Jacob Landau dome studio opens to public
Jacob Landau's legacy lives on. The Roosevelt Arts Project (RAP) and the Jacob Landau Institute will present the sixth annual Jacob Landau Studio Event from 5-8 p.m. Nov. 10 at the late Roosevelt resident's geodisic dome studio at 30 Lake Drive.

The exhibit "Jacob Landau: The Legacy Continues" will feature Landau's drawings, lithographs, woodcuts and paintings along with the works of Monmouth University printmaking students.

Although Landau passed away in 2001, his art continues to educate and inspire the art community to this day, according to Rosa T. Giletti, manager/trustee of the Jacob Landau Legacy Preservation Trust and artistic adviser/consultant of the Jacob Landau Institute.

"Landau's art speaks a concise, direct and powerful vocabulary executed in the form of woodcuts, lithographs, oils, watercolors and drawings," she said. "Housed in the dome studio, these are as impressive and timely as when originally executed."

Landau's passion for all forms of self-expression reached a crescendo in his printmaking. This medium became a podium for his angst and hope for a more humanistic approach to life, Giletti said.

The Jacob Landau Institute invited students from the Department of Art and Design at Monmouth University in West Long Branch to exhibit a selection of their prints in Landau's dome studio.

Tom Baker, assistant professor of art, teaches printmaking at the university and presented his students with the challenging aspects of this most physical medium. Given the digital emphasis of the computer on society, encouraging this hands-on aspect of art making, in Baker's view, proved valuable to students, according to Giletti.

For Giletti, it comes as no surprise that these students are in the company of a Landau, a master printmaker.

"His oeuvre has been a source of study and reflection since the partnership with Monmouth University was solidified several months ago," she said. "A major retrospective, 'Jacob Landau: Dialoguing With Humanity,' in June 2007, proved an educational and inspirational venue for the emerging artists on campus."

The Roosevelt Arts Project (RAP) will hold an opening reception at Landau's studio from 5-8 p.m. Nov. 10, with a 7:30 p.m. introduction of the Jacob Landau Institute by David Herrstrom, a Roosevelt resident and the director of RAP, and an 8 p.m. concert by David Brahinsky and Friends.

The Landau exhibition will continue Nov. 11 from 1-3 p.m. and then through Dec. 16 by appointment.

For more information contact Rosa Giletti at (215) 368-2536 or rosagiletti@comcast.net.