some shows in windows

Gallery Axiom! 1991. Who in Philadelphia remembers this place???

This was a very short-lived gallery on Walnut Street, maybe between 13th and Broad. My paintings (Humbertos!) are the ones in the first floor windows. Huston Ripley has a big piece in the second floor window.

I will always remember the guy who ran the space, John Sparacio ( i think that is the spelling), because he was my only sale. He bought one of the smaller pieces I had inside (can't see here), for a hundred dollars, and had it framed. It was the first thing of mine anyone had ever bought and paid to have framed.

I guess he still has it, wherever he is.


I can see that the piece on the right is painted over a world map... something taken from Wojnarowicz. All of the Humbertos are works-on-paper with grounds of collaged ruled legal pad paper... PRE-Ellen Gallagher!


That painting of the knight I still have in Hoosick Storage, but I'm not sure about these other three. They may also be rolled up in that storage, or I might have painted over them later on... which was sometimes the case.


Fulton Street Gallery, Troy NY.

Had a solo show here, summer 2004. Nice space, and really nice people.... unfortunately, not much traffic AT ALL.


Art of This Century at Haigh Jamgochian's Markel Building, 2006. If you have not seen my photographs of this fantastic building yet, CLICK HERE!

Art Basel: Stuffy's is Over

Art Basel: Stuffy's is being dismantled.


dismantling art basel.


Thank you to my Stuffy's interns. Thank you also to Jerry Saltz for taking the time to visit Art Basel: Stuffy's.

Chris Norris

Chris Norris paintings, wrapped up in bubble wrap. There was a special "salon showing" at someone's house for these on Saturday night... next stop, Scope Miami.

Chris was included in Amy Hauft's Relativity, and is also the MAIN MAN of Pollak Prize winning art team FEAST (okay, he is the only man of FEAST).


Raaarghh!!! Here comes my boner!!!


This is not a Chris Norris, this is a coffee shop sign. Ha ha, got you.


I modeled for this one.

Okay, that is all the boner for now.

Adrian Meyer

One of Adrian Meyer's paintings from his current show at Ipanema. Six of the paintings are collaborations with Bruce Wilhelm, the rest are 100% pure Adrian.

Bruce has posted all of Adrian's paintings, followed by the collaborations.

Aqua Hunger Force!!!

MORE anaba paparazzi!!!


Bruce Wilhelm and Calvin Burton... last night at Ipanema. They will both be represented at Aqua this year, Bruce with LA's Acuna-Hansen and Calvin with NC's Branch.

They look shifty.


Will this same amazingly nice to everyone and very hardworking woman be at Aqua again this year? She was great. I liked Aqua best.

Hey, Branch is currently showing Mel Prest, an artist I just saw last week on Chris Ashley's blog, and who Douglas Witmer showed me again on Friday. Mel Prest's BUZZ is building.

Zoe Strauss is with Acuna-Hansen!!! If Zoe and Bruce are both affiliated with Acuna-Hansen, I like Acuna-Hansen.


Adrian Meyer, the short-haired guy sitting on the right, talking about his work with some guy that really liked it. Adrian and Bruce collaborated on most of the paintings in the show, the rest are Adrian's.

You can see pictures of most of the collaborations on Bruce's blog.

anaba paparazzi

Amanda Robinson... upstairs at Gallery5.


Lynne's old boyfriend (Chris Bolduc), Lynne's current boyfriend, and me... at Nonesuch for an excellent show called Bless the Beasts.

Lynne is THE go-to girl for all your furby needs!!!


Sam Kirkland! Famous framer father of blogger JT Kirkland... at Red Door Gallery for JT's show.

Amy Sillman and Robert Rauschenberg

Amy Sillman, Birdwatcher. I saw this on Bill Gusky's blog.

I am seeing Rauschenberg's bed, Diebenkorn, De Kooning, even James Castle. Love it.


Robert Rauschenberg.

UFOjisan

Okay! So... somewhat related to Architect and the wonderful Stitchy Japanese House, allow me to introduce you to UFOjisan.

This was a shop somewhere in Tokyo, can't remember where exactly. It was interesting because it was full of old Japanese treasures, sort of like an antique shop... but co-existed with some kind of religous outer-space meteor temple. There were a ton of signs out front, like big placards, all about UFO's watching us... and pictures of UFOjisan.

UFOjisan seemed to be a cult leader, wearing bright robes and large shiny hats, and has a link to the aliens. The shop is his place (i'm calling it a shop, but i don't think that is the right word exactly), and he was hanging out with some other old guys in the back area around the tv and heater.

I should explain that the Japanese word for U.F.O. is "UFO", written like that and pronounced "you-foe". Yes, they have their own original words also (space is uchu, alien is uchujin), but UFO is just as common. Ojisan is a term for an old(er) man, so UFOjisan is a pun.

EVERYTHING in this shop was interesting, including the imperious bearded UFOjisan. There was an altar to a huge meteor (maybe), draped in bright fabrics... plus lots of other space rocks and cosmic things, Buddhas, many odd interesting beautiful old Japanese treasures, and UFOjisan's drawings documenting his abductions and extra-terrestial experiences.

Here are some bad photos of the drawings, wish I had taken more. Discovered this shop in a hurry to someplace else, and never got that way again.


That third picture in from the right is a self-portrait. The cases are full of old treasures.


I've tried googling him, but can't find anything.. . although I think I am just not putting in the right things.

I know I have a picture of the outside of the shop somewhere, but can't find it. When it shows up I'll add it to this post.

a job, PLUS... what is your job?

I'm looking for a job, a real or real-ish job.

I've been waiting tables since April, which was fine during rafting season, but now that the season is over I feel like a loser... I make very very very little money, no insurance, etc. Some of my co-workers are teenagers! I seriously can't go on like this... some days I only make thirty dollars.

So... what can I do? I am happy to stay in Richmond, or to move pretty much ANYWHERE, in the WORLD. Somebody please send me some leads on opportunities, it doesn't have to be art related at all. I just want to be able to stop riding a squeaky bicycle everywhere. My apartment lease expires December 31st and I'm not renewing it... all options are open.

PLUS - Other artists, I am so curious about what you do for jobs. I know lots of you have cars, houses, children... what are you doing for a living? How did you find your job? PLEASE CLUE ME IN.

Leave a comment, anonymously is fine, telling us what your job is... where you live, what is your income.

Some of my previous work experience is as a bookstore worker, Japanese steel plant inspector, zoo swan-boat attendant, whitewater rafting guide, star reporter. I also worked a few years near Mt Fuji at Kanrisha Yosei Gakko's Jigoku Kunren (Hell Training) camp... you would not believe, seriously.

Without some guidance I am likely to:

A. Go back to Tokyo and enter this program in April. This isn't a job though.
B. Explore the world of desert plant landscaping. This isn't a job either, and my last experience in Phoenix was a disaster. I wish this school was in Albuquerque or Tucson.
C. Join the Army. They have raised the maximum enlistment age to forty-two.
D. Car salesman. This is the only paying job I can find in the newspaper that I might be at all qualified for, even though I've never owned a car (except for that beater I abandoned in Phoenix).

someone's sign

Someone's sign on Strawberry Street.


This is the back. Must be the same person who did this.

Nice.

Jerry Saltz at Art Basel: Stuffy's!!!

Jerry Saltz visited Art Basel: Stuffy's!!! I'm so lucky that I happened to go to Stuffy's for a meatball sandwich and recognized him! What are the odds?

I wonder if this art fair will get on Artnet??? He seemed to take a lot of notes.


Jerry Saltz reading Michael Lease's obituary.


Jerry Saltz with work by Don Crow, Scott Eastwood, me, and Paul DiPasquale.

Sorry for all the bad cropping and angles, I was trying to be inconspicuous.


He looked at Barbara Tisserat's piece for a long time. I could hear him softly whispering.. "hello my lovelies, my pretties"... it was a little creepy.


AAARRGHH!!! He walked right by my painting! This is the SECOND TIME he has done this! Bastard!! He did the same thing last year at Scope Miami, when I was sitting out front with a bunch of paintings. I can't get a break.


Admiring one of Rachel Hayes' two pieces.


Studying one of Timothy Sean Johnston's paintings. He kept that same expression throughout the entire show, he is THAT intense. I guess maybe that is his poker-face?

I couldn't figure out what he was thinking AT ALL.

pictures from another planet

An architect friend went to my show at Haigh Jamgochian's building and took these excellent photos.




This silvery painting on the brick wall is what I was hinting about with that last Tomma Abts painting. This silver surfer was finished and the Markel show already planned when I found Tomma's painting... it's actually the oldest painting included, finished December 22, 2005.




This is the painting that was featured on PaintersNYC!


I still need some good shots of most of these undocumented paintings. The one on the left includes what Vittorio Colaizzi referred to as a "net", and I was thinking of as a web... last night a lady who saw the show told me that she thought it was a badminton birdie.

I like the net reading because it has me thinking about Kusama Yayoi's infinity nets.


Thanks, Susan! If anyone else goes to this show, or Art Basel: Stuffy's, PLEASE SEND ME SOME PICTURES!

READ THE REVIEW!

Eric Sall reviewed in artUS

Eric Sall's atm show is reviewed in the Oct/Nov 2006 issue of artUS. Click here to see it bigger and read it.

The reviewer, Nadja Sayej, has an interesting article/interview with Tino Sehgal in the same issue.

stitchy japanese house

Look at this crazy house! This was close to the ARCHITECT house I posted earlier, in Nagaoka or Niigata ... and very unusual. It was padlocked from the outside, but didn't look abandoned. I wish I could have seen inside.

Look at all the nails...I can't help but think of Philip Guston's piles of hairy legs and shoes, pointy-headed figures, all of his stitchy linework.




Wonderful.

ARCHITECT

An old house in Japan.. I think this was in Nagaoka, although it might be Niigata. One of those two, definitely Niigata prefecture. I lived in Nagaoka for a year...

I'm (always) trying to organize all my crap, going through old papers and photographs, but I keep getting sidetracked on the content... and wanting to scan things onto the internet. The recent Markel Building post is compelling me to post more examples of interesting architecture.

Isn't this a cool old house? Most of wooden Nagaoka was burned down during WWII, but this looks to pre-date the war. Here is another view, it's almost under the Shinkansen tracks. Nagaoka now holds - on the anniversary of it's firebombing - the biggest and most beautiful hanabi matsuri (fireworks festival) in Japan, on the banks of the Shinanogawa. So pretty... great memory.

I met the most interesting old man in Nagaoka. He was in his 90's, spoke excellent English, and kept a cluttered third-floor office full of amazing things. He learned English in the States, before the war (he travelled all over America)... and after the war began he was assigned to run a prison labor camp, I think in Malaysia. He told me about how hard the prisoners had to work and that every morning he would assemble everyone in the yard for exercise, and give a motivational speech, in Malay. He told me that he would thank them for their hard work and suffering, not having enough to eat, but that after the war was over and they won, everything would be great... "but we didn't win".

Then.. HE became a prisoner. There were so many Japanese spread out over so much of Asia that the best and quickest way to isolate them was to round them up and keep them on various uninhabited small islands. He said they had no clothes, food, medicine, or shelter and that many many men died on the island. I asked him what he ate and he said that they would stamp on snakes and eat them. Their feet were so calloused they were like clubs.

Okay, this is not so much about art. I did this same thing yesterday talking about Press, but didn't like seeing all that on my ART blog, so I moved most of that biographical text to the comments. Maybe I should start an Interesting Old Man blog... it would include Fred, Paris, Haigh Jamgochian, Charles Ware, Press.

Okay! Ladies also! I can't leave out Mildred Greenberg!!!!!

Press at Art Basel: Stuffy's

Yesterday, at Art Basel: Stuffy's, I met an artist named Press. He was working on a portrait, from memory, using only toner, Q-tips, and a brush.


Press' portrait, with tools. He is unsatisfied with the jaw and wishes parts of the portrait were darker, but the copy shop doesn't have any more empty toner cartridges for him.

Press is welcome at Art Basel: Stuffy's.

I ENCOURAGE ALL PRESS TO ATTEND.

i... am not... a potato

I love that Haigh Jamgochian's Guggenheim Richmond, site of my current SOLO SHOW, was inspired by a foil wrapped baked potato he was served at dinner.

I USED TO BE SO INTO POTATOES!!!


Potato Polaroid from 1989. It is a jack-o-lantern! Scary!


A showdown of potatoes... also from 1989. Those are ACTUAL photocopied potatoes!

The painting posted at top is from early 1992-ish, I am thinking, the ending of the Potatoes and the Humbertos. Je ne suis pas une pomme de terre.


Magneto in his office, 2nd floor, Bizarro Guggenheim, Richmond (next to Val-Pak's).

RELATED: 1/4 career flashback - the potato years, 1/4 career flashback - Humberto!