I first met Aaron Rose shortly after he opened Alleged Gallery on NYC’s Lower East Side. The group of artists he assembled (many of which I was fortunate to collect) became known as the Beautiful Losers.  In looking back, they were less street artists than a community of “outsider” artists. Many are now represented by leading galleries and are in major collections around the world.

Aaron and I reconnected recently when he was in NYC to host an exhibition at The Hole in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Beautiful Losers documentary (first released in 2008).

Honored and thrilled that he agreed to do a Q+A.

 

Read on below.

 

What is something your friends would consider “so you”?

• Well I guess the most obvious answer would be the stingy-brim hats that I’ve worn every day for over 20 years. Most believe it’s surgically attached to my head.

What’s one thing about you that surprises people?

• Believe it or not, I’m quite shy when I first meet people and I’ve heard that some think I’m a snob. Once I get to know people I’m actually very open, but I can maybe give off a wrong first impression sometimes.

 What are some of your personal “rules” that you never break?

•  1) Fly low to avoid the radar
• 2) Always see both sides of a story  
• 3) Make the bed every day, no matter what.

What do you regret not doing or starting when you were younger?

• I wish I had taken my filmmaking seriously 10 years earlier than I did. I feel like now I’m always running to catch up.

What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives?

•  A cocktail of LSD and MDMA. 

 What game or movie universe would you most like to live in?

•  Jim Jarmusch’s “Stranger Than Paradise”

What’s your favorite country/city to visit?



• I feel most at home in Berlin.

Three people alive or dead that you would like to have dinner with?

• Jean Genet, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nikki De Saint Phalle

What’s the first career you dreamed of having as a kid?

• Garbage Collector. Still consider it sometimes.

Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your 18-year-old self?

• What you are doing right now is the most important thing you will ever do. Don’t waste it. 

What does success mean to you?

• To be content within myself and able to create with reckless abandon.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

•  If you meet someone and after they leave, you feel like you’ve lost a quart of blood, then avoid that person. 

What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?

• Becoming a parent.

What are you working on now?

• My first feature film and transcribing a collection of poems I wrote in my 20’s for an upcoming book. 

If you had to choose only 3 adjectives to describe yourself, which would you choose?

• Patient. Patient. Patient.