I was lucky enough to go to be in New York before Keith Haring’s all-encompassing Pop Shop closed. It was open during a time before Museum Shops had little beyond t-shirts and postcards, and was a place to take home a little piece of Haring, if you were one of the zillions of fans who can’t afford an original. Opened by Haring in 1986 as an extension of his art work, the white space had all over Haring murals that covered pillars, walls, and ceiling (painted by the artist himself) as well as a bunch of Haring-character goodies to take home.The floor was once painted too, but was replaced in 1996.  On a super cool block of Lafayette, I remember buying Haring pins in between going to Liquid Sky then X-Girl, Kim Gordon’s girly line located in X-Large’s basement.

The Pop Shop ultimately closed its doors in 2005, when its lease was up for renewal for another year. Since the shop rarely turned a profit, the Keith Haring Foundation (which ran the shop after Haring’s death) chose to close, since the impending rent hike just didn’t make sense financially. Haring opened the shop to make his work accessible to everyone in a time when it wasn’t, but with the commercialized world we live in now, its easy to get pretty much anything emblazoned with one of his radiant babies. Only the ceiling of the all over mural remained when the shop closed, and the Foundation has allegedly saved it in pieces, which are in storage.

Who: Keith Haring

What: The Pop Shop

Where: 292 Lafayette Street, 10012