9/10 @ 5pm: AIR Exhibitions Featuring Jake Troyli and Layqa Nuna Yawar!

📍 800 Broad Street (Edison Place Entry)

Fine Line

A solo exhibition by 2024–2026 Artist in Residence Jake Troyli

📍 Ironside Newark, 110 Edison Place (Parkside Entry)

La voz del Anonimato (The Voice of Anonymity)

A solo exhibition by 2024-2025 Artist in Residence Layqa Nuna Yawar

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About the Exhibitions

Fine Line is a solo exhibition by 2025 Artist In Residence Jake Troyli, opening to the public starting September 10th, 2025, at PES at 800 Broad Street.

A series of monochromatic drawings juxtaposed with two murals, one of which will be interactive, Fine Line is a unique change of pace for Troyli, who is known for his grand paintings with smooth, saturated, bold colors. The drawings, inspired by his love for political cartoons and MAD magazine, honor the technique that serves as the foundation for his visual practice. Fine Line is the first exhibition where Troyli’s drawings are the focal point and shown as their own body of work. The figures teeter on a fine line, vibrating between hypervulnerability and empowerment as they move through the drawn vignettes. Troyli considers the figures self-portraits, elastic avatars that he can manipulate, bend, and pose with full agency. Placed in settings in which they hold varying degrees of power, Troyli’s figures challenge the reality of shape-shifting and code-switching. Using humor and formal techniques, Troyli opens accessible windows into larger conceptual considerations. Viewers are invited to contemplate the conscious and subconscious practice of constructing and manipulating one’s identity, and further examine what that means in a global social context. Fine Line calls into question the performance of self and what it means to be on display.

Learn more about the exhibition here.

Learn more about Jake Troyli here.

La Voz del Anonimato / The Voice of Anonymity is a solo exhibition by 2025 Artist In Residence Layqa Nuna Yawar, open to the public starting September 10th, 2025, at PES at Ironside Newark.

La voz del Anonimato / The Voice of Anonymity is the result of a two-year residency and presents artwork centering the voices of contemporary Andean diaspora members from the tri-state area. With this body of work, Layqa is focusing on historical invisibility, embodied by his study of unidentified colonial master painters of the Andes, and contemporary invisibility, experienced by immigrant people the world over, but specifically those living in the USA during the current rise of neo-fascism. Layqa is driven by a question: What would his contemporary canon and culture look like without this colonial erasure? Some of the answers come as fluid imagery that does not try to hold on to a single reality, but that offers contradictory meanings instead of synthesis, exploration of materials, and investigation of landscape and portraiture, both of the Western tradition and specific to the Andean diaspora.

During the exhibition, a series of public programs titled Minga & Memory will take place. Together, these paintings and programming turn into a decolonial gesture that might continue as memory or form part of a collective imaginary.

Learn more about the exhibition here.

Learn more about Layqa Nuna Yawar here.

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About The Artist In Residence Program

The PES 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 artists-in-residence and a larger audience. The program strives to create a symbiotic relationship between the artist and audience as a conduit for new artistic practice and intervention.

At its core, the PES AIR program was created to support artists who are interested in social engagement. It achieves this by providing studio space for two years; providing unrestricted honoraria; cultivating professional development opportunities such as studio visits and critical feedback meetings; facilitating community programs with the artist’s work; and finally, presenting a solo exhibition of the artists’ work towards the end of their cycle.

The program strives to not only support individual artists; but also, to cultivate conversation around social equity and engagement that are often swept by the wayside. We see the AIR program as a bridge between artist and community, as well as community and community, to push important dialogues forward.

The PES AIR Program is currently in its eighth cycle. Past Artists in Residence include Adama Delphine Fawundu, Amy Khoshbin, Azikiwe Mohammed, Damien Davis, Daphne Arthur, David Antonio Cruz, Delano Dunn, Derrick Adams, Jaret Vadera, and jc lenochan, Kambui Olujimi, Nadia Liz Estela, Nina Chanel Abney, Renluka Maharaj, Richard Hart, Ron Norsworthy, Shoshanna Weinberger, Victoria-Idongesit Udondian, and Wardell Milan.

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Our Supporters

Project for Empty Space (PES) is a multifaceted arts organization that includes Exhibitions, Artists Residencies, Public Art initiatives, subsidized Artist Studios, and Artist Professional Development / Granting opportunities. Our programs lean into social discourse, including narratives that have been historically and systemically erased. We strive to course-correct historic instances of forced marginality, in-equity, and in-visibility. Today, in our efforts to support socially-oriented artists, we maintain a commitment to holding space for both looking back and looking to new potentials and futures. Major supporters include 7G Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Christie’s, City of Newark Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Deborah Buck Foundation, Express Newark, Edison Properties, Ford Foundation, For Freedoms, Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, Jess Saafield and Agnes Gund, Mellon Foundation, Mickalene Thomas, National Endowment for the Arts, New Jersey Arts and Culture Renewal Fund, New Jersey Economic Development Authority, PSEG, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, SRI Fine Art Services, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Art.

PES is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All donations are Tax Exempt to the fullest extent of the law.

Host or Publisher Project For Empty Space