On Tuesday, September 10, 2024, Project for Empty Space will reopen its doors after a year-long renovation, featuring three new exhibition spaces, including a mobile exhibition truck, in Newark, New Jersey. At 4pm, a multi-site ribbon cutting and Co-Directors remarks will take place at Championship Plaza, 232 Market St, Newark, NJ 07102. Receptions at all three locations will take place from 5 - 8pm.
At their hub at 800 Broad St., PES 2024 Feminist FUTURES Fellow Alyssa Alexander will present On Women Hating, which features works by six female-identified and non-binary artists. At 110 Edison Pl., IRONSIDE Newark, Azikiwe Mohammed, the PES 2023-25 Artist In Residence, will debut his exhibition titled Trains, Buses, and the Four C’s. Centered on Edison Place, in Championship Plaza, Body Freedom for Every(Body) truck will be situated between the two venues, featuring programs and works by artists engaged in dialogues around body autonomy.
This walkable footprint from Broad St. to IRONSIDE Newark encourages exploration between the two locations and aims to establish a cultural corridor in downtown Newark, a vision that PES hopes to expand over the next year.
This expansion was supported by a 2023 grant from the Mellon Foundation to support the Artist In Residence program and increase capacity as well as the NJEDA’s Activation, Revitalization, and Transformation (A.R.T.) Program for Real Estate and Redevelopment.
“After years of planning, we are excited to reopen our galleries! In addition to a space at 800 Broad street, we are adding two new exhibition areas: a mobile art space that brings art directly to nationwide communities, a park-facing exhibition area that encourages youth and family participation in the arts. We are incredibly grateful to our supporters, local stakeholders, and artists who have contributed to this exciting next phase of Project for Empty Space.”
-Rebecca Pauline Jampol and Jasmine Wahi, Co-Directors, Project for Empty Space
Guided by an eco-feminist politic, On Woman Hating looks at the intersections of race, gender, climate change, reproductive rights, and capitalism to negotiate a path toward centering the divine feminine in our individual and collective activism.
The exhibition gathers artists Destinie Adelekun, Ania Freer, Misha Japanwala, Utē Petite, Adrienne Tarver, and V Walton who address various mythological femmes, cultural and religious icons, issues of sexual and physical abuse, body autonomy, and the inextricable link between femininity and the natural world in the their work. It considers the contemporary consequences of societal shifts including a departure from goddess culture – that is a shift to a monotheistic patriarchal faith-based system – the development of “modern science, and the initial conception of “mankind.”
On Woman Hating will be on display at 800 Broad Street, Newark, NJ from September 10th to December 15th, 2024.
Currently in its eighth cycle, the Artist In Residence Program is an annual initiative that invites four visual artists to Newark, NJ, to create work around social impact. The mission of the program is multifaceted and is intended to benefit both the Artists In Residence and a larger audience. The program strives to create a symbiotic relationship between the artist and the audience as a conduit for new artistic practice and intervention.
In Mohammed’s work, and particularly in the new body of work created in the past year for Trains, Buses, and the Four C’s, social bonds and experiences are evoked in mixed-media drawings, photographs, paintings and sculptures. While their subjects emerge from personal memories-- some Mohammed’s, and many sourced from other people-- the compositions, colors, and ideas simultaneously reference and electrify the tradition of history painting. Conventionally, history paintings glorify canonical subjects which are then revivified through the styles and movements of the painter’s day, and by the ideas and approaches of the artist. For Mohammed, they represent “new beginnings” to old stories; by layering complex washes of paint, and adapting historical compositions to beautifully render everyday subjects, Mohammed calls attention to the pervading tropes, characters, biases and narratives of our day-- some beloved, and others tired and ready for history’s dustbin.
Trains, Buses and the Four C’s will be on display at 110 Edison Place at Ironside Newark from September 10th to December 15th, 2024.
Project for Empty Space launches the BODY FREEDOM FOR EVERY(BODY) cross-country exhibition tour taking place inside of a 27-foot box truck designed by Barbara Krueger celebrating Reproductive Justice, Queer Liberation, and Trans Joy! PES are bringing over 200 artists’ works inside this truck to cultivate community coast-to-coast. The two-part endeavor (a traveling exhibition and an accessible digital database) addresses the importance of agency, autonomy, and choice when it comes to healthcare and individual identity.
This project aims to create awareness, cultivate community, and engender support for bodily autonomy through art. This project emerges as response to a relentless wave of conservatism that continues to politicize queer liberation and restrict reproductive & gender affirming healthcare. The overarching message of this program is broadening awareness of the right to safe, legal, and accessible health care that allows people to live in their power and choice.
The Newark program will feature a panel in collaboration with Planned Parenthood, along with several local artists. For a complete list of artists and to learn more about our location partners and tour stops, please visit Bodyfreedomforeverybody.org
