Sunday, March 29, 2009

Nara at Niagara

Remember when Japanese artist Nara was arrested the night before his gallery opening earlier this month? B and I unveiled more pieces to this puzzle at Niagara bar in the East Village the week before last.

We hit up Niagara for the Antagonist Art Movement's weekly party and more precisely, the musical stylings of the one and only J-Stroke. We were pleasantly surprised as we made our way through the narrow bar by the drawings on the wall. It seems Niagara was the thirst quenching spot frequented by Nara before his arrest and the bar owners allowed him to cover the wall space with black marker drawings of his characters.

Obviously, if I was in a foreign country and someone let me go to town all over his or her bar walls, I would assume this was par for the course and whip out my Sharpie to leave my mark upon every stop of my journey as well.

My favorite part of this story is that while Niagara had the foresight to cover Nara's drawings with plexiglass and leave them up for all to enjoy, perhaps realizing that they could fetch a nice chunk of change at some point, the MTA washed off the brick he drew on at the First Avenue L station and called it a day. And in the meantime, we have to eat their deficit with a massive fare hike. Geniuses.

Check out pics and other artwork from the Antagonist Art Movement party below!


1 comment:

Unknown said...

There is one more. If you go up first ave Nara drew on the steps of First Flight Music. I think it's around 11th and 12th street. I work with the Antagonist Art Movement and noticed the Nara art on the one step. You should have a look before they wash that off too.

Ethan Minsker