Hanover Creative Gallery, an arts project many years in the making, hosts its inaugural exhibition this week: “Fiber Politic,” an invitational display of textile-based work intended to comment on the U.S. political landscape and its people.
The gallery on East Hanover Street in Trenton, in the works since 2019, opens Saturday with an artist reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Featured artists are Patricia Dahlman, Kwesi Kwarteng, Tamara Torres, Krystle Lemonias, and Woolpunk.
The Fiber Politic collection includes fiber installations, sculptures, and wall pieces intended to address issues ranging from healthcare to housing access to political propaganda, environmental concerns, wars, and immigration.
Áine Mickey is the manager and curator of the gallery. Mickey, 30, was formerly at BSB Gallery on South Broad Street.
“I chose the concept of Fiber Politic as our inaugural exhibit because I think moments like what we’re living through are when art is most needed and powerful,” Mickey says. “There’s been many times where I couldn’t put how I felt about something into words, but saw it in something someone made. Seeing an idea, opinion, or feeling you’ve had or struggled with clearly depicted is almost cathartic. It’s a sign that you aren’t alone, that someone sees things like you do, which is hopeful.
“The goal of this show was to gauge how Americans are feeling right now and provide an opportunity to take a collective step back and maybe see if we can find some hope.”
Hanover Creative Gallery is envisioned as a contemporary art space, artist hub, and community learning space, dedicated to “increasing arts exposure and strengthening the bond between artists, under-resourced groups, and the wider community.”
Curation, led by Mickey, focuses on conceptual exhibitions, showcasing works from advanced, mid, and early career artists, to build collections that are accessible to all, while pushing creative exploration and thought.
HCG programming centers on connecting at-need groups to art experiences and uplifting our surrounding community, offering professional development, artist-led workshop experiences, and opportunities for performance and creative language exploration.
U.S. 1 reported in 2019 that the HCG project was a $640,000 renovation that would include upgraded gallery and retail space, new bathrooms on each floor, new HVAC, upgraded electric and plumbing, and a new roof.
The HCG team includes Mickey, co-founders Elijah Dixon and Christien Nicole Brown, and managing partner Roland Pott.
Mickey was co-curator with Christy O’Connor at BSB Gallery, which was open from 2018 to 2020. That gallery, with dramatic interiors befitting its former life as Broad Street Bank, closed largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mickey also curated a fiber art exhibition in 2019, while working at BSB. Dahlman and Lemonias were participating artists in that exhibition as well.
“BSB Gallery was an extraordinary experience, both for work and for helping to grow our community with such an impressive backdrop,” Mickey says. “I hope HCG will foster the same sense of place and grows similarly, but HCG is smaller and a bit more approachable.”
Mickey first became acquainted with the space at 219 East Hanover when the SAGE Coalition used it as artists’ workspace, more than a decade ago. Roland Pott invited her to tour the space several years ago, when redevelopment work was ongoing, and the two stayed in touch thereafter.
In December, Mickey got the call that HCG needed a curator, and was hired soon after. She hopes that at HCG, she can expand the arts and curatorial range in the Trenton scene.
“The arts are an already established catalyst for creating economic opportunity, improving streetscapes, and enhancing residents’ overall perspective on where they come from and where their city is going,” Mickey says. “But art is meaningless if we price out all the people who helped us build this community, and HCG was designed from the beginning not just to improve Trenton, but to improve the standing of Trentonians.”
In addition to free exhibitions, Mickey says, the 2026 programming calendar includes free or low-cost community events, wellness classes, professional development programming, and cultural events. HCG is also partnering with WorkWell Partnership to help formerly incarcerated community members connect with art and our programming. (Web: www.workwellpartnership.org.)
Hanover Creative Gallery also includes artists’ studio space, available online through managing partner Roland Pott’s real estate firm.
For the Fiber Politic invitational exhibition, Mickey selected artists at an advanced stage in their careers, focusing on fiber work that was “very sculptural, thematically relevant, and utilized a wide range of textile mediums.”
She chose a diverse array of fiber art types: exhibits include small works on pedestals, installations, and massive wall pieces.
Newark-based Kwesi Kwarteng creates textile artworks using a range of culturally significant fabrics from around the world, which he dyes by hand, stitches, and reimagines as painterly tapestries.
Jamaica-born Krystle Lemonias is a visual artist, activist, and art educator, whose work is intended to address issues of social class, labor rights, and economic inequality, particularly within Black communities.
Patricia Dahlman makes sculpture and two-dimensional works by cutting out forms in canvas, then stuffing and sewing the forms together. She likens the stitching to drawing or painting, usually narrative and sometimes based on photographs. The subject matter is taken from personal thoughts, experiences, and reactions to political events around the world.
Tamara Torres is a Puerto Rican Afro-Latina feminist storyteller and artist based in Brooklyn. Torres works in multiple media, including poetry, drama, painting, collage, and sculpture.
Woolpunk, originally from Summit, employs materials and techniques sourcing women’s work creation; she machine-knits fiber installations, quilts sculptures, and embroiders photographs. Her work is intended to champion social change, addressing issues such as homelessness, foreclosures, water contamination, and deforestation.
“I’m really looking forward to sharing this body of work with the Trenton community and the broader arts community,” Mickey says. “The caliber of artwork in this show is outstanding. Many of these artists have exhibited internationally and their work is critically acclaimed.”
Mickey, a Trenton native with a background in exhibition curation and arts management, recently graduated from TCNJ with a bachelor’s degree in economics. Mickey has organized exhibitions and programming for Grounds For Sculpture, BSB Gallery, Boys and Girls Club of America, Artworks Trenton, the Arts Council of Princeton, and the SAGE Coalition, among others.
Also a creator, Mickey describes herself as a “data artist,” collecting information from people and using it to create installations, archives, and long-format arts projects.
After Fiber Politic closes on April 25, HCG’s next exhibition, “Cumulus,” will open May 1. Cumulus will feature works “that transcend minimalist abstraction, highlighting something peaceful and reminiscent, which we can all connect to,” Mickey says.
In June, HCG will host Stay in the Streets, an open-call exhibit sharing works on protest, resistance, and community. The open call for that show will be launched shortly (see the link online at princetoninfo.com.)
“I’m excited to welcome the community in and watch the space grow. It’s simple, but it’s the most rewarding part of this work,” Mickey says.
Hanover Creative Gallery, 219 East Hanover Street, Trenton, NJ. Open to the public Fridays 11:30 a.m to 1:30 p.m., and Saturdays, noon to 3:30 p.m. Viewing appointments available upon request. Web: hanovercreates.com.
A closing artist talk for Fiber Politic will be held on Saturday, April 25 at 3 p.m.
Kwesi Karteng, one of five artists making statements in Hanover Creative Gallery’s exhibition, ‘Fiber Politic’.,
