Neighborhood Art

In view of the recent economic turbulence, I decided to stroll around my neighborhood, the East Village, and support the local community.

Even though the East Village has been thriving the last decade, I recently found that an alarming number of storefronts were closing or changing hands. It seems that neighborhoods with extreme and accelerated gentrification can be the first ones to suffer during a downturn. This may not necessarily hold true in residential real estate, since coveted areas in a city like New York remain resilient, however commercial businesses look vulnerable.

The walk took me to a local art gallery, specializing in artists who, at some point in their life made a mark on the East Village or vice versa. The name of the establishment is Dorian Grey Gallery (www.doriangreygallery.com), and the exhibit currently running is titled CLUB 57 & Friends, focusing on the pioneers of the early 1980’s East Village art scene and the CLUB 57 performance space.

I ended up picking up a painting by Scott Covert, a New Jersey native, now living in Manhattan. His signature technique is called  frottage, or the technique of creating a design by rubbing (as with a pencil) on paper or canvas placed over an object. This technique has been used for centuries by students of architecture, anthropology and archeology. Even though he uses mainly grave rubbings, his works are neither dark nor cold. My piece is called Great Entertainers. More on the artist can be found at www.scottcovert.com

I also took home a custom painted skate board deck by graffiti artist Cope2. Fernando Carlo is a graffiti artist from the South Bronx. He has been writing graffiti since 1978-79, and has gained international credit for his work, with pieces auctioned at Christie’s. More on Fernando at www.cope2.net

All in all a very satisfying stroll.