Ari Marcopoulos

Frank, Cooper Square, 1995 (2024)

Lithograph co-edited with JRP Editions.

This six-color lithograph is based on a photograph by Ari Marcopoulos, Frank, Cooper Square, taken in 1995. The artist recalls that the photograph was “shot on St. Marks Place by The Cube … [a corten sculpture built in 1967 by Tony Rosenthal] a staple in the neighborhood, which was a popular place to meet in the early evening for skaters and friends. This was before mobile phones, so places to meet were crucial for spontaneous meetups.” Marcopoulos’ photograph captures the essence of a time and place when skate culture dominated New York City’s East Village.

Born in Amsterdam in 1957, Ari Marcopoulos came to New York in 1979 and quickly became part of the downtown art scene that included artists such as Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Robert Mapplethorpe. Since then, he has become recognized as a key documentarian of contemporary culture, chronicling the vicissitudes of his own family life, recording the emerging hip-hop and independent music scenes, extreme sport snowboard and skateboard subcultures, as well as local youth basketball games in his neighborhood of Brooklyn. His photographic output and editing style places you within intimate moments whether amongst friends, family, celebrities, or strangers—one steps into a life experienced through his raw and moving sensibility capturing the zeitgeist. 

He is an avid zine and book maker and his previous publications with JRP|Editions include Even the President of the United States Sometimes Has Got to Stand Naked for his exhibition at MoMA PS1 in 2005 and Within Arm’s Reach in cooperation with the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive for his exhibition in 2009. In 2024, we publish Almost Done, a selection of 600 photographs taken during the “Obama-Trump” era (2008–2018). His work can be found in the collections of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Whitney Museum of American Art; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; New Orleans Museum of Art; Detroit Institute of Art; the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; and the Fotomuseum Wintherthur.