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 PROJECT >
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 PROJECT >
In fall 2019, LinkNWK, the company that manages free wifi hotspots and advertising screens in downtown Newark, invited me to display my artwork on their kiosks. I selected several dozen of my artworks and images that document the demolition of historic neighborhoods and the demolition of community spaces. VIEW PROJECT >
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. Recent renovation efforts promise to turn this derelict structure into a community of apartments. VIEW PROJECT >
Vanishing City is a visual documentary and photo essay about architecture and redevelopment in Newark. 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. VIEW PROJECT >
I spent much of the past few years painting and photographing my changing city. This short film 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. VIEW PROJECT >
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. Memories and histories carved in the text of century-old tombstones erode away as slowly as murky waters flow past in the nearby Passaic River. VIEW PROJECT >
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 photo and art series titled Renaissance City depicts the Newark of my childhood with garish signage and decayed structures blanketing the city in a medley of color and consumerism. VIEW PROJECT >
From left to right: clock tower at Newark Broad Street Station, backyard of my childhood home, imaginary factory scene at night
Growing up in struggling, inner city Newark, the gritty urban environment inspired me. Newark’s abandoned factories and rust belt industries are fuel for my imagination and inspiration for me to reflect on the passage of time through my art.
A visual essay of my photos and watercolor paintings. Work examines the themes of industrialization, decay, and mass production in the consumer landscape of warehouses and shipping docks at Port Newark. VIEW PROJECT >
A visual essay featuring some of my watercolors, pastel images, and ink line drawings of the New Jersey Meadowlands. These images – both real and imagined – were inspired by industrial scenes I saw outside the train window when commuting between home in Newark and school in Hoboken, NJ. VIEW PROJECT >
Created in middle school out of wood, cardboard, and pastel cutout drawings of building silhouettes, preserved online as souvenir. Length: 6 feet / 1.8 meters VIEW PROJECT >
Seeing the old Essex County Jail as a middle school student was one of my first exposures to architecture. In this series of drawings and visual essay, I reflect on the building whose history and power later went on to shape my studies of architectural history. VIEW PROJECT >
A visual essay of my ink drawings and pastel paintings. Visual reflections on de-industrialization, decay, and the destruction of the natural environment along the Passaic River that flows through Newark, NJ. VIEW PROJECT >
