Episode 09: Artist & Activist Emma Wilcox: Changing the Order of Things in Newark, NJ

In this episode Emma Wilcox shares her unique view of art spaces and the overarching power of eminent domain and how it shapes the places where we live and work. She is a photographer concerned with environmental justice, land usage, eminent domain, and the role of individual memory in the creation of local history.

Emma was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, lived in Florida before arriving in New Jersey. She is co-founder, with Evonne M. Davis, of Gallery Aferro, an artist-owned alternative arts space in the heart of Newark, New Jersey’s downtown district. Founded in 2003, it is home to two major public exhibition spaces in a 20,000 sq. ft. building at 73 Market Street, offering exhibitions, events, and a studio residency program available all year-round.

Emma’s solo exhibitions include: Where it Falls, The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA and William Patterson University Galleries, Wayne, NJ, 2012, Emma Wilcox, 2010 at Gitterman Gallery, New York, NY, Salvage Rights, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT, 2009 and Forensic Landscapes, Jersey City Museum, 2007.

She is the recipient of a Harpo Foundation Grant for Where It Falls, a NoMAA Creative Grant, a NJ State Arts Council Fellowship for photography, the Camera Club Of NY residency, the Newark Museum Residency and was a core participant in Night School at the New Museum in 2008. She was featured on Women in Photography, and was reviewed in Art In America. She participated in Emerge 7, Aljira, Newark, NJ and AIM 29, Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY.

http://www.emmawilcox.org/ https://aferro.org/

Check out the images in this episode on: What’s Newark To Do With It?

Emma Wilcox presenting “Art & Audience” on TEDxNJIT in 2016.

Emma Wilcox, b.1994, 2011, silver gelatin print.

Emma Wilcox, Where It Falls, 2012, digital screengrab of google earth imagery

Juno Zago, At times I feel like a Sasquatch, 2020

People’s Open Mic Online at Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ

Jesse Wright, Hattie & Edgar In Mandeville (Abraham & Sarah)

Victor Davson, Misogyny Papers/Apology II, 2020

Gallery Aferro Co-Director Emma Wilcox, Gallery Manager Candace Nicholson, and Registrar Juno Zago

Gallery Aferro Exhibition, Images, left to right: Phone receiver by Alexander Andrews, Phone box by Daniels Joffe, I, John de Conqueror: A New Spelling Of My Name by John Gavin White

Evonne Davis, left, and Emma Wilcox owners of Gallery Aferro in Newark, NJ