When you think of Coney Island, New York’s Riviera, you probably think crowds and sand and hot dogs and roller coasters and bumper cars, right? Not the place to go for an art gallery… and yet… Coney Art Walls.
Five years ago, Thor Equities, a much-hated developer that owns the rights to most of the land along Coney Island’s famous Boardwalk (and, many believe, ultimately wants to replace it with apartment towers) took a dip into community relations by filling one of its vacant lots with walls for artists to fill with murals bringing to mind Coney Island sights and traditions.
And Coney Island is not without a long artistic tradition, from the garish posters that advertised its attractions all over the area, to the extensive panoramas that decorated the outsides of the different amusement parks and attractions to work by serious artists who came to paint America’s working class at play in the early part of the last century.
The painting just below, by Reginald Marsh, is titled Steeplechase Park. The original park occupied space just by where the Art Walls are.
And even the parks today, both in bright colors and shapes and in undulating and overlapping shapes are an eyeful.
But I have digressed…and I have no wish to disobey the warning below. Onfor a further look at the Art Walls. For the first few years, through 2018, new works were added each year by invited artists—some known, some unknown and some about-to-be-known.
Congratulations go to George G and Jonathan L who recognized this scene as our One-Clue Mystery this week.No new ones have been added since 2018, and I have not heard back from my inquiry to Thor whether the project will resume post-pandemic. In the meantime, some of the works on the outside of the lot have been defaced (irony: graffiti on graffiti-styled works!) but the website about the project is still up and it has archive photos of all the projects.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a little time in winter-time Coney Island. And yes, the lot is right behind the famous Nathan’s, the place for hot dogs.
