5Pointz Revived with ‘Vertical Love Letter’ at CitizenM on the Bowery
The towering new CitizenM hotel on the Bowery opens in just a few weeks. And with it, a revival of the 5Pointz collective and its nascent Museum of Street Art (moSA).
As first reported earlier in the summer, a slew of artists decked the halls (and stairwells) with tags and murals, while photographer Christelle de Castro contributed 62 faces in the windows. This “Citizens of the Bowery” project is all part of the larger art initiative happening at the Bowery skyscraper.
Meres One (aka Jonathan Cohen), the famed 5Pointz founder, teamed up with Marie Flageul to curate this Museum of Street Art, with funding from the Netherlands-based hotel itself. The collaboration is apparently three years in the making – kept secret – and will span twenty floors.
In addition, it seems the New Museum is also involved in the hotel decorating game. Its NEW INC. incubator will loan art for the 300 guest rooms.
CitizenM debuts in a couple weeks, and is reportedly the world’s tallest modular hotel. At twenty stories, the development boasts 300 rooms and two food-and-beverage venues – CanteenM (ground floor) and CloudM (rooftop).
This Bowery hotel is more than ten years in development. The changes began in 2008, when Brack Capital acquired four adjoining properties on the Bowery (at Delancey), including the historic townhouse at 185 Bowery. The assemblage was knocked down a couple years later, and it would take another two years (2012) for CitizenM to jump aboard as hotel operator.
Is this head-to-toe project another instance of “art-washing” the area for further gentrification?
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