New York magazine’s Wendy Goodman goes inside artist Izhar Patkin’s loft. In ’94, Patkin bought a former East Village school and turned it into his home and in the past 25 years it’s been transformed numerous times. It’s an extension of his own work as well as a collaboration with other artists, including Scooter LaForge, who painted floor-to-ceiling murals in nearly every room.

I know both of these guys. Scooter is in a show in upstate New York, 69/19: Woodstock, Stonewall and the Moon Landing, in my Gallery 52. I met Izhar in the 80s when he showed (and was friends) with legendary gallerist, Holly Solomon. I designed her gallery’s graphics for a time. I hear these two are an item, but I’m not nosey, so I didn’t ask either of them to confirm. None of my business. I like the idea though. Two nicer (smarter, more talented, funnier) guys you couldn’t meet. See what I mean…

Watch.

Scooter Laforge, *Jerome in a Forest Fire*, 2019 from
***69/19 Woodstock, Stonewall and the Moon Landing*** at Gallery 52, Jeffersonville, NY

New York Magazine‘s Wendy Goodman, on a tip from gallerist Julie Saul, just shot Christopher Russell‘s rooftop escape, just one flight up from their Meatpacking District loft. A ceramic sculptor, Christopher and his wife, Gina, bought their apartment when there was still meat in the area.

“It was around 1990 and the neighborhood was very different, very quiet and out of the way.”

The old interior was, as Russell describes, “high tech” with “lots of gray and Formica.” After years of changes and renovations, the 70-square-foot rooftop room designed by sculptor-woodworker, Jeff Benjamin, has built-ins and rift white-oak-veneer plywood paneling, and feels much like a ship’s cabin. Russell says about the space;

“We talked to Jeff about what we imagined doing there. We wanted it to be the country house you didn’t have to drive to or keep snow-plowed. We fantasized a lot about long winter afternoons watching mystery shows together.”

The tiny structure was already on the roof when the Russells bought the space, but it was a standard Home Depot affair surrounded by a tar roof. It has since been transformed, as has the garden just outside the new door and windows.