When you visit Jerry Lerner on West 16th Street, and I know this is a cliché, you never know what you are going to find. Only issue is, Jerry pretty much stays open, when it works for him and his staff.
"It's a store, but its basis is the needs of me and the people who work for me. The general public is there, but that's my biggest concern," said Jerry Lerner, Owner of No Particular Hours.
And the only way to know when Jerry is open? Check instagram. Hence the name No Particular Hours, a kind of year-round garage sale of stuff Jerry has collected over the years on his own, or was given to him by friends who were moving, cleaning out the attic, or yes, folks who died.
Lerner says these lava lamps, movie posters, pins, signs, beer cans, all trigger memories. He considers this his gallery, and these things, are art.
"When you see a cave painting on a wall of an animal chasing someone, someone looks at that and says better him than me or wow, I hope that doesn't happen. But it definitely triggered an emotion," said Lerner.
Lerner has been in this space since 1975, it was his machine and woodworking shop but a few years ago he transformed it into this combination art installation and store. Items cost as little as a quarter, to thousands of dollars.
"I try and be reasonable. I want to sell. I need to generate enough cash that I can pay my people and that we can have a decent lunch,” said Lerner. "To me graphically, that was an interesting composition."
Jerry believes art is not just about making objects, this is his gallery. And it's almost all for sale.
"Most of the stuff that I have here is found objects. So I didn't actually create them but I selected them out of the universe as something worth keeping," said Lerner.
Visit Instagram @NoParticularHours to learn more.