In July of 2009, I organized a mural on the street-level exterior of the Hotel Chelsea (222 West 23rd Street, NYC) to commemorate our first exhibition as No Longer Empty. Israeli artist “Know Hope“, in collaboration with Chris Stain, created this site-specific artwork directly upon the roll-down gate of NLE’s inaugural exhibition. I documented the artists at work by creating the time-lapse video below:
No Longer Empty began exhibiting at two storefronts at the Chelsea Hotel, the historical art heart of Manhattan. Artists such as Michael Bevilacqua, Alina and Jeff Bliumis and Diana Puntar filled economy-ravaged spaces with installations while responding to the present dire financial straits and its effect on the urban landscape and national psyche. Resident artists at the Hotel Chelsea also exhibited.
No Longer Empty´s first exhibition took the name of its location. The Chelsea Hotel offered a forum for artistic dialogue. The spaces here were not gallery or museum locales and the resulting works and conversations were not defined by such conventional exhibition spaces. Indeed, the exhibition was the pioneer of No Longer Empty´s new model of community art. The project strived to stem any potential neighborhood decline resulting from unused and abandoned buildings by lavishing them with art.
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