Bookshops, busts, and clay

Read well at Codex, witness freak-show ceramics in the Lower East Side, and learn the art of the potter's wheel

A second-hand bookshop with character and charm, you say?

One that plays The Velvet Underground and Squeeze on an actual record player?

A bookshop that is not a sprawling, faceless supermarket of over-thumbed tomes?

At ease. My prescription is Codex.

Small and chilled, with an artfully curated selection, this bookshop of your dreams is on Bleeker at the junction with Bowery, right opposite the Blondie mural.

I bought my favourite book. Again. Because it was there. Because I don’t have a copy on this continent, and because I never tire of reading about the death of the American Dream.

I’ve started taking private commissions of Art Deco architecture, such as New York’s American Radiator Building, above.

The commission can be of your home, or favourite building, and can be any size, from around 10x12 ins to huge wall-sized skylines.

I’m also happy to work on site-specific inserts - such as the artwork for the panels of a room divider or a bricked-up window recess.

I’m currently taking commissions for the holidays, but this will be an ongoing offering. To discuss your requirements, you can contact me here.

There’s an other-worldly presence in the Lower East Side.

Under the Skin is an exhibition of human busts by the sculptor and ceramicist Elise Siegel.

I say ‘human’ but they’re more human-esque. There’s something of the Pompeii casts about them.

I particularly love the life-size models - with hollow eye sockets like Tragedy masks. The pepper-pot-sized ones have a spectral, freak-show quality that also grabs the eye, and holds your gaze.

It’s at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects on Forsyth until December 9th.

I’ve always fancied myself as a quick learner when it comes to anything creative, so I was excited to try Introduction to the Pottery Wheel at Studio Barro in Greenpoint.

Sadly, my hubris did not match my actual abilities, which were comically awful for the majority of the 90-minute class. The studio is in an atmospheric old warehouse on