DOLLHAUS II

Story and photos by Daniel Israel

The Dollhaus II art gallery at 23 Cottage Street is owned and curated by resident Emma Louise, who owned and operated the original Dollhaus in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

She moved from London to Brooklyn in 1998, hosting elaborate art parties in rented warehouses and clubs.

After 9/11, 2001, Louise was lost.

“I didn’t know what to do with my life,” she said. “I was sick of renting out these spaces. It’s a lot of work for a night to make art installations, pull in bands, pull in installation artists. I needed my artists to have at least a month.”

Enter the Dollhaus art gallery.

“I never wanted to own a gallery, as a child or as a grown young lady,” Louise said. “But it was a natural occurrence from what I was actually doing.”

After six years, Louise needed a break.

“Running a gallery is a lot of work, with a lot of artists and it’s 24/7,” she said. “Artists are demanding, and shows are every month. It wasn’t really that I couldn’t afford the neighborhood anymore, but the neighborhood was changing a lot.”

Louise moved to Canada to pursue her own art before returning to New York City.

“I went to live in Montreal and worked on my own stuff and my own little films,” she said. “I moved back to New York and kind of had enough of Greenpoint and Williamsburg.”

She packed her bags and moved to Jersey City.

“I was one of the first Brooklynites, the Wiliamsburgers, to move to Jersey City,” Louise said. “I needed a big space; I was a largescale painter. I was always looking for another gallery. I’m always attracted to offthe-beaten-path neighborhoods. Williamsburg was that when I was there, so Jersey was the next off the beaten path. So I stayed there and was constantly looking for a new space. By the time I had really settled, the rents in Jersey City started to get insane.”

Louise said Jersey City became expensive because everyone in Brooklyn was moving there. This prompted her to look elsewhere to open a new gallery.

“I couldn’t find a place acceptable to me in Jersey City, and I didn’t feel comfortable with the art that was going on, and I’m a bit of a lone wolf,” she said. “So I started to hunt seriously for a space, and I had only ever been in Bayonne once. I saw something that was advertised as a storage space, and it was a good price. Before I even went over there, I said I’m taking it.”

But the owner had already rented it to someone else. Louise was persistent. The

renters were also from London, so they found common ground, and the space was hers, sight unseen.

That was three years ago, and the rest is history.

“I renovated the hell out of that storage space,” Louise said. “The funny thing is, I moved here about a year afterward, and it was kind of like every neighborhood I moved to. When I moved to Williamsburg, it was just big warehouses and not much going on. When I moved to Jersey City, there wasn’t much going on. Then it happened again to Bayonne.” Cultivating the Local Scene

As Bayonne began to develop, so did the art scene.

“Things started happening,” Louise said. “I started to meet good artists, the outsider artists of the world. It worked out that I wasn’t the only one in Bayonne. There was a bit of a thriving situation of weirdos. So I clearly made the right decision.”

The gallery hosted a monthly show until March 16, 2020, when it closed due to the onset of the pandemic.

“We’re actually selling work, we’re actually getting a name, and I have to close,” Louise said. “I did a Zoom show and tell every week from the gallery of all the different artists that I have shown or was going to show.”

Louise said her mantra was: “If it’s from Bayonne, take it home,” reducing prices during the pandemic.

“People were so traumatized and so upset, and art was making people happy,” Louise said. “Art was actually keeping some people alive through having a meaning and a purpose. And I was definitely one of those.”

When the gallery reopened in September of 2020, it implemented COVID-19 precautions. Artist and Gallery Owner

Dollhaus II has continued its monthly exhibitions for outsider artists from New Jersey and New York, who are not formally trained and did not go to art school. In April, Louise showed her own work for the first time ever, but only for three weeks.

“I’m not one of those people who can stay in one discipline,” Louise said. “I’m a good gallerist, I’m a good curator. I’m good with my artists. I know a lot of people, and I get bored painting on my own. I’m not that selfinterested to carry on with that.”

That exhibition titled “Kerfuffle” is a series of unfinished paintings she began during the stay-at-home order.

“I painted this and now I’m a bit better and not so terrified,” she said. “So I’m seeing how I can change and finish these paintings. They’re great, they’re disturbingly fun.”

The gallery is open Thursday through Sunday, 2 to 9 p.m. She embraces Bayonne wholeheartedly but hasn’t forgotten her roots. A punching bag in the gallery is an homage to her father who was a boxer.

“It’s kind of interesting how I’ve done this 360-degree circle from London to Williamsburg to Jersey City,” Louise said. “And now to the very top of the peninsula in Bayonne. People ask me, ‘Why are you in Bayonne?’ And I say, ‘Why not?’”—BLP