Category: Newark Artwork

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Newark Changing: Mapping neighborhood demolition, 1950s to today

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Newark Changing is an interactive visual encyclopedia featuring 2,400 photo comparisons from 1959-68 vs. today. The project illustrates the combined impacts of urban renewal, slum clearance, highway construction, and decades of demolition by neglect. Through a historic map, users can explore dozens of neighborhoods and thousands of demolished homes. This research highlights the devastation faced by communities due to decades of anti-urban policy decisions by the government and anti-black investment decisions by corporations.

Visit: NewarkChanging.org/map VIEW PUBLICATION

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Warren Street School Demolition

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The historic 1890s Warren Street School stood in Newark’s University Heights neighborhood and served a century of public school children. Despite its landmark status and eligibility for future inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, Newark City Hall approved demolition on April Fool’s Day in 2021. This demolition highlights the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s calculated disregard for architectural heritage. The demolition act also symbolizes a broader trend of city leadership that is ignorant of history and the power of historic preservation to cultivate local identity. VIEW PUBLICATION

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Murphy Varnish Lofts in Newark

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Murphy Varnish, built in 1886, is one of Newark’s oldest factories still standing. Its brick walls, terracotta ornament, and intricate brickwork reflect a time when industrial structures were more than just functional. Murphy Varnish reflects a time when industry was central to Newark’s wealth and key to its future success. It is a monument to industry, built to last (and landmarked since 1979 by the National Park Service). Recent renovation efforts promise to turn this derelict structure into a community of apartments. The summer after my first year at Columbia University, I had the privilege of working with the Studio… VIEW PUBLICATION

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The Vanishing City of Newark

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Vanishing City is a visual documentary about architecture and redevelopment in Newark. I am witness to the poetic decay of my city’s cultural heritage. An abandoned barge sinks in murky waters.  A former factory tumbles before the wrecking ball.  A sea of weeds lays siege to a vacant home. An empty lot is a gaping hole, a missing tooth, in the urban body. As a wall crumbles to the ground, a tree, anchored to the wall, reaches for the sky. While my city’s industrial past succumbs to demolition, new buildings grow from old lots. Behind this slow decay, there is… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Pictures of Newark

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. As a lifelong citizen of Newark, I spent much of the past few years painting and photographing my changing city. Pictures features a selection of my work, complemented by classical music. Five of Modest Mussorgsky’s pieces from his composition Pictures at an Exhibition are selected, each of which represents the feel of a certain part of Newark. The following five locations are featured: 1. THE PASSAIC RIVER – music: Mussorgsky’s Promenade 2. OLD ESSEX COUNTY JAIL – music: With the Dead in the Language of Death 3. MOUNT PLEASANT CEMETERY – music: Promenade 4. DOWNTOWN NEWARK – music: Mozart’s… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Mount Pleasant Cemetery

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Mount Pleasant was the resting place of Newark’s leading industrialists, politicians, and first families. Opened in 1844 and landmarked in 1988, it fell into neglect as Newark’s wealth flowed away to foreign factories and Newark’s people fled to suburbia. It is now a tranquil spot in a hectic city. Cars may speed by on the nearby interstate and the surrounding neighborhood may shrink or grow, but this city of the dead moves at a slower pace. The cemetery stones crumble and weather with rain, its trees grow larger, and its grass taller. Names carved in stone are just as susceptible… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Renaissance City

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Growing up in Newark, I was inspired and saddened by my inner-city environment: I am inspired by Newark’s hope of renewal after decades of white flight, under-investment, and urban neglect. I am saddened by the loss of my city’s historic architecture and urban fabric to the wrecking ball of ostensible progress. My Renaissance City photo and art series depicts the Newark of my childhood with garish signage and decayed structures blanketing my city’s architecture in a medley of color and consumerism. Click here to see a film featuring more of my Newark-based artwork. Urban decay in Newark to the tune… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Neon Night

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Cities of consumerism and spending, wherever they are, realize the human desire for energy and movement. Neon Night is a triptych representation of urban life. Each image of city lights is the accidental result of sudden camera movement during the long shutter speed required for night photography. Left to right: lights from Newark, Detroit (Fox Theater marquee), and Santander (Spain) VIEW PUBLICATION

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Port Newark

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Port Newark is America’s largest port on the Atlantic coast. On weekdays, hundreds of cargo ships deliver thousands of Chinese-made products to waiting trucks and trains. On weekends, the port is empty of life, an unintentional and empty urban monument to America’s economic might. Port Newark is America’s largest port on the Atlantic coast. On weekdays, hundreds of cargo ships deliver thousands of Chinese-made products to waiting trucks and trains. On weekends, the port is empty of life, an unintentional and empty urban monument to America’s economic might. Click here to see a film featuring more of my Newark-based artwork…. VIEW PUBLICATION

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New Jersey Meadowlands

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The New Jersey Meadowlands, nestled between New York City and Newark, is a strange sort of in-between zone. It belongs neither to nature nor to man. The grasslands and birds of nature are abundant. So, too, are the derelict factories and warehouses. The unwanted detritus of civilization is cast off into the Meadowlands, ranging from garbage piles to noxious-smelling industries. Millions of commuters to and from the suburbs to New York City pass through this region of indeterminate identity. Many look out the windows of passing trains, planes, and cars. Yet few care to observe the lapping tides and bizarre… VIEW PUBLICATION

My little neighborhood in Downtown Newark

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. Left to right: Broad Street Station, Polhemus House, YWCA Building, Newark Museum, Ballantine House,Second Presbyterian Church, American Insurance Company, Newark Public Library When I examine old pictures of my neighborhood in Newark’s archives, I realize that so much of my city’s built environment has vanished. This trend will continue, as it does in most cities where old buildings outlive their use. If not in the form of my city’s physical destruction, this loss is in the form of my gradual loss of childhood memories. To reconcile this, I built the below model as my own souvenir. This keepsake will… VIEW PUBLICATION

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The Old Essex County Jail

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The old Essex Country Jail sits forlorn and abandoned amidst desolate parking lots and lifeless prefab boxes. In the so-called University Heights neighborhood, the jail is testimony to the past. Listed on the National Register of Historical Places, this 1837 structure is one of the oldest jails in America and the oldest civic structure in the city. Abandoned for over fifty years, no successful preservation efforts have materialized. The urban jungle of junk trees, vines, and garbage conquers the old fortress. The warden’s garden that zealous prisoners once pruned and weeded is now overrun with nature. Used syringes line the… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Newark’s Hidden River

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It is ironic that Newark should ignore the very river it was founded on, the Passaic River. It was the pristine wooded river our city’s founding fathers first saw in 1666. It was our city’s artery to the sea and our industries’ source of wealth. It was the throbbing, flowing heart of our city. After the automobile drove people to the suburbs and globalization exported jobs abroad, the Passaic was no longer a water highway. It is now this industrial town’s polluted heart. The corporate towers of Newark’s “Renaissance” meet industrial history at the riverbank. The murky waters contain secrets… VIEW PUBLICATION

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Panoramas of Newark

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I often gaze at the towers, bridges, and waterfront of my native Newark. I know that one day, if I am far from home, these drawings will become souvenirs of my urban childhood.   Newark Skyline from the Passaic River . Newark Airport . Panorama of Newark from Roof of 810 Broad Street VIEW PUBLICATION