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Meres moves on from 5Pointz

By Bill Parry

The iconic 5Pointz graffiti mecca is gone but the artistic genius behind it has never been bigger. The street artist known as Meres One made an old warehouse in Long Island City world famous, but now his work can be seen in the “crossroards of the world” on the Times Square JumboTron.

When the city’s newest professional sport franchise, The New York City Football Club needed an artist for its promotional campaign it turned to Flushing-born Jonathan Meres Cohen who created and curated 5Pointz for 20 years.

“It’s really cool to be part of the birth of a new professional sports team, especially a New York City sports team,” Meres said. “Everybody knows that New York sports fans are different with their crazy passion. Hopefully, this helps NYCFB become a real New York frenzy.”

During the week, prior to Sunday’s home opener of the club’s maiden Major League Soccer season, NYCFB rolled out ads with Spanish superstar and poster boy David Villa in action in front of the club’s initials in aerosol art form. The art in each letter represents each of the five boroughs.

“I had a couple of people tell me they knew right away it was my work so it’s nice to know I have that kind of signature,” Meres said. The ads were seen in area newspapers, billboards, TV ads and in a video loop on the famed JumboTron in Times Square.

“That was humbling,” Meres said. “It marks a whole new beginning for me. There’s a whole series of work that will progress with NYCFC’s season plus I have a solo art show at Lowbrow Artique on April 10 and other projects in the pipeline. I’m moving forward —the grieving period is over.”

The end of 5Pointz came suddenly the night of Nov. 19, 2013. That’s when Jerry Wolkoff, the owner of the blocklong warehouse complex at 22-44 Jackson Ave. in Long Island City, ordered workers to whitewash over more than 350 murals of street art.

Meres and the 5Pointz artists had tried to save their art by suing Wolkoff, but Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block ruled against them. Days later the work of hundreds of aerosol artists from around the world was destroyed and one year later the demolition of the complex was complete.

Workers are preparing the three-acre site for the construction of Wolkoff’s two luxury high-rise residential towers, one 47 stories and the other 41 stories, that will contain nearly 1,000 units.

None of that matters to Jonathan Meres Cohen now. He says he has moved on to new projects.

“It will surprise many that the work Meres did for NYCFC is on canvas, not on a wall,” longtime 5Pointz spokeswoman Marie Cecil Flageul said. “NYCFC has a non-profit fund-raising operation. Meres did it on canvas so it could be auctioned off in the future.”

She added that the soccer team knew that only Meres could deliver what they wanted.

“The whole idea was to unify behind the one team representing all five boroughs. That’s why each letter represents a borough,” Cecil Flageul said. “They unify the city through sports while Meres wants to unify the city through his art.”

The former 5Pointz curator is also through slinging barbs at Wolkoff, whom he had labeled an “art murderer” in the past.

“Let’s just say that I’m at the point now where he has his beliefs and I have mine and we’ll just leave it at that,” Meres said.

Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4538.