Posted by Urban Times News on May 31, 2003 at 15:19:16:

TREASURES IN THE ATTIC “UPSTAIRS”

Urban Times News
UTN NEWS email stories@urbantimesnews.com

Jersey City—Jersey City is full of treasures hidden in plain sight—so obvious you walk right by and never suspect. You could pass it by for years and never guess The Upstairs Gallery was there. There is no sign. There are only three gold-painted wooden letters, “A-R-T.” That hole-in-the-wall doorway that hundreds of people pass each day, hardly noticing, leads up a long flight of stairs to another world of beauty and delight one flight above Bergen Avenue.

The Upstairs Gallery has been there since 1967, the first and oldest art gallery in the city and, without a doubt, the oldest still in existence. The art movement has gained momentum and galleries and lofts have blossomed downtown with the Gold Coast development there, but the Upstairs Gallery has been here in Journal Square long before the development boom began.

Owner and founder Marge Colavito is a mainstay of the Hudson Art Community since even before founding the gallery and is also the current Chair of the Hudson Artists, Inc. a confederation of about 200 area artists who get together to put on four shows a year, including a juried show scheduled for October at the Bayonne library. This October happens to be the group’s 50th anniversary at the time of the Bayonne library show. The group’s current show is now hanging in Jersey City’s City Hall through the end of May.

As you might expect, much of the work on exhibit in the Upstairs Gallery is the work of members of the Hudson Artists, Inc. including gallery owner Marge Colavito herself. Her work is astonishingly like European Old Masters and could easily pass as that, but Colavito works in other media besides oil-on-canvas and easily transitions to other idioms. The works on exhibit are spread through two small salon-type rooms and one large gallery. There are hundreds of paintings by dozens of artists in every conceivable style in every possible media. Works for sale range from just a couple of hundred dollars to thousands and include works from artists from all the United States and outside as well, not just Hudson County.

As if it were not enough to run the gallery and the Hudson Artists, Marge, as she likes to be called, gives lessons to pupils of all ages. She also does framing. And Marge will do oil portraits on commission. In her spare time, Marge is involved in activities of the community she has been a part of since the 60s.

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