MIDTOWN — A local real estate company is tapping into its artistic side.
Rutenberg Realty is transforming its offices at 127 E. 56th St. into a gallery featuring the creative work of its agents, who moonlight as photographers, painters, sculptors and jewelry makers.
“We thought it would be a really wonderful way to highlight their expertise, outside of Rutenberg real estate,” said one of the firm’s co-founders, Kathy Braddock.
“It’s slightly experimental. But that’s OK,” she added. “We like to do things a little differently.”
The show will run from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday and will also feature the work of two New York-based graffiti artists, Fernando Romero and Mike Baca.
Romero and Baca will be selling pieces of art at the show, but they will also be painting a large sliding door that will become an permanent mural in the office.
“You know, you can’t tell a cook what to cook,” Braddock said of the addition. “Whatever they’re comfortable doing is OK with us.”
As of Wednesday, the artists said they haven’t yet developed a specific plan for what to paint on the door.
“We’re probably just going to do our unique style, what we’re known for,” Baca said.
“We’re definitely not going to hold back because it's a realty firm,” Romero added. “We’re going to do exactly what we do. And it's because of that that people love what we do.”
Because of the tight, four-hour time constraint, the piece will have to be simpler than much of their work, the Brooklyn-based artists said.
But they are looking forward to reaching a new crowd.
“We’re just trying to open up a new avenue and have a whole new audience,” Romero said.
Braddock said the idea for the art show came about after the company owners learned that many of its 450 agents were leading double lives. When they’re not selling homes and renting apartments, they’re creating art in various media.
The show will feature the work of about a dozen agents/artists, including Carlos Spaventa.
Spaventa has been an agent at Rutenberg for just over two years. But the native New Yorker has been a photographer for more than three decades.
“My inspiration was local originally,” Spaventa said. “But I always seemed to gravitate toward the European elements here.”
He now has a very focused niche and takes photos specifically of France.
“It makes for lovely images, if I say so myself,” Spaventa said.
Spaventa said he’s not exactly sure how word spread within the real estate company that he was a photographer. But at one point, he gave one of his photos to an administrative assistant at the company as a thank-you gift.
“She must have let the cat out of the bag at some point, because that’s the only way I think it could have gotten out,” Spaventa said.
“It’s kind of an open secret that probably half of realtors, if not more, have other lives, have other professional interests,” he added.
“[The art show is] a way of showing that agents are a bit more rounded than one would imagine. It’s an interesting concept I think.”
The art displayed will be for sale, Braddock said. And a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the New York City Department of Homeless Services, Braddock said.
Braddock also said that she hopes this first show will turn into a regular event.
