Project for Empty Space Takes Off

On drizzly Wednesday night in Chinatown, a steady line ebbs and flows outside of 128 Baxter Street as artists and their extended community pour into a nondescript, black building that, for the next month, functions as a conceptual spaceship of sorts. Inside, the new outpost of Project for Empty Space (PES) is buzzing with conversation, and a cosmic, monochrome exploration into the galaxy unfolded throughout the gallery via the work of Brooklyn-based artist Derrick Adams, who was a member of the PES Artist In Residence Program’s first cohort in 2015. 

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In Adams’ “Orbiting Us” series, on display in the gallery until May 25, large mixed-media collages with metallic borders are rendered windows into space where paper plates, half-obscured barbershop portraits, VR goggles and other gadgets, celestial bodies, and African tribal artifacts orbit. A cluster of spaceship-like seats with seatbelts dangling sit bolted into the ground with metal structures. At the opening, visitors took turns in the deep seats, watching Future People, a meditative film projected in the back of the gallery. The nonlinear visual essay traverses Afrofuturism to science fiction with references that span Sun Ra, Star Trek, and Kerry James Marshall.

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The opening of Adams' "Future People...Take Off" inaugurates PES’ new location, aptly named PES Futures, and sets the tone for its pointed, Futurism-inspired programming. The small gallery will explore expansive, non-Western ideas of space, place, and alternative ways forward. It also kicks off the New Jersey-based nonprofit arts organization’s return to New York City.

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PES’ co-directors Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Pauline Jampol see the new location as an incubator where no idea is too radical or too experimental to be seen through. “We wanted to create a multi-centric space where art could impact social change and artists could experiment and play,” shares Wahi. “We are eager to disrupt monolithic historical narratives, and pivot our frameworks to be inclusive and expansive in thinking about various Futurisms.”

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Their programming will platform artists, exhibitions, and ideas culled from Afro, Indigenous, Asian, and Latin movements outside of the canon. How do parallel and intersecting visions of the future—and the past—shape the world around us? The new site seems to ask, providing a fertile ground to investigate further.

PES’s New York arm is not far from where Wahi and Jampol first founded the nonprofit arts organization 14 years ago in the Lower East Side. Their brainchild was born from their shared desire to elevate marginalized voices, specifically people of color in the art world and provide a safe space for artists to challenge social and political structures. The last decade, PES has gone the extra mile to support artists with studios, residency programs, innovative programming, public art initiatives, and, most importantly, a platform for community.

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The Chinatwon debut—and a concurrent Newark expansion—comes a year after the nonprofit was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation’s Grant in Arts and Culture, which tripled their operating budget.

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When she looks to the future, Jampol envisions a “nurturing space for artists to think deeply about what can come to pass,” one that is rooted firmly in the community. “We are so excited to expand into New York where so many artists can find us,” she says.

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“Future People... Take Off” runs until May 25, 2024 at PES Futures at 128 Baxter StNew York, NY 10013.

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