By Bill Parry
The longtime curator at 5Pointz has packed up his aerosol spray cans and taken his iconic “Bright Idea” light bulbs across the East River to Manhattan.
Jonathan Cohen, known as Meres One, went back to work painting a mural outside a Nolita clothing shop Saturday.
“It was fun to paint again, this time stress- and worry-free,” Cohen said.
His latest work will stay on the wall outside Rag & Bone, at 73 E. Houston St., through the end of the month.
Cohen closed his office at 5Pointz for good Dec. 1 after property owner Jerry Wolkoff whitewashed the 350 murals of street art that had adorned the warehouse complex for the last two decades. It was the first step for the planned demolition to make way for two luxury high-rises.
“We’re just waiting for the snow to melt on the roof,” Wolkoff said. “Once we remove the roof, we start demolition, probably in three or four weeks.”
They may have lost their building, but the artists are sticking together. The Nolita mural is the first of many they are planning, but their home borough is not on the list.
“In a way we feel Queens has turned its back on us,” said spokeswoman Marie Cecil Flageul. “We have several locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn for tributes to Nelson Mandela,. We reached out to several people in Long Island City but never heard back from them.”
She explained that in the world of street art tributes have to be done on outside walls, not inside a place of business.
The final vestige of the 5Pointz art in Queens can be found not on a wall but on a delivery truck owned by an Elmhurst man. Meres One painted his light bulbs on the truck of a friend, Rufino Garcia, because it was a constant target for graffiti tags.
“I used to have to paint over tags every day. It made me so crazy I kept a can of paint with me all the time,” Garcia said. “Once Meres One did his thing, I never had the problem again. Everyone knows his work and they don’t want to mess with it.”
Garcia added that people take pictures of his truck everywhere he goes and that kids know more about his 2000 Ford than he does.
“It’s very strange, but I guess I represent some kind of Queens legacy now,” he said. “It’s very special.”
Meres One plans on repainting the truck in the next month or so.
“I’m never out of action, got to stay busy,” Cohen said. “Right now I’m just adjusting to everything and seeing where the road takes me.”
The artists were concerned about the future of their mascot, Baxter, know to tourists at the site as “The Graffiti Cat.” The beloved feline had made its home in the complex since 2007 but was forced to leave when the artists closed their office.
“Baxter has moved across the river as well,” Flageul said.
Baxter was taken in by Manhattan photographer Rachel Fawn Alban last weekend.
“Baxter was really feeling the tension around here for the last three weeks,” Flageul said. “I guess you can say he’s found his retirement home.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
