"I don't have any small works, really," says Sarah Petruziello, one of seven local artists featured at Thursday night's Pierro Downtown reception at Stony's restaurant on Sloan Street, entitled "Small Works South Orange." Most of Petruziello's carefully rendered pencil drawings are done in 30" x 40" originals. She then makes a high resolution giclée print of the drawing, reducing it to the roughly 10" x 14" size that appeared on Stony's walls for the exhibit. None of the detail or texture of the originals seems to have been compromised, at least as far as one could tell while peering over the heads of diners eating juicy burgers and delicious-looking fries.

This is the second reception for local artists in the Downtown Pierro series, named after the Pierro Gallery, normally located on the second floor of The Baird Center. (The first reception was held at Mia Cose Bella, a gift store and gallery on West South Orange Avenue that recently closed.) The idea was hatched by South Orange resident and artist Susan Napack, who has served for 15 years on the Pierro Gallery Committee and was hearing from village leadership and business owners that they needed to "bring the arts downtown."

Napack teamed up with Lisa Murray, an arts supporter and the owner of Mia Cose Bella, and Raleigh Ceasar, who curates and hangs the work for the series, and, with the blessing of Cultural Affairs Director and Pierro Gallery President Judy Wukitsch, launched the Pierro Downtown series earlier this year.

It can't be hurting business. Dozens of artists, writers, gallery owners and art aficionados were sipping and schmoozing last night in the two dining rooms where art was hung. Many stayed on to grab a bite with their spouses and kids, or with other creative pals.

The art was varied and sophisticated. Stuart Tyson, a commercial photographer whose work has appeared in Glamour, Harper's Bazaar and Marie Claire, among other publications, had several photos from his series "Façade" on display, featuring multiple perspectives of a Manhattan office building that shifted at times from architectural into abstraction. Lisa Pressman's work featured encaustic, one of the oldest forms of painting in existence. The technique makes use of pigmented beeswax and resins to produce a lustrous, multi-layered surface; some of Pressman's paintings include snippets of book pages and journals that can actually be read. Russell Christian's acrylic paintings have a comic book feel, even as they deal with sometimes serious subject matter. "I'm influenced by Paul Klee, Saul Steinberg, the outsider artists. I did a lot of drawing with my daughter when she was small using broken Crayola crayons; I liked the raw but playful effect it had," says Christian.     

Also featured at the opening were Greg Leshé's "Jamaica Beach Truck" series of color photographs, Nancy Tobin's colorful mixed media on panel works, and Susan Napack's eye-catching "Jelly fish" series of giclée prints. All of the artists exhibiting last night reside in South Orange, have had previous solo exhibits at the Pierro Gallery, and will be featured in the seventh annual Artists Studio Tour on Sunday, June 6, throughout Maplewood and South Orange.  

And if you missed the opening last night, don't despair. The art will remain on display at Stony's until June 13. Napack points out that you can even get 10 percent off the price of your meal through that date with a coupon you can pick up at the Pierro Gallery.