(Top) My invite to Anna Sui's show at Fashion Week. (Bottom L-R) Macy's ad from American Vogue, the shirt I designed, and editorial spread from SPIN magazine.

On a 1995 trip to NYC meeting with galleries, I happened upon Anna Sui’s SOHO shop. I was immediately drawn to the cool purple and black color scheme that jumped out from the rest of the dreary gray buildings. Once inside, I noticed all the cool rock posters decorating the shop. My first experience seeing Frank Kozik’s work. Of course, I thought my work would fit right in! So, I showed my work to the salesperson, who asked if he could keep my book for a few hours. I was a little skeptical (not trusting the big city), but agreed. I surprised when a little while later I found out the Anna herself wanted to meet with me! One of my paintings had struck a chord, and was in line with the theme of her upcoming line. So, I was fortunate enough to meet with Anna and her assistant Thomas at her Times Square office. I was commissioned to convert the painting into a silk-screen design. Soon enough, the shirt had appeared in American Vogue in a Macy’s ad and a fashion editorial in SPIN magazine. She was also kind enough to invite me to Fashion Week in NY to attend the show. I’m super grateful for having such a great opportunity and having cool people like Anna believe in me.

Spike Lee speaking at Miami-Dade Community College in front of Joey Seeman's "Red Bondage" painting ca. 1993.

More from the “Did you know?” files:
Waaaay back in 1993 when I was just a baby artist, I had several paintings in a student show at Miami-Dade Community College where I was going to school (yes, that was my student work). Spike Lee was in town to promote a movie or something, and was speaking at MDCC. So, they set him up in the art gallery. Luckily for me, Spike insisted on being set up in front of my pieces for the press conference. Cool contrast with my red devil, hahaha. Back then Spike was creating aall kinds of controversy with his politically charged films.
Thanks to Markham Keith Adams for snagging the moment for posterity.

Courtney Crave at Joey Seeman's studio

So, not really a sneak peek…but more of a behind the scenes. Here’s a couple of shots from a recent session with the lovely Courtney Crave captured by photographer Mark Kaplan. I wanted to show what goes into my creative process and how I work. The top photo of Courtney ended up inspiring one of my main pieces for the Masquerade show. Pictures to follow after the opening!

Joey Seeman in the studio with Courtney Crave by Mark Kaplan

To see more of Courtney (a lot more!) stop by her website: http://courtneycrave.tumblr.com
And to see more of Mark Kaplan’s work, check out: http://nakedlens.org

So if you want to take a trip in the waaaay back machine, someone was clever enough to scan the whole issue. you can check it out here: http://issuu.com/juxtapoz/docs/juxtapoz_no4

So, I was digging thru my old files when I realized that we’re coming up on the 16th anniversary of the The Monster Show! The Monster Show was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art-North Miami (MOCANoMi) and was curated by Bonnie Clearwater. I remember Ms. Clearwater coming by for a studio visit at my old South Beach apartment, not really much of a “studio”, but she was very kind. She chose 3 small paintings on acetate of devils to go with the “monster” theme (that’s mine in the light blue square above). I was fortunate enough to have my work shown alongside the legendary Cindy Sherman, which was a huge thrill. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, I also got name-checked in the same sentence as her in the press (see highlighted press above)! In case your wondering, the 3 pieces are now in the private collection of my mom. They still have the show listed on the http://www.mocanomi.org/exhibition-archive towards the very bottom.