Bergen Community College’s Gallery Bergen will host “Between Worlds: African Art from the Collection of Dr. Brian Healy,” a psychologist in New York, who has been collecting art for the past 25 years. The exhibit showcases the influence of traditional African objects on European and modern artists such as Picasso, Braque, and Modigliani.

The gallery will open the exhibit with a ceremony on Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 6:00 pm. The exhibit will remain on display until Thursday, March 22, 2012 in Gallery Bergen in West Hall on the College’s main campus in Paramus.

Within the African world, objects impact nearly every aspect of life, bridging the division between childhood and adulthood, the natural and spiritual worlds, the living and the dead, peace and conflict, sickness and health, barrenness and fertility, and civilization and bestiality.

The collection also includes seven Igbo agbogho or “maiden spirit” masks, and one with a complete costume. A wall featuring sixteen masks will showcase the variations of form used to express the human face such as a Ligbe mask from the Ivory Coast as well as an old Dogon mask once in the collection of artist Robert Mapplethorpe.

In addition, the exhibit includes the shrine of the “Igbo of Nigeria,” featuring naturalistic and nearly life-size alusi statuary carved to honor distinctive ancestors. The second shrine presents petitioning monkeys from the Baule culture used to assuage nature forces. Additional masks and statues representing a variety of cultures from the West Atlantic Coast of Africa and the Congo, including a large Baga crocodile mask and a massive Songye nkisi power figure will be on display.

The exhibition is sponsored by the College’s Center for the Study of Intercultural Understanding. Professor Charles Bordogna, the Center’s Director, will serve as the guest curator. For additional information, contact Professor Charles Bordogna at cbordogna@bergen.edu.

Bergen Community College (www.bergen.edu) based in Paramus is a public two-year co-educational college, enrolling more than 17,000 students at locations in Paramus, the Philip J. Ciarco Jr. Learning Center in Hackensack and Bergen Community College at the Meadowlands in Lyndhurst. The College offers associate degree, certificate and continuing education programs in a variety of fields.