Cigar Sign Yields To New Outdoor Gallery Space

What’s black and white and ​“red” all over?

The answer to that old joke used to be ​“newspapers.” 

Today, the question could easily refer to a new billboard-sized art banner at a Fountain Street storefront in Westville center.

New Haven artist Tony Kosloski designed the banner, which was unveiled Saturday.

The unveiling of the giant 8’ x 24’ super graphic has launched Architect Eric Epstein’s idea to bring a rotating art exhibit to the highly visible building exterior at 12 Fountain St., steps away from the juncture with Whalley Avenue. Epstein and City Plan chief Karyn Gilvarg, his wife, own the building through a company called Three Coins LLC. Its current tenants include a wellness center and a tax consultant.

The inaugural art piece, a nearly full-sized, vinyl reproduction of a Kosloski painting, is a bold black and white, hard-edged image with a centralized blood-red splatter that reaches all perimeters of the work. Its title, ​“Execution Wall — paper for the controllers (head shot/life in the time of the assassins),” is no joking matter, and neither are the ideas that inform the making of this piece, one of a series of nine anti-Capitalism images made primarily in collage. ​“Execution Wall” is the only painted piece in the series dealing with issues of social, economic and political oppression, and assassination as a tool of control. The original painting was on display last year at West Cove Gallery for City-Wide Open Studios.

While not everyone will glean the political message of the painting. Of those that do, some may or may not agree with the artist’s perspective. Others may even be offended. Kosloski said he hopes that his ​“painting” will instigate dialogue: ​“If we’re artists, aren’t we supposed to do this?” Kosloski said he will be interested in community reaction to his work, ​“good or bad.”

“Five years after a cigar store in his building closed,” said Epstein, ​“people were still occasionally stopping in to the new businesses looking for cigars.” Old signage on the side of the building continued to boldly declare ​“Cigar House,” also indicating the store’s hours. In preparation for the installation, which included an electricians’ uni-strut system that allows art pieces to easily be swapped out, Epstein painted over the old cigar sign leaving but one remnant: a small circle of red that reads, ​“Fine Quality.”

Epstein, no stranger to public art, has previously donated space or participated in public art projects on that very same wall. Most recently, the wall was used for the giant interactive chalk board installation ​“Before I Die” during Westville’s Artwalk festival. Visitors were asked to write down goals on their ​“bucket list” — things they want to accomplish or experience before calling it a life. The installation was guided by art activists Alyson Fox and Valerie Belanger based on the work of New Orleans artist Candy Chang.

Several Artwalk iterations back, the wall was used for a giant streetscape of Westville building facades in which local artists and some Artwalk festival goers joined in to paint a 32 foot long community mural.

Epstein’s forays into public art have included the recent I Map New Haven project with Alyson Fox, as well as presenter and emcee duties at PechaKucha Night.

The newly dedicated wall space on Epstein’s building was also going to be used to occasionally advertise his tenant’s businesses. But Epstein has been inspired to continue curating art, including some of his original artwork that may be painted on hard panels, rather than presented as a reproduction. ​“This new space will be transformative for the building, and this part of Westville,” he said. ​“It’s the perfect place for this to be, because this is the kind of thing that happens in Westville.”