“March Hare” is among the “photographic fairy tales” by Jada Fabrizio on display at the Monmouth Museum in a solo show that opens Friday. (Click to enlarge.)

In an age of “alternative facts,” it’s worth remembering that artistically inclined individuals have been documenting their own alternative realities for eons, and the coming weekend offers more evidence that the gallery spaces of the Greater Red Bank Green are a prime hang for artists from scattered points on the real-to-unreal spectrum.
Watercolors by Frank Colaguari, including “Unlocked” and “Now It’s Email,” are on view through August 30 at Shrewsbury’s Guild of Creative Art. Below, another of Jada Fabrizio’s dioramas. (Click to enlarge.)

“I consider myself an alternative reality photographer,” Jada Fabrizio, the latest subject in the New Jersey Emerging Artists series at the Monmouth Museum, tells redbankgreen via email. “I sculpt my own characters, build dioramas, and light the scene to create surreal visual fables or freshly minted fairy tales for adults.”

In her first Red Bank area exhibit since a 2012 show at the now-defunct Gallery U, the Hackensack-based Fabrizio comes to the museum’s Nilson Gallery on the Lincroft campus of Brookdale Community College with a display of her carefully crafted Photographic Fairy Tales. Fabrizio is scheduled to attend, and the public is welcome, at the free Friday reception that runs from 6 to 8 p.m. — and the artist returns to the museum September 13 for a free-admission Gallery Talk scheduled for 7 p.m. The display remains up through September 17 (check website for hours and admission info).

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The area’s most exciting new addition to the New Jersey artscape offers art lovers yet another diverting detour beginning Saturday when Detour Gallery, on Clay Street in Red Bank, hosts a reception for Essence, a solo exhibit of “provocative works” by the late Tobias Batz.

Although the photographer, videographer, and painter passed away at a young age, he left behind an inspired body of work, highlighted by “his own photographs of lascivious women, which were digitally manipulated in order to heighten their beauty, eroticism, and fetishistic theme.”

Having been both friend and patron to the New York-based artist, Detour Gallery owner Ken Schwartz celebrates Batz’s life and legacy through the show, which begins with a 6-to-10 p.m. reception and remains on view during regular gallery hours (Thursday-Friday 1 to 8 p.m.; Saturday noon to 8 p.m.; Sunday noon to 6 p.m.) through September 16.

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Meanwhile, at Red Bank’s Art Alliance of Monmouth County, the collective’s Monmouth Street headquarters continues to host the summertime exhibit Art x 2, a two-person show spotlighting the works of Elaine Shor and Gary Paul. The installation remains on display through September 3 during special gallery hours (Friday 5-9 p.m.; Saturday 4-9 p.m.; Sunday 2-6 p.m.), after which the Alliance prepares for an all-new season that kicks off with a group show reception on September 9.

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Watercolor paintings by Frank Colaguari and Barbara Zagha share space with the “monkey” photography of Angela Previte as the current “All-Media, No-Theme Exhibit” continues at Shrewsbury’s Guild of Creative Art. You’ve got two more weeks to catch the show that remains on view through August 30 during regular gallery hours (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.; Thursday 8 a.m. – 6 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.).