The Trenton Artists Workshop Association (TAWA) and the Trenton Free Public Library will present the exhibition “Art by Two Generations of Trenton Artists” at the Trenton Free Public Library from September 16^th through December 17^th. This is a continuation of the “Fresh Art” series that showcases the talent of area artists which is slated to continue as an ongoing series. An opening reception is set for Saturday, September 21, from 2 pm to 4 pm and a meet the artist event is scheduled for December 17^th from 2 pm to 4 pm. The two noted mother and son artists are Peggy Peplow Gummere and John Gummere:

Peggy Peplow Gummere (born 1912) was raised in Trenton and lived here until she retired to Maine at the end of her life. She studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she majored in illustration. While at PAFA, she was awarded the prestigious Cresson Traveling Scholarship, and spent two summers studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Fontainebleau, France. Traveling in Europe between WWI and WWII gave her a rare view of history in the making, which shows in her many lithographic crayon drawings at the time. PAFA in the early twentieth century had a strong impressionist influence, but her work showed a stronger tendency toward the neo-classical style prevalent among artists at Fontainebleau. She created illustrations for a variety of local clients, and in the 1960s she taught art at St. Anthony’s High School and Stuart School in Princeton. In the early 1970s she created the “Trenton Suite,” a series of limited-edition prints of her ink drawings of Trenton landmarks. Peggy Peplow Gummere was best known around Trenton and Princeton for her portraits of the area’s civic, business, and religious leaders. A number of her portraits of state judges hang in the Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex on Market Street.

John Gummere (born 1955) earned his BA in Architecture from Columbia University, and later studied in the Four-Year Certificate Program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he graduated in 1996. John  grew up in Trenton and now lives in Morrisville, PA.

He paints with oils on canvas or panels in a representational style, with an emphasis on city scenes, landscapes, and interior compositions. Some of his favorite painters include Edward Hopper, John Sloan, and landscape painters of the 1800s. Other artists whose work is important to him include Vermeer and, at an opposite end of the spectrum, Rothko. In recent years, he has given more thought to what his paintings are “about” on a personal, philosophical level. Many of his titles refer to a particular moment in time, like “Sunday Evening” or “Friday Night, Lafayette Street,” and brings attention to the mood and the meaning of that moment: perhaps a quiet evening at home, or a time shared with a community of friends. “Experiencing that moment makes me think of the different things going on in a scene; and if there are several people in a painting, what are the stories each of them has.”

TAWA is a Greater Trenton nonprofit organization and has a 40-year history organizing exhibits in such venues as the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton City Museum, Artworks Trenton, Prince Street Gallery in New York City, and more.

The Trenton Free Public Library is located at 120 Academy Street and is located in the Creek2Canal Trenton Arts District. Hours are Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information on the library, call 609-392-7188.

More information on the Trenton Artists Workshop Association can be found on the organization’s Facebook page.

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