Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Kraine Gallery Bar (short for Ukraine) 🇺🇦 aka KGB Bar was founded in 1993
Kraine Gallery Bar (short for Ukraine) 🇺🇦 aka KGB Bar was founded in 1993 by Denis Woychuk on East 4th Street in the East Village. The building it is located in was once home to the Ukrainian Labor Home, a private social club for Ukrainian Socialists.
When we interviewed Denis and photographed the bar, he told us his father, a Ukrainian immigrant was a member of the club, and that when he first opened the bar he deliberately did not have a sign outside as the space “was a true speakeasy, a Lucky Luciano joint during Prohibition” called the Palm Casino.
Today, the 2nd-floor bar remains decorated with Soviet-era posters & memorabilia found by Denis and there is also a performance venue and a 3rd floor speakeasy style “Red Room” serving gangster-inspired libations.
• • • • • • #storefront #speakeasy #speakeasybar #ukraine🇺🇦 #jamesandkarla #eastvillagenyc #bars #ukrainian
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Guerra Paint & Pigment 🎨
Guerra Paint & Pigment 🎨 is a very unique family-owned shop which was founded in 1986 and is well known among artists for its huge selection of water based single pigment concentrates made in small batches “the old fashioned way” in ceramic mills. The husband and wife owners Jody Bretnall & Seren Morey had to close their wonderful storefront location on East 13th Street in the East Village (as seen in our photo) in 2022 after the new landlord of the building tripled their rent.
Thankfully they were able to consolidate their business to their Williamsburg, Brooklyn warehouse and continue to provide their vast selection of paint pigment choices including many historical, rare and extinct colors collected by founder Art Guerra who passed away in 2021. We miss seeing this shop and its wall of colors. Let us know if you have purchased pigments and paint-making supplies from this lovely shop as we recently met an artist in South Florida at an art fair who told us that he gets all his pigments from the shop.
• • • • • • • • #storefront #artist #artistsupport #pigment #artsupplies #jamesandkarla #disappearingfaceofnewyork #abstractpainter
