Press and News
Publication: The Hudson Scholar
Title: Anniversary Issue
Date: Fall 2025
I'm honored to have my mixed media painting featured on the cover of The Hudson Scholar's Anniversary Issue (Vol. 13), the student-run magazine from Hudson County Community College. The artwork showcases one of Jersey City's distinctive architectural treasures—a building with an ornate oriel window rendered in my signature style of bold colors and expressive linework. The magazine includes a feature about my artistic journey from paralegal to full-time artist, highlighting my approach to urban storytelling through paint and historical research. This piece is part of my ongoing exploration of how buildings serve as repositories for neighborhood memories and dreams, currently on view in my "If These Walls Could Talk" exhibition at Novado Gallery through September 28th.
Publication: Eye Level
Title: Nathalie Kalbach: “If These Walls Could Talk”
Author: Tris McCall
Date: September 9, 2025
Excerpt: "If you've ever been struck dumb with wonder by the beauty of a city block, or danced internally to the rhythms in the architecture, or caught the mysterious shape of the midday shadows on the sidewalk and knew, without a doubt, that you could never quit this place, you owe it to yourself to check out 'If These Walls Could Talk.'"
McCall explores how my latest solo exhibition at Novado Gallery transforms Jersey City's urban landscape into narrative art, noting my "narrative generosity" and technique of making the city "legible through its physical characteristics."
Event: "If These Walls Could Talk" Solo Show
Venue: Novado Gallery
Date: September 6, 2025
Solo exhibition opening featuring new works exploring Jersey City's urban architecture through place-based storytelling. The exhibition examines how buildings and neighborhoods carry the narratives of their inhabitants across time.
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 6, 6-9pm
Artist Talk & Live Music: Friday, September 12, 7pm (JCFridays) with live music by Twisted Martini
Exhibition runs: September 6-28, 2025
Location: Novado Gallery, 110 Morgan Street, Jersey City
Publication: Jersey City Times
Title: “Sidewalk Stories” Named #7 Best Show of 2024 by Jersey City Times
Author: Tris McCall
Date: December 13, 2024
Art critic Tris McCall ranked "Sidewalk Stories" at the Museum of Jersey City History among the year's best exhibitions. McCall praised the show's "exquisite sensitivity to architectural detail" and noted how the paintings "demonstrated deep care about our residential neighborhoods: how they were put together, how they were (or weren't) maintained, and, most importantly, how people lived there."
The review highlighted how the placement at the Museum of Jersey City History gave the work "special significance," connecting the paintings of Victorian-era architecture with the broader context of local history preservation.
Publication: Jersey City Times
Title: At the Museum of Jersey City History, Nathalie Kalbach Finds a Home
Author: Tris McCall
Date: January 12, 2024
Excerpt: "There's a numinous quality to Kalbach's work: even when she's depicting rock, brick, and rough-hewn stone, she seems to believe she's operating in the realm of the sacred. She may well be right."
Tris McCall writes about my "Sidewalk Stories" exhibition, as transforming architectural documentation into acts of preservation, treating Jersey City's buildings as both historical artifacts and sacred spaces.