This exhibition presents an exciting first look at the collection of the Jersey City Museum in its new home at Rutgers. American Stories highlights works by a wide range of artists and provides an inclusive view of American art and life through a local lens. Works by Dawoud Bey, Chakaia Booker, Mel Edwards, Luis Cruz Azaceta, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Juan Sánchez are included in the exhibition. All of these artists were featured in important exhibitions organized by the Jersey City Museum during the 1990s.

Gifted to the Zimmerli Art Museum in 2018, the collection of the Jersey City Museum expands the scope and strength of the Art of the Americas collection of paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs. Including many artists who lived or worked in New Jersey, American Stories highlights the state’s unique local and national profile that is both related to, but distinctly separate from, the two neighboring cultural centers of Philadelphia and New York City. Focused primarily on works made during the last fifty years, the artists engage with urbanization and identity through such themes as immigration, community, labor, spirituality, and politics.

Organized by Donna Gustafson, Chief Curator; Christine Giviskos, Curator of Prints and Drawings and European Art; and Nicole Simpson, Associate Curator of Prints and Drawings; in collaboration with the Public History Program in the History Department at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. We wish to acknowledge the contributions of professor Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan and Rutgers undergraduates Joana Llamosas, Elaine Milan, Sundia Nwadiozor, Amanda Nyarko, and Amarillisz Tymofeev.

Exhibition support is provided by the Art Dealers Association of America Foundation, Mark Pomerantz (GSNB ‘76), Voorhees Family Endowment, Glenn Noland (RC ‘70), and donors to the Zimmerli’s Major Exhibitions Fund: Kathrin and James Bergin, Joyce and Alvin Glasgold, Sundaa and Randy Jones, and Heena and Hemanshu Pandya.