UPDATE: RED HOOK FIRE 2025

On the night of September 17, 2025, a five-alarm fire ignited at 481 Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn. This building housed Justin Neely's studio for the last 12 years. Stored within were 30 years of physical artworks, accumulated artmaking, computing, construction, and other creative materials from the same time period, an extensive personal library, and a lifetime of original and irreplaceable personal reference materials, including personal and artistic photographs and negatives, video and audio recordings of more than half a century.

Neely launched a GoFundMe a week after the event, as he realized how community-directed funds realistically were not likely to support his own recovery. It is also a call to all affected artists to do the same, so that the many helpers waiting out there for the chance to lift each person up can do so.

Update: October 5, 2025

"I'm moved and grateful for all the different ways people have made their presence felt to strengthen me at a time when I'd been feeling vulernable and exhausted. The generosity in giving and showing up physically has awed me, and it has also let me approach this with hope about what will come next. Thank you and I apologize for not communicating across all social channels and the GoFundMe as uniformly as I'd like, but I promise to share more once the most difficult immediate physical challenges pass." —Justin Neely