ALEX PERGAMENT

Alex “Maverick” Pergament is the creative director and co-creator of Prototype 237, a maker of interactive wooden sculptors, and an improvisational musician and bandleader. Alex is also an intellectual property attorney.

Alex fell in love with community living and interactive art simultaneously at 660 Studios in Jersey City, where he was an artist-in-residence. Alex started creating interactive community events with After School Activities, a weekly open-forum for improvisational art that organized over 250 shows between 2017-2020. In 2020, Alex had his first solo gallery show, Touch Touch at Smush Gallery in Jersey City. The show featured 10 collaborative and deeply interactive wooden sculptures.

Alex is the leader of the wholly improvised Just Now Orchestra, which released its first album, Doug, in February 2020 (Spotify and Apple). He is also a member of the three-piece band yuuge, which released its first album, Inauguration Day, which was fully improvised on January 20, 2016 (bandcamp). yuuge recorded its second album, Too Much Purpose, fully improvised on January 20, 2020.

Alex is a High Honors graduate of the George Washington University Law School, where he was a Notes Editor of the George Washington Law Review and was admitted to the Order of the Coif. He currently serves as a career law clerk to a federal judge on the US Court of Appeals, where he drafts opinions and advises on issues of intellectual property, administrative law, veterans law, and takings law.

Alex previously worked as a litigator in some of the top law firms in the country, before deciding to practice art. Alex provides pro bono legal perspective to several arts organizations and individual artists on matters of contract law and intellectual property law. He also serves as an advisory board member on the Jersey City Arts Council.

Alex graduated with honors from Rutgers University with degrees in Genetics and Philosophy, where he was a Henry Rutgers Scholar and earned the Jacob Cooper Logic Prize in philosophy.

Alex came to the United States as a refugee from the former Soviet Union in 1989 along with 16 other members of his family.

Selected Additional Projects

More Sound Music Residency, co-creator, 2019-2020 – provided recording time, performances, and rehearsal space for four emerging musicians in Jersey City

Helga & Carl, creator, 2017-18 – a roving interactive installation in the form of a 8’x8’ book made up of over 30 interactive collaborations. Sponsored by a Blueprint Fellowship and featured at the Figment Art Festival.

Archetype Gallery, Stage Director, 2016-2019