LUXURY BOOM

Luxury Boom
March 28th to extended date June 7th 2020 

So called Luxury Housing is on the rise everywhere in New Jersey. Developers and politicians are conjuring up sweet deals to blight older and disadvantaged neighborhoods, while promising citizens tax breaks and underestimating the costs of additional citizens. They’re knocking down majestic historical structures, many embellished with unique architectural design elements going back 100 years or more, and replacing them with massive, cheaply constructed, mediocre multiplexes. Built to attract young professionals, luxury housing is not cheap. The high rents also set a damaging (and very likely intentional) precedence, because the surrounding poorer neighborhoods are usually lacking the advantage of  rent control, and are effected with rent hikes as a result. This forces poor and working class people to exit their towns at three times the rate than in areas without luxury housing…. and tragically this can lead to a cycle of poverty, and even homelessness.

For this exhibition Hamilton Street Gallery has chosen over 20 artists working in a variety of media. The selections focus on wealth and poverty in connection to housing, environment and quality of life, as well as the effects of overdevelopment, historically, and aesthetically.