We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jen Wroblewski a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jen , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

In 2018 I opened a contemporary art gallery where, on a shoestring budget, I program exhibitions and public programs that elevate the work I find interesting and important and that is deserving of visibility and discourse. Often I show work that I find to be overlooked by the critical community.

The gallery is a mile from my home. Running a critically rigorous program so close to home has allowed my to prioritize caring for my two teenaged children while simultaneously prioritizing the work of the artists I show. This is a feminist maneuver, and one that I am very open about. Mothering does not dumb down the sharp minds of women in the art world, yet the existing model for arts discourse at the highest levels is not conducive to participation by caregivers. At Gold Montclair our public programming happens during the day; our openings during late afternoon. Children are welcome. There is no stigma to being an artist who also has a family, and in fact I am interested content that grapples with the conditions of domestic life.

Opening an exhibition space where I make all of the decisions and that functions according to my specific values has been totally transformational. I have created a small, well lit corner of the art world where everything makes sense. We (myself and the artists are I work with) are uncompromising in our vision and operate with joy and ethics and celebrate the hand and the humans who are compelled to make great work we’ve never seen before.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

For 30 years I have worked in the contemporary art as an artist, educator, independent curator, and now gallery owner. I am a drawer, and in addition to making drawings I teach drawing to undergraduate and graduate students in art schools and architecture/design programs. My own practice has been grounded in drawing as behavior, and I am interested in drawing traditions as specific languages that can be deployed for different impacts and reasons. Through the gallery I am able to put forward work that is deserving of our attention and support, in so far as I feel it and can communicate what I am understanding about or seeing in the work. I believe very deeply that artists are the people in our time who live outside of the vortex of capitalism and reflect and witness our humanity as an antidote to the soullessness of “the market.” Artists are brave; they sacrifice a lot for their work, and they deserve my support.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The mission is to move confidently always and believe in and take pleasure from the artist life — my own and the people I admire. The financial burdens of keeping a gallery program open are substantial; I make decisions alone, based on my own beliefs developed over years and years. Operating from a place of confidence and expression of self is a goal that extends to the artists I work with at the gallery and the students I talk to about drawing. It has become an ethos. It is a mistake to try to fit yourself into a system or space that is external. You have to move with confidence and pleasure. That mission, to resist the chaos of competition and the energy of scarcity and striving is the mission. We do our work with pleasure and joy and seriousness and rigor. If its not for you, then okay; I don’t take criticism.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I only have 4k followers which is like none; but our engagement is true and genuine. I am a huge believer and advocate for social media. It gives us all a platform and a voice, and it has done a ton to democratize a zillion aspects of modern life, in my specific case it gives me access to so many more artists than I was able to find on my own. In the 90’s and 00’s I used to say I would enjoy art world events more if I could wear a sandwich board with my work on it, so that small talk could be grounded in something real; so much nonsense would be avoided. That’s what we have today — through Insta and TikTok, and I think it is just great. When we meet one another at events now, we are always matching names to work to instagram handles and it makes the conversations so much warmer. There is much less room for nonsense now that we can all lead with our work.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.goldmontclair.com
• Instagram: @goldmontclair
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jen-wroblewski-929598140/

Image Credits
Image credits are in file names. Artwork by Lauren Portada, image by Em Joseph Artwork by Jen Shepard, image by Lisa Russman Artwork by Leah Tacha, image by Maeve Fitzhoward (Inky Lake Water, ceramic with glaze and digital decal)