'Jersey Gents' Art Show highlights multi-generational artists from the Garden State

NEWTONVILLE, New Jersey (WPVI) -- The artistic talents of Patrick Freeman, Dr. Richmond Garrick and Quinton Greene are being showcased in the 'Jersey Gents' Art Show, housed at the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey's Newtonville location.

"It's really cool to honor multiple generations of artists," says Gabrielle L. Peterson, who co-curated the art show with the museum's founder and president Ralph Hunter, Sr.

"I actually discovered my passion for art when I was in high school in Sierra Leone," says Dr. Richmond Otolorin Garrick, one of the sixteen artists featured in the show.

Dr. Garrick came to New Jersey in 1991 to escape his country's civil war.

"He features a lot of his cultural background as subjects for his work," says Peterson.

He's an artist, but also an educator in New Jersey.

"I react to the socio-political situation in Sierra Leone," says Dr. Garrick.

In one of his paintings, called Fending with My Son, he says he's reflecting on "the strife that humanity has to go through to make a living."

Peterson says Quinton Greene uses his art as a healing practice.

"I see art as therapy," says Greene. "Coming out of the service in '84, I was dealing with PTSD."

Greene, a self-taught artist, says he started developing his own style about 25 years ago.

He says his early work was more abstract, but around 2020 it evolved and now they're making more of a political statement.

"Together we can have power," he says.

After spending years as a coach at Camden High School, Patrick Freeman says athletics inspires his art.

One of his works on display shows four women who were 800-meter runners.

"I do it just for my own pleasure and as a hobby," says Freeman.

All three of the artists say Hunter, Sr. was the first to exhibit their art years ago.

"We're that incubator so that they can have that first start," says Hunter.

"It's really special to have a space where there's positive representation of African American, Latino and white artists," says Peterson.

The 'Jersey Gents' Art Show is on view until December 27 at the African American Heritage Museum of Southern New Jersey, located inside the Dr. Martin Luther King Center in Newtonville, New Jersey.

Admission is free and donations are encouraged.

"I hope it creates a conversation," says Greene.

'Jersey Gents' Art Show | African American Heritage Museum of Southern NJ
661 Jackson Road, Newtonville, NJ 08346