Last JC Fridays of 2023? We got you covered!
It’s the last JC Fridays of 2023 this winter season on Friday. 1. JC Fridays is Jersey City’s quarterly arts festival, free and open to the public, and will showcase a variety of events including visual art exhibitions, music performances, studio tours, and more hosted at local businesses, galleries, studios, and arts organizations in each district.
The JC Fridays arts festival provides visitors the opportunity to interact with artists and experience their newest projects and works. Visitors are also encouraged to travel from place to place to discover new art.
Highlights for this season’s JC Fridays include the following:
Eonta Space will present “20/20 VISION” from 6 to 10 p.m., featuring the work of 20 artists under the age of 20 ranging in age from four and up with each artist reflecting their personality, interests, and talent. Eonta Space is located at 34 Dekalb Ave, Jersey City.
From 7:30 to 9:30 p.m., Balance Salon will host a Q&A with alien abductee David Huggins while showing off their “Abductee Experience” exhibition as well as UFO literature by book publishers Timothy Greene Beckley Inc. Balance Salon is located at 194 Wayne St., Jersey City.
Pop-Up Art Fair will present their upcoming Pop-Up Gallery show, “Locally Brewed,” hosted at Bergen-Lafayette-located Cafe Lafayette from 6 to 10:30 p.m. Locally Brewed is an art show celebrating Jersey City art and culture that features works from local artists across multiple mediums and features work from a mural installation that pays homage to Jersey City’s street art scene. Cafe Lafayette is located at 74 Maple St., Jersey City.
Orlando Cuevas and Ray Arcadio’s exhibit “Heroes and Bunnies Bring Joy to the World” will offer fun and thought-provoking art created by Arcadio and Cuevas themselves and might also feature a magic trick or two. The exhibit can be seen at 357 Palisade Ave., Jersey City, from 6 to 9 p.m.
“Art on Toast,” a surreal collection featuring canonical works of art superimposed on toast alongside local and contemporary visual art, also served on toast, takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. at 561 Palisade Ave., Jersey City. This show playfully provokes questions about how art is served, consumed, and digested; what forces domesticate and democratize art; and how, why, and if artists and presenters can use humor to bridge new audiences. The show was created and curated by Katelyn Halpern with assistance from Zhnai Davis.
Art House Productions will also have their sixth edition of the Affordable Art Show, beginning with an opening reception from 5 to 9 p.m. This year’s edition will feature over 300 works from 84 artists ranging in price from $25 to $500. The show continues on Saturday, Dec. 2, from 1 to 9 p.m. with another reception at 5 p.m. The show will then run every Saturday and Sunday throughout December, as well as Dec. 18 to 23, from 1 to 6 p.m. All works will be for sale in the Art House Gallery at The Hendrix at 345 Marin Blvd., Jersey City. Art House Gallery exhibitions are always free and open to the public.
Art House Productions will also have a new play reading of “Dearest Pawel,” written by Christian Mendonça, at 7 p.m. at 345 Marin Blvd., Jersey City. New Jersey playwright Christian Mendonça has been developing this play with dramaturg Emily Dzioba and Art House Productions for the past year. The play reading will feature professional actors and will be directed by Dev Bondarin. The reading will be followed by a talkback moderated by Jim Peskin with John Beekman, manager of the New Jersey Room of the Jersey City Free Public Library, Melody Scagnelli-Townley, director of the Bayonne Public Library, dramaturg Emily Dzioba, and playwright Christian Mendonça. Admission is free, but reservations are required and can be made https://ci.ovationtix.com/35606/production/1182970.
Complete listings, along with wheelchair-accessible events, can be found on JC Fridays map available online at www.jcfridays.com.