June 14, 2020 Your Neighborhood — Your News®
Month xx–xx, 2019
LOCAL
CLASSIFIEDS
PAGE 7
A contractor paints over a Black Lives Matter mural in Gowanus on June 9, which developers claim was a “misunderstanding.” Photo by Gowanus Current
‘GARGANTUAN MISUNDERSTANDING’
Contractor mistakenly paints over sprawling Black Lives Matter murals in Gowanus
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A worker painted over a series
of Black Lives Matter murals on a
construction fence on Fourth Avenue
in Gowanus on June 9, in an
incident the developer of the site
claims was a “gargantuan misunderstanding.”
“This person did it with no bad
intentions. She simply thought
that she was doing the work she
was supposed to be doing. She did
not realize that she was accidentally
painting over the artwork,”
said Brian Ezra, a principal at Avery
Hall Investments, which owns
the lot between Sackett and Union
streets.
Passersby noticed the woman
slapping on a coat of green paint on
top of the murals Tuesday morning,
but she told one local she was
just doing her job.
“She didn’t speak much English
and I don’t speak much Spanish,
but she told me it’s not her choice,”
said Chris Reynolds, a Gowanus
documentary fi lmmaker who
posted a picture on Twitter.
Ezra said that the worker is an
independent contractor who usually
cleans up the developer’s construction
sites, occasionally removing
graffi ti. He claimed that
Avery Hall Investments did not
give her any directives to cover
up the artwork.
“She had no direction from us
whatsoever to go paint over the
artwork,” Ezra said.
According to Ezra, the company
reached out to one of the
artists, who goes by the name
Subway Doodle, to expand on it in
the coming days by attaching an
artwork to the canopy of the lot’s
disused gas station.
They have since asked the artists
to help restore the covered
works, which Subway Doodle catalogued
on his Instagram page
during the last week.
City buildings regulations
state that construction fences
“shall be painted hunter green,”
but offi cials have in the past
launched an initiative dubbed
City Canvas to allow artists to
paint over them to make them
more appealing.
The Fourth Avenue wall is
not under that program, but Ezra
said that, even though he wasn’t
sure about the regulations, the
artwork just “felt right.”
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