(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)January 31, 2003

(Mahwah) – Ramapo professor Warner Wada, whose photographic resume includes three decades of documenting the urban landscape, presents Warner Wada: Recent Work, a photographic exploration of urban scenes in the Pascal Gallery at Ramapo College of New Jersey opening Wednesday, February 19. An opening reception is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. February 19. An artist’s talk begins at 6 p.m. The exhibit runs through March 21.

In the late 1970s, Wada moved to New York City and rented a former theatrical make-up factory loft in the Garment Center, a few blocks south of 42nd Street. Says Wada: It was then, and still is, about as extreme-urban a living context as I have ever experienced. Yet amidst the tunnel traffic, the garbage and fire trucks, the garment pushcarts, the methadoners and the tourist buses, certain poetic moments persist: for example, the Central Park carriage horses’ rhythmic clip-clop return to their 11th Avenue stables at night.”

Wada, a professor of painting at Ramapo College, said that his main focus has been to preserve, to document, these random transitory coincidences: the sidewalk tree trunk having grown split by the parking lot chain link fence, or the systemic grids of wood-beamed casting forms, now invisibly functioning beneath 43 stories of the Westin New York Hotel on Eighth Avenue.

Many of the photographs reveal the area around Times Square. These photos do not record the before, or after, or renewal, or clean-up of Times Square. They merely document moments, incidents, accidents at the locus of our greatest urban experiment,” Wada says. Wada has been a professor at Ramapo College since 1979.

Prior to teaching at Ramapo, Wada taught at the University of Pittsburgh Studio Arts Department and was a Distinguished Visiting Professor in Furniture Design at Parsons School of Design in New York City. He was also a visiting artist at Cal Arts, Boston Museum School, Boston University, Arizona State University, and Maryland Institute of Art, Baltimore. He has done extensive documentary photography and video work in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and formed an art and design partnership, Burning Relic, with major clients in the fashion, design and film world.

The Pascal Gallery is located in the Berrie Center for Performing and Visual Arts at Ramapo College. Gallery hours are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 1-5 p.m. and Wednesday 1-7 p.m. For more information, call (201) 684-7147 or (201) 684-7202 or visit the Website, www.ramapo.edu/berriecenter/galleries.html.

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About Ramapo College

Ramapo College of New Jersey is the state’s premier public liberal arts college and is committed to academic excellence through interdisciplinary and experiential learning, and international and intercultural understanding. The comprehensive college is situated among the beautiful Ramapo Mountains, is within commuting distance to New York City, was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful College Campuses in America by CondeNast Traveler, and boasts the best on-campus housing in New Jersey per Niche.com. Established in 1969, Ramapo College offers bachelor’s degrees in the arts, business, data science, humanities, social sciences and the sciences, as well as in professional studies, which include business, education, nursing and social work. In addition, the College offers courses leading to teacher certification at the elementary and secondary levels, and offers graduate programs leading to master’s degrees in Accounting, Applied Mathematics, Business Administration, Contemporary Instructional Design, Computer Science, Creative Music Technology, Data Science, Educational Leadership, Nursing, Social Work and Special Education, as well as a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

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