by Rachel Fershleiser

Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s Eric, 2005; c-print (courtesy of Envoy, New York)

allery director Jimi Dams clearly likes art in pairs. His Envoy Gallery maintains two locations (one in Chelsea, one on the Lower East Side), and this June his Chrystie Street space will present a duet of solo shows.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya’s photography is all about raw humanity. His portraits show lone subjects, often shirtless, photographed in his home. Each piece explores the relationship, whether love, friendship, or new acquaintance, between the artist and the model.

You’ll never recognize a friend or lover in Clint Jukkala’s abstract geometric paintings. These frenetic displays of color, line, and shape speak instead to the world around us, from city architecture down to microscopic circuitry and up to intergalactic space stations.

“I chose to have a dialogue between two solo exhibitions,” Dams explains. “It’s basically a communication between landscapes.”

Both exhibits run through June 30th; 131 Chrystie Street; envoygallery.com

Crude Creativity

ance DeGeneres is a sort of modern Renaissance man. He's good at television writing, producing, performing, being a Daily Show correspondent, and playing guitar in a rock band. What he’s not so good at is drawing.

But through the magic of humor and self-taught determination, he’s gained a following as an artist, creating crude James Thurber-inspired cartoons in paint and canvas. His June show at Aidan Savoy Gallery is titled Nudes and Robots, after two things he admires for their innocence, beauty, and forbidden appeal.

June 7th –June 30th; 175 Stanton Street; aidansavoygallery.com

Portrait by the Artist of the Pickle Man

© 2007 Zina Saunders

ina Saunders specializes in “chronicling the passions and perspectives of ordinary people.” Her website overlookednewyork.com showcases over one hundred fascinating New Yorkers with their own words and Saunders’s beautiful, colorful portraits.

She recently captured my heart with her profile of the Lower East Side’s own Alan, age 48, pickle purveyor. Check it out at drawger.com/zinasaunders to admire that eager smile and hear him tell how he joined the pickle business. “The first time I bought a quart of new pickles from Alan Kaufman at The Pickle Guys on Essex Street, it was clear that this was a man who was passionate about pickles,” Saunders says. More wonderful local food characters will fill the pages of her forthcoming book "Making Lunch."

zinasaunders.com