The Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project (2021) 
Colleen Gutwein O’Neal

The Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project by Colleen Gutwein O’Neal is a 42’ long photographic mural located on the side facade of nonprofit Project for Empty Space (800 Broad St.), on Edison Pl. in the Four Corners Historic District in downtown Newark, New Jersey.  

The Newark Artist Photo Documentary Project is an initiative that highlights Newark-based multidisciplinary visual artists, creating an archive of legacy artists and contributions that have defined our local creative community for the past century. A full archive of nearly one hundred portrait sessions can be found online at www.newarkartsphotodoc.com.  This mural shares six larger-than-life portraits of artists João (Juno) Zago (2018), paulA neves (2018), Noelle Lorraine Williams (2013), Bisa Washington (2015), Nell Painter (2013), and Cesar Melgar (2018). 

“I'm delighted to be part of the Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project, a unique and most valuable index of Newark art and artists. Newark's place in the art world(s) becomes increasingly significant as we claim our place in art history.” - Nell Painter, artist, who is featured in the new mural. 

The project began in 2013 when the artist was awarded a six-hundred dollar grant from the Puffin Foundation. O’Neal was witness to a city rapidly changing and felt a call to action to chronicle people and spaces that contribute to its fabric. Utilizing two vintage Jem Jr. box cameras manufactured in Newark in the 1940s, O’Neal captured her subjects in fuzzy, mysterious images emerging against a backdrop of vanishing architecture, forgotten places, and workspaces threatened with demolition or redevelopment. Alongside these works, a series of vivid digital portraits make an imprint of these artists in the present moment.  

“This mural is a dedication to the artists of Newark and their work. It aims at creating a point of access for people interested in learning about the city’s rich artistic history and broad circles of talented artists, of which the project only begins to scratch the surface. As Newark accurately promotes itself as an arts forward city, this project centers the artists, their work, and their stories within that narrative, ” shares the artist, Colleen Gutwein O’Neal.  

About Colleen Gutwein O’Neal:
Colleen Gutwein O’Neal is a photographer and curator from the Northeastern United States.  O’Neal’s work is focused on the human experience through community engagement, using her photography as a way to build lasting relationships with her community.

In her most recent long-term work, The Newark Artists Photo Documentary Project, O’Neal pays tribute to and immortalizes through photographs, ninety-plus artists within the Newark arts community.  The project acknowledges the industrial and photographic history of Newark by incorporating the use of film cameras manufactured in the city in the 1940s, resulting in ethereal portraits of the artists and the ever-changing landscape of the city they inhabit. 

A natural extension to her photographic work, O’Neal curates contemporary exhibitions inspired by the artists she has built relationships with. Her collaborative style approach with the artists promoted a collective exploration of socially conscious themes and seeks to support space and place for conceptual and experimental works.   

O’Neal is an Adjunct Professor of Photography and Contemporary Art at Rutgers University Newark, a volunteer at Index Art Center, and a Community Partner at Shine Portrait Studio. Colleen has been exhibiting work since 2004, and printed work is included in Hycide and Nowhere magazines. Her book, The Camera I Always Wanted, one of five books compiled in the Plume House of Prayer Series, has been acquired by the Newark Public Library and the Thomas J. Watson Library, Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is currently an M.A. candidate in American Studies, Humanities track, at Rutgers University, Newark.

More about the artists featured in the mural:

João (Juno) Zago (2018)
João (Juno) Zago is a queer visual artist working in Newark, NJ. Born in Brazil, Zago came to the US in 2005 and he’s lived in and around Newark since. He obtained his BA in Visual Art from Ramapo College of New Jersey. He is an artist in residence at Gallery Aferro in Newark, NJ from 2017-present to, and one of 45 recipients of the 2020 Newark Accelerator Grant.

paulA neves (2018) 
paulA neves, a first-generation Luso-American writer, multimedia artist, educator, collaborator, and Newark, NJ native, is the author of the poetry chapbook, capricornucopia: the dream of the goats (Finishing Line Press 2018), the co-author (with Nick Kline) of the poetry/photography collection Shirts & Skins (Shine Portrait Studio Press 2017), and an editor at Red Fez Journal.

Noelle Lorraine Williams (2013)
Noelle Lorraine Williams lives and works in Newark, NJ. She is a graduate of the New School for Social Research and Rutgers University Newark. As a public humanities specialist, artist, researcher, and curator, her work examines the ways African Americans utilize culture to re-imagine liberation in the United States. 

Bisa Washington (2015)
Bisa Washington is a sculptor, printmaker, and writer. Issues in her work focus on her heritage and identity as an African American woman. She was a Geraldine R. Dodge Resident and Women’s Studio Workshop alumna. She lives and works in Newark, NJ.

Nell Painter (2018)
Nell Painter lives and works in Newark making art that is manual + digital. She earned a BFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, both in painting. Her art is in public collections that include the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Smith College Museum of Art, the Newark Museum, and the Minneapolis Institute of Contemporary Art.

Cesar Melgar (2018)
Cesar Melgar was born in Newark, NJ, and raised in the Ironbound section, a working-class neighborhood. This upbringing as a child of first-generation immigrants from Colombia and Peru influences his eye as he turns his lens onto his community that has faced environmental injustice, disinvestment, and now the force of gentrification. His photos capture the poetic nuances of daily life in a city that is often misunderstood by New Jersey’s suburbs and beyond, and especially the media.

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