Seaside Stories

Local

The streets of Brighton Beach are, among many other things, a runway of winter style. Under the shadows of the elevated B/Q train parades a vibrant safari of vermilion lipstick, glossy leather boots, and banded fur.

CITYNOTES
Kelly by the Numbers

Local

Even as opposition to one of his staple policies grows, so too does Ray Kelly’s approval rating.

An Animated Life
RALPH BAKSHI with
Gregory Smulewicz-Zucker

Express

Bakshi, who grow up in Brownsville, is one of the pioneers of American animation.

Ishmael Randall-Weeks with Alex Bacon

Art

Alex Bacon recently sat down with Ishmael Randall-Weeks to discuss the artist’s thoughts on utopia, audience, community, and futurity. Randall-Weeks’s work is on view at Eleven Rivington (Quoin, January 10 – February 10) and the Drawing Center (Cuts, Burns, Punctures, January 17 – March 13).

MITCH LEIGH with Phong Bui

Express

On the occasion of the legendary composer/musician/producer’s 85th birthday, Mitch Leigh welcomed publisher Phong Bui to his Upper East Side office to talk about his life and work.

ABC for/of Richard Tuttle
An epistolary interview with Jarrett Earnest, pt.3 “P-Z”

Art

If Kant hadn’t been more hardworking than us, would we read him?

Thomas Cahill with Phong Bui

Art

Studio in a School President and CEO Tom Cahill and Publisher Phong Bui were tied up with their end of the year demands until recently when they finally had a chance to talk about Cahill’s life and work over a visit to Studio in a School’s Upper West Side headquarters.

LINDA FRANCIS with Ben La Rocco

Art

Linda Francis has been making paintings and drawings since the early ’80s using concepts in astronomy and physics as the starting point of her thinking and exploration of form.

Dear Reader

Much lies before you, so I won’t keep you long except to tell you how this came about. When Phong asked me in mid-December to edit the February issue of ARTSEEN, I thought, that’s impossible.

Life of a Happy Man

Art

The legendary avant-garde filmmaker, poet, archivist, and activist extraordinaire Jonas Mekas just turned 90, and his output is as unflagging as ever.

The Uses of Richard Pryor

Film

There are a few things that everybody knows about Richard Pryor: that he lit himself on fire in a suicide attempt while freebasing cocaine; that his stand-up revolutionized the form and altered the terms of American race relations; and that the movies he made were, for the most part, very bad.

Associate

Fiction

The day was just beginning its slow collision into night when I stepped outside that morning, the sky still a deep blue, the air fresh and powdery-smelling, suggesting babies. I was feeling newborn myself: new thermos, new tie, new manila folders inside a new leather satchel.

JUSTIN PECK with Ryan Wenzel

Dance

When New York City Ballet announced last year that it had commissioned Justin Peck, hopes were high that NYCB had found a fresh talent to add new ballets to its incomparable repertory.