Leo Fitzpatrick

Leo did this interview and said that he visits an average of forty five galleries on a normal outing. This seemed like a lie to me. Or maybe not a lie, but an exaggeration. Even for the guy who starred in Kids and founded and ran the beloved Public Access gallery in New York City for years, this number seemed high.

Leo went on a gallery crawl counting the number of places he was able to visit and take in between noon and six in the afternoon, and that true number was fucking enormous. However, in his follow up email he said, ‘just to not seem like an asshole, let’s call it 20,’ so that’s what we’re calling it. Still, an enormous number signifying a certain compulsion, but if it’s a compulsion for art, then it’s an understandable one.

My favorite part of this interview with actor/artist/gallerist Leo Fitzpatrick is when he talks about feeling better after seeing art or music. He gets at something often lost and forgotten in those cultures, which is that these things aren’t supposed to be a social scene or an engagement to be dreaded. They are simply supposed to make you feel.

This is my favorite part of our conversation because it presents Leo’s perception with such clarity and ease. These things feel. That is what they are for. Art isn’t about being seen at the art show or the free wine in plastic cups. It is meant to elicit in you, something, and it is as simple as that. A simple idea that takes someone as blatant and clear as Leo to lay out for us, sitting across from him at his kitchen table in the East Village.