Spanning from the late-1960s to the present, this exhibition brings to life the groundbreaking history of Aljira: a Center for Contemporary Art, its community, and its transition from an artist-led studio space to a major institution.
This sweeping exhibition of contemporary art celebrates Aljira’s 35-year tenure in Newark and its global impact. In collaboration with The Aljira Archive Project and drawing on the Museum’s renowned collection of contemporary art, Dreamtime in Newark features major artworks by 46 local and global artists and an expansive range of media. The exhibition centers Newark as an important site for experimentation and inclusiveness in both studio and curatorial practice. Curated by Alliyah Allen, independent curator, and Tricia Laughlin Bloom, Senior Curator of American Art.
- Manuel Acevedo
- Derrick Adams
- David Ambrose
- El Anatsui
- Luis Cruz Azaceta
- Firelei Báez
- Amiri Baraka
- Hugo X. Bastidas
- Dawoud Bey
- Camille Billops
- Frank Bowling
- Michael Paul Britto
- Andy Brown
- Nanette Carter
- Willie Cole
- Cicely Cottingham
- Victor Davson
- David Driskell
- Dahlia Elsayed
- Adama Delphine Fawundu
- Chitra Ganesh
- Jerry Gant
- Jeffrey Gibson
- Grace Graupe-Pillard
- Carl E. Hazlewood
- Bill Hutson
- Duron Jackson
- Ben Jones
- Jayson Keeling
- Donald Locke
- Hew Locke
- Franco Mondini-Ruiz
- Olu Oguibe
- Joe Overstreet
- Nell Painter
- Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
- Judy Blum Reddy
- Freddy Rodriguez
- Kevin Sampson
- Dread Scott
- Fausto Sevila
- Nyugen Smith
- Helen Stummer
- Mickalene Thomas
- Noelle Lorraine Williams
- Philemona Williamson
Alliyah Allen is a first-year PhD student in Art History at Rutgers University–New Brunswick and an independent curator and arts administrator whose work takes Black feminist approaches to exhibition-making, research, and public engagement. Allen holds an MA in Modern Art: Critical and Curatorial Studies from Columbia University and a BA in Religion, with a concentration in Africana Studies, from Haverford College.
Tricia Laughlin Bloom is the Senior Curator of American Art at The Newark Museum of Art. A specialist in modern and contemporary art, Bloom holds an MA in 19th- and 20th- Century Art Criticism and Theory from SUNY Stony Brook and a PhD in Modern and Contemporary Art from Rutgers University.
Dreamtime in Newark: Aljira and the Making of Global Contemporary Art is made possible by funds from the Mellon Foundation, the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Merrill G. and Emita E. Hastings Foundation, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is made possible from corporate, foundation, and individual sources.
Exhibition Highlights
Jeffrey Gibson, Infinite Anomaly no. 27, 2006
Acrylic, oil, and pigmented silicone on paper, 16 1/2 x 20 in. (41.91 x 50.8 cm)
Collection of James and Georgia Gibson
Dawoud Bey, Muhammad, 2002
Chromogenic print, 51 × 41 × 2 in. (129.5 x 104.1 x 5.1 cm Diameter)
Gift of Patricia Bell, 2008 2008.40
© Dawoud Bey
Firelei Báez, A Name That Doesn’t Exist, 2016
Acrylic on canvas, 72 x 60 in. (177.8 x 152.4 cm)
Collection of Laura Heberton‑Shlomchik and Mark Shlomchik
© 2026 Firelei Báez / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Image courtesy of Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco.
Cicely Cottingham, Tomorrow will come on its green footsteps (First Mountain), 2020
Acrylic on panel, 60 × 48 in. (152.4 × 121.9 cm)
Collection of Victor Davson and Cicely Cottingham
© Cicely Cottingham
Michael Paul Britto, Mike Brown #2, 2015
Cut magazine and Arches paper, 12 x 9 in. (30.48 x 22.86 cm)
Collection of the Artist
© Michael Paul Britto
Hew Locke, Where Lies the Land? 4, 2019
Acrylic on wood with metal, plastic, textile, enamel, and found objects, 85 1/8 x 80 1/4 x 27 1/8 in. (216 x 204 x 69 cm)
Collection of Robyn and Andrew Schwarz
© 2026 Hew Locke. All rights reserved, DACS
Photo by Anna Arca. Image courtesy the Artist, Hales London and New York and P·P·O·W
Ben Jones, High Priestess of Soul, 1970
Acrylic, tinsel, and paper, 47 1/4 x 37 in. (120 x 93.9 cm)
The Newark Museum of Art, Gift of the Prudential Insurance Company of America, 1971
71.94
Derrick Adams, Crossroads, 2012
Digital photograph, 44 x 36 in. (111.8 x 91.4 cm)
Collection of the artist
© Derrick Adams Studio 2025
Victor Davson, Bad Cow Comin' (Dear Guyana), 1998
Oil on canvas, 51 x 54 in. (129 x 54 cm)
Collection of Victor Davson and Cicely Cottingham
© Victor Davson