Lower Manhattan's boarded-up storefronts have being transformed into powerful murals dedicated to racial justice
- Amid lockdowns, protests, and looting, many businesses in lower Manhattan have boarded up their storefront windows.
- Street artists have repurposed the plywood planks as canvases, sharing murals and messages calling for racial justice.
- Some have worked with business owners and sanctioned campaigns, while others aren't waiting for approval.
- Here is some of the powerful artwork adorning Soho, the East Village, and other downtown neighborhoods.
Following the citywide lockdown and demonstrations, many businesses in lower Manhattan boarded up their storefronts. Some had windows smashed during protests, others were hoping to deter looters.
The result was that New York's shops and restaurants, which once enticed throngs of passersby, were now dismal and dull.
Street artists saw the plywood planks as a blank canvas for original and provocative art, much of it addressing racial injustice and the Black Lives Matter protests.
Some artists were sanctioned to create murals by business owners, others didn't wait for permission.
Here is a sample of the powerful artwork adorning Soho, the East Village, and other downtown neighborhoods.
After the windows of their St. Mark's Place restaurant, Hanoi House, were smashed, Ben Lowell and Sara Leveen reached out to well-known street artist SacSix to turn an eyesore into an artistic landscape.
"We thought it was the best way to make the most of an unfortunate situation," Leveen told Insider. "Instead of people walking by and thinking 'Oh that's sad, someone broke Hanoi House's windows,' They'd think, 'That's so cool. The East Village has such cool street art.'"
In addition to providing a canvas for local artists, Leveen says the murals lift her staff's spirits and "provide some hope and happiness at a time when everyone is finding their way back."
Albert Diaz has been using wordplay and collage lettering to make charged statements in subway stations for decades. He came aboveground to create this work outside Hanoi House.
"This is one of my recurring messages," Diaz said of "If we remain standing still, we die in place." "It is about not being stagnant in any aspect of our lives."
Artist Jilly Ballistic added a wheatpaste of a woman running in a gas mask onto Diaz's design, saying she loved the "revolutionary spirit" of his statement.
"I chose this woman running, in PPE, responding to this call to action," Ballistic said.
Ballistic had been thinking for several weeks about a statement that would touch upon both Black Lives Matter and the coronavirus.
"It's a simple but profound question," Ballistic said of her piece. "As a nation, what do we want to protect? What has worth to us? Black lives? Trans lives? The objects sealed up behind all this plywood? What of our medical workers, mail carriers, and delivery people?"
"Life Is a Juggling Act" is a two-panel collaboration between artists ZROPRO and Chris RWK outside the East Village bar Ten Degrees.
"I wanted to convey the message of juggling the things in life," ZROPRO said of the mural, just down the street from Hanoi House. "The good and the bad. We have to juggle these things in everyday life whether it's for ourselves, loved ones, the community, the world."
SacSix added his own piece, a mural of Anthony Fauci as Mr. Spock, as "a fun way to spread the message of washing your hands."
"The Spock 'prosper' hand is such an iconic hand gesture ... so it mashed well with Dr. Fauci," he said. "I am always thinking of pop culture references and mashing them up to make new pieces."
SacSix has also been putting up a piece around town depicting Governor Cuomo as Superman.
"During the early days of coronavirus, his press conferences were the only truth and authority around the facts and science," he told Insider.
SacSix tackled another pop icon, Mickey Mouse, with "Time to Break Through the White Glove of Oppression."
SacSix has reproduced the work in various locations across lower Manhattan, including outside the Coach store on Prince Street and Babeland on Mercer Street.
Well-known graffiti artist Fumero painted a portrait of George Floyd on Houston Street.
The work is an example of Fumero's unique combination of figurative and abstract art, which he calls "Grafstract."
In front of the NARS cosmetics store on Prince Street, Love Lovenotes painted a mural dedicated to Breonna Taylor.
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot by Louisville police officers who were executing a no-knock search warrant.
"I'm going to keep painting until she and countless others get the justice they deserve," Lovenotes wrote on Instagram.
Another mural nearby depicts the figure of Justice, wearing a face mask and blindfold and holding her scales.
American clothier Faherty Brand tapped artists Optimo NYC and Distoart to paint their mural, "Freedom isn't Free," on the front of its temporarily closed Soho location.
Android Oi and LOVEMKM collaborated on an eye-catching collage nearby in front of Happy Socks. "We felt motivated to express creativity in a time where expression of life, in general, was on complete hold," Android Oi said.
"We wanted to add beauty to a bleak space," she said. "But we wanted to feature a black woman to show support for Black Lives Matter, as well as highlighting Pride month in the same installation."
"We are about peace and love, and hope to inspire good vibes with the vibrant colors and use of pink, the color of unconditional love," she added.
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After the Dsquared2 flagship store on Spring Street boarded up its windows, artist Trevor Croop, a.k.a. Light Noise, decided to paint a mural with a powerful message of hope.
"Waves of Change" wraps around the entire corner of Spring Street and West Broadway.
Beijing artist Annie Zhang got stuck in New York when the pandemic came to the US in March. She's been painting a globe with the words "We are humans. We are one" all around the city, including on this vacant shopfront on West Broadway.
"I was so inspired by everyone on the streets," Zhang said. "We are all human and we're all alive and we're all going to die. We all have that in common and this is my way of reminding everyone of that."
Bonobos asked artists Malik Crawford and Jerome Tiunayan to take over its boarded-up Chelsea storefront.
Their mural, "Stronger together," can be seen along Fifth Avenue in Chelsea.
Muralist Steve Powers, a.k.a. ESPO, enlisted an army of artists for his mural in Union Square, which pays tribute to 40 Black lives lost to police-related violence.
"I am grateful for a lot of New Yorkers that pulled up and painted names today," Powers posted on Instagram. "It was a great moment born out of trauma. When life gives you shit, plant some flowers."
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