“She’s Like the Wind:” Deep Space’s Annual Women’s Group Show Features 14 Artists in celebration of Women’s History Month

Just in time for women’s history month, Deep Space Gallery held their 9th annual women’s group show featuring 14 female artists across Jersey City and the Tri-State Area. 

Inspired by the hit song “She’s Like the Wind” by Patrick Swayze in the 1987 movie Dirty Dancing, the title evokes a feeling of power and liberation amongst the artists and the viewers, a message that any woman can become more than what a woman stands for. The artists are invited to answer the question “What does it mean to be a woman?” and inspired to break the barriers of traditional womanhood to be able to express themselves fully. 

Pieces such as Leigh Cunningham’s out-of-focus oil paintings are a conversation starter for many of the gallery viewers. “When you walk into the show, it just pops right at you first thing,” Darren Baskinger, a Bergen county resident, commented on Cunningham’s piece. “The style is very different because it’s blurred, which is refreshing and new. Cunningham created these pieces as a way to depict censorship and privacy in this modern world. “It can have a Renaissance feel but also this modern touch, like safe search and censorship. The iPhone does it naturally,” Cunningham explained. Using sfumato, a traditional blending/blurring technique in Italian painting (a typical example being the background of the Mona Lisa), Cunningham allows the viewers to peer into the private space of women, yet are still held back by the blurriness, allowing them to focus on the painting even more.

“I like how it plays with realism,” Jared Diaw, a Bayonne local and newcomer at Deep Space, said. For Cunningham, the title evoked a feeling of being unable to grasp the ephemeral nature of women in some way. Through her own experience, the paintings evoke a view into a private space, how we view ourselves when we are by ourselves. “I think everyone needs their time to shine, and this is a perfect time to do so,” Diaw said. 

Other artists also incorporated traditional techniques into their work, yet took a totally different spin on the essence of it. Gigi Chen, an acrylic painter based in Manhattan, creates disturbing yet transcendent bird paintings on wood that capture her unique passion: birding. “I go look for birds, I catalog them, and I take pictures of them,” Chen said, showcasing her photography filled with multicolored toucans and hummingbirds. “I hit 200 birds on my trip to Ecuador!”

Chen reminisces on the old Renaissance vanitas still life paintings by adding traditional motifs such as dead leaves and pomegranates, common additions to evoke death and the underworld. In the center, Chen places a bird with a glowing heart, illuminating the whole painting with unforeseen life. “I take so many pictures of dead birds as a birder,” Chen explains. “I want to show how these birds still have life, even after they are dead.” Chen’s “Still + LIfe” series reminisces on how to honor those who are deceased, even the birds on the streets, covered up by the bustling sounds of the new day. 

Other artists utilize their choice of material as a whole different form of expression. For example, Deming King Harris, in her “Garden Dream Bug” series, prints her digital pieces on sheet metal, a nontraditional medium. By going beyond the traditional canvas, the artist allows herself to expand her expression, because there is something novel about delicate artworks such as her fluorescent garden bugs being placed on an industrial and heavy metal sheet. Sarah Grace, on the other hand, uses rugs as her medium of expression. “The artist could have painted the piece on a regular canvas,” one viewer said, “but she decided to put her work on a rug, which I think is very powerful.” Even the traditional ceramic pieces were handled in a novel way that made the whole work be seen in a new light, such as Shamona Stoke’s “Hearth & Home,” where both the small sculptures and the drawer that holds it are made to look like a closed ecosystem of ceramics. “It reminds me of a typical miniature house in the 90s that my mom would have,” Tali Rose, a Jersey City resident and artist, said. This piece makes viewers calm down and feel at home, a sense of connectivity brews amongst the viewers. 

Many locals came to view the first spring show of the 2026 season and appreciate the strides that local women artists have made. It was a celebration of identity and expression in unassuming lenses, where both the artist and the viewer were put on the same pedestal and were invited to learn more about their own self. “There’s a good variety of artistic expression here,” Merilyn Baby and Michael Glassman from Montclair said. “You can see the passion, there’s nothing really like this in Montclair.”

Deep Space is an art gallery space located on 77 Cornelison Ave. in Jersey City that holds a cozy collection featuring multiple artists around Hudson County and beyond. Jenna Geiger and Keith van Pelt, also known as “Dutch,” founded the space in 2016 and has been running the gallery with all of the local creatives and eccentrics since. Also located at the last tip of the Piedmont Appalachian mountains, the space brings in all of the true locals of Jersey City, with familiar faces such as Katie Brennan, the District 32 Assemblyperson, even stopping by to enjoy the art scene and community. “Deep Space does an incredible job of uplifting local artists and making art accessible,” Brennan said. “Congrats to all of them!”