Alexander, the current owner of Frames For You, came to the United States from former Yugoslavia, where he was a film director. He could not be a film director in the United States “for many reasons,” he explained, but he wanted to find a job related to art in some way. In 1994, Alexander began working in the back of the framing workshop, because his English was not polished enough for him to work in the front. He told me that when the store originally opened in 1978, it was called “Frames by You,” and assisted customers in putting together their own frames and mats. The concept was popular in the 1970s, but was soon abandoned in favor of a traditional framing store, “Frames for You.”
Alexander's artistic life is not limited to his framing career and his past as a film director. In former Yugoslavia, he won an award for designing a restaurant. He has also dabbled in painting, and considers himself an art collector. He explained, "When you have an eye, it is easy to transfer from one artistic field to another." Much of the artwork that he has amassed over the years is on display in the store. It was interesting to learn that many of the pieces on the walls are products of the talents of his employees. For example, a photograph of a plane has been sitting in the window ever since I moved to the neighborhood. I notice it whenever I walk by, and always take note when it disappears, only to return to its customary spot a few days later. Alexander explained that the plane was photographed by a woman who used to work for Frames for You and that they have sold many copies of it - and each time it is missing from the window, someone stops in to inquire what happened.
While showing me some of his favorite framed pieces, Alexander told me that he works with everything from small family photographs to big projects for the Metropolitan Opera. I was shocked to find out that many of the picture frames that I have seen at Lincoln Center have come from this little workshop. Alexander also shared that he does smaller projects for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Natural History Museum, such as gifts for donors. In addition, Alexander has other well-established clients, including artist George Belcher. He even showed me one of Belcher's pieces that he was in the middle of framing: an intricately patterned work with several inches of depth. He informed me that pieces like this are often hard to frame, since they have to create a mechanism that can be opened so the nooks and crannies of the art can be cleaned. I asked him about his most difficult yet intriguing request, and he responded that the studio once framed a bottle of Chateau Latour surrounded by rose petals in a shadowbox for a client. After concluding my conversation with this charming man, it became evident to me that Alexander has come a long way since he first arrived from Yugoslavia and has found a perfect niche for himself in the New York art scene.
