Blog

Yesterday in the San Francisco Bay Area

I went to the SFMOMA on the 31st. I took the elevator to the top and walked down. First I saw Olafur Eliasson then Jeff Wall and thirdly Joseph Cornell. Cornell was really good, Jeff Wall was good, and Eliasson was good, but maybe too much at once. And because of that, maybe I did actually like it. I was pretty much done after that, but I went on. Also at the museum was “Pretty Much Every Film and Video Work from About 1992 Until Now” by Douglas Gordon, a video installation consisting of said videos presented on individual televisions in one room and a timeline for the videos in the other room. There was a very uninteresting installation of work by Lucy McKenzie’s as well. I only mention her exhibition because it is part of the New Work series, which is generally pretty good.

An unused gas station in Berkeley, well I think it has been repurposed, but they left the old prices up. It was somewhere on Ashby.

Back to Work

I ended up not taking much time off after finishing my last two exhibtions which I had worked on concurrently over the last fifteen months—I finished around December 12th. Without much effort, I am already working on six new paintings (a self-portrait?), and a bit surprised that I am already on the third layers on these two.

Smart Car Parking Solution

A little over a week ago, I was at the Smart House in Venice for a reception/fundraiser for an ongoing project by gallery mate Joel Tauber. Their soon to be released product, the Smart car, is going to be available in the U.S. in early 2008. It reminded me of an image I took a few years ago in Berlin, where the cars have been available for some time now.

The owner of the car parked it straight in on a street designated for parallel parking. Although the car fit, the owner got a ticket anyway. If these cars become popular, maybe the overabundance of compact spots in parking lots will be comfortably used. Most likely the owners of parking structures will see this as an opportunity to make the spaces even smaller. So goes progress.

Robert M. Kulicke 1924-2007

Yellow, Purple and Pink Flowers in a Glass Vase Against a Black Background, c. 1960.

Robert Kulicke died last Friday from pneumonia. He was 83.

Kulicke is probably best known for his aluminum and lucite frame designs, but hopefully he’ll be remembered for making small still lifes of modest objects; small bouquets of flowers, pears, other fruits and the like. When you’re an artist, people often tell you about other artists that they think are doing similar work, and most of the time it is hard to see a real connection. So because of this, at some point, during my art education, it seemed like I knew of nearly every painter that made works under one square foot. He, like myself, saw the potential and worthiness of making small paintings of common objects as Giorgio Morandi had done before us. I learned of Kulicke through the art of Albert York, an artist of similar interests or at least scale. My recollection is that York had worked at Kulicke’s frame shop at some point which was their connection to each other prior to both artists being represented by Davis & Langdale Company, Inc. in New York. Kulicke made beautiful little paintings.

Roberta Smith wrote this for the New York Times.

The Near Future

I am having an opening on the 15th of December here in LA at the usual spot.

The Future

Recently, there were two articles in the LA Times that caught my interest. The first is that AT&T is planning to sell off its coin operated telephones. In practical terms, all this means is that some other entity will operate them, so they are just being rebranded. And the second was that the Los Angeles Metro is planning to install turnstiles at all the stations. Making it more cumbersome to enter the platforms.

While neither of these stories will effect my daily life, they remind me of paintings I have yet to make. They are markers of change that neither signal progress nor societal entropy despite the economies they serve and potential inconveniences they might cause to the users.

The Turner Prize Winner

I think the smart money was on the winner, Mark Wallinger. He had been nominated before in 1995—the year Damien Hirst won. And although I have done no research, I think it is true that everyone who has been nominated for a second time has won (I did some research and my statement is not true, but I am leaving it in for effect. Actually, Sean Scully had been nominated twice and not won). I believe this was true for Hirst as well (1992 – losing to Granville Davey). He was nominated for an exhibition that was at the Tate Britain called State Britain. Congratulations Mark Wallinger. Here is a link to the Guardian’s article. Dennis Hopper handed out the prize.

Toot – toot

Tooting my own horn, and 44 other painters that live in LA under the age of 45 as well; Here and here in the LA Times.

In the print version of the first article link above, there are reproductions for each of the artists that show with Susanne Vielmetter. This is the image of my painting that they used. I am currently working on a larger version for my impending exhibition (Dec. 15th) with Susanne.

New Video Test on Youtube

As the title states, I uploaded another video test of a Union 76 ball rotating on youtube. My plan for the final video is not very different from what is posted, but about three times longer and not as compressed.

Mid-November

I have mostly been painting and thinking how I didn’t give myself enough time to work, but I think I finally have a handle on the paintings for my upcoming show with Susanne Vielmetter that opens on the 15th of December.

Along those lines, here is an image on a painting that is going to Miami via Plane Space. It is not quite done, but will be shortly. It is a bit more red than previous ones but not as red as the “new” 76 balls.

Back to work.