TROUBLEMAKERS: A Group Show

Friday, September 9th, 6pm-10pm

Eonta Space

34 Dekalb Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07306

TROUBLEMAKERS all weekend long Sept 9, 10 - 11

Additional Weekend Hours:

September 10th, 4-8pm

September 11th, 2-6pm

TROUBLEMAKERS marks the return of Eonta Space, an art salon space in

Jersey City.

After a two and half year break for the COVID-19 lockdown, the gallery space is showing the work of 24 artists both local, not so local and international. The theme comes from an epithet applied to Eonta by a local arts reporter who referred to us as ‘productive troublemakers’. Troublemaking is an essential part of art making and the arts have often been accused of antagonizing the more rigid parts of our society. Artists have routinely been accused of promoting or celebrating the ills in our society and yet at the same time artists are expected to enlighten and inspire. This tension between acceptance and rejection is very powerful and yields the extraordinary breadth and depth that is art. Eonta Space co-curator Bayard sees Eonta Space as more of a museum than a gallery. ‘We show art without the aura or the expectations of a commercial space. It makes the art simply about the art since we don’t handle sales. The work IS for sale but we leave that business to the individual artists without taking a percentage.’ Perhaps that is where the troublemaking emanates. Eonta Space isn’t playing by the puzzling, numbers-obsessed, neurotic ways of the mainstream art market. Our approach is essentially one of community and for this opening show it is a big celebration. A celebration firstly of the singular act of creation but also of the desire to find ways to democratize and encourage both the making and the seeing of art.

The Artists: ADAM PITT, ALPANA MITTAL, ANDREA McKENNA, ANN RIVIERE, ANNE TRAUBEN, BARBARA SEDDON, BAYARD, BRUNO NADALIN, CHERYL GROSS, CHUCH NITZBERG, DAN PEYTON, EVAN LAURENCE, JILL SCIPIONE, JIM PUSTORINO, JONATHAN HARRIS, JULIE ALLEN, KATELYN HALPERN, KUBRA ADA, LAUREN FARBER, MARC FEIL, MEGAN KLIM, MICHELLE MAYER, NOHI, RICHARD ISGARD, WENDY SETZER

At this moment in time the effects of COVID-19 are still being parsed into the public consciousness. All the artists here were affected by the lockdown either in deeply personal terms or more peripherally and while some work may appear to be benign, all the paintings, sculptures, prints etc are encoded with our creative DNA, our highs and lows from the last three years. Art never sits still. It’s constant motion demonstrates a need for an emotional outlet, a guide for understanding reality but it primarily represents the desire to share our personal experiences.

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