Since uprooting from Puerto Rico six years ago, Edwin David Sepulveda, 32, has tagged, tattooed and painted in locales from his new home of Bushwick, Brooklyn, to Barcelona, Spain, under the name Don Rimx.
But last month, raised 20 feet off the ground by a scissor lift, wearing a blotched sweater and respirator mask, Mr. Sepulveda methodically shaded his latest mural on the vacant ground floor of a 34-story high-rise where space leases for upward of $325 per square foot.
Under normal circumstances, Mr. Sepulveda would trade the institutional structures of Midtown Manhattan for a more artistic enclave, like East Harlem, where a mural he painted last summer made headlines after drawing scorn from the former City Council candidate Gwen Goodwin.
“Midtown isn’t used to this type of art. It’s straight corporate,†Mr. Sepulveda said. “My work is very out of place.â€
In an attempt to re-brand itself while promoting local artists, Equity Office Properties Trust, which owns 5 Bryant Park and a few other buildings in the area, commissioned Mr. Sepulveda’s “3/4 of life = water†in February: A kaleidoscopic woman kneeling by an ocean, the mural symbolizes water’s abundance and scarcity.
Patrick Smith, a real estate agent charged with leasing the retail space, said a temporary store, perhaps one selling sweaters, might normally take up interim residence in the 15,000 square feet of raw, gutted concrete that was a Staples store for more than 10 years, with the address 1065 Avenue of the Americas.
Last January, the Staples moved. Drop-down ceilings and heating and ventilation systems were discarded. Glass facades were installed to create “art gallery space that really didn’t get discovered until someone started swinging a hammer,†Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Sepulveda, who works marathon painting shifts stretching as late as 2 a.m., became an art spectacle, stopping work multiple times, he said, at the sounds of banging on glass from curious passers-by.
“You wouldn’t normally see this out here so it catches your attention,†said Justin Huebener, 30, a marketer overseeing the project. “It leverages the juxtaposition of the unexpected and what is normally considered a corporate environment.â€
Not to mention clients love it.
Recently, Mr. Smith began a tour for one prospective tenant in front of Mr. Sepulveda’s first mural in the space, a 24-foot-high, 100-foot-wide medley of color he collaborated on with three artists in November. It’s a selling point Mr. Smith now uses routinely.
A gym, Blink Fitness, and a juice bar, Organic Avenue, have already taken up residence there and, according to Mr. Smith, a number of deals are pending for the remaining space. And although he and Mr. Huebener are optimistic that whoever takes over will incorporate Mr. Sepulveda’s work, business does come first.
“Ultimately there is still a mortgage on the building and we still have to lease space,†Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Sepulveda is unfazed at the prospect of his hard work disappearing overnight.
He is also content with the pay, the amount of which he wouldn’t reveal, and thrilled with the free rein that Equity Offices has given him to create indoors on a large scale.
Besides, Mr. Sepulveda started as a graffiti artist. He knows nothing is permanent.
“Maybe people love it and it’s here forever, or maybe they sell it and the new guy doesn’t care about it,†he said. “It’s an ephemeral thing; as an artist you’re clear about that.â€
This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: March 20, 2014
An earlier version of this post misidentified a former City Council candidate who complained about a mural. Her name is Gwen Goodwin, not Glen.
