Featured Artists
Adama Delphine Fawundu
Fawundu, a photo-based visual artist, will create a nearly 50-foot immersive digital artwork in the lobby of Audible’s newly renovated One Washington Park. Adama is a co-author and editor of the critically acclaimed book MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora and is an artist in residence at Project for Empty Space in Newark.
Project | Audible Lobby Video Wall
“Newark is a vibrant and diverse city with a rich, layered and complex history. For me it is the perfect place to make art.”
Antoinette Ellis-Williams
Williams is a multidisciplinary visual artist, poet, playwright, actor, and scholar. She is the chair of Women’s and Gender Studies at New Jersey City University. Williams has been selected to create a vibrant mounted fence mural on Lackawanna Avenue across from Broad Street Station. Upon installation, the mural will be programmed with live performance.
Project | Fence Mural
“In the aftermath of the pandemic, I want to have an even more significant impact on helping to bring joy, peace, and healing through my public art to Newark.”
Armisey N. Smith
Smith is a visual artist, arts administrator, and educator who has been the lead artist on several local public art initiatives. She has been selected to create a multifaceted installation at the Newark Public Library courtyard that includes a nearly 40-foot-long mural and series of functional sculptures.
Project | Newark Public Library Courtyard Mural + Functional Sculpture
“Being a Newark artist holds all the wonderment and creative glory one could ever hope for. We are now beyond the artist renaissance period in Newark. Now, we are here, imbued with the energy of Newark artists legends to carry our creative vision forward.”
CAZORLA + SALEME
An aunt and niece Latinx collaborative artist duo, Cazorla + Saleme create public art projects inspired by the working-class immigrant community. They have been selected to create a vibrant and empowering installation at the Newark Public Library Youth Courtyard that gives attendees the opportunity to sit, play, dream, and read alongside each other.
Project: Newark Public Library Youth Courtyard Functional Sculpture
“We became part of Newark's art community eleven years ago. The city opened its arms to two women artists of color. Newark has been a remarkable source of inspiration and progress for us. We became who we are now thanks to the opportunities, support, and community we found in Newark.”
Eirini Linardaki
Linardaki is a public artist who lives between Newark and the island of Crete. Her work centers on social engagement and the education of our collective histories. Linardaki will be creating a multi-location intervention on University Avenue which will include a mounted fence mural and a large-scale facade activation driven by local youth participation.
Project | Fence Mural + Fortress of Solitude Facade Installation
“Having worked on projects in Newark, I am keenly aware that the energy and resources of the institutions and artists who serve is fueled by an authentic sense of service to the community, and takes place within a naturally inclusive and vibrant environment. For me, this becomes a subconscious driving force behind the quality of the energy that goes into my work and the nature of the work to be undertaken. Newark is an exciting, evolving city and is uniquely situated to benefit greatly from investments in large public arts projects, and I am a proud contributor and supporter of that effort.”
GERALUZ & WERC
GERALUZ & WERC are a celebrated street artist couple with strong roots in Newark. Together they have created murals and large-scale public artworks across the nation and worldwide. Their collaborative practice honors each site by bringing out its natural and historical wonder. They have been selected to create a nearly 500-foot long mounted mural and light installation off Broad Street on the Route 280 barrier facade
Project | Route 280 Barrier Facade Activation
“Art, Architecture, Design, and Graffiti were motivational growing up in Newark. It’s an honor to add another layer to my artistically rich hometown of Newark, NJ.”
Hans Lundy & Malcolm Rolling of YENDOR
Lundy and Rolling of YENDOR, an artist-owned and operated production house founded by the late Rodney Gilbert, have been selected to create a mural on the Newark Public Library Annex. The mural, titled Souvenir de la voix, designed by Lundy, depicts the spoken and oral histories of Africans throughout the diaspora.
Project | Newark Public Library Annex Mural
“YENDOR is proud to participate in such an expansive project that will foster a new generation of artistic collaboration. Hans Lundy and Malcolm Rolling derive from somewhat different cultural backgrounds and would like for their cultural connections to be a signifier of change. Ultimately the artists believe Newark to be the epicenter of cultural conversation and true exchange.”
IMVisible
Founded in 2018 by Yeimy Gamez Castillo, Dr. Jennifer Bucalo, and Layqa Nuna Yawar, IMVisible is a collective of Newark-based artists who amplify migrant voices in the city of Newark using art, advocacy and education with a holistic approach. IMVisible has been selected to create a temporary facade installation at the FOCUS Hispanic Center for Community. The development of this artwork will be driven by open discussions with the undocumented and immigrant community in the Fall of 2021.
Project | FOCUS Facade Installation
“Newark is a historic city of resilience and creativity birthed from talent and oppression. Our purpose as a collective is to create safe spaces for the amplification of the intersectional voices and narratives of the immigrant community. Our stories must be told as an act of liberation.”
Melisa Gerecci
Gerecci is an illustrator whose work centers the power of everyday objects and place. She has been selected to create an informative wallpaper installation about Newark’s rich culinary culture at Audible's Innovation Cathedral.
Project | Audible Cafe Wallpaper Mural
“As a city known for access by sea, air, rail, and road, Newark is best understood on foot. Walking Newark’s neighborhoods inspires my work.”
Monifa Kincaid
Kincaid is a visual artist whose work is inspired by meditation, self-love, and healing. She has been selected to create a mounted fence mural on Essex Street that gives an illustrated mapping of underrepresented voices and historical events.
Project | Fence Mural
“I moved here in the summer of 2019. Since then, this city has welcomed me with open arms; like a long lost family member at a Thanksgiving dinner. Nothing but love and good energy.”
Noelle Lorraine Williams
Williams is a public humanities specialist, artist, researcher, and curator who examines the ways African-Americans use culture to reimagine liberation in the United States. Williams has been selected to install an intervention that includes site-specific iteration of artworks from her multimedia project Black Power! 19th Century.
Project | Westinghouse Site Intervention
“To me, being an artist in Newark is a privilege. We stand at the crossroads of the past and future that is still being understood. On this ground of one of the oldest cities in the United States, we walk, create and illuminate these hidden stories of dispossession and reclaiming. This place called “Newark” is on the original lands of the Lenape. A land where the Lenape, free and enslaved Blacks, other Native Americans, white and people of color immigrants built societies, economies and culture. Newark embodies the power of human longing for community, beauty and ... life.”
Ron Norsworthy
Acclaimed at a young age for his installations and sets for iconic music videos and televised performances, Norsworthy’s multidisciplinary practice engages art, design, and architecture to explore the expression of identity. He has been selected to create a multi-facade, kaleidoscope-like environment that embraces local landmarks and retells their history through intricately designed wallpaper.
Project | Audible Cafe Wallpaper Murals + Light Installation
“I’m incredibly honored to be part of an amazingly talented community of artists that comprise such a boundless source of vital creativity; simultaneously fueling–and being nourished by–the beautiful kaleidoscope that is the ever-evolving city of Newark.”
Yasmin De Jesus
Born and raised in Newark and an Arts Highschool alumni, De Jesus has been creating murals in Newark for over 12 years that encourage and uplift her community. She has been selected to create a mural in the lobby of Audible’s 1 Washington Park headquarters that captures the importance of voice and representation.
Project | Audible Lobby Mural
“Newark has become the melting pot for Creatives, Artists, Innovators, and Educators.”
Raise Your Voice
A Newark Artist Collaboration Special Project
Dahlia Elsayed
Elsayed, an artist, writer, and Professor of Humanities at CUNY LaGuardia Community College, makes text and image-based work that synthesizes an internal and external experience of place, connecting the ephemeral to the concrete.
Gabe Ribeiro
Ribeiro is a self-taught artist, born and raised in Newark, whose practice merges street art, streetwear, and community empowerment, and begins in the context of being a first-generation immigrant living in a city.
Gisela C. Ochoa
Ochoa is a Latina graphic designer and illustrator, born in Ecuador and based in Newark, whose typographic illustrations and designs aim to spread positivity and uplift while showcasing a feminine style.
Jahi Kijo Lendor
Lendor seeks to provide an honest representation of the infinite value of everydayness and behavior of Blackness, ranging from trauma to beauty, with various mediums to explore identity, class, collective memory, and erasure.
RORSHACH
Andre León and Robert Ramone are RORSHACH. These two brothers, born and raised in the gritty and beautiful city of Newark, create artwork that reflects an environment of chaos and beauty, oppression and freedom, and the inspiration between it all.
She made up her mind to get free
Danielle Scott
Danielle Scott is a mixed-media assemblage artist with work in the permanent collection at the Newark Museum of Art, whose pieces express politically and socially charged messaging. Her vinyl cut-outs honoring women who have been integral to Newark arts (several of whom were her mentors) are displayed in the windows at 1 Washington Place, facing Tubman Square.
Kelley Prevard
Kelley Prevard is a self-taught artist and muralist whose work is centered around healing and story-telling. Her work is deeply influenced by social, historical, and cultural events, as she explores aspects of womanhood. Her collage, in the windows at North Star Academy facing Tubman Square at 599 Broad Street, highlights themes of hope and freedom.
Shoshanna Weinberger
Shoshanna Weinberger is internationally recognized for her work, which is rooted in an abstract exploration of her Caribbean American lineage. She was selected to create a vinyl collage for the windows at 500 Broad Street, in dialogue with the themes of liberation and strength in neighboring Harriet Tubman Square.
Rebecca Pauline Jampol
Rebecca Pauline Jampol, local public arts organizer and co-director of Project for Empty Space serves as the lead coordinator for the Newark Artist Collaboration. Jampol’s role is all-encompassing, from assisting craft the program’s vision to strategic planning and outreach to managing the execution of the work. Her strong ties to the local creative community and ongoing advocacy for artists has been instrumental in the building of this program.
Lead Coordinator