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Jeff Perkins is an artist and filmmaker living in New York City. In 1963, while stationed by the US Air Force in Japan, he struck up a chance friendship with Yoko Ono, which led to an association over the ensuing decades with John Lennon, George Maciunas, Nam June Paik, and the Fluxus Art Movement. After moving to Los Angeles in the late 1960s, Perkins worked for the Fox Venice Theater, managed Cinematheque 16, and co-founded the psychedelic light show group Single Wing Turquoise Bird, which performed with the Velvet Underground, Yardbirds, Cream, Sly and the Family Stone, and others. It was in Los Angeles that he developed a creative relationship with abstract expressionist painter Sam Francis. Making film and audio recordings that date from 1968 to 1977, Perkins created an expansive collection of footage of the artist, both at work in the studio and in intimate conversation.
In 1981, Perkins returned to New York, where for the next twenty years he drove a taxi to support his artistic endeavors. After the death of Francis in 1994, and with support of Jonas Mekas, Perkins revisited that remarkable footage to create his first feature documentary, 'The Painter Sam Francis'. Since its completion in 2008, Perkins has traveled worldwide to present his visual, audio, and conceptual works.
In the last two years Perkins has been traveling around Europe and America to film interviews with friends, family, scholars and professional associates of George Maciunas and Fluxus.
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