NEW JERSEY-BORN ARTIST, CURATOR, AND PROVOCATEUR JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLANI KEEPS THE ART UNDERGROUND ALIVE.

OLIVIER ZAHM — So, how did you end up living in New York?

JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLANI — I’m from New Jersey, so I’ve been coming here forever on the train. I come from where they filmed The Sopranos, Basking Ridge, which is a very WASPy, nice country-club kind of bull-shit area.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Do you mean it’s weird and artificial?

JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLANI — We were the only people with a vowel in their last names in town. No one came to our house on Halloween because they thought we were in the mob.

OLIVIER ZAHM — I’ve always wanted to do a fashion shoot in one of those residential areas.

JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLANI — You should do it in Deal, New Jersey. Do you know Deal?

OLIVIER ZAHM — No.

JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLANI — It’s all artificial. It’s all fake palm trees and barren lawns, like it’s the end of the world meets Barbie; essentially it’s a runway of seizure-like architectural mash-ups.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Fake luxury.

JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLANI — Oh, don’t even get me started on the fake… I should have worn my fake Balenciaga jacket. Speaking of fake rich, my parents have stone lions in front of their house. My mom decorates them for the holidays.

OLIVIER ZAHM — That’s fun. Tell us more.

JAMIAN JULIANO-VILLANI — My parents have a silk-screen factory, a t-shirt factory. That’s what that painting’s of. I grew up in an upper-middle-class house. I’m a twin. My family runs the business together, and I try to stay the fuck out of it....