Curious Matter, 2025: A Year of Exhibitions, Advocacy, and Cultural Record
As the year draws to a close, we find ourselves reflecting with gratitude on the conversations, encounters, and commitments that shaped 2025 at Curious Matter. Ours is an intimate space, but one built on sustained attention — to artists, to ideas, and to the belief that cultural work deserves both care and record.
Here are some highlights from the past year:
A Thoughtful Reflection on Curious Matter
The year opened with Curious Matter: A Legacy of Art & Inquiry, presented at the Benjamin J. Dineen III and Dennis C. Hull Gallery at Hudson County Community College. The exhibition offered a thoughtful look at the vision and contributions that have shaped Curious Matter’s work over nearly two decades.
The expansive presentation brought together curatorial projects, publications, collaborations, and our individual art practices, and was accompanied by a public conversation reflecting on how Curious Matter came to be — and why it continues. We are deeply grateful to the staff and students of HCCC, and especially to their Director of Cultural Affairs, Michelle Vitale, for the care and generosity with which this reflection was made possible.
Objects, Obsession, and the Devil in the Details
In April, we presented The Devil Show, an exhibition marking the publication of co-founder Arthur Bruso’s essay collection A Slant of Shadow. Presenting over fifty objects from Arthur’s private collection, the exhibition explored the devil as a figure of mischief, menace, humor, and enduring fascination.
At the opening and book launch, Arthur read selections examining art objects that move beyond beauty to become vessels of supernatural intent. A Slant of Shadow offers a sustained meditation on how artworks across cultures and histories have functioned as agents — objects made not only to be seen, but to act: to protect, invoke, warn, or transform. The book invites a deeper way of seeing, attuned to the charged space where art, magic, and mysticism converge.
To Be Remembered, One Must First Be Seen
Each August, Jersey City marks Pride. To acknowledge and honor this, Curious Matter transformed itself into Erasure Gallery — a temporary and occasional action responding to the systemic silencing of queer narratives in the visual arts. Draping our sign in lavender cloth, we renamed the space as a site of remembrance, reflection, and resistance.
This iteration of Erasure Gallery presented new work by co-founder Raymond E. Mingst from his ongoing project Banderoles, the Apophatic Sky, and the Memorializing Artifact. Large-scale photographic prints on fabric — echoing the dimensions of panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt — reflected on language, memory, and the queer body.
Erasure Gallery extended beyond our walls as well. A special presentation was hosted at the Museum of Jersey City History during Pride month, with Raymond giving a public talk. On December 1, for Day With(out) Art and World AIDS Day, we again draped our sign in lavender cloth in solidarity with cultural organizations around the world. Erasure Gallery remains an ongoing commitment, not a single exhibition — a call to fuller, more truthful accounts of queer lives in the visual arts.
Of Time, Memory, and a Passion for Material Exploration
In the fall, we were honored to present Gilda Pervin: Of Time and Memory. Gilda works with rigor, curiosity, and devotion to process. Her sculptures and drawings are shaped by decades of engagement with material, surface, and transformation.
The exhibition was accompanied by an opening reception, an artist talk, and sustained conversations throughout the run with visitors who found themselves reluctant to leave. There was a gentleness to the way the work settled into the gallery — a sense that time itself had become part of the installation.
Sound, Grief, and Collective Listening
During Of Time and Memory, we hosted a special performance by flutist and interdisciplinary artist Adrienne Baker, who presented The Grieving Place. Through flute, original compositions, and narrative, Baker created an immersive sound installation exploring grief, memory, and human connection, expanding our understanding of what the gallery can hold.
Making the Record Where One Does Not Exist
Publishing remains central to Curious Matter’s mission. In 2025, we released Penumbra, Arthur’s photographic journey through Rome and the Parco dei Mostri in Bomarzo, alongside his essay collection A Slant of Shadow. At a moment when sustained, thoughtful arts writing continues to narrow, we also launched Curator’s Notebook, an ongoing series offering reflections, behind-the-scenes insights, and broader context for the exhibitions we present — glimpses into the processes and encounters that shape our work with artists and audiences over time.
Advocacy as Cultural Care
Throughout the year, we continued to advocate for a broader, more ambitious cultural ecosystem in Jersey City. Raymond authored several public letters and now serves on the advisory panel of the Jersey City Art Council. In October, he published An Open Letter to the Candidates for Mayor of Jersey City, urging civic leaders to balance local needs with long-term cultural vision.
We were also grateful to receive support from the Jersey City Arts + Culture Trust Fund, helping sustain our exhibitions and public programs.
Parallel Practices
Alongside our work at Curious Matter, both of us continued our individual practices. Arthur received a Fellowship in Photography from the New Jersey State Council of the Arts and gave several public readings from his memoir So Far Away No One Will Notice. Raymond was featured in several exhibitions, including OPEN BOOK(S) (altered) at the Monira Foundation and Mana Contemporary, highlighting the book as both form and idea.
With Thanks, and Looking Ahead
As we close the year, we do so with Ordinary Work, this year’s iteration of our annual holiday installation. Turning to the story of St. Catherine Labouré — whose life was defined not by recognition but by devotion to unnoticed labor — the installation reflects on forms of care and attention that shape meaning over time. Catherine’s task was not to claim authority, but to remain faithful to what had been entrusted to her. In this spirit, Ordinary Work offers a meditation on labor that persists beyond declaration: the steady tending, the repeated gesture, the work that is done because it must be. It feels, to us, like a fitting way to close the year — not with spectacle, but with gratitude for the sustained acts of looking, listening, and care that carry light through darker days.
Raymond E. Mingst | Arthur Bruso
