Blink and You'll Miss It: Street Art Helps a Neighborhood Say Goodbye at Market Surplus

Things move quickly in New York City. What's here today may very well be gone tomorrow. You’ll wake up one morning and find this fickle city has reinvented itself overnight. Your favorite bar is now a Pier 1 Imports. That bodega, where you buy your egg and cheese on a roll every morning before work, now serves tall, grande, and venti something-something-somethings. Oh, and that legendary theater where you saw that incredible set by Black Keys? Yeah, that's gone. I have it on good authority it's gonna be another high-rise luxury condo project. And so goes, for better or worse, the perpetual metamorphosis of this great metropolis.

Our recent visit to the Market Surplus is just such an example of the city's transience. It was a three day flash exhibition held at the historic Lower East Side building formerly home to the Essex Market. It's a building which, sadly, is scheduled for demolition in the coming weeks.

Market Surplus was the brainchild of New York-based artist, Hanksy, who worked, with the assistance of the developer, Essex Crossing, to bring to fruition his vision. The goal was to produce typically outdoor, semi-permanent, large-scale murals within the confines of this impermanent interior space, all with subtle or explicit thematic references to the neighborhood.

Although Hansky (Hank See as he playfully signed his work in this case) was a contributor, he was only one of many. He brought with him such renowned street artists as Buff Monster, Elle, Faust, NDA, BK Foxx, Owvbics, Pixel Pancho, Sonni, and L'amour Supreme. Market Surplus was meant to come together quickly and disappear quickly, sans the usual hype and promotion.

It was quite a spectacle, seeing so much art crammed into what was, until very recently, just another vacant space. But it was also an impressive show of community. There were neighborhood kids running around. Locals were taking photos and telling stories from days past when they visited the market. A group of dancers were being filmed for a music video. Even the artist himself, Adam Lucas, was on hand to discuss his work as well as the larger exhibition. Donations were accepted to benefit the LES Girls Club. Sure, the building, as well as the art within it, will soon be gone (if not already), and that is certainly a loss. But it's a loss that the neighborhood can overcome, so long as the culture and community don't go along with it.