The Jazz Gallery is also chartered as a museum and we present approximately three or four visual art and photography exhibitions each year. We feature artists from all walks of lives whose work is inspired in some way or another by music.
The Gallery is curated by visual artist Gammy Miller
Expressions of interest can be sent to exhibitions@jazzgallery.org
September 27, 2023
Kyra Kverno is a New York City based photographer who is widely known for her music and portrait work.
Kyra has a keen eye for capturing those tiny and precious moments that happen so fast, most of us miss them. Because of the astute observer that she is, and her love and respect for her subjects, she is able to truly embody the essence of each person within her images.
She has spent the last 20 years traveling all over, from New Orleans to Iceland, shooting incredible artists, some who are internationally recognized, and some just making a name for themselves, in several of the most renowned clubs and music festivals. She has covered the Siren Music Festival, Outside Lands, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, New Orleans Voodoo Fest, Newport Jazz Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Brooklyn’s Afropunk Festival, MerleFest and Iceland Airwaves. Her work has been featured in Jazz Times, Uncut, Q, CNN, Guitar Player magazine to name a few. Her years of experience and unique style continue to attract some of today’s most accomplished musicians.
October 27, 2022
Alan Reddick is a New York born artist whose work can easily be described as multidimensional; it in incorporates Cubism, Impressionism, and Pointillism. A lot of prisms and circles are featured, and multiple faces can be seen in many of his figurative works. He uses vibrant colors such as violet, orange, and yellow in most of his work and incorporates a wide subject matter, prominently featuring nature, jazz, musical instruments, and political figures.
A Show Of Hands
April 21st, 2022
We formally celebrated the first exhibition on the Dale Kelley Fitzgerald Exhibition Wall in our new Baisley Powell Elebash Lounge with A Show Of Hands. This specially curated exhibition of photographs of jazz musicians’ hands featured works by William Brown, Jonathan Chimene, Hank O’Neal & Mike Shur.
January 21st, 2020
For this exhibit Monica Jane Frisell showcased a collection of portraits from around the United States. Her work will be shown alongside d’Inverno’s history based paintings. Together the artists will present work that looks to our collective American history, past and present.
September 10th, 2019
A tribute exhibition to TJG co-founder, Roy Hargrove with works by Jean-Jacqes Abadie, William Brown, Jonathan Chimene, Nina D’Alessandro, Jimmy Katz, Hank O’Neal, Luciano Rossetti, & Mike Shur
January 7th, 2019
Tim and Steve have worked together for over 30 years merging music and art in a unique creative partnership. This work is based on the images that Tim and Steve made for their book Spare, an art book of Steve’s black line drawings and Tim’s full color photos. Tim’s photos were taken on the road during tours, in his spare time. Steve’s drawings are composed digitally from an assortment of source drawings – spare parts, as it were.
Sept 11th, 2018
The Jazz Gallery is pleased to open a new exhibition of art by father and son Alvin and Ezra Roy. Together, their lives and work tell a remarkable story. In 1988, Ezra was born with Down Syndrome. At the time, Alvin was beginning a career in law, but had studied painting at the Houston Technical Institute and with artists Burford Evans and Robin Ishimi Johnson. From a young age, it was clear that Ezra had a keen interest in painting as well. Beginning with training from his father, Ezra has become an accomplished artist. Ezra graduated from Texas Southern University with a bachelor’s degree in art in 2014, the first student with Down Syndrome to graduate from a four-year college.
The pair have exhibited their work extensively throughout their hometown of Houston, Texas and the southern US, but we at The Jazz Gallery are pleased to help the Roys bring their work to New York. To celebrate the exhibition opening on the 11th, pianist Jason Moran will play a solo set at 7 P.M. If you can’t make it to the exhibition opening, come to the Gallery a bit early before your next show to check out Alvin and Ezra’s evocative works. – JazzSpeaks.org
April 22nd, 2018
Photographs by Mike Shur – Music and musicians in New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, are everywhere.
“Second line marchers, buskers in tourist areas, headliners in clubs, and musicians heading to gigs on streetcars. During one week I was able to capture the creativity of these musicians and their joy of performance. Their accomplished musicianship went hand in glove with humor and elation of performance. I worked to express in photographs the emotion and atmosphere evoked by the music.”
images.mikeshur.com
January, 2018
I am a freelance photographer residing in New Jersey who explores the vibrant Jazz scene in New York City. I feel fortunate that on any given night I am able to photograph some of the world’s greatest musicians in some of the finest venues in the city. I also shoot portraits and have done recording sessions for various musicians. My photos have appeared in Downbeat magazine and since 2013 have graced the covers of CDs for the Smalls Jazz Club record label. . I am grateful for the opportunity to share my photography with all who visit The Jazz Gallery. – William Brown
September 13th, 2017
For his closest friends and members of the Irwin Keyes family, one of the things we most love and have been most consistently inspired by is how steadfastly our dear brother has pursued his dreams while remaining positive against tremendous odds and challenges with a whole lot of hard work and wonderful sense of humor.
This hulking, 250-pound actor remained remarkably upbeat throughout his career although he was constantly typecast in heavy, even grisly roles. Irwin continued to work tirelessly on films, television, and commercials for over 35 years, gaining the most worldwide recognition for his portrayals of the malicious henchman Wheezy Joe in the 2003 Coen Brothers film Intolerable Cruelty, as Fred and Barney’s friend Joe Rockhead in the Flintstones (1994), and as the wild masked man Ravelli in Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses (2003).
Although Irwin Keyes had a lifelong passion for drawing and painting, he did all the striking paintings in this present exhibition during a major burst of creativity in the 1990s and in the early 2000s in Santa Monica, California. Irwin often talked about the fact that “you gotta learn to tell a good and compelling story, no matter what genre of art you are creating in. And any artist worthy of that name is always learning.”
May we never stop learning from the humility, humanity, and tender loving heart of Irwin Keyes.
–Todd Barkan and Ilene Glick (sister of Irwin Keyes)
May 20th, 2017
Music gives special life force to those who give themselves to it. The way it shapes and lights the face and the spirit of the artist—these are mysteries to explore and celebrate. When I photograph musicians in performance, I’m looking for the moment when music and maker become one, when the human body producing that sound becomes the sound and is transformed by it. I’m also looking to catch the physical gesture that is the visual equivalent of a musician’s signature licks or voice. But what’s most important is the moment–rapturous, explosive, or still and prayerful. Or if I can capture the feeling of what it’s like to witness the creation of the sound, that’s my way of expressing love—for the artist, for the music that he or she sings, and for the Maker, who breathes through it all.
The last decade of jazz’s first century was a vibrant time, especially in New York City, where young artists were consciously reaching back and simultaneously looking ahead, creating an exciting richness in the music that filled the streets in summer festivals, and drew its practitioners to the city’s many clubs and recording studios. At the same time, after passing on their wisdom and spirit to the next generations, so many of the music’s originators took their leave. During the ‘90s, that apprenticeship tradition was still very much alive. I’ve also tried to represent some sense of those relationships between older musicians and young in this exhibit.
February 11th, 2017
As I am not a professional photographer, no media, nobody in the festival crew expects any picture from me. I am completely free. For years I used to photograph only for me, for friends, or some exhibitions – the last one was called Chamanes, because according to me musicians are in contact with mysterious and spiritual forces. When sometimes I gave the musicians photographs of previous years, I saw very often their surprise in front of their image, what they like or what they prefer not to see, even if it was for me a good photo; that had a great influence too on my photographs.
December 3rd, 2016
”E’ da 20 anni che viviamo, litighiamo e lavoriamo insieme, in due, in Duo”
In their works depicting iconic figures of jazz, faces and instruments are forged…disappearing then reappearing. Tsarkova and Chioccia paint with oil and enamel on canvass or on sheet metal. Sought, and stolen, stolen objects are nailed , sawed, screwed and hammered.
Jazz isn’t just music. Jazz is a place where people and the sounds they bring meet. An ideal city where different cultures and philosophies combine into the new and the unique.
Olga Tsarkova was born in the great city of Moscow and attended the National School of Art. She completed her studies in Rome at the Accademia di Belle Arti (Rome’s Fine Art Academy) graduating at the top of her class.
Massimo Chioccia was born in a small Etruscan country village in Umbria and graduated with honors from the Accademia di Belle Arte di Viterbo (Viterbo’s academy of fine arts).
“It’s 20 yrs now that we live, work, and clash as a duo, a dueling Duo”
October 8th, 2016
Jonathan works primarily in the medium of pen and ink drawing and is also a painter and photographer. He discovered his penchant for drawing at age 10 and studied art in elementary and high school. He holds a BFA in Illustration from SUNY Buffalo where he was mentored by noted illustrator Alan E. Cober, who encouraged Jon to “journal” his experiences through sketching. Jon applied this concept and eventually found a niche in drawing musicians in live performance at jazz venues around New York City and in Chicago, New Orleans, and Paris. Jon’s jazz drawings have been presented at NYC music spots such as The Jazz Gallery and Zinc Bar. He has become part of the fabric of the New York City jazz scene and counts a number of accomplished musicians among his friends. Jon’s work was featured in a two-person show, Chasing the Light, at Fountain Gallery and in a three-person show at Gallery New World Stages.
May 24, 2016
John Rogers has a way of catching his subjects mid-move, at the moment when energy is being activated. If a singer smiles, he gets them in the act of raising their eyebrows; when a drummer swipes for a tom drum, Rogers catches them gathering the conviction to render the blow. Rogers is a masterful yet understated improviser, whose instruments are his deep insight and his camera. Visual artists, married couples, musicians, or actors seeking photographs all have recognized John as someone who loves people, the scene, the city, and is genuinely part of a world that few get to experience.
“John Rogers. His love and passion for the music is deep. He is there, in it, where it’s at, opening a window for us.” -Bill Frisell
