The last time we quizzed Leo Fitzpatrick (actor, artist, and friend of OC as old as time itself) about his work was in his East Village studio. But it's his latest project, Home Alone 2 gallery, that led us to check in again with him. We popped by the space named after Hollywood's most famous aftershave burn (inspired by Kevin McCallister's striking resemblance to Edvard Munch's The Scream), which he runs with friends Nate Lowman and Hanna Liden. See what he had to say below, and be sure to catch the remaining shows in the current performance series.
Photos by James Parker
Sofia Cavallo: Thanks for having us! It's so quiet on this street; we just walked through Chinatown and almost had a couple of heart attacks.
Leo Fitzpatrick: Hey! Yeah his block is nice. With the park there, there's enough space so you’re not suffocating. For a lot of our performances, people will be on the sidewalk and nobody cares because we're not blocking traffic.
How have the performances been so far; is it purely a performance space now? 'Cause I was here for the Josh Smith show where he showed ceramics.
No, [Hanna, Nate, and I] wanted the space to change every month. But we're not necessarily a gallery; it's more a project space to let artists do whatever they feel like doing. And so every month, it can be something completely different, which is really inspiring in a weird way, because we're not limited to doing anything.
So this month we approached Christopher Garrett and Dana Dart-McLean, who are Breathing Works, and we said, August is such a quiet month, why don't you guys do a show? And they decided to do a performance based-show. So every week, there's new people coming to the gallery to do new things, which is really interesting because it brings new crowds. Basically we just want to work with artists who come to the space, look at the space, and then go home and reimagine it.
Josh Smith is obviously a painter, and I happen to know he likes doing ceramics. But maybe ceramics is a new thing to him and he doesn't know how to show it yet. And we don't sell anything necessarily, so this is a great testing ground to work it out and try things. This is something we want to try with lots of people: just give them a venue, and we take the loss. It's hard in New York––there are so few spaces like this anymore because the rent is so high. But I remember a time when there were a lot of spaces like this. It was more about the art and the scene than the gallery itself. More about a collective of people who liked hanging out.
How do you manage to keep a gallery open without selling anything?
Well we share the space with RxArt, so the rent is cheap enough that we can afford to take the loss. Even though we're coming out of pocket for it, we believe it's worth it. Something good will come of it. I've seen some people come along and say, "It's so cool, I didn't think things like this still existed anymore in New York!" And we haven't gone out into Brooklyn, even though that’s where everyone else is going. I like the idea of kind of keeping things in Manhattan for as much as possible. I like the idea that you can't price everyone out.
It's a very frustrating thing that artists can't afford to live in Manhattan; it's becoming so gentrified. Whenever I hear of people wanting to move to New York, I say move to Brooklyn, Manhattan is dead! Which it shouldn't be, a
Photos by James Parker
Sofia Cavallo: Thanks for having us! It's so quiet on this street; we just walked through Chinatown and almost had a couple of heart attacks.
Leo Fitzpatrick: Hey! Yeah his block is nice. With the park there, there's enough space so you’re not suffocating. For a lot of our performances, people will be on the sidewalk and nobody cares because we're not blocking traffic.
How have the performances been so far; is it purely a performance space now? 'Cause I was here for the Josh Smith show where he showed ceramics.
No, [Hanna, Nate, and I] wanted the space to change every month. But we're not necessarily a gallery; it's more a project space to let artists do whatever they feel like doing. And so every month, it can be something completely different, which is really inspiring in a weird way, because we're not limited to doing anything.
So this month we approached Christopher Garrett and Dana Dart-McLean, who are Breathing Works, and we said, August is such a quiet month, why don't you guys do a show? And they decided to do a performance based-show. So every week, there's new people coming to the gallery to do new things, which is really interesting because it brings new crowds. Basically we just want to work with artists who come to the space, look at the space, and then go home and reimagine it.
Josh Smith is obviously a painter, and I happen to know he likes doing ceramics. But maybe ceramics is a new thing to him and he doesn't know how to show it yet. And we don't sell anything necessarily, so this is a great testing ground to work it out and try things. This is something we want to try with lots of people: just give them a venue, and we take the loss. It's hard in New York––there are so few spaces like this anymore because the rent is so high. But I remember a time when there were a lot of spaces like this. It was more about the art and the scene than the gallery itself. More about a collective of people who liked hanging out.
How do you manage to keep a gallery open without selling anything?
Well we share the space with RxArt, so the rent is cheap enough that we can afford to take the loss. Even though we're coming out of pocket for it, we believe it's worth it. Something good will come of it. I've seen some people come along and say, "It's so cool, I didn't think things like this still existed anymore in New York!" And we haven't gone out into Brooklyn, even though that’s where everyone else is going. I like the idea of kind of keeping things in Manhattan for as much as possible. I like the idea that you can't price everyone out.
It's a very frustrating thing that artists can't afford to live in Manhattan; it's becoming so gentrified. Whenever I hear of people wanting to move to New York, I say move to Brooklyn, Manhattan is dead! Which it shouldn't be, a