Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Shells on Village Paper

Just as the lease has been finalized on the sad, burned-out Village Paper, and before it gets turned into Bobo, it's been plastered with a colorful 20' x 8' mural by Jay Shells--the dog poop and subway etiquette guy--and fellow artist Benjamin Hollingsworth.


my flickr

I got in touch with Shells over email and asked him about the piece. He told me that the mural was painted in South Carolina, where he and Hollingsworth collaborated for a show called "The Stock" at Gallery Bar on Orchard Street. Wrote Shells, "the main theme is helping others and an overall sense of community. it was really interesting to just attack a monster piece like this with someone you've only briefly spoken with over the phone. very challenging and very rewarding."

The piece did not sell, so the artists decided that the mural "should be donated to the public in a place where it would be appreciated." They picked Village Paper.


my flickr

As Shells explained: "this building on west 10th & greenwich burned up over a year ago and has just been festering, derelict in that space and needed some refreshment. what better location for an uplifting and colorful mural? so, i, with the help of a few friends, installed it there on saturday. i've checked on it every day and spoken to passersby about it and the neighborhood people seem to be digging it... it was for the neighborhood. i'm very pleased with its new home and i really hope it lasts a while."

This mural, spontaneously appearing, unsponsored, and unprotected by security cameras or guards, is exactly the type of street art alternative we need to manufactured "happenings" like the Houston Wall. (For a daytime shot, see NYCBlog.)


Read more about:
Village Paper
The Corner of 10th and Greenwich
at

3 comments:

  1. MelanieFebruary 16, 2011 at 9:29 AM

    Beautiful.soulful art. I love it!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Marty WombacherFebruary 16, 2011 at 7:04 PM

    I'll have to check this out, I've been avoiding the block so I wouldn't have to see Village Paper all burned out. Glad there's some nice art to cover it for its last days. And no cameras!

    ReplyDelete
  3. JillFebruary 17, 2011 at 7:23 PM

    By the way, Village Paper opened on W 8th Street in a giant space. It's like a suburban shopping mall of party crap, rather than that cramped space where things were always falling off the hooks when you walked by in a winter coat.

    If you talk to the owner, he'll show you his Village Voice "best party store" certificate (or something like that), burned around the edges, which he managed to save from the fire. I didn't have my camera so I never got a shot of it and haven't been back since xmas to capture it.

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