Stories by name

New York City: On a bright Saturday morning in New York City, Jon Gray is thinking about his next meal. ‘Peace beloved’, the text on my phone reads. The time: 10.43am. We are scheduled to meet at Jon’s crib in the Bronx that afternoon. I know this is a query about lunch. ‘Peace good morning’, I…

Milan: I first met Joan in 2015 when I brought her into the radio station where I work for a small, live concert. I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but I realised that this young girl with a guitar, who hadn’t yet found her musical identity, had something special. That girl has now become a…

Guadalajara: The work of Guadalajara-based artist Jose Dávila delves into opposing forces of gravity and resistance, and continuously examines both found and self-made configurations in the most basic forms of geometry. In his studio in Barrio Artesanos Dávila surrounds himself with raw materials like stones, blocks, slabs, and pieces of glass, all methodically arranged and selected…

Wahington DC: We’ve been living online for more than a year and, by now, connecting through a screen feels almost impossible. But when you meet someone like Joan E. Biren (JEB) over Zoom, her presence comes through even time zones apart. Maybe this is because she’s used to working through a lens while still being able…

I come back from the overflowing archives in which I was quickly snooping around in to find Javier Mariscal has gone back to painting the world. The world has a diameter of around 70cm and is the new idea in progress for the furniture design company Magis, a ball for kids aged two to six…

The insider view New York City: I visited Jeremiah Goodman at his high-rise apartment in New York, which is as chic as his paintings. His style is captivating and evocative of a more elegant, gracious era—the era epitomised by the illustrations he did for years for the department store Lord & Taylor. In Jeremiah’s paintings, ceilings…

Ateliers de la Petite Enfance Paris: We all share memories of our childhood, though some of them prove to be more cherished than others. And throughout adolescence and into adulthood, we have certainly heard a few stories about our own childhood from the people who have been close to us. In a similar way, we will…

Sound, noise & music Buenos Aires: At the beginning of the ‘90s Juana Molina was a famous comedian in Argentina, but during her pregnancy she realised she was denying her true vocation as a musician. She immediately abandoned television, and started her slow journey, which laid the foundations for the current international recognition of her hypnotic…

Mexico City in 2-D Mexico City: At the moment Mexico City is one of the most fun places in the world. There is a new energy, and new sense of freedom fuelled by a new generation’s rejection of the long dominating religious and political status quo. This has created a feeling of openness and experimentation, sexual…

When I came back to Los Angeles in March I had a friend visiting from Canada who used to drive me to Sqirl every morning for the drip coffee, which is thick and rich and comes in large quantities. I remember sitting in the sunshine with him outside the restaurant, really stoned one day, drinking…

Growing roots at home My girlfriend Mercedes and I have been tendering plants for about a year now. I would say she specially likes succulents and cacti, while I like ferns and moss. But what we have come to realize is that we like combinations—not only of plants, but of plants and the object or container…

The road leading to Jason Schwartzman and Brady Cunningham’s house winds its way slowly up a hillside above the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles County, and though the sunshine is dazzling the trees are hung with paper skeletons and cloth ghosts and the houses are wrapped in the sort of cobwebs that come out of…

In the exact geographic centre of Berlin, in a surprisingly anonymous part of the otherwise so-popular Kreuzberg area, stands a monumental building with massive concrete blocks and exposed surfaces. The building is St Agnes, a former church complex built in a brutalist style by architect Werner Düttmann between 1964 and 1967 as an iconic centrepiece…

The spirits of art and history Paris: I had never actually met Jean-Charles de Castelbajac before I was asked to interview him. But for some reason, and not only because he is a famous fashion designer and artist, I felt I already knew him personally before I even shook his hand. Is it because my husband,…

Paris: Designer Julien Dossena worked in the studio with Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga for four years before his appointment as the artistic director of Paco Rabanne in 2013. Charged with reviving the retro brand, the 35-year-old Frenchman has successfully translated the line’s ultramodern heritage into a womenswear wardrobe for today, featuring desirable, sportswear-inspired ready-to-wear and…

New old place The Argentinean painter Juan Tessi was born in Lima. He grew up in Chile, finished school in Buenos Aires and took his university studies in the US. He exhibited his work in Mexico, Buenos Aires, Rotterdam and London. At his 35 years, his nomadic way of life and constant moving made him…

Buenos Aires: Juan is an Argentine sculptor, painter and set designer, with a playful spirit and militant irony, leaving provocative footprints with his exciting sense of colour, and ethnic geometries, from the 1960s to today. Having lived in Europe for 40 years, he returned to Buenos Aires four years ago to settle in his home city….

Ocho Rios: I first met Jessica Ogden properly at her studio in South London in 2002, when she was running her eponymous ready-to-wear label. I remember her insisting that I meet her in her studio; if I was to promote her brand I needed to understand her ‘world’, for Jessica Ogden’s work was always very immersive….

New York City: Jessi Reaves has no closets. She suspects her narrow, railroad-style apartment, bursting with top-floor sunlight, wasn’t always a residential building. The two doors leading out of her spare bedroom also suggest a former alternate use. All her possessions are out in the open—with nowhere to hide. Her clothes casually present themselves on metal…

Simplicity New York City: For many people JD Samson represents a sweet mystery. All the fans of her bands and achievements (Le Tigre, Peaches band, Men, or any of the other many things she’s been involved with), or just her androgynous persona (I would normally forget to mention that simply because it seems so natural) seem unable…

Los Vilos: Juan Grimm is the leading landscape architect in Latin America and has now made a name for himself worldwide. Despite a dazzling career, he exudes simplicity and sensitivity, two key characteristics of his work. During the week he lives in an apartment in Santiago de Chile, but on the weekend he drives two and…

Under the radar & over the top New York: Jim Walrod is the most famous interior designer you have never heard of. Since opening his first shop on a desolate block on Lafayette Street in 1987, he has developed relationships with the widest range of legendary New York characters. If you’re an old-school rapper, graffiti artist,…

Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn is a noticer, but she doesn’t just notice what is hiding all around her. She knows that is not enough, so she plunges into action, whether it’s giving deserved exhibitions to longstanding artists who have fallen out of view or observing how intentionally placed contemporary art objects can suddenly open up dialogues…

Philadelphia: Jonathan Lyndon Chase is at the tail end of a breakthrough year. In 2018, from his home/studio in the Olney section of Philadelphia, the former Baptist-church usher has produced two back-to-back, critically acclaimed, sold-out solo shows: ‘A Quiet Storm’, at New York City’s Company Gallery in March, followed up quickly in June with ‘Sheets’,…

Valatie: We arrive at Camp Nest on a Friday at the end of February by driving up a private lane with Christmas lights still up two months postfact. Camp Nest is deep in Upstate New York and snuggled beside quite the literary homesteads—Edith Wharton, Edna St Vincent Millay, Herman Melville, John Ashbery—though more importantly, it is…

East Village ‘Realness’ New York City: Justin Bond is a singer/songwriter who became famous for his now retired character Kiki, the hilarious, elderly, alcoholic lounge singer of the highly celebrated performance team Kiki and Herb.  If you had the honour of catching them perform then you know that Justin’s reinterpretation of a pop song made you…

Jim Haynes once invented a verb to describe what he does. The verb is ‘to fuller’. Fullering, according to Jim, means to spend your time and energy joyfully. And the first payment for fullering is the happiness that comes from doing what you’re doing. Jim Haynes himself is a bona fide fullerer, and, as befits…

New York City: As both director and photographer, Jerry Schatzberg has been at the forefront and in the middle of every ground-breaking culture and every pop-culture moment since the late ‘50s—from his elegant and beautiful photography and fashion work for Vogue, Redbook, and Harper’s Bazaar in the early ‘60s to documenting the most important people on…

I first met Mariah Nielson about six years ago at a gallery on 24th Street in the Mission District of San Francisco. A mutual friend who ran the space had introduced us saying that we ought to know one another as we had many things in common. She explained that, like me, Mariah was working…

Round the world & home again Los Angeles: Joel Chen’s eponymous shop on Highland Avenue in Los Angeles is a mental and visual whirlwind. 30,000 square feet of seemingly endless space is filled to capacity by a sprawl of hand-chosen furniture and decorative arts that represent virtually all periods and every country. With another 20,000 square…

    Jules used a knife, then two forks to separate the meat from the greasy carcass, then shred it. The water in the saucepan was boiling now. Jules grabbed the two buns from the counter and placed them both in the bamboo steamer atop the saucepan, then put the lid on the steamer. He…

Javier Perés’ African art ‘Don’t believe everything you read on the internet’ is probably one of the best pieces of advice you can follow in the 21st century, and it is proving itself particularly true when meeting with Javier Perés. When entering his apartment in Schöneberg, Berlin, Javier welcomes you warmly with a cup of…

For the ages New York City/Twentynine Palms: In a corner of his Greenwich Village apartment, the artist Jack Pierson keeps a photograph by another artist, 19th century Frenchman Louis Igout. The picture shows a naked man in repose, his hands and feet carefully splayed at his sides, his small dark cloud of pubic hair a sort…

The thing to know about Rachel is that she’s a natural. Like a young Gena Rowlands, she plays each character with charisma and integrity. She really puts herself out there, and is exactly who she wants to be. As a person Rachel is sparkly and warm with good, wholesome values. Rachel is the wife and…