Interesting read by James Panero in New York Magazine on the fall of NY art dealer Larry Salander, with the best art market quote I’ve read in a long while.
Technorati Tags: Larry Salander, New York Magazine, art market, old masters, James Panero, art
Left this out of my weekend post, but there’s a project opening tonight, The Long Weekend, being put on by Phantom Galleries. It features a bevy of artists doing storefront installations and performance-based work, including two of my favourite comrades in arms, Danial Nord and John O’Brien. Other artists involved include: Jordan Biren, Corrina Peipon, Ashley McLean Emenegger, MaryLinda Moss and Nikii Henry, Cielo Pessione, Astra Price, Natasa Prosenc, Joseph Santarromana & William Roper, Evelyn Serrano, Suzanne Siegel, Kyungmi Shin and Todd Gray. Taking place at 680 E. Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena 91101. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 7-10 PM.
Technorati Tags: Phantom Galleries, The Long Weekend, Danial Nord, John O’Brien, performance art, video art
Eddie Izzard + LEGO + Star Wars = Joy
Thank you C-Monster for showing me the light on this. Apparently, for some reason, there are a lot of Eddie Izzard routines animated in LEGO on YouTube. Thank Cthulhu for the 21st Century.
Man I am beat. I’ve been sick as a dog for over a week now, and it’s really got me out of action, here and everywhere else as well. Reviews of California Video and Allan Kaprow: Art As Life coming as soon as I catch up on my “real work” and get my head together. There’s a lot to do this weekend, especially Saturday night.
Friday, March 28
Saturday, March 29
Labor Day, @ Occidental College. A Happening, part of Art As Life, students will move around a cubic yard of sand and drive a car in circles, stopping once per lap to remove and reinstall the car’s wheels. Starting at Occidental College at the Mullin Sculpture Building at 8 AM, it will go on until dusk.
PIX @ Torrance Art Museum. Group show of “some recent photos from the post filmic era.” Featuring works by Stephanie Allespach, Bia Gayotto, Todd Gray, Micol Hebron, Audrey Mandelbaum, Douglas McCulloh, Kyungmi Shin and Daniel Wheeler. I recommend seeing anything that Doug McCulloh is doing, he has incredible range as an artist, and he’s a true mensch. I’ve been into Micol Hebron’s work since she crossed my doorstep in the Pato Hebert curated exhibition of Art Center faculty at Angels Gate, 110%. Also opening at the same time, in their project space is Eye/I, an exhibition of photographs, photo-drawings and photocollages by Jim Farber. Opening reception is from 7 -10 PM.
Macha Suzuki, Walk, @ Sam Lee Gallery. I’m not sure if Macha Suzuki’s Minor Threat (image at top) is meant to be a riff on Cai Guo-Qiang’s work, but if it isn’t, it should be. Fun sculptural narratives from Macha Suzuki in this show, and Sam has personal fave Christine Nguyen in the Project Space, an excellent paring of artists who explore the fantastic in novel ways. Reception is 6-9 PM, and it’s in Chinatown, so there may be other stuff to see as well.
Homenaje @ Crash Mansion LA. An evening featuring music by Roy Ayers, and Najite with Tony Allen on drums. Tony Allen is the percussion god who, along with Fela Aniakulpao Kuti made some of the best music ever played, recorded or heard as they defined afrobeat. If I could choose a heartbeat for my funky future robot revolutionary self, it would be the unstoppable rhythm of Allen’s drums. It’s $25 at the door, and even my cheap ass would consider that a bargain. Doors open at 8 and it goes till 1 AM.
Ganja & Hess @ Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre. My understanding is that the Cinefamily have borrowed the Museum of Modern Art’s 35mm print, the only director-approved cut, of this horror classic. Probably the only chance you will ever, ever get to see this, the final installment in their Holyfuckingshit: Funkadelic Fairy Tales lineup. $10 @ 10:30 PM.
Sunday, March 30
Artist Talk with Matthew Thomas, @ Angels Gate Cultural Center. Gotta pimp myself here. Matthew’s show, Too Busy For Love, has been a riot, he’s sold a ton of work (which is pretty unusual for AGCC, since we’re not a commercial operation) and we’re going to be very sorry to see it come down on Monday. Get your last look at the show, and a chance to meet Matthew and hear about his process and his ideas about painting and art. Matthew has what I can only describe as an amazing mind - he’s a synthesizer of seemingly unrelated concepts, and an autonomous idea spitting thinker. At 2 PM, with light refreshments.
Robby Herbst, Household Revisited: Peaceniks and Treehuggers, Initial Informational Meeting for Participants, @ Outpost for Contemporary Art. Another Kaprow related happening, this is a meeting for people who want to get involved in what is described “as a day long event occurring at a lonesome dump out in the country”, resulting in “some kind of kind of happening musical we create together.” Meeting is from 2-4 PM.
Technorati Tags: Labor Day, Occidental College, Art As Life, Allan Kaprow, happening, Torrance Art Museum, PIX, Micol Hebron, Douglas McCulloh, Jim Farber, Eye/I, Macha Suzuki, Sam Lee Gallery, Christine Nguyen, Homenaje, Crash Mansion LA, Roy Ayers, Tony Allen, Najite, afrobeat, Silent Movie Theatre, Cinefamily, Ganja & Hess, Too Busy For Love, Matthew Thomas, Artist Talk, Angels Gate Cultural Center, Outpost For Contemporary Art, Robby Herbst, Household Revisited, art, LA Art
Made a Sucker by Skullphone? Or a Case of Hackus Classicus?
According to WIRED’s Threat Level blog, it looks like Skullphone bought the ads, and the idea of electronic billboard vandalism was just so attractive that we all just wanted to believe in the hack. Either that or Clear Channel is engaged in a cover up that we’ll never know the truth about, making this event into a bit of a Schrodinger’s Cat. According to Clear Channel rep Tony Alwin, the only hack that occurred was the social one where Skullphone put one over on the poor, poor corporate graffiti empire (What? You don’t think billboards are just legitimized graff? Or that graff is just de-legitimized advertising?).
I’ve proclaimed graffiti dead before, and I guess in my heart I want it to be un-dead, if only for a moment, and only electronically.
Now there’s two ways to view this (providing that Clear Channel isn’t just doing damage control and Skullphone is now perma-crowned, but frankly Occam’s Razor makes it much easier to believe that Skullphone paid/scammed Clear Channel, rather than engaging in some kind of monumental and unprecedented hack involving simultaneously manipulating multiple billboards across Los Angeles).
Here’s one.
Skullphone is a toy, someone who lacks skills, who’s trying to buy his way to fame. Yesterday, I was in a public restroom, washing my face in a scratched up mirror, filled with accusations and counter-claims, and all I could think of was how anybody who skulks around with a little etcher to badly scrawl their silly name in a public restroom is the lowest animal on the graffiti totem pole, the biggest toy of all. So by “paying to get up” as one Threat Level reader aptly described this action , Skullphone is now crawling around in the muck one step below assholes on buses with pumice stones and restroom mirror rebels.
Here’s the other.
There’s more than one kind of hack - the social engineering hack. Some of the greatest hacks ever accomplished were the result of social engineering, whether its a simple lie told over the phone to get some info, to dressing up like workmen to get access (something which I totally don’t have enough opportunities to do in my daily life). If Clear Channel’s version of the story is true, and Skullphone fooled them into selling him a teeny, weeny bit of advertising time on ten of their billboards for a pittance, then he may just have engaged in a classic social engineering hack.
Personally, I’m still on the fence. I like my graffiti traditional, with some crime involved. Graffiti without the crime, to me, is like kissing your sister. Sure it’s fun, but you don’t want to admit to it. But on the other hand, I think Skullphone could very well claim that he engaged in a classic hack, if he did truly pull the wool over Clear Channel’s eyes. Oh, and the digital Skullphone image involved reminds me of the Apple ][ art from Wasteland, so I’m kind of happy it’s out there.
Technorati Tags: Skullphone, hack, social engineering, WIRED Threat Level, Clear Channel, billboard, advertising, graffiti, digital graffiti, Wasteland
Sub-Prime Crisis Spreads to LA Institutions
I missed this when it was published last Friday, but caught it in Tyler Green’s weekend roundup (which has lots of other good LA related stuff, too). Mike Boehm of the LA Times wrote a fascinating article on the relationship between major cultural institutions in LA and the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Check it out.
Technorati Tags: LA Times, economy, Tyler Green, Mike Boehm, sub-prime mortgage crisis, museums, bond measures
First saw this on Curbed LA, but Jamie O’Shea of Supertouch has the best selection of images on the subject. Apparently Skullphone hijacked 10 Clear Channel digital billboards in Los Angeles yesterday. One small step for man, one giant step (out of the grave?) for graffiti. Heck, it’s one giant step for digital art. Sir, my hat is off.
UPDATE: New Shit Has Come To Light.
Technorati Tags: graffiti, digital art, street art, Skullphone, Supertouch, Curbed LA, Clear Channel, art, skull
Netsuke by Masatoshi (Nakamura Tokisada) at LACMA
I routinely find excuse/opportunity to visit the Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection of netsuke in the Japanese Pavilion at LACMA. What could easily be an extremely static collection is always presented in a new way. There are 836 pieces in the collection, which are shown on a rotating basis, with only 150 on display at any given time. I’ve been visiting the collection regularly for the past two years, and something new is always on view.
Most of the netsuke in the collection is from the 18th - 19th Centuries, but there are examples of pieces from the 20th Century, some as recent as the late 70’s including two of the pieces below, which were made in 1978. I recently rushed through and photographed a number of pieces, but I wanted to separate the three below, as they are all contemporary examples, and in two cases, are extremely unusual subjects. All of the pieces below were made by Masatoshi, also known as Nakamura Tokisada, who, according to Raymond Bushell’s NY Times obituary, received patronage from Bushell for much of his career, and who’s works are well represented in the collection. A search for Masatoshi on LACMA’s site reveals three pages of works. Bushell also wrote a book, The Art of Netsuke Carving, with Masatoshi, which I’m hoping to see arriving in my mailbox soon.
Above - Kappa with Cucumbers in Head Bowl, boxwood with inlays, December 1978 - Possibly the strangest item in the collection, I hardly know what to say about this image, other than . A kappa is a Japanese water spirit, and the bowl-top head is a normal feature for one. Kappa are really colourful creatures, and all sorts of fairy behavior is attributed to them, from gremlin-like antics to helper-spirit activity. According to Wikipedia, the only food they like more than small children (who’s life force they suck out through the anus) are cucumbers, hence this guy’s personal stash. Here’s a rear view and the label for reference.
Above - Biron: Monster Made of Jelly, ivory with staining and black coral inlays, 1978 - I have no idea what was going on in 1978 that drove Masatoshi to go off the deep end, in terms of traditional netsuke subject matter, but I’m glad he did. No amount of Googling has revealed the nature of this little guy. Label is here.
Above - Baku: Monster Who Eats Nightmares, ivory with staining and sumi - Baku seems to be a very popular subject for netsuke. He’s adorable, yet tough, here combining Pillsbury Doughboy-like cuteness with the attitude of a watchful sentinel. I wrote a whole post on Baku related netsuke in LACMA’s collection back in January of 2007. Label is here.
Technorati Tags: LACMA, cucumbers, Kappa, Japanese art, netuske, sculpture, museum, Raymond and Frances Bushell Collection, Masatoshi, Nakamura Tokisada, monster, folklore, Baku, Nightmares, spirit, Biron, jelly, art
Well, it’s happened. I’ve eaten the Lady’s Brunch Burger / Luther Burger, and I have pleasantly encountered the Boondocks episode, The Itis, as well. And I’ve lived to tell the tale. Last Sunday was burger night at the house, and I figured if I’m going for broke anyways, why not throw Paula Deen’s glazed donut based contraption into my digestive track as well. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow, and I’d hate to die never having known what a bacon and egg burger between two halves of a glazed donut tastes like. Or I could eat one of these and maybe die of a coronary tomorrow, who knows?
So here’s the recap. You know when you dip your sausage and pancakes in maple syrup? The glazed donut imparts that meaty-sweet sensation to the ordinary hamburger, and the salty bacon and protein rich egg keep the breakfast feeling going on. It really wasn’t my thing, because my thing is rich and spicy, and not candy sweet. But if you’ve got an irrepressible sweet tooth, and a death wish, this baby is your burger fatale. I only ate a few bites of the above before disposing of the donut and feeding the burger, egg and bacon to my loyal canine kitchen assistant, who promptly disposed of the non-photographic evidence of my sin. Then I moved on to the real show, the towering burger inferno seen below, which was so tall I had trouble getting it into my huge mouth.
Oh, and in further giant burger news, yesterday Wired Science used my photo of Mega Humburger Four to illustrate a post on a study of the difference in eating habits between men and women. One thing I’ve noticed about my giant burger photos is that they keep turning up all over the web, in odd places.
Technorati Tags: burger, hamburger, food, food porn, The Itis, Boondocks, Luther Burger, Lady’s Brunch Burger, donut, glazed donut, gastronomy
Things seem quiet right now. But there’s always something to see.
Friday, March 21
Wally Hedrick, Wally Hedrick: War Room, @ The Box. An early conceptual and anti-war piece I have some vague familiarity with, this is a neat opportunity to see a piece that’s rarely, if ever, been exhibited in LA. Reception is 6-8 PM.
The Mechanic, @ The Cinefamily at the Silent Movie Theatre. LA almost lost the New Beverly not so long ago, and now in addition to a revived New Bev, the Cinefamily has brought sound, colour and life to the Silent Movie Theatre. I was bummed that my schedule didn’t allow me to go see Henson’s Man Eating Cube, amongst other rarities, earlier this week, but if I’ve got the steam left in me tonight, I won’t be missing The Mechanic, part of their Charles Bronson: The Sacred Monster series. Supposedly it’s one of his best films, and devotees of the Cult of Bronson swear by it. Show starts at 10:30 PM .
Saturday, March 22
Panopti(con), @ Bank. Group show curated by Martin Durazo featuring Kiki Seror, Kottie Paloma, Ichiro Irie, Chris Tallon, Christopher Pate, Chris Solars, Osvaldo Trujillo, Rafael Gallardo, Michael Dee, Anders Lansing, Jonathan Furmanski, Sherin Guirguis, Christopher Haun, Tim Nolan, Martin Durazo, Skip Arnold and Gordon Dalton. Anything involving the concept of authoritarian power or the panopticon gets my attention. Notable in this grouping are Getty video wizard Jonathan Furmanski and ex-Angels Gate Studio Artist and personal fave Tim Nolan. Reception is 6-8 PM.
Monday, March 23
Allan Kaprow, Art As Life, @ MOCA. The member’s opening is the 21st, so if you’ve got tickets, you’re probably going to that. I’ll be there. Hopefully it will be less of a crush/hipster party than the Murakami opening. First day for public viewing is Monday, the 23rd. This exhibition is about to blow up with various revisitations of Kaprow’s work all around LA, including his ice block structure, Fluids, which I’m involved in (more on that later).
Technorati Tags: MOCA, Allan Kaprow, Wally Hedrick, The Box, Panopticon, Bank, Kiki Seror, Kottie Paloma, Ichiro Irie, Chris Tallon, Christopher Pate, Chris Solars, Osvaldo Trujillo, Rafael Gallardo, Michael Dee, Anders Lansing, Jonathan Furmanski, Sherin Guirguis, Christopher Haun, Tim Nolan, Martin Durazo, Skip Arnold, Gordon Dalton, Fluids, Art as Life, Charles Bronson, The Mechanic, Cinefamily, Silent Movie Theatre, film, art, LA art
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