Art off the wall (& out of the saloon) BY LINDA DeNICOLA Staff Writer An exhibition at the Art Alliance of Monmouth County in Red Bank by Wayne Turback is his first since selling the South Amboy bar where for many years he had a venue for his paintings and assemblages. "The bar was my gallery pretty much," said Turback, a member of the Art Alliance. "I showed my own work and other artists there for 25 years." The exhibition will showcase three decades of work by the Middletown artist who grew up in Sayreville. "A Retrospective: Art by Wayne Turback," opened Aug. 9 and will close on the 30th at the gallery at 33 Monmouth St. The show includes about 30 pieces - most are oil paintings, but some are assemblages, hanging and free-standing, made of various materials. In his work, he explores themes that reveal influences from early Christian icons, the dada and surrealist movements and science fiction. An artist's reception will be held Saturday, Aug. 25, between 2-6 p.m. Turback said he has been influenced by Joseph Cornell's atmospheric work and Phillip Evergood's socialist style depicting the common man. In addition, he said, surrealism has been an influence. "Uncle Sam" Cornell's most famous and distinctive works were boxes he created out of wood, glass, photos and innumerable objects in which he conveyed a poetic and magical aura. His assemblages, mainly three-dimensional works, combined objects that were chosen carefully to reveal deeper meanings. Evergood skillfully organized sophisticated compositions that were often humorous, frequently fantastic and sometimes openly symbolic. For years, Turback owned the Broadway Central Cafe in South Amboy where he displayed his whimsical, surrealistic and unconventional artwork on the walls and in every corner. Sometimes he took down his own work and showcased the works of other artists. Displays at the Broadway Central Cafe, he said, included a skeleton of a three-foot high lizard-man peering out from underneath a glass cage and another box construction containing a doll's head, miniature plastic chickens and religious artifacts. Turback's bar, which he sold a few years ago, was a place where original art and original music were to be found. He explained that many of his paintings, like "Saving the Planet," have a science fiction bent with an early Christian art influence and another of his paintings, titled "Happy Chartreuse," is a reference to the French herbal liquor. It depicts a couple of sophisticates dancing while two men sit at a bar with a bottle of the liquor between them. This painting was commissioned by the Chartreuse company, he said. Turback has produced commissioned works for rock groups and record labels like Buddha records. Over the years, he has exhibited at one-man shows at the Rutgers School of Art, Centenary College, Middlesex County College and New York's China Club. He has won numerous awards, including Best of Show at the New Jersey State Council of the Arts traveling exhibition. Turback, who is 60 years old, has been painting since high school. He attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he said he was a contemporary of the controversial photographer Robert Maplethorpe and rocker/musician/performance artist Patti Smith. One definition of an artist is one who takes materials and/or elements and combines them in inventive and expressive ways. The bottom line is how successful the final product is as art. Turback's work is provocative and not conventional. Like Evergood's work, it is often militantly social, sometimes humorous, frequently fantastic and openly symbolic. And it is art. The exhibit will be open to the public noon to 5 p.m. Sunday - Wednesday; 5 - 10 p.m. Thursday - Saturday.