Words by Erica Stella, Photos by just_a_spectator
- Sep 20, 2018
- 4 min read

5 Vases for 5Ptz

The buzz has been going all Summer, there was something brewing on the Bowery. The spirit of the original 5 Pointz graffiti mecca in Long Island City thrives in the 5Pointz Creates Collective, led by 5Pointz spokesperson Marie Cecile Flageul and 5Pointz founder/curator Jonathan "Meres" Cohen. The 20 floor "Vertical Love Letter" to NYC and the Lower East Side neighborhoods is not the only sight to be seen. 5Pointz Creates Collective and CitizenM Bowery will exhibit 5 unique vases to be displayed at the entrance of the hotel.

(street level outdoor wall at CitizenM Bowery by MeresOne)

The permanent installation, which will open today for a celebration party and to other visitors October 1st, 2018, was funded by the hotel. MoSA will be open seven days a week for free, self-guided tours, enhanced by audio explanations accessible via the hotel’s Wi-Fi. The first 500 visitors can also sign up for a guided tour with Ms. Flageul. Learn more about these 5 accomplished artists below, and stick with Sold Magazine for more from this exciting event!

Don Rimx

David “Don Rimx” Sepulveda was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His family lived in the public housing development, Nemesio R Canales, who in the 90s had a very high crime rate. Drugs and gun violence were a part of his everyday life. Through his parents watchful eyes Don Rimx was kept on the straight and narrow. He later received his diploma from the Central High School of Visual Arts and went on to continue his education at the Escuela de Artes Plasticas. Lorenzo Homar, Jose Alicea, Rafael Tufino, Rembrandt, and Joaquin Sorolla, are just a few of the influences one see’s in the line work, color treatment and poetic imagery of his pieces.

Lady Pink

Born Sandra Fabara in Ecuador, Lady Pink is a graffiti and mural artist based in New York City. She has focused her career on empowering women, using graffiti and murals as acts of rebellion and self-expression. She was nicknamed the "first lady of graffiti" because she was one of the first women active in the early 80s subway graffiti subculture. Lady Pink currently resides in the countryside north of the city. In '79 she started writing, and soon was well known as the only female capable of competing with the boys in the graffiti subculture. In '82 she had a starring role the motion picture "Wild Style". That role and her other significant contributions to graffiti have made her a cult figure in the hip-hop subculture.While still in high school she was already exhibiting paintings in art galleries, and at the age of 21 had her first solo show at the Moore College of Art.

As a leading participant in the rise of graffiti-based art, Lady Pink's canvases have entered important art collections such as those of the Whitney Museum, the MET in New York City, the Brooklyn Museum and the Groningen Museum of Holland. She has established herself in the fine arts world, and her paintings are highly prized by collectors.

Meres

Jonathan "Meres One" Cohen was born '73 in the South Bronx and raised in Queens. Cohen's interest in visual art spans the entirety of his life, but it wasn't until '87 that Meres One discovered graffiti art and began expressing himself through tags in the streets, graduating to piecing together larger works by '90 and the birth of his trademark lightbulb, "The Bright Idea."

'91 saw Meres enrolling in the FIT Illustration program. Using aerosol art as his primary vehicle for expression, Meres One has taken his multi-layered, technically sound, color laden visions from local to global arenas, from street walls to galleries, from head nodding next to the boombox to facilitating and appearing in countless music videos. He is recognized for his work by news publications such as the New York Times, The Huffington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as providing notable contributions to major motion film works such as "Now You See Me" and "Brown Sugar" and television programs including The Today Show, Fuse TV, Project Runway, and an ESPN US Open, Fox "5 after Empire" segment.

Rubin 415

Manhattan based mural and studio artist Tony “Rubin” Sjöman (b.1975) has painted all over the world and his work has been shown in galleries throughout the US and Europe. Sjöman’s roots are in Finland and Sweden and he draws inspiration from his Scandinavian heritage for his complex abstract geometrical murals and studio works. Sjöman has become a staple of the art scene of New York City and beyond. His murals can be seen in a wide variety of spots in and around the city: on churches in Brooklyn, high-end boutiques in Soho, luxury high-rises throughout Manhattan and on the 69th floor of WTC 4. Sjöman’s studio works are based on canvases, prints and installations and he is no stranger to painting on metal and wood. Rubin's studio work has been on display at Scope New York, Scope Miami and in galleries throughout New York City, Miami and Los Angeles.

Sjöman’s art has been featured in NBC News, New York Post, NY1 News, Vice Magazine, Time Out New York among other media outlets in the United States. His works have also been featured in all the leading news outlets in his native Sweden and Finland. Sjöman has collaborated with several major mainstream brands, such as Converse, Heineken, Shake Shack, Rag and Bone and GAP and his murals have been featured in prime time television shows, such as “Girls” on HBO.

Estaban del Valle

Esteban del Valle is an interdisciplinary artist born in Chicago in '84. He completed his MFA in painting at the RISD in '09, where he received a Presidential Scholarship and the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship. His work investigates the performance of leadership, the role of the artist as a public figure, and the effects of class and privilege on institutions in the form of paintings, murals, sculpture and video art.

He has exhibited internationally, working with galleries and organizations such as Urban Nation, Berlin, Germany; Fundacion-Taller Silvano Lora, Santo Domingo; Sumter County Gallery of Art, Sumter, SC; VisArts in Rockville, MD, and Superchief Gallery, New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA.

More from the 20 floor exhibit "A Vertical Love Letter" to the Bowery, Lower Manhattan:

1st Floor: Damien Mitchell

2nd Floor: TooFly

3rd Floor: Fun Facts by MeresOne

4th Floor: Danielle Mastrion

5th Floor: Vince Ballentine

6th Floor: SOULS

7th Floor: Sheryo

8th Floor: Nicholai Kahn

9th Floor: Noir BT

10th Floor: Trans1 / JERMS

11th Floor: The Yok & Sheryo