This past winter, when NYC was in a state of perma-sludge, I was lucky enough to attend a very secret art show. 43 street artists, lead by Hanksy, turned a condemned building in Alphabet City into a giant and totally illegal art gallery. The girls with the weapons in these alcoves (one of them above) were probably my favorites.

Here’s the kitchen. It was a three floors of street art in this falling apart building. Apologies for the quality of the pictures, but it was really hard to set up a decent shot as people were walking through. Not that I am complaining, it was really an experience to feel and see with your own eyes instead of through your IPhone screen. My personal relationship with documenting art, monuments, places that attract a lot of people, etc. is that I don’t want to ruin the experience for anyone else by keeping them from walking through just because I HAVE to take the perfect picture. There was a woman who kept yelling at everyone in one room because people were walking into the picture she was trying to take of her friends. I wouldn’t have minded if it was once quick picture, but they kept taking them! Totally rude behavior. End rant.

To learn about the show you had to follow the right Twitter at the right time, which would reveal the location in code. I was lucky that a friend of mine’s boss is really into street art and told us the location of the show.

It was stunning. Weird, surreal, but exciting to see something that was so once-in-a-lifetime. I wish I had gotten pictures of the bathroom, but it was hard to squeeze into the smaller spaces.

In a museum, it is such a different use of space. Things are hung or installed. Here, the apartment was the canvas. It was such a neat experience as a viewer, I can only imagine how exciting it was for the artists to make.  I would like to emphasize that this is a building that is slated to be demolished, which ads a layer of complexity to the statement.

A crownut! Hanksy is my personal favorite street artist, so I was really excited to see this walking up the stairs.  Celebrities, puns, what’s not to love? That’s 0ne of the most incredible things about NYC, on any given night, something truly weird and amazing is happening in the art world. That includes an illegal three-story street art gallery.