Nothing about 109 East Ninth Street screams secret art gallery. But then, a speakeasy wouldn’t install a neon sign reading “hidden hooch!” The façade of the five-story brick building, which may have been white at one point, is gray and graffitied. A bar sporting shamrock decorations dominates the bottom floor.
Call the gallery’s burner phone and the exhibiting artist will come down and open the door. These days it’s Daniele Frazier, who led the way up narrow stairs to an unmarked pewter-colored portal on the third floor. Inside is a bright, tidy room about a third the size of a subway car. This is SRO Gallery, an aptly named endeavor run by Patterson Beckwith, a founding member of the now-defunct Art Club 2000 (the collective’s work is currently in “1993: Experimental Jet Set and Trash, No Star” at the New Museum).
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