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Times Square Bar Turned Gallery Features Work by City's Young Artists

By Alan Neuhauser | September 9, 2013 7:15am
 Bar Catalonia, a 100-person hotel bar in Equity Point in Times Square, has launched a monthly art series featuring work by local artists.
Art at Bar Catalonia
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TIMES SQUARE — Starving artists are filling their cups in a most unlikely slice of the Big Apple.

Bar Catalonia, a bar inside the Equity Point hostel in Times Square, has started showing paintings, drawings and mixed-media works by young New York City artists, alongside taps of local small-batch beers and wines.

The latest exhibit, titled "The Creators," will feature 11 works by six artists from Thurs., Sept. 12, through October. An opening night reception, taking place from 6 p.m. to midnight, will include a tasting of kegged wines by Manhattan's Gotham Project.

"The whole theme is urban energy and movement in urban spaces, so when I was curating, I was really looking for pieces inspired by New York, that showed the vivid, artistic energy that is so much a part of New York City," said David Morris, the bar's marketing and events coordinator.

Morris found the art pieces by putting out a call for submissions on Craigslist. The works displayed will be available for purchase, and Bar Catalonia will not take a commission.

"It's great. You get to kill two birds with one stone, because you're exhibiting, and it's also a social space for congregation," said Bibi Tran, 24, an artist living in Flushing who will be showing a painting of herself titled, "Girl." "It marries two beneficial aspects of showing."

"The Creators" is the third installment in the bar's monthly art show series. It follows "Nectar," which was held in June and explored the "vibrant nature of human curiosity and expression through color, texture and dimension," and "Strange Fruit," an August show that focused on surrealism,  the bar's website said.

Equity Point also hosts live jazz shows during the week and, between each month-long art exhibit, temporary shows from nearby art galleries, said general manager Maria Brinkman.

"People who choose to stay at a hostel are extremely social, extremely engaged people, many of whom are traveling by themselves, traveling to meet people and go to events," Brinkman said. "So there was a lot of importance placed on touching a number of different interests for people: beer and wine tasting, the art exhibits."

Bar Catalonia is located at 206 W. 41st St.