Photos of the Jewish Lower East Side were selected from Sid Kaplan's series and gracefully meshed with Steve Marcus' ghostly and humorous drawings of the East Side's vibrant Jewish community to create The Golden Medina.

Utilizing Kaplan's photos as backdrops, Marcus' playful sentimental drawings, along with his fun and frum Yiddish verse create a stunning and intriguing story that simulates time travel with a Rabbi and Dr. Seuss. The marrying of Kaplan's historic images and Marcus' underground comic inspired style brings the past to life in hunting beautiful works of art that promise to spark fond memories of the good old days in a vanishing New York.

Sid Kaplan and Steve Marcus crossed paths in fall of 2009 at the Mezeritch Shul on East 6th Street in Manhattan's East Village. Kaplan, who has been using his camera to chronicle the continual urban cycle of destruction and creation in New York City for the last 65 years, calls his life's work, The Vanishing New York.

Written and Illustrated Steve Marcus

Photos by Sid Kaplan

Through the Hat is a collection of works from NYC artist, Steve Marcus that include over 26 wood carved sculptures and ritual objects, more than a baker’s dozen hand drawn works of art on paper and custom synagogue furniture exhibited at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU in 2019.

Marcus seamlessly weaves his childhood memories of bagels and bialys, pickles and green tomatoes from the barrel, paper wrapped whitefish chubs and his personal journey and passion for his own roots and culture. He created a folk cartoon world that is the Kosher cousin of Alexander Calder and Underground comics and Red Grooms from his studio in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, once the stronghold of Yiddish Theatre.

Marcus's artwork sweeps the viewer on a journey through black hats and into Marcus’ delightful world. A world that Sid Kaplan, the legendary photographer and darkroom master of Vanishing New York fame, also an East Side resident. described as Calder’s Circus for Yidden.

The exhibition’s namesake, Through the Hat originates from a piece that was in a series based on a rare academic responsa by the Great American Novelist, Norman Mailer and his commentary on Philosopher, Martin Buber’s, "Tales of the Hasidim". Mailer's writings and reactions appeared in Commentary Journal, and published by the American Jewish Committee in 1962 thru 1963.

Artwork and Text by Steve Marcus

Commentary by Yanky Lemmer

Commentary by Dr. Ezra Cappell

Commentary by Dr Tanya Saunders

Commentary by Jackie Goldstein

Photography by Sid Kaplan

A collection of photos taken by Sid Kaplan that document, the Mezeritch Shul, the last existing tenement synagogue in the East Village of Manhattan and the last of its kind in the United States. This collection of photographs includes photos taken over the many years that Sid Kaplan attended weekday services there and religiously carried his 35 mm camera to services. Additional photos document the synagogues’ fateful last and final two and half hours before this neo gothic classical architectural gem that was in daily use for over 150 years was destroyed by developers to be repurposed as condos. Introduction written by Lower East Side Artist, Steve Marcus, who meet Sid Kaplan at the synagogue and also attended services there before its demise.

Written and Edited by Steve Marcus

Photos by Sid Kaplan

Sid Kaplan has been using his camera to chronicle the continual urban cycle of destruction & creation in New York City for the last 65 years and calls his life’s work “The Vanishing New York.” The photos that were selected and used for FARFALLEN, Remnants of the Jewish Lower East Side are accompanied not by Marcus’s usual hand drawn artwork but his poetry. Utilizing Kaplan’s photos as inspiration, Marcus’s playfully sentimental poems use a haiku structure to accompany Sid Kaplan’s stunning and intriguing visuals to add a few more words to Kaplan‘s pictures’ of a thousand words. This creative duo brings the past to life, sparking fond memories of the good old days by fanning the flames of hope and spinning tales of survival in a vanishing New York.

Written and Designed by Steve Marcus

Photos by Sid Kaplan

A series of photos by photographer and darkroom master, Sid Kaplan that showcase a menagerie of of images collected over many years of taxidermy shot on the streets of New York City. A unusual collection that is haunting beautiful, odd and fabulously hip.

Photos by Sid Kaplan

Written by Steve Marcus

Designed by Joseph Makkos