Born and raised in New York, Jeffrey Lewis leads a double-life, as both an illustrator and a singer songwriter. Both his music and comics are permeated by earnest storytelling and often self-depreciating confessions of his many adventures in the world, from heartbreaks to homeless nights on tour. In his self-published comic book series “Fuff” he constantly tries to fall backwards to see if the world will catch him. And so far it did. With a small but devoted audience, he’s been making a profitable career with his music and art by managing most of his business himself, from booking tours to making his own merchandise.

With a shy smile and a shaky voice, he welcomed me to his apartment in the East Village, a little palace of musical and literary treasures where you can glimpse the intriguing puzzle of his creative mind. His work is so self-explanatory that it seemed pointless to ask him about his songs or comics. So we talked about adventures, how art can change the world, the occupy movement and finally dug into some of his personal gems. Meet Jeffrey, the “cult boyfriend” – “lonely or worshipped for a lady in the know”.

Written, filmed. edited and sound by Barbara Anastacio

This Thursday, May 17, come view video art by the shape-shifting ladies of Symbols + Rituals, listen to music by 51717, and stare wistfully at all the beautiful objects and clothes at Maryam Nassir Zadeh. The event will be at the store at 123 Norfolk St., NYC, from 8 – 11 pm, with a live musical performance at 9:30.

Watermelon Mouse was created by Oliver Clark and is product his complex, insightful and inspired brain. Tune in regularly for instalments of  this by-product of our society.

Up this month at LAX/ART is a group show combining two non profit art spaces, New York’s Participant Inc. and Los Angeles’s LAX/ART. Curated by Participant’s Lia Gangitano, the show thoughtfully exhibits the work of artist Laura Parnes with the duo Lovett/Codagnone. Parnes’ video installation, titled County Down, takes from the aesthetics of traditional horror movies to tell the story of two young girls in a gated suburban community who trigger an epidemic of psychosis among the adults through the invention of a designer drug with potentially apocalyptic side effects. The video is episodic and highly reminiscent of both the optimism and style of the early 1990′s. In addition to the video, on display are photos and other arranged objects, such as like-size cardboard cut outs of the characters that directly relate to the narrative. County Down presents a strong critique on American consumerism as a means of destruction. The other half of the exhibit, featuring the artists John Lovett and Alessandro Codagnone, who have worked together under the name Lovett/Codagnone for many years, present Make Anarchy and Disorder Your Trademarks carefully twisting the known associations with understood symbols of power, revolution and protest. For example, two Mega Horns are joined together with leather straps and hung from the ceiling, creating an unique perspective on noise and power. There is also the ever classic anarchy symbol – an encircled A – which has been made into a large black and grey quilt, softening and domesticating and possibly changing the typical message the symbolism conveys. In addition, outside of the gallery a large, mostly blank billboard bears the image of a falling black and white American flag being supported by a crane. This subtle play on strong cultural signifiers elicits an interesting personal response, especially when contrasted with the work of Laura Parnes. This collaboration between the two non-profit galleries highlights the important role that these organizations play on each coast, offering an alternative viewpoint prominently supporting experimentation and innovation.

Participant Inc is up at LAX/ART runs through May 19 at 2640 S. La Cienega, 
Los Angeles. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11am – 6pm.

Top image: Lovett/Codagnone. Bottom image: Laura Parnes. Images courtesy of LAX/ART.

London’s perennially popular Frieze Art Fair descended on New York City for the first time last week with a roar, bringing with it Frieze’s famous custom-designed tent (this iteration designed by Brooklyn-based SO-IL), and unique programming around the fair’s temporary home on Randall’s Island. The Frieze Art Fair, organized by the inimitable duo Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, has for the past 11 years been exclusively a London affair—fortunately for New Yorkers and other art lovers, the Frieze empire’s expansion across the pond promises to be a positive influence on the New York art world by invigorating the gallery scene and applying some needed pressure on the staid Armory Show to step up its game.

Above left: Ben Schmacher at Bortolami. Courtesy of Bortolami Gallery. Right: Paulina Olowska at Galeria Foksa. Photograph by Pip Deely.

Justin Matherly. “Every body moves, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly (Dedicate to everyone).” Courtesy of Bureau.

Left: Virginia Overton. “Untitled (mirrors for Randall’s Island)”. Commissioned and produced by Frieze Projects New York. Photograph by Linda Nylind. Courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze. Right: Artist Uri Aran and curator Kalika Farmer.  Photograph by Pip Deely.

Uri Aran. “Untitled, (Ticket Shack).” Commissioned and produced by Frieze Projects New York. Photograph by Linda Nylind, Courtesy of Linda Nylind/Frieze.

Left: Henry Codax (a collaboration between Jacob Kassay and Olivier Mosset). “Untitled (Purple). ” Courtesy of Martos Gallery. Right: Ryan McGinley. “Marmoset (Horizon Blue).” Courtesy of Team Gallery, New York.

Leif Ritchey. “Green Tangerine. ” Courtesy of the journal gallery.

Left: David Adamo at Untitled Gallery (NADA fair). Photograph by Pip Deely. Right: Transcendental black metal band Liturgy at Essex Street gallery. Photograph by Pip Deely.

Our recently debuted issue features interviews with members of the New York graffiti collective the Peter Pan Posse, lead by Mint (a.k.a. Mikhail Sokovikov) and Serf (a.k.a. Jason Aaron Wall), along with a group photo by Michael Avedon. Get a preview by perusing Michael’s individual portraits above and below, then order the issue here.

Above: Mikhail Sokovikov. All images by Michael Avedon.

Left: Jacuzzi Chis (a.k.a Same). Right: PJ Monte

Click “Read More” for additional images.

Jason Aaron Wall

Left: Sean Kinney. Right: Beni Zooted.

Pablo Power

I heard a story that Frieze Director Amanda Sharp found Randall’s Island on Google Earth – the perfect location to introduce New York to the art wonderland she created with Matthew Slotover almost a decade ago in London. It was a clever move to have visitors leave the main island by ferry or school buses to reach the airy white snake lying by the river (actually a tent, designed by SO-IL, Brooklyn, for the occasion). Both clients and exhibitors seemed refreshed by the mini-adventure and in the right mood for business. And business is good, especially for local emerging galleries who see the additional costs that come with being present in a major art fair drop dramatically, while their contacts with potential buyers and curators increase. For Gabrielle Giattino, owner and director of Bureau, less economic pressure means more agency over the work she chooses to present,“With having the fair in our home city, we can show exactly what we want at this point, without worrying about shipping costs.” Hence the massive sculpture by American artist Justin Matherly displayed in her booth. The work, cast in concrete, involves both the building up and the “unearthing” of material. It carries a sense of deep melancholy, and the uncanny beauty of something missing or lost.

For Mathew Higgs, director of White Columns, participating in the fair is about the possibility of proposing something different to a larger international audience. The mythical, downtown, non-profit art space decided to work with members of Creative Growth, an art center in California providing professional studios to adult artists with developmental, mental and physical disabilities. “We are not a commercial gallery and don’t have to look after the career of our artists. We made a conscious choice to signal the fact that there are other contexts for art by showing the work of artists who entertain a different relationship to art-making. It allows another set of ideas in the narrative of the fair.”

Outside the tent, yet another narrative takes place with the Frieze Projects curated by Cecilia Alemani and sponsored by Mulberry. Responding to the fair’s location, the program includes eight artworks displayed across the lawns and in between the trees, almost playing hide and seek with visitors. Among them, the displaced landscape of Latifa Echakhch, dealing with the iconography of the American West, and consisting of two hundreds tumble weeds from Utah, frozen over the lush grass of Randall’s Island, as if the desert wind had stopped for a moment. The program also welcomes the shadow theater of Ulla von Brandenburg, which echoes in the booth of Parisian gallery Art Concept, with a series of drawings on paper. For Olivier Antoine, director of the gallery, and a regular of international art fairs, this first edition is extremely well put together and functions efficiently, but the space feels slightly too big. The structure of the tent, lingering from the north to south entrance like a long ribbon, reminds him of Manhattan. And indeed, the fair offers something similar to a wandering day in the city: walking from neighborhood to neighborhood, not feeling the distance, the eye constantly caught up by a new image, a new shape, by something never seen before that creates instant desire. Born and raised in London, Frieze may just have found its match in the islands of New York.

In 2009, when Adam Yauch first found out he had cancer, The Beastie Boys had to cancel a number of shows that they had committed to. Other artists stepped up to fill in for them, including Jay Z at All Points West. He dedicated his performance to MCA and opened with a cover of No Sleep til Brooklyn. It seems a good tribute as any, from one Brooklyn boy to another.

It was the evening when Venus and Jupiter were perfectly aligned and reached its closest point to the human eye. I was getting ready for dinner with the “godfather” of American avant-garde cinema – Jonas Mekas. Filmmaker, poet and curator, Mekas is a living monument. He fled his native Lithuania at age 22, trying to avoid German arrest at home for anti-Nazi activities. During war, he spent time in various forced labor camps until immigrating to America in 1949. It was only in New York that he picked up his first camera, a Bolex, and ever since he’s been capturing “fragments of paradise” of the world around him. His diary films encompass a wide range of experiences and events, from his early experiences at the Warhol Factory to frenetic glimpses of a summer spent with Jackie Kennedy.  He also co-founded The Anthology Film Archives, a cathedral of independent cinema housing over 70,000 historic avant-garde films.

In his numerous interviews and appearances, Jonas answered pretty much any question one can think of so it seemed redundant to take a formal interview as an approach. Instead, I abandoned any mental script of this encounter and tipsy with awe and wine I just sat back, watching and listening to Jonas and his “holy madness” unravel before me to the cadence of a meal.

Written, filmed and edited by Barbara Anastacio
Sound by Marcelo Oliveira

When I heard that our friend Alex Niemetz’s band was scheduled to drop a video for their single, I was stoked. Just in time for summer and pizza, Grand Rapids are a young, downtown New York-based country-garage band, and watching this today reminded me that, “yes, I do like rock and roll.” The band formed in 2009 and is comprised of Dan Lardner (guitar and vocals), Alex Niemetz (bass, occasional guitar and vocals) ,Peter Baumann (lead guitar) and Clara Balzary (drums). Their first official music video, Feels Like a Lifetime, was directed by Adam Abada. The video is for their debut single, which comes out May 21 on the Beggars Groups singles label, Too Pure. The band will be  playing May 26 with their East Village neighbors The Virgins at the Mercury Lounge, but don’t bother trying to get tickets. It’s sold out. 

Photograph by Eric Baumann
Video by Adam Abada