Exhibitions

Image courtesy of Anthony Alvarez and Nick Kline (2026)

DRAWING ROOM

Location: 3rd Floor, Main Gallery, Paul Robeson Gallery @ Express Newark
On View: Through July 23, 2026

Inspired by historic drawing rooms—short for “withdrawing room”—this installation transforms the gallery into a contemporary space for reflection, conversation, and creative exchange. Rooted in social sculpture – art shaped through collective participation- Drawing Room bridges campus and community where the art studio meets the luxury living space.

From January through July 2026, the gallery hosts free, public programs including Thursday-evening life drawing classes (6-9PM), as well as monthly live music, performances, and hands-on-workshops. During open hours, visitors are also invited to sketch, relax, or simply settle in. Throughout the season, the gallery walls will gradually fill with drawings from  Drawing Circle, classes led by Rutgers professor and muralist Layqa Nuna Yawar, reflecting a rich multiplicity of voices and perspectives.

Image courtesy of Layqa Nuna Yawar (2026)

Drawing Circle

Created by: Layqa Nuna Yawar
Location: Express Newark Paul Robeson Gallery
On View: Through July 23, 2026

Drawing Circle is a weekly, all-levels life-drawing workshop held inside the Paul Robeson art gallery at Express Newark, inviting participants to draw from a live model in a supportive, communal setting. As a featured program within Drawing Room, drawings created during each session are installed on the walls of the gallery, gradually activating the space throughout the season, and becoming part of an evolving exhibition shaped by collective learning and practice.

Double ghost of a person laying out a blanket on a grass field with woods and sky in background
Image courtesy of ByHaze and Zunyda, Find Your Clovis Lane (2025)

Touching the Earth

Curated by: Yvonne Shirley
Location: Express Newark Lobby
On View: Through July 23, 2026

An omnibus composed of moments from the filmworks of Express Newark’s Community Media Center Members. This offering takes its title from bell hooks’ essay of the same name that opens with the line “When we love the earth, we are able to love ourselves more fully.” The collection holds Newark’s parks as sacred spaces of liberation, reclamation, protection, reflection, and healing.

Featured Artists: Abdul-Mutakubirr Morton, ByHaze & Zunyda, Kiymora Smith, Laïssa Christelle Alexis, Opo’s Canon, Shaheed Shaheed, TaNisha Fordham, Tanisha Best aka Dear Newark, Tiffany Salas, Raymond Spencer.

Multicolored leaf logo on a background of grass blades

Reimagining and Uniting Newark’s Downtown Parks. A Collaboration: Design Consortium & Newark City Parks Foundation

Exhibition Design: Camilla M. Zarzuela and Liam L. Gunning, with support from Visiting Professor Rebecca Pauline Jampol and Professor Chantal Fischzang.
Location: Express Newark Lobby
On View: Through July 23, 2026

In Spring 2025, Graphic Design students in the Design Consortium class from the Department of Arts, Culture and Media collaborated with the Newark City Parks Foundation to reimagine the organization’s visual identity—reflecting on the city’s five downtown parks and their role as shared spaces of gathering and connection.

The resulting citywide campaign—now visible across banners, calendars, and digital platforms—demonstrates how participatory design curricula can elevate public life through research, storytelling, and collaboration.

Student Design Team: Matheus Cueva, Liam L. Gunning, Estrellita G. Matheu Roca, Nikolas A. McLean, Daniela Murillo-Cifuentes, David Ostrovski, Mansi Patel, Jasmin Perez, Kaviyan Ravindrakumar, Jean Weekes, Camilla Zarzuela. Led by Visiting Professor Rebecca Pauline Jampol. Newark City Parks Foundation: Marcy DePina, Marie Thompson, Tawana Meck, and Mouna Moussa.

Woman standing in a boat on a river while holding a framed portrait
Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, A Wish to be Seen, 2025, from the series, Grounds of Memory

Grounds of Memory: Self-Portraits in Senegal

Artists:Laylah Amatullah Barrayn
Location:3rd Floor, SHINE Portrait Studio, Changing Room
On View: Contact SHINE for details

Presents self-portraits made in landscapes shaped by beauty, resistance, and memory, reflecting on twenty-five years of the artist’s engagement with Senegal. Commemorating Aline Sitoe Diatta, Omar Ibn Said, and Mama Casset, the work positions photography as both witness and participant in the layered histories of Africa and its diaspora.

Exhibition room

Subtle Centers

Artists: Dahlia Elsayed & Andrew Demirjian
Location: 3rd Floor, Box Gallery
On View: Extended through July 23, 2026

This immersive installation meditates on the permeability between interiorities and exteriorities, prompting visitors to imagine a space between the physical and spiritual worlds. Transforming the Box Gallery into an invented outdoor courtyard featuring mirrored reflection, moving sounds, and tangible objects, the work invites greater comprehension and interpretation of the immaterial.

Image courtesy of Anthony Alvarez (2026)

The Ground Beneath Us: A Collective Inquiry from the Problems in Contemporary Art Course

Curated by: Anthony Alvarez
Location: 3rd Floor, Windows Gallery
On View: Through July 23, 2026

The Ground Beneath Us brings together work developed in the Problems in Contemporary Art course led by Anthony Alvarez, shaped by close looking, sustained research, and an ethic of presence inspired by artist-in-residence Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, approaching photography as a gesture of listening rather than extraction. The exhibition considers identity as relational and shifting—formed through land, memory, migration, and lived experience—and invites viewers to slow down and feel the ground they stand on, move through, and carry with them.

Featured Artists: Samuel Akintaju, Ellen S. Bayas, Leonardo Silva Serra De Paula, Rayshell Goff, Diana Jimenez, Michell Jimenez, Israel “Izzy” Rodriguez, Jammie Senario, Benjy Shaulov, Giovanna Simpson, Florence Sobanjo, Lauren Surrency, lmani White, Silvia Wiggins, Camilla Zarzuela