CROWN HEIGHTS — A group of artists displaced from the renowned Long Island City graffiti collective 5Pointz came together Thursday to honor one of their own in a 9/11 memorial.
Half a dozen artists spraypainted the outside wall of Crown Heights Paints and Hardware, creating a mural depicting an American flag, the hats of police and firefighters and a portrait of Joe Conzo, a 5Pointz artist and former emergency worker who survived the terrorist attack in 2001.
“This is my little way to show him … I know you know it, but we want to let you know that we really do appreciate everything,” said 5Pointz founder Meres One of Conzo.
After the building in Long Island City was whitewashed and demolished, 5Pointz members needed a new space to create their annual mural commemorating Sept. 11.
“I was starting to get a little depressed because I’ve been doing 9/11 murals since it happened and I really wanted to do one,” One said. “I was like, you know what, can we try to find something?”
After a search in Brooklyn, where he and his partner recently moved, he found the right space: the side of a hardware store at the corner of Bergen Street and Rogers Avenue in Crown Heights.
As the artists painted, neighborhood residents passed by, stopping to take photos or to thank the muralists.
The owner of the hardware store, Reaz Chowdhury, has run the shop for the last year, but heard from several passersby that a different 9/11 memorial used to adorn the same wall the 5Pointz group painted Thursday — and he’s glad to recreate the memorial for those in the neighborhood who lost someone.
“We are showing our respect to them,” he said.