Art All Around Us — 2.26.25
Cool, creative stuff happening in the Bronx & a bit beyond ...
Let’s get right to it …
ART OPENINGS/RECEPTIONS
On Sat., March 8 from 6 to 9 PM, Bronx Documentary Center in Melrose presents an opening reception for Jamel Shabazz’s exhibit: “Seconds of My Life; Photographs from 1975-2025.” BDC says: “It highlights Shabazz’s talent for capturing powerful stories of identity, resilience, and community from the streets of New York and beyond.” The exhibit opens on Feb. 28 and closes on April 20. The exhibit will be at the BDC annex, 364 E. 151st St., right across from the back of the main BDC building. It’s FREE and more info here. (Another BDC exhibit on now is listed in “PHOTOGRAPHY” below.)
Upcoming at the Bronx River Art Center in West Farms is “Resilient Roots: Ecofeminism in Video Performance.” It “explores the profound intersection of ecofeminism and contemporary art through the lens of six prominent Latin American artists. It opens on March 1, closes on April 18, and the opening reception is on March 6 from 6 to 8 PM. FREE! All the info here.
And there’s also an opening FREE reception for a group art show, “Soundscapes,” at Uptown Gallery in Hasting-on-Hudson (just a bit north of Yonkers) on Sun., March 2 from 2 to 5 PM. The exhibit is open this Thurs., Feb. 27 through March 23.
There will be an opening reception on Fri., March 7 from 6 to 8:30 PM for “Art We All One,” an exhibit of Azekiwe Providence’s photography at Studio 13 Gallery, part of BxArts Factory. All the info here. FREE!
BronxArtSpace celebrates the exhibit, “A Photographer’s State of Mind,” by The Black Photographer Collective, with a closing reception on Sat., March 15 from 2 to 6 PM at the BronxArtSpace in Hunts Point. There is also an artist talk this Saturday, March 1 from 4 to 6 PM. More info here. FREE!
ART SHOWS OF ALL KINDS
Maybe you’d call this a nature exhibit (photo below and more in last edition), but it’s an art exhibit simultaneously, especially with beautifully colored gates and windows. “The Orchid Show: Mexican Modernism,” will be open at The New York Botanical Garden’s Haupt Conservatory through April 27. All the info here. (I went last Friday and saw stunning natural color combos of all kinds.)
While there is a charge for the above for nonmembers, the outdoors of NYBG is always FREE for Bronx residents. Click here to learn more and register for a visit.
Celebrating Black History Month, Blue Door Art Center in downtown Yonkers presents the group exhibit, “Ancestors,” curated by Dennis Shelton, on through March 1. FREE! More info here. And click here to see the works online (not the same as seeing it in person, but beautiful nonetheless).
At Wave Hill’s Winter Workspace 2025, through March 2, several New York area artists research and develop work informed by the site, ecology and history of Wave Hill. All the details here.
At the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers there are several exhibits to go see, including “Alvin C. Hollingsworth: And All That Jazz,” through April 27; “Clay Conversations: Ceramics for the Gilded to the Digital Age,” through March 9; “It Takes Two: Unexpected Pairings” through June 1 (photo below); and “Collection Spotlight: Cityscapes,” which is ongoing. All current exhibits listed here.
Hostos Center for Arts & Culture presents the exhibit “Roots and Rebirth: Dominican Women in Art,” through April 16. It “showcases 22 contemporary Dominican women artists deeply connected to their history and traditions, yet forging a fresh vision of their culture through new ideas, influences, and expressions.” All the info here. FREE!
Through March 28, the Riverfront Art Gallery (part of Yonkers Public Library) in downtown Yonkers presents the exhibit “EMPOWERED,” a group exhibit. “This exhibition calls out the many instances of injustice and leads the way to a more just and empowering future — one where we find community and see each other reflected in our world. Curated by Haifa Bint-Kadi.” All the info here. FREE!
“FUTURA 2000: BREAKING OUT” at the Bronx Museum is “a retrospective of this singular artist’s evolution from early graffiti art styles to his current practice of contemporary abstraction. The exhibition is the most comprehensive examination of FUTURA 2000’s five-decade career ever presented in his hometown of New York City.” It runs through March 20. FREE!
The Casita Maria Gallery, of the Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education in Hunts Point, presents the exhibit “Animal Studies,” by Maria P. Vila, through March 6. The work of Vila, a teaching artist at Casita Maria, “features a series of watercolor, soft pastel and oil paintings combining animal imagery with poetry and collage as a form of healing.” FREE!
The exhibit, “The Art of the Wrapping,” at Lehman College Art Gallery is on through May 3. All the info here.
PHOTOGRAPHY
Through April 6 Seis del Sur presents the excellent, moving group exhibition: “HISTORIAS: The Stories Behind the Images,” at the Museum of Bronx History in Norwood, including a discussion with the photographers in March (I should have the date by next week’s newsletter). The founding group of six added the first two women to the group and they are included in this exhibit. The museum is open on Saturdays, 10 AM to 4 PM. Private tours via appointment are available throughout the week. All FREE! “It’s an interactive multimedia exhibition that explores the collective’s early documentary photographs of The Bronx as well as those of friends and colleagues,” explains the Bronx County Historical Society. Their images — many unseen and stretching back decades — reshape the borough’s narrative and personalize it with anecdotes about the images on display.”
Bronx Documentary Center in Melrose presents the exhibit, “School Shooting in America.” The exhibit is on through March 16. Featuring the moving works of Zackary Canepari, Tamir Kalifa, and Callaghan O’Hare, the show “is meant to highlight the facts around America’s firearms and profile some of the thousands of young people and families who have been affected by school shootings since the Columbine massacre in 1999.” FREE!
Through April 8, En Foco and Kreate Hub present the curated group photo exhibit “Entre el Silencio: Meditations on Silence” at WallWorks. “The exhibition is part of En Foco’s mission to uplift, validate, and preserve the culture and legacy of diasporic lens-based artists.” Click here for more information. FREE!
In partnership with Pregones, En Foco presents the exhibition “In The Spirit Y En El Espíritu: Works by Mariana Yampolsky” at the Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater (575 Walton Ave., Bronx). It runs through March 31 and features portraits by Mexican photographer Yampolski (1925–2002), and is curated by Xavier Robles Armas. FREE!
The Derfner Judaica Museum in Riverdale, features the photo exhibit: “Leonard Nones: Portraits of Resilience” through March 30. “A professional fashion and advertising photographer for 50 years, Nones has created a series of portraits of his neighbors at RiverWalk, an independent living residence at RiverSpring Living on the campus of the Hebrew Home. Nones displays a lifetime of experience as a professional photographer in drawing out the vibrant expressions and animated spirit of his subjects.” (All the info here and this photo from exhibit can be seen in recent edition.)
THEATRE
The Bartow-Pell Mansion in Pelham Bay Park in the East Bronx features the play, “Emma,” based on Jane Austen’s novel, March 1 through March 9. All the details and tickets here.
MUSIC
Can’t wait to check out at least a couple of these: Pregones/PRTT, presents a South Bronx concert series called “March is Music2025!” “Our popular March Is Music concert series is back featuring 10 live concerts by world-class Latin, jazz, fusion, and classical artists.” Concert tickets are $35 but you can buy 4 for $100. All the info here.
As usual, there is a lot of great live music, as well as art and theatre, to check out at An Beal Bocht Café in Riverdale. Open mics are always on Tuesday at 8:30 PM. Much more info on upcoming happenings here.
On Sat., March 8, the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts presents “Tribute to Selena,” by Los Chicos del 512. All the info here and here. (It’s to honor Selena Gomez, who was murdered 30 years ago.)
Blue Door Art Center in downtown Yonkers offers FREE classes/programs for kids on Saturday mornings.
Bronx Council on the Arts has a great listing of organizations that provide various opportunities, grants and projects for artists of all kinds.
WORKSHOPS/CLASSES/GRANTS
If you’re a writer working on a novel or memoir, check out this FREE in-person novel-memoir writing workshop by Rob Jacklosky, an English professor at the University of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, who recently won a BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) Award from Bronx Council on the Arts for his fiction writing. The University and BCA are sponsoring the workshop with Jacklosky’s leadership. “Publishers routinely ask for the ‘first 5 pages’ of any prospective novel or memoir to accompany Query Letters, and this workshop will help revise or polish those first five pages!” Jacklosky explains. Interested writers must email 5 to 10 pages of their work (as a Word Document or PDF) to rob.jacklosky@umsv.edu by March 10. The two-day workshops are on March 25 and April 1 from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
BxArtsFactory in Melrose provides a useful series of video lessons on their website for families doing art at home.
There are various kids’ art workshops at Bronx Children’s Museum. Info here (scroll down page for listing). And here’s a link to all the “active” exhibit space and happenings.
Blue Door Art Center in downtown Yonkers offers FREE classes/programs for kids on Saturday mornings.
Bronx Council on the Arts has a great listing of organizations that provide various opportunities, grants and projects for artists of all kinds.
One Last Shot …
Check It Out
The Bronx has about 1.4 million people. There’s only one bookstore. (Isn’t that insane?) But glad that, in 2019, a very cool one in Melrose, The Lit. Bar, went up and stayed up. Check it out.
I hope you head out to a creative happening or two listed above. Would love to hear what you’ve experienced or about artsy events you’ve discovered on your own. Related to that, I just created an email address just for this newsletter: aaaubronx@gmail.com. And unrelated to that, you can see a couple of thousand photos of mine on IG @jordanmossbx.
Peace, Salaam, Shalom, Paz, etc. … ,
Jordan