. Other surprises were the origami ornaments that Mary Arevelo, perhaps better known for her painting and photography, was folding at her table at the Woodland. Arlaina Tibensky’s moody ceramic cats, selling for $35 a pop, were also stopping visitors in their tracks.
The artists are all game for chatting about their artworks without an expectation to buy. But for those who are seriously in the market for new art, there’s no better place than the Studio Tour. Many artists came prepared with works at different price points. Kramer even converted some of her artworks into coffee mugs for $25.
“When people ask me how to shop around for art, I tell them to go to an art fair where there are professional artists around,” said painter Peter Astor, who had a table at Woodland.
