Above, black walls and white floors bring out the details of Sue-Pat’s sculptures in his studio and gallery space; a futuristic chair
by Eero Aarnio sits among the artwork. Right, in the foyer, Sue-Pat juxtaposed a black-and-white floor and repurposed columns he
had stored in his studio and later painted blue.
hen Paul Sue-Pat first came to Bed Stuy, he wasn’t sure he
liked the neighborhood. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, he had
arrived in New York after stops in London, Miami, and
Connecticut with dreams of becoming an artist. His small
studio was located on the first floor of a building on West
4th Street in Manhattan; the rent was $200 a month. He was
struggling but happy, scraping out a living. But when the building
was sold, the new owners wanted him and the other artists who
had studio space there to move out. When the landlord came with
what Sue-Pat calls a “bag of cash,” he decided to follow the advice
of some artist friends and move to Brooklyn. “I took the money
and ran,” he says with a laugh.
Dumbo was a consideration and, later, Williamsburg. But Sue-Pat
found the prices too high. Bed Stuy was suggested, but when he
went there he found it too recognizable. “It reminded me a little of
Kingston,” he remembers. “It felt like home.” This wasn’t something
he necessarily wanted. He left home for a reason. But something
kept drawing him back to Bed Stuy. Eventually, he found
a space on a quiet cul-de-sac, which he still uses both as a studio
and exhibition space, and later a brick row house a few blocks
away where he and his partner, an emergency medicine physician,
would settle.
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