Jon Jarrah, Tour Guide at The Met Museum

So we share the same Sinead O’Connor t-shirt. Tell me about that and your style in general.

I love Sinead O’Connor. She’s one of my absolute favorite singers. It’s probably a tie between her and Fiona Apple. I got the shirt from Assembly New York, which I’m sure you did as well. It’s the one thing that brand seems to have at all times, they never get rid of it. It’s a classic. I was actually just there the other day, looking at some of their stuff. They’re super cool. For my own style, I actually buy most of my clothes secondhand. Everything I’m wearing right now is secondhand except for this t-shirt, which is from Amazon. The bottoms are Sacai, the vest is vintage Matsuda, and the bag is an old Tod’s bag.

You know what you’re doing. I’m also obsessed with the shoes. 

They’re Camper. I know, right? But most of my clothes are second-hand. I always have to promote my favorite second hand store in New York. The bottom is from a store called Harley’s NYC, which is in the Lower East Side. It’s the best in that the people who buy for it have excellent taste, but they’re not label obsessed. They’ll buy cool vintage or from cool random brands. A lot of New York secondhand stores are so buzzy and brand focused, it’s absurd.

Tell us about your job at The Met. 

I’m a guide at The MET for highlights tours. Basically that means I select works from different collections I’ve researched and write my own tours. So every guide does totally different tours. I’m a baby because I haven’t been there that long, but most of the guides have been there for decades and will do more focused collections and tours. They’ll do a deep dive on one category of art or one part of the museum, but my tours are all over. I’m there on Saturdays, if you want to come take a tour with me. 

Absolutely! Is there anything you’re looking for here at The Armory Show?

I’m always just looking to find new artists I’ve never heard of. I usually walk around, take pictures of art and the artist’s name, and then go home and obsessively read and learn more about them. 

Do you have any art obsessions at the moment?

Good question. An artist I’m always championing is Sue Williams, a painter who’s been around for since the 80s. She’s represented by 303 Gallery and in her early 70s. I love her because she doesn’t hop on trends too much. This is my personal opinion, and I’m not representing the MET, but I feel like a lot of artists can have their careers boiled down to one or two bullet points because they find something that works and just do that forever. But she’s done a really good job of evolving and changing her practice while still having a consistent thread, but not getting gimmicky, and she’s just fucking awesome. 

(IG: @the_real_jjarah)