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So New In Town? opened today at Angels Gate, my last show as a desk-bound employee (I’m moving to a more curatorial and freelance role as of now, so I can work on more personal projects). I’m more than satisfied, the show is both a showcase for my efforts to turn around the Studio Artist Program at the Center, and also to bring the quality of gallery shows way, way up. The feedback from artists and visitors was awesome, and I feel like the efforts I’ve made over the past three years have come to satisfactory fruition.

So now that that’s all done, I’m off to Thailand tomorrow, to install what most likely will be the final Avian Flu Awareness piece, at Bhurapa University in Bangsaen, outside Bangkok. I’m packing a ton of painting tools, my projector and a pile of source images, and I have no idea what’s going to happen. The show opens either on the 7th or the 10th of July, there either is or isn’t a catalog, there either are or aren’t Thai artists in the show and I’m 95% sure that I can’t work directly on the gallery’s walls. Edith Abeyta and S. Ian Song, the other two American artists who will be installing their work in person, are already there, working and hopefully I’ll be undertaking a day-long plane flight to arrive in the arms of a well oiled art installation machine. Regardless, I’ll be eating some amazing food, probably some amazing seafood, taking a lot of pictures and being both out of my water and in the depths of my creative practice. More on the show when I hit the ground.

So it may get slow around here, or I may be able to post a lot, who knows. No “To Do” lists till I get back, probably. I’ll be back in LA on the 12th, wish me luck and cool weather.

Technorati Tags: Thailand, Avian Flu Awareness Project, Bhurapa University, Bangsaen, travel

This interview conducted by Jessica Chong with UCLA sociologist Adrian Favell turned up in the PoNJA-GenKon listserv, and I thought it was worth passing along. If you’re interested in Japanese Art, I cannot recommend enough joining the listserv. Favell traveled to Japan as part of the Social Science Research Council’s Abe Fellowship Program and this article is probably the most interesting thing I’ve read on Murakami in a long while. He does a great job at contrasting Murakami with his japanese peers, placing him in both Japanese and international culture and seeing the big picture that Murakami’s work exists within.

Technorati Tags: Japanese art, PoNJa-GenKon, Adrian Favell, Jessica Chong, Social Science Research Council, Abe Fellowship, Takashi Murakami, art, © MURAKAMI

As signs of the end times go, this is a bit of a tiny one. I love good food, sometimes I love bad food related business plans just as much. A while back I discovered Crispycones, which I’m glad I’ve never eaten, and I hope you never have, either. Last night, on our way to the newly un-burned-down Johnny Rebs’ in Long Beach, Michele spotted the words “Kernels, Gourmet Corn on the Cob.” Phill and I, not having seen the sign, had no idea what she was talking about, I think we both thought she was referring to KFC, and therefore “Colonel’s.” Meriting investigation, following our meal, we checked out what we knew was a bad business plan, but I think we all thought that it was some kind of weird flavoured corn on the cob to go place, but the reality turned out even better. Unfortunately they had just shut down as we were entering the parking lot, depriving us of anything further than storefront and web investigation.

Kernels Gourmet Corn on the Cob & Mexican Grill is a business concept, pushing multi-flavoured elote concepts, paired with Mexican (if post Taco Bell chow can still in any way be described as Mexican) fast food. Like all bad ideas with a website, there’s a handy button at top for potential investors/suckers. Take out a loan and spend a few years of your life watching your business fail with us! While, I’m very enthusiastic about chile and mayo covered corn, preferably bought from wandering strangers (although my neighborhood seems to not have any wandering vendors of the elote variety most of the year), but the idea of eating a “French Burrito” or a “Pineapple Quesadilla”, paired with a Apple Cinnamon Corn, or a Mongolian BBQ Corn is about as appealing as eating out of a dumpster, and more expensive. It’s Idiocracy food, man.

Anyways, I figure food this bad requries a BBQ chaser. So here’s some ribs and pulled pork from Johnny Rebs’. Good times, good times.

Technorati Tags: food, food porn, Johnny Rebs’, Long Beach, Kernels, elote, corn, corn on the cob, bad idea, your moment of apocalypse, sign of the end times, pulled pork, ribs, Crispycones

My fellow Los Angeles art blogger, Maxwell, turned me onto this, for which I thank him profusely. Arthur is probably best, most interesting and well written free magazine in LA, and Jay Babcock is doing a great job helming it. Recently they devoted the bulk of their issue to a comprehensive review and discography of Sparks, one of the greatest bands ever, and also one of the greatest mugs ever. Like a dozen pages or something, with a four page interview. That’s something that none of the other free rags can do. They brought Yoko Ono to LA for Arthurfest. They need a little more money to keep the presses running. They’re almost there. Let’s put them over the top.

Technorati Tags: fundraiser, Arthur, Jay Babcock, Lightning History, Sparks, magazine

Remember a while back, when the Prado culled Goya’s El Coloso (above) from their current Goya show, Goya in Times of War, claiming that it is not a Goya, but giving no explanation more satisfying that a “because we say so.” Well, they’ve finally proffered an explanation, via Manuela Mena, their senior Goya specialist, that the work was painted by one of his students, largely because of stylistic differences and some anatomical errors on the bulls in the painting. I’m still not satisfied, and if this isn’t an example of how not to bring an issue like this to light, I don’t know what is. Isn’t there some kind of peer review that should come into play, behind the scenes, before an announcement like this.

Anyways, Elizabeth Nash of The Independent has the story, following up on her earlier piece. Seen over at C-Monster, who also mentions that you can eyeball Goya’s print series, Los Desastres de la Guerra, which is on display at the Hammer right now.

Technorati Tags: Goya, Francisco de Goya, Prado, art, Spanish art, painting, El Coloso, The Independent, Elizabeth Nash, C-Monster, Hammer Museum, Goya in Times of War, Los Desastres de la Guerra, art

Cross-posted from the AGCC Blog.

View the majesty of Edith Abeyta’s Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe, a multi-artist, unicorn themed, collaboration/installation that was initially installed in Edith’s studio earlier this year, and which gallery assistant Michele Hubacek helped me knock out quick, as Edith is on her way to Thailand, where I will be joining her shortly, to install a show that we’re in.

I am perpetually moved by Edith’s manipulation of retail space and concepts as installation art. I have this fantasy where she gets a museum show, in their gift shop. There’s something crafty and slighly evil about Edith’s approrpiation of mundane/profane space for her art needs. Objects in the shoppe range from candy cigarettes and other bulk snacks to multiples by Edith Abeyta, Matty M. Cipov, Kissing Candy, Merry-Beth Noble, Camilla Stacey and Sublime Stitching. The Sweet Shoppe’s logo was designed by Jason Lucas.

You can get a head start on enjoying the Sweet Shoppe’s delights with this downloadable Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe Activity Statement. Or you can wait until Sunday and get your sugar rush on, at the opening of New In Town? Studio Artists 2007-2008.

Technorati Tags: Edith Abeyta, Matty M. Cipov, Kissing Candy, Merry-Beth Noble, Camilla Stacey, Sublime Stitching, Jason Lucas, installation, installation art, art, art exhibition, shoppe, Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe, unicorn, pink, candy, Angels Gate Cultural Center, AGCC, Gallery A

Apparently that whole Frank Gehry research center hullabaloo that’s been a brewin’ at Art Center has come to a head and Koshalek will not have his contract renewed at the end of 2009. It’s definitely interesting times over at Art Center, A lot of recent graduates from both Art Center and other LA schools I’ve spoken with lately seem unhappy with the direction of the program, and feel that the quality of non-commercial work coming out of the Center is really slipping. This weekend one of those recent grads was describing a confusing and odd re-grouping of programs into new and confusing, and possibly conflicting majors. If that statement sounds vague it’s because what I heard was vague. Sounds like whomever follows Koshalek probably has their job cut out for them.

Seen over at Curbed.la.

Technorati Tags: Richard Koshalek, Art Center, Curbed.la, LA art, Art School

Viva la France! Artists Raphael Uhrwiller and Mayumi Otero show wood and ink who’s the boss. Originally eyeballed over at BoingBoing. According to the comments there this kind of thing gets done all the time, too. How is it that I was totally ignorant of this awesomeness until right now?

Technorati Tags: steamroller, woodblock, woodblock printing, printing, printmaking, art, French art, Raphael Uhrwiller, Mayumi Otero

Flickr teases you with random recent uploads on their front page when you pop in. Sometimes they’re worth looking at. Seeing the above image in Wetsailor_2000’s stream, I initially thought I was looking at the documentation of some kind of performance, photographic or video art, but taking a look at his profile, it’s obviously fetish. Regardless, I thought his recent and brief entry to Flickr (his earliest photo went online Saturday), consisting thus far soley of self-portraits in sailor/police costume in a large, inflatable, indoor tub of water, merits some kind of elevation to found art. Is any sufficiently out of the ordinary and repetitive behavior conceptual art or appropriatable as conceptual art at this point?

Technorati Tags: fetish, sailor costume, sailor, wet clothing fetish, wet, all wet, art?, is it art?, conceptual art, tub

So you can see some of my work on La Brea right now. Earlier this year I was asked to write curatorial text, contextualizing the Boneyards project, a partnership between LA-based streetwear company Stüssy and Japan based brand Neighborhood. Other than the concept that my writing would appear in a newspaper-like publication cataloging the collection, I really had no idea what was going to be done with it. So after a lot of writing and revisions and a very cool day tagging along and shadowing a pile of interviews with the various tattoo artists who did designs for the collection, there was a launch party Friday night, where I was pleasantly surprised that not only was my text really amazingly incorporated into the newspaper, but that a huge chunk of it was transcribed in gangster style text on the entire frontage of the building (at top). The building is at 144 La Brea, directly adjacent to Fahey/Klein.

above - Smoky party interior. Black and white was the theme. Off to the right there were carnival games and prizes, lots of fake gross body parts.

above - Spiked and slightly deformed hot dogs, part of the whole free carnival chow action. There’s something a little disturbing about the way they plump and swell, isn’t there.

For those into more party shots, Quality Control posted a stack over at Hypebeast.

Technorati Tags: Boneyards, Stussy, Neighborhood, graffiti, text, launch party, stripes, hot dogs