EAST HARLEM — A group of local artists have transformed a long-neglected wall at a stalled construction site into a public art gallery.
The "Guerrilla Gallery" on East 116th Street between Second and Third avenues accepts art from any East Harlem artists on one condition: they have to be waterproof, said Kristy McCarthy, 32, a member of the art collective responsible for the wall.
The Harlem Art Collective spent a year trying to get commissioned by the city to have a public art installation on the wall. After not getting any results they decided to go ahead anyway, she said.
"The wall was pretty bad," she said. "Posters were falling, the paint was peeling. We just kind of did it."
Ever since they put up the first pieces in May, people have been stopping by the gallery to take pictures and contribute their own work. They started with 10 paintings and a mural and currently have more than 25 pieces, McCarthy said.
"Every time there's a new piece I fell like a proud mom, like 'yay, my baby is growing,'" she said.
Before becoming East Harlem's newest art gallery, the wall had been barren for at least five years, said Erik Ramos, who works at a deli next door and sketched a mural that features Aztec pyramids, flowers and birds.
According to the city's Department of Buildings, no new construction plans have been filed since 2012.
The owner of the building did not immediately return a voicemail asking about the public gallery.
One of the most remarkable things about the mural is that nobody has vandalized it by tearing town artwork or tagging it, Ramos said.
“Everybody has respected it because they know it’s good for the community,” Ramos said.
Apart from the mural, Ramos also included a portrait of the famed Mexican actor Cantinflas. Other pieces show the words "I can't breathe," in graffiti, local photography, abstract art, and pop culture references.
The collective started meeting in February and the wall is their first project. One of their goals is to bring people together through art.
The wall gives people something to talk about, she said, adding that since the gallery went up McCarthy has noticed a lot more people stopping her on the street to say hello.
“We want it to be beneficial to the community,” McCarthy said.
“We wanted to do something that is a little bit more engaging with the community and something a little bit more active. The most exciting thing about this is that since we’ve began it’s really clicked the community together.”
