Jason Rohlf, 56, moved to New York City from Milwaukee in 1999. As a full-time artist, he and his family have lived in the same Williamsburg loft for roughly 27 years, with rent protection under the NYC Loft Law.
The around 1,300-square-foot loft doubles as his home and studio. Yet, although the Loft Law statute protects these industrial lofts inhabited by artists, preserving the space has required lawyers, legal expenses, and years of uncertainty.
“Every time the state says, ‘Oh, we’re going to revisit the loft law,’ you get an email, and everybody’s panicking,” he said. “I don’t think many people’s lifestyles involve having a housing lawyer on their phone.”
Yet maintaining affordable housing has also benefited Rohlf. During the 2008 financial crisis, many of his peers relocated, unable to afford NYC, while he was able to stay. Now, it has helped him continue to afford his housing as other prices continue to rise.
“Every number is exponentially going up, and so for us to keep the housing costs low made one of those numbers manageable,” he said.
For the exhibition, Rohlf presented muslin shop towels he uses to clean paintbrushes. For the past 20 years, he has made and stored thousands of these towels. For the show, he and co-curator Jeanne Heifetz selected 42.
Rohlf works on a portable scale, developing small ideas with materials already in his studio.
“My creativity kind of flourishes in a microcosm,” he said. “If I only painted on giant canvases made with expensive materials, my studio would have ended a long time ago.”
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