NEW YORK— In recent days an unusual exhibition has been assembling itself across nine galleries on the Lower East Side, based on Lush Life, the hit 2008 novel by that griot of the street-smart, Richard Price. Packed with grit and culture-colliding incident, the book tells the story of a murder investigation weaving its way through the downtown New York neighborhood. The exhibition, organized by Franklin Evans and Omar Lopez Chahoud, uses the novel as a template for talking about the Lower East Side, using each chapter as a jumping-off point for curated artistic takes.

A native New Yorker, whose penetrating understanding of urban life has enlivened his many books (including Clockers) and screenplays (including for "The Wire"), Price has also been a close observer of the art world for some time. ARTINFO spoke to the celebrated writer about his thoughts on the show, also called "Lush Life," as well as the way the Lower East Side has changed over time, the best movies about artists, and his daughter's pop-up gallery.

For more information about the exhibition, read Sarah Douglas' article on ARTINFO.

How did the "Lush Life" exhibition come about?

Risa Needleman at Invisible-Exports, who I met at a dinner party, just came up to me and told me what was happening. She said that it was a done deal already.

Could you see how your novel could be the basis for an exhibition?

Well yeah — I think their concept was that they wanted a book that they felt was definitive about the neighborhood. They could format chapters to those galleries and do a sort of walking version of the book just going from gallery to gallery. Each installation, from what I understand, is off a phrase or an incident within that chapter. I haven’t seen any of the work. There are a ton of artists. I saw a mock-up of the poster, that’s it.

Did you give any kind of input?

Well, they did a walking video with me on the Lower East Side of a couple of key places in the book, and they’re going to use that as some kind of video installation somehow, but I’m not sure where. I really am in the dark about this a lot. I know the theme of each of the galleries per chapter, but I can’t even imagine what the art is going to look like.

Are you flattered they chose your book?

Yeah, yeah, this is so unique. Sure, absolutely.

It’s a different format for an exhibition for sure, and the fact that it involves some of the best young galleries in the city today makes it especially exciting. And the neighborhood itself is fascinating, with all of its layers of history.

I think it's really more about the Lower East Side than the book. They’re going off phrases in the book. You know, it’s not like Ulysses and taking a walking tour through Dublin, seeing where Stephen Dedalus went. That’s kind of the basic literary walking tour. I’m just like anybody else — I’m dying to see what they’re doing. I haven’t really been involved in the Lower East Side for at least two years — I live in Harlem, you move on. So I went down on this walking tour, and what I saw was more of the same, advanced. And at the same time I saw stuff that gentrification will never touch. It’s pretty much the same, a couple more high-rises than before. But, you know, by the nature of the neighborhood you can’t really do all that much to it except tear everything down that's six stories high and replace it with bigger buildings. But working within the buildings you can’t do that much because they were built the way they were built.

I once stayed in a crumbling building down there. It was one of those Chinatown-landlord affairs, with whole families crammed into tiny apartments and a front door that doesn’t lock.

Yep, that’s in the book.

And now this clothing store opened about a block away that's selling $1,600 Swedish-made suits.

You know, the Chinese... the Fujianese are such a big presence there that no matter the $1,600 suits, they're always going to keep their people in business. But I'm wondering about the Hispanic people, you know, when a bodega goes and a wine bar comes in. That's the thing — they've been there forever and all of a sudden there's a "for rent" sign. The landlord just priced them out.