The latest 5.7 Sculptors Guild exhibition in Jersey City isn’t just another seasonal art event. It’s a living conversation between towering urban-scale sculptures and hand-sized works that beg for a closer look.
The show spreads across multiple venues and spills into outdoor spaces. It invites both residents and visitors to reconsider how art interacts with streets, sidewalks, and the city’s shifting skyline.
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A Sculpture Show That Refuses to Stay Indoors
Curator Tina Maneca didn’t want to stay inside the usual white-walled galleries. By placing works at MoRA, the Nimbus Arts Center, and key outdoor spots, she’s turned parts of Jersey City into a walkable open-air museum.
This approach mirrors the city—fragmented but cohesive, industrial yet full of imagination, grounded and somehow reaching upward. Large pieces finally get space to breathe, while smaller works surprise you in odd corners.
It’s a curatorial move that really drives home the point: sculpture doesn’t just sit in a room. It shapes how you move through space, whether you realize it or not.
Monumental Works: Steel, Sky, and the City
You can’t ignore the exhibition’s large-scale sculptures. That’s the point—they engage directly with urban life, industrial history, and the city’s vertical energy.
Janet Goldner’s yarn installation, “Fire Escape”, stands out as a clever twist on a familiar city fixture. Instead of rusty metal bolted to brick, Goldner uses yarn to evoke emergency exits and escape routes, turning a symbol of anxiety into something tactile and oddly warm.
Even our most practical structures carry emotional weight, don’t they? Nearby, Micajah Benvenue’s steel bull, “El Toro”, plants its hooves right in the urban imagination.
It’s rugged, muscular, and proud of its industrial roots. The sculpture channels both Wall Street bravado and the region’s manufacturing past, reading like a creature straight out of a steel mill.
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Eric David Laxman’s “Standing Wave” brings a different vibe—sleek and almost ethereal. The piece hints at a skyscraper in progress, or maybe a plume of smoke drifting up from a distant rooftop.
It captures that constant motion defining city life, where cranes are as common as clouds. Elizabeth Knowles’ mural “Sunflower”, made with painted wire and styrofoam, transforms a bare concrete wall into a vertical garden.
The materials are humble, even disposable, but the effect bursts with color and form. It feels like a summer memory clinging to winter stone.
Small-Scale Works with Quiet Power
The big pieces grab you from the sidewalk, but the smaller works reward anyone willing to slow down. They show that sculpture doesn’t have to be huge to be memorable.
Elizabeth Miller McCue’s bronze mesh butterflies hover between presence and absence. Their delicacy suggests they might take off at any moment, but the bronze roots them in place.
They capture that tension between fragility and endurance—a feeling many urban dwellers know well. Simon Rigg’s marble “Cloud” shapes, stacked with careful balance, flirt with the impossible.
The forms suggest levitation, as if stone could just forget its own weight. The result is playful, meditative, and a quiet answer to the heaviness of city life.
In “Soar”, Alberto Bursztyn turns piano parts into a bird-like sculpture that feels frozen mid-flight. Keys, strings, and structure become wings and body, transforming sound into motion.
It taps into that city urge to break free from routine and see everything from a new angle. Frank Michielli’s tiny steel works, “Mollusk I” and “Last Call”, prove that small scale can pack a punch.
They’re compact, tightly composed, and emotionally resonant. These miniatures linger in your mind the way a whispered comment sticks with you long after a loud one fades.
Urban Grandeur vs. Intimate Detail
The exhibition frames the tension between the grand and the intricate. Large outdoor pieces command plazas and façades, while smaller sculptures pull you in close for a slower, more personal encounter.
Together, they reflect city life, where massive infrastructure projects coexist with tiny daily rituals. The main run goes through late November and early December, but many outdoor sculptures will stick around through winter.
As snow, rain, and shifting light change these works, they’ll keep inviting passersby to engage with Jersey City’s evolving artistic landscape.
Planning Your Visit: Art, Neighborhoods, and the Local Scene
If you’re figuring out where to stay in Jersey City, this exhibition really gives you a reason to look for a spot near the waterfront or the arts corridors. Plenty of Jersey City hotels sit just a quick ride from MoRA, Nimbus, and the livelier city districts.
That makes it pretty easy to spend an afternoon hopping between sculptures, then wander off for dinner at a neighborhood place. If you’re stretching your visit into a weekend, try mixing in some other things to do in Jersey City—maybe a walk along the Hudson River, a peek into local galleries, or a stop at parks that already show off permanent public art.
The show works well with a quick guide to getting to Jersey City, too. You can reach the venues by PATH, light rail, or even ferry, which honestly makes the whole outing pretty tempting for both locals and folks coming in from New York.
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