Inspiration Spotlight: Artists Use Print to Raise Awareness of Disappearing Mom-and-Pop Shops

From bodegas to newsstands, delis and luncheonettes, this couple has recorded the closures of many of these family-owned businesses due to financially crippling rent increases.

To help raise awareness about their plight, the Murrays created “Mom-and-Pops of the L.E.S.,” a large-scale wood-frame sculptural installation designed to resemble a store. Each of the installation’s four walls is covered with a lifelike 8x12-ft. photograph of a neighborhood storefront from Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Three of these businesses have closed.