When Mikal Hameed opened up 99% Gallery and Art Center in Williamsburg in June 2010, it took off, presenting seven shows in six months showcasing prominent underground artists to large crowds, all while becoming the latest de facto haunt for Brooklyn’s cultural extroverts. By December, almost as swiftly as it emerged, 99% Gallery was closed. In half a year, Hameed launched and shuttered the promising business he built from scratch, lost his family, became the victim of possible embezzlement, and was forced to negotiate just to keep a roof over his head.
“I never tried to look at it [the art world] traditionally,” Hameed says in the unassuming Clinton Hill railroad apartment he moved to last December. His art pieces and commercial product prototypes take up nearly every inch of wall space. The apartment is also his studio, since he was forced to abandon the space he built up at 99 N. 10th St. in a contentious saga between Hameed, his former landlord John Mayer, and Vice Magazine Publishing.
The 99% Gallery Hameed started there was certainly unconventional; its first show in June 2010 was a fund-raiser for the space itself. The gallery charged $5 admission and patrons could bid in silent auctions on work from lots of notable figures in the street art and pop surrealist move-ments. Despite the cover charge the event was packed, and pieces sold.
Illustration by Carri Skoczek
