Artist and musician Trejon D’Angelo Williams, a resident of Garfield Park, hopes the Space 01 gallery he runs will provide opportunities for other artists and encourage West Siders to interact and engage with art.
Originally located in Logan Square, the gallery reopened in the northeast corner of Austin almost a year ago. It is tucked away on the second floor of a nondescript industrial building at 4850-60 W. Bloomingdale Ave. Since reopening, Space 01 has hosted several exhibitions, and is hosting a pair of workshops this week and launching another exhibition at the end of June.
In a recent interview with Austin Weekly News, Williams didn’t shy away from the controversy that led to the move.
Space 01 was cited for allegedly not having the proper license to hold events. Police, investigated noise complaints, and Williams was arrested for allegedly shoving a police officer. He denied the allegations, and said that the experience continues to shape his art and his vision for the gallery.
Williams grew up in a suburb of Dallas and moved to Chicago four years ago. As he navigated a new city, he heard about Logan Square Immersive Arts Co-Operative headed by fellow artist and musician Octavia Marie-Madeleine Reese. Williams recalled that the co-op, which operated out of storefront at 2334 N. Milwaukee Ave., was just what he needed.
“I found out about the space through [my work at Chicago music scene], and I didn’t have a space where I could make things,” he recalled.
When Reese died in April 2024, he and co-founders Hope Barkov and Aliah Robinson took over the storefront. Williams said that “it meant a lot to me, what [Reese] was doing,” and he wanted to carry on her legacy in some form. He also wanted to create a space that would support other artists, whether it is by showing their work or by organizing events that would help artists network.
The name “Space 01,” Williams said, came about because the founders kept referring to the storefront as “the space.”
Since Wiliams never ran a business before, he said that he wanted to specifically make sure that he had his licenses and permits in order. But that was precisely what became an issue. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the city cited Space 01 three times throughout the spring and summer of 2024 for not having a Public Place of Amusement License, which is required for events if the organizers charge admission and at least 100 people attend. Williams maintained that he never violated the terms of the license, and that he only collected donations at events.
He told Austin Weekly News that police officers visited the gallery several times – something that he described as harassment. Chicago Sun-Times quoted local Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) as saying that police were responding to noise complaints. When the police went in on Aug. 21, 2024, Williams got arrested for allegedly shoving one of the officers.
Chicago Sun-Times spoke to several neighboring business owners following the arrest, and they voiced support for Williams and said that the complaints were overblown.
He told Austin Weekly News that he was convicted of a misdemeanor charge and sentenced to community service.
In August 2025, he reopened Space 01 at its current location. Williams said that he was looking for something closer to where he currently lives, and a listing he saw on Craigslist was a good fit.
He said that the first floor is mostly leased to businesses, while artist studios fill the second floor. Williams said that although the new space is “somewhat less accessible” than a street-level storefront, it’s “more accessible in terms of creating art” because it gave him more room and more opportunities to customize the gallery depending on what he’s doing.
Williams is photographer, a musician, a graphic designer, a video editor, and he has recently been trying painting. He said that his work is influenced by his personal experience, including his arrest.
“I want to try to normalize [art that resists the systems of power], so people aren’t afraid to make the art that is reflective of what they feel and resists the forces that are trying to prevent us from making things and going about our lives and supporting each other.” Wiliams said. “I was arrested for running this art gallery, I was put in jail for it, and I don’t know why to this day, and I want to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.”
Williams said he regularly works with Walls Turned Sideways, an East Garfield Park art center, and Alt Chicago, an Austin-based art education and community improvement hub. Collaboration, he said, has always been an important part of who he is as a person and an artist.
“Whatever I can do to help artists in this community, and make connections –
it’s an ongoing mission,” Williams said. “I love to make things, and I love to help wherever I can.”
In the past few months, Space 01 hosted several exhibitions that either featured other artists or Williams and another artist. It will host two workshops next week – a critique workshop on June 11 at 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., and a figure drawing session on June 13 at 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
On June 27, at 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., the gallery will have an opening reception for Williams’s first solo exhibition: Seeds, an audiovisual art installation drawing on work he created over the past five years. The installation will be on display for about a month, though it will only be available by appointment.
“Most of the shows here, I would like them to be interactive, instead of you just go in, look at something on the wall and leave,” Williams said. “For me personally that’s the experience I would like to have [at a gallery]. I would like to feel welcome, feel like I can engage with the work, that’s mainly what I’m trying to do here.”
