The Jersey City Independent "

In the past few years, art galleries have begun popping up outside of Downtown Jersey City, the epicenter of the city’s art scene. Lenapeeps and the Chamot Gallery are both making a go of it in Bergen Hill, and this weekend the gallery scene will officially continue its geographic expansion when the Distillery opens its doors for the first time.

The gallery, located on Hutton Street in the Heights, is being launched by local artist and Heights resident Irene Borngraeber (she is also a regular freelancer for the Independent). It will be christened with SPLICE, an exhibition that examines the role of technology in modern society. Specifically, SPLICE looks at how certain technologies have become modern icons and are, to some extent, worshiped by people. The show features work by Leslie Alfin, Stephen Chopek, Hiroshi Kumagai, Deborah Pohl and Pat Lay (whose work is seen in the photo above); and Saturday’s opening will include a polymedia performance by the waiting.

We caught up with Borngraeber this week as she continued to get the space ready for the public.

What made you want to open a gallery? How was the Distillery born?

Founding the Distillery was really serendipitous. I had given up hope of finding a vacant space in which to put up an installation show during the Jersey City Artists Studio Tour when I ran into a friend who introduced me to 7 Hutton St.’s owner, who was apparently looking to turn the old garage into some kind of community space. It was full of old display cases and building materials, the floor sloped and the walls were all tagged up with graffiti — but it had great high ceilings, beautiful brick and lots of raw, open space. Even though it was much too late for me to show my work during the tour, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make this virtually unused property into a functional space.

What role do you hope to play within the Jersey City arts and culture scene?

I’ve been writing and talking to people about the challenges of creating a sustainable Jersey City arts scene for a long time. For a city with this many artists, it’s really amazing that there’s only one full-time commercial art gallery, a handful of artist-run venues and very little actual studio space — let alone residency programs.

Many emerging artists show in bars, restaurants, or temporary spaces where their work isn’t necessarily protected or publicized because of lack of a better option, and many established artists no longer show here at all because there just isn’t a gallery to support them. The types of venues available also mean we see a lot of the same kinds of art — because you just can’t show sculpture, installation, or ceramics in a bar.

I want the community to see what it’s missing, and eventually to draw back artists and community members who now look elsewhere to show and buy work. I also want to reach out to the neighborhood through arts education so that we can really dialogue and make a direct connection between artistic development and community development. We need an arts infrastructure, and this is a place to start.

To make Jersey City’s art community sustainable we have to build it from the bottom up. It’s not about competing with New York or using art as a selling point for the city, but simply creating innovative programming that people want to see. Jersey City’s art scene isn’t institutionalized, and that’s a great opportunity for the artist community to make some really interesting things happen. Let’s take it.

Why the Heights? Do you think there will be enough support sustain a contemporary gallery in the neighborhood?

There are so many artists who live in the Heights. You may not see their work and they might not be active in the scene — but they’re here.

Practically, the Distillery’s in the Heights because a local business owner, Bhavin Patel, recognized the impact an art gallery could have on the immediate neighborhood and generously decided to donate the space for the creation of a nonprofit gallery. Since we don’t have to worry about constantly making the rent and we’re not a commercial enterprise that has to sell a certain amount of art to avoid going under, we’re not under the gun to bring in buyers. Even for most commercial galleries, turning a profit through sales is a waiting game that often involves collector and press cultivation more than foot traffic, so I don’t think being a bit outside of Downtown will be detrimental.

People are really hungry for substantial art, new venues and a chance to rub elbows with other career-driven artists, so I think they’ll make the trip. Hyper-locally, everyone in the neighborhood has been so supportive and excited when they hear about the Distillery: stopping by to see how the space is coming along, bringing over family members to check it out — and that’s a great thing. I’m extremely behind on emails though!

What kinds of shows do you plan on hosting?

I really have two main goals when it comes to exhibitions: highlighting strong work through equally strong curation, and giving artists room to experiment. For the first year or so I’d like the Distillery to focus on putting together a series of thematic group shows featuring a range of local (and not-so-local) artists, as well as launching a small arts education initiative that would provide low-cost or free arts workshops for kids. I’m also open to producing performance art pieces and one-time art events.

We’re still in the planning stages for the rest of the year, but I want to make sure we balance gallery activities and art events with a community presence. Part of that is having an open submissions policy, so everyone is welcome to send in work or show proposals for consideration. In another few weeks, we’ll have our programming settled and posted on our website.

The Distillery (www.distilleryart.org)
7 Hutton St.
Grand Opening/Opening Reception for SPLICE
Saturday, March 20, 5-9 pm.

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