“I wish you could meet Joshua. He’s so unassuming and shy,” Jesse tells me.

I quietly thank the universe for blessing Josh with talent. I don’t think I want to know the other “less exhibitable” releases for long-repressed fixation with mass-market icons. This will do just fine. Surely there’s commentary behind the paint, but I can’t bring myself to look there. The surface is way too much fun to ignore. If you can’t take your eyes off it, does that make it somehow brilliant? Whatever. Bold is beautiful. I privately thank the Dennings there's a place for it..

Showing until November 19th, mixed-media artist Joshua Abram Howard’s solo exhibit Novelties is busy shouting loud down on Orchard Street at the best-kept-secret gallery in the city: Invisible NYC. Okay, so it’s not like you need a password or anything to get in, but I can’t remember the last time I walked into a legit art gallery without getting stared down by the staff like I was some dirty loiterer. So getting to know Invisible does definitely feel like one of those whispers around town – the kind you desperately want to share. With a first floor East Village locale that immediately sets it apart from its Soho and Chelsea counterparts, Invisible is staking a welcome claim to the New York art scene. Only in its eight month of existence, it already fits like an integral part of the neighborhood. It’s young. It’s hip. And thanks to curator Jesse Lee Denning, it’s refreshingly snob-free.

“A lot of galleries give you attitude if you’re not looking to buy. Why have a gallery if you don’t want people to see the art? Success to us is about getting the artists, and their work, exposed.”

And judging by Josh’s month-long installation, that work is an intense type of original. Thanks to a unique subsidy, Invisible – which is booked solid with exhibits through mid-2007 – has armed itself with the freedom to showcase all that is risky and exhilarating about urban art. There’s only one criterion to meet in the gallery space: Jesse and her co-owner/husband Troy have to dig what you’re offering. Simple as that.

Same goes for the tattoo artists.

Meet Invisible NYC’s backside. Hidden behind the current offering of psychedelic art, you’ll find one of the most impressive appointment-only tattoo studios around. And while the gallery does financially fine, it’s the tattooing that affords this husband-and-wife duo the opportunity to run both shows on their own terms.

With Troy Denning at the helm of the ink crew – a team of tattoo artists he hand-picked and says he’s constantly learning from – the tats created at the back of the space match stride for stride the exhibits up front for their cutting edge quality. There’s no flash-art. No piercing. Just high caliber ink. And though Troy is straight up serious about his craft, the atmosphere in the private walled-off tat studio mirrors that of the street-side gallery: mellow. Mellow, yet laser-focused and edgy. By letting their art walk the walk, the Dennings have made that paradoxical triumvirate possible. Invisible’s location doesn’t hurt either. For now.

When scouting for a space for their dream collaboration back in late 2004, Troy and Jesse had all but given up on the East Village. And not for any other reason than the high price of real estate below 14th Street.

“We didn’t think we could afford it,” explains Jesse, who grew up in downtown NYC. “So we were looking in Clinton and Chelsea. [Then] one night my Mom was at a party and met the woman who owns this building on Orchard Street. She told her the storefront space had just opened up. We went down to check it out and both immediately thought, perfect. My parents’ first reaction to the neighborhood was, ‘Oh has it changed!’ It’s even changed from when I remember it. My parents remember the East Village as eclectic and artsy. I remember it as gritty. Now there’s a W Hotel opening up down here. A lot of the businesses are getting pushed out. It’s hard to be okay with that.”

Very hard. The thought of slick yuppie hotel patrons over-running Orchard Street is more than slightly demoralizing. But maybe that’s for later. Today the neighborhood still embraces the interesting – the singular – and Invisible is a testament to that. And conversely, the Dennings are quick to celebrate where they’re at.

“Below 14th Street – there’s just something about it. It feels like home. We love it down here. The neighborhood is non-judgmental. Our neighbors are all very friendly. The restaurants are great – Café Charbon sent us champagne for our grand opening, and the owner of Inoteca is now one of Troy’s customers. The shopping is great. The only thing we miss is a good magazine store.”

And if that’s all it takes to keep small, inspiring businesses like Invisible NYC right where they belong, hell, I’ll be out there tomorrow hawking magazines on the corner of Stanton and Orchard. Because right at the heart of it, there’s something extraordinary happening here: in one modestly-sized storefront space, witness art subsidizing art. Two forums colliding for the better and complementing each other in the most compelling of ways. And it’s all going down in a neighborhood storied for embracing what’s gutsy and new. Let’s hope it keeps on. For our sake and the sake of the Lego men.

Joshua Abram Howard’s exhibit Novelties is running now through November 19th. Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 8:00pm.

INVISIBLE NYC | 148 Orchard Street | PH: 212-228-1358

www.troydenningtattoo.com