citylikeyou — Upstate — New York by Jason Koxvold

New York / Place

When I first moved to New York, enamoured by its parks and museums and design firms and restaurants and bars, I never imagined that there could be much more to its geography than that. How wrong I was. My first drive across the George Washington Bridge was jaw-dropping - the cliffs of New Jersey are astonishingly tall, covered in a dense thicket of trees. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Drive up 87 to the Catskills or the Adirondacks and you’ll witness the Hudson River winding its way through spectacular scenery and unforgiving seasons. Now I can’t get enough; just two hours up the road, it’s like the city never existed. Perfect recuperation after a long week.

Address
Upstate, North of New York, New York, United States

Photographer Artist

Current city: New York

koxvold.com

Jason Koxvold is a creative director at StrawberryFrog, artist, and co-founder of Renegade Pencils, an organisation that helps give children access to a creative education. His work has been exhibited at MoMA, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, RESFEST, SXSW and the Los Angeles Film Festival. He has held creative workshops in Singapore; glued reflective balls to interns in San Francisco; spent hundreds of hours photographing landfills in Tokyo; driven an ambulance across Europe and Central Asia to raise money to build schools; raced motorcycles in the Scottish grand prix series; been interviewed by the Russian FSB in a holding cell in the Arctic Circle, and by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Kentucky.

More Places in New York 452

New York / Museum

I love that there's a museum dedicated to American art, founded at a time when American artists were underappreciated. The exhibitions are curated with a broad but discerning eye, and the architecture is spectacular. In my experience it's typically much quieter than the obvious choices like the Met and the MoMA - although both are remarkable, there's something I love about the scale and style of the Whitney.

New York / Park

I read that the design of Central Park's curving spaces was a Romantic counter to the geometry of Enlightenment-era gardens. I heard this design was influenced by landscape painting, where its foreground, middleground, and background constantly shift as you walk the paths. I find new pockets and features every time I'm there. One of my favorite spots is with the Central Park Dance Skaters, a group that roller skates in circles all day to vintage electro funk. These characters generously lend you the feeling of being in your own 1980's New York film.

New York / Museum

Opened in 1985, The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography was created in order to preserve an unprecedented resource, Herb Lubalin’s vast collection of work. Its goal was to provide the design community with a means to honor Lubalin, and to study his innovative work. The collection also includes work by other eminent designers including Otl Aicher, Rudi Baur, Anthon Beeke, Lucian Bernhard, Lester Beall, Will Burtin, Lou Dorfsman, Karl Gerstner, Tibor Kalman, Alvin Lustig, The Push Pin Studios, Paul Rand, Bradbury Thompson, Massimo Vignelli, and many more. There is also a library of books and magazines about design and typography, an extensive collection of posters, myriad type specimen books and pamphlets.

New York / Bar

Warm winter holiday vibes all year long, especially during the holidays. A hint of the old NYC where one could be a functioning alcoholic by day and artist by night. Proper characters here, the lore is deep.

New York / Restaurant

My favorite restaurant to pop in spontaneously on a weeknight. Get the lamb burger with sardines and a mezcal negroni. It also has my favorite looking bathroom in NYC.