“The End Is Near” art show was held on Easter Sunday at the Mars Bar on First St. and Second Ave. The iconic watering hole has been hosting art shows for about 25 years. The place is expected to close sometime around June 1. On Sunday, crowds filled the narrow barroom for the art, for drinks and for the unusually warm camaraderie. Many locals have said Mars Bar is not so much a dive bar as a true neighborhood bar. This page, clockwise from above: A man showed off his red hands, from some undescribed artistic pursuit; Soho artist Pedro Lujan sketched a landscape while sitting at the bar; Mars Bar regular Joel Magee, who curates the art shows, hung an artwork on the wall. Opposite page, it’s hard to tell where the walls and ceiling stop and the art show begins.
