JCC MetroWest To Showcase 6 Well-Known Contemporary Jewish Artists

The JCC MetroWest will present a new art exhibit to kick off the new year. 

The upcoming show titled Judaism: A Visual Conversation will be on display from Jan. 12 through Feb. 23 at in the Gallery East at the Leon & Toby Cooperman JCC, Ross Family Campus, at 60 Northfield Ave. in West Orange. 

The exhibit will bring together the art work of six well known contemporary Jewish artists: 

• Linda Coppelson;
• Jo Jochnowitz;
• Rachel Kanter; 
• Gene Lowinger;
•  Jennifer Moses; and
•  Milt Ohring. 

An opening celebration will be held on Sunday, Jan. 12, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. 

Gaelen Gallery East hours are Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, contact Lisa Suss at 973–530–3413 or send an email to lsuss@jccmetrowest.org. 

Artists' Bios 

Linda Coppleson is a soferet, one of the few female Torah scribes in the world. She was one of the participating scribes for the Women's Torah Project. She states, “For more than 30years, I have been designing, writing, and illuminating custom ketubot.  I also create artwork to commemorate life cycle events and fulfill commissions for synagogue donor pieces.” 

Jo Jochnowitz is an Art Professor at Kean University. He has taught a broad range of art courses including Watercolor and Illustration, but he is best known for his drawing classes. He was one of the founding artists who established the Pierro Gallery in South Orange which aspired to engage the community for a richer, more vibrant quality of life through the arts.

Rachel Kanter is a fiber artist who has shown her work at many synagogues and museums. She pushes the boundaries of traditional sex roles by creating practical ritual garments designed for a woman. Her pieces are used in ceremonies to mark life-changing events such as illness/healing, aging, relationships, and reproduction. Her piece “Fringed Garment” is in the permanent collection of the Jewish Museum.

Gene Lowinger, a musician and photographer, has spent many years documenting the remnants of the disappearing orthodox Jewish community of the Lower East Side of New York. He is also a well known bluegrass fiddler who has taught and written books about the subject.

Jennifer Moses describes her work and process by stating, “I have ‘waking visions’ wherein a complete image, usually in full color, and often accompanied by text, comes into my mind’s eye.  I sketch out the image before it vanishes, and then, if I like it well enough, I paint it.  I recently finished a series of paintings based on the Hebrew Bible.”

Milt Ohring’s sculptures encompass both Jewish and secular subjects. A former Professor of Metallurgy and Materials Science at the Stevens Institute Of Technology, he capitalizes on an extensive knowledge of materials, their properties, and the way they are shaped and formed, to create his biblical and holocaust-themed sculptures.

Painter Jordana Scheer, whose work is in the Arts/Theater Lobby and Roland Exhibition Corridor, states, “I have been traveling around the world for several years and am influenced by experiences in the food markets. …I believe that the market place is a mirror of the culture and community. I use the food markets to show my reaction to social and environmental challenges throughout the world.”

The Arts Lobby and Steiner Court Showcases contain a variety of remarkable ceramic sculptures by Paul Greene. His unique geometric approach to clay was nurtured in the JCC School of the Arts adult ceramics class. Each piece starts with thin slabs of rolled out clay. The slabs are cut to shape and assembled into 3 dimensional hollow objects.