most def def def !! DEF X THE MAX !! . . . .
ONE – check out: a video book tour of RYAN McGINLEY’S – ‘Everybody Knows This is Nowhere’ – on YouTube !!
TWO – catch: RYAN McGINLEY’S short film featuring the fab fab TILDA SWINTON – and – PRINGLE Of SCOTLAND !! on YouTube !!
RYAN McGINLEY – ‘Mari’, 2010. Gelatin Silver print, 18 x 12 in.
edition of 3. ($5,000 ea.)
Photo Image/courtesy:TEAM GALLERY
RYAN McGINLEY – EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE
OPENING – THURSDAY, MARCH 18 at 6 PM
MARCH 18 – APRIL 17, 2010
TEAM GALLERY – 83 GRAND ST – SOHO
a pensive RYAN McGINLEY at the opening.
32 years old, he was always pretty serious, and he seems to be handling his swiftly escalating success supremely well.
RYAN McGINLEY flashes a peace sign at the opening.
with him, SEAN RISLEY, who is featured in one of the show’s new black and white portraits.
SEAN RISLEY, photo by RYAN McGINLEY.
another McGinley photo ‘subject’ – outside on the steps of the gallery – MATT K.
on the right: RYAN McGINLEY, ‘Matt K’. 2010 silver gelatin print, 18 x 12 in.
edition of 3.
the portraits were arrayed, grid-like – on the huge east wall of the gallery.
Mr. McGinley started his career off with – off-the-cuff club-kid & skater polaroids !! so in some ways this was a conservative departure, technique or format-wise. but essentially, and most importantly, portrait-wise: NOT !!
his photos are always just absolutely downright compelling, and there is no 2 ways about it.
after trashing the current MOMA show for its cheesy, gratuitous and see-me-nakedness jerkiness – talk about irrelevant wannabes – the next show up for us – is nakedness by McGinley !! and it soars. it takes off. it has mystery & depth. insight. edge.
the art world ain’t it a bitch.
when it comes down to it – its all about the talent.
in the quickly growing crowd – we spot – SCOTT HUG.
and young street/subway graff culture photographer – SEAN VEGEZZI with his friend, CLARA.
each, and every photograph was unique and striking.
it was fun to watch the opening crowd observe the wall of black and white photos – even though the crowd got threateningly large – and there was no organized security or crowd control whatsoever – it was always like a parting wave – in the shallow space in front of the wall of black and white photos.
there was also a smaller grouping of portraits in the back room – where we spied – IO !!
and then who waltzes in, but IO herself – in the flesh !!
among the crowd another McGinley – subject – also named – MATT.
Matt’s portrait, a full length nude – was also to be found in that small back room.
back in the main exhibit room – the crowd was cheek to cheek.
it was impossible to view the several large scale photos.
(you can see them on the gallery website).
outside – the crowd was taking over the entire Soho block !!
no lines, no list, no security – it was bottle-necked at the one entry/exit doorway – but very polite and orderly, I think mostly in deference to the crowd’s great respect for the artist.
(Jose Friere, the gallery’s owner – was nowhere in sight).
the opening night crowd – out on the street.
in the crowd – A-ron and Rachel.
LEIF RITCHEY and TOOYA !!
Lief has a show up now at THE JOURNAL GALLERY in Brooklyn.
so half-way through the opening, with a crowd like that – no surprise – an NYFD FIRETRUCK showed up !!
but even with some kind of captain or supervisor – in a white visor – they couldn’t get though to the doorway.
they were actually way too polite. and were seen – asking all the pretty young girls – what was going on ?
so then they called in the cops.
even they couldn’t shut this block party down !! compared to other situations, with way smaller crowds in front of way smaller galleries in Brooklyn, and even the Lower East Side – these cops wore kid gloves. what is it – about Soho and its super rich tenanted streets ?
so finally they had to call in a specialized cop car that was equipped with a battlefield ‘warfare’ sound system – that emitted such a huge and nausea-generating aggressive sound – the crowd was forced to slowly give ground to the ‘armed’ enforcers – and the show finally got shut down.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
FILE THIS UNDER: yep.
POSTERBOY/BANKY & ‘THE FRIENDS OF THE NEW MUSEUM’ – ain’t the only poster game in town !!
OR: POSTERS – the NEW – PERFORMANCE – ART ?
OR: the NYC MUSEUM VOID & ASSOCIATED DARK AGES – GETTING YA – DOWN ?
still eating brains ?
contemplating food stamps ? – need a little comic relief amidst so much grief, so-called art, mall-like art fairs & just all around black hole cultural wastelands.
have no fear – NYC is still here – and, where else if not – on the streets, ooops – T.V. !!?
ok. so on the way to the R. CRUMB show – first we picked up on a low-down classic SPACE INVADER tile – mosaic.
then when we looked up, does this array of weirdo posters – stop anybody else ?
still eating grains, I mean, brains ???!!
we can help.
is this Posterboy/Desert Island – variety ?? sure looks like Posterboy subway handiwork – served straight up.
minus the collage bit . . .
that – WE CAN HELP – hotline – was mighty appealing.
was there a comic convention in town, I hadn’t heard about ?
THE DEPT OF INTEGRATION – IS HERE FOR YOU ?
just what the doctor ordered !! & the seal looked legit !! too !!
I dunno – it was looking, too good !!
was this a guerilla campaign – for real !! as in manufactured by guys with real careers & regular pay checks ?
couldn’t wait to google that website – and see what’s what.
My biggest hope – – could it be ESPY ? – aka STEVE POWERS – jumping up to the plate, again ?
he of the first, to my knowledge interactive subversive billboard campaign ?
check it out for yourself: uglyamericanstv.com !!
just what the weary masses – hope – won’t be a bust !!
a new COMEDY CENTRAL animated ‘horror/comedy’ series set in our lovely city – of course.
premieres this WED MARCH 17 – well, anything is better than being peed on, if not in fact, in deed – by a performance artist ?
p.s. looks like we have to thank VINCENT D’ONOFRIO – for his ‘bug’ turn in MEN IN BLACK – for this one !!
FILE THIS UNDER: JEFF KOONS – THE NEW JAY LENO !!
. . . when it rains, it pours – take that NEW MUSEUM DOWN !!
looks like POSTERBOY/BANKSY – ain’t the only game in town !!
according to BENJAMIN SUTTON of THE L MAGAZINE – those great great great anti-NEW MUSEUM posters plastered all over the Bowery, are the work of 3 friends – ADAM WISSING, KENNY KOMER, and BORIS RASIN !!
(apparently also – aka – ‘Friends of the New Museum’ if you were lucky enough to get the email format !!?)
just . . . “another renegade publicity campaign” ?
HELL NO !! let’s hope not, let’s hope – it’s a sign of the times, cause NEW YORK CITY is chock full of bottlenecked young artists – and it’s about time for them to take over. just make sure dudes – that when you finally do turn that obnoxious NEW MUSEUM, and that black hole of a WHITNEY around, you get them both !! to dump their same high-end out-of-touch P.R. flack.
see: Anti-New Museum Posters Spotted on Broadway/BENJAMIN SUTTON !!
. . . . we don’t know ADAM WISSING – but we do know KENNY KOMER & BORIS RASIN !! – local New York City bred, talent. make that Talent with a capital T. they made that great ‘ATM’ piece that ripped you off – that first surfaced in ‘THE SUM AND ALL PARTS’ – a POP-UP show in BROOKLYN, and shortly after re-surfaced, slightly modified in GAVIN BROWN’S survey show of last summer as well.
Titled ‘Economics 101’ – it was highlighted on the artlovers home page pretty much – all summer – as the piece that most spoke to the spirit of 2009 !! you put a dollar in – you got 3 quarters back.
and guess what – it still does. heading into summer 2010.
you can see more of their work, here: KENNY KOMER & BORIS RASIN !!
unless, of course – you really think the so-called THE NEW MUSEUM should be supporting, (never mind DAKIS JOANNOU) – JEFF KOONS ? I mean really. move over, and let someone else come over. An artist with a big townhouse on the UPPER EAST SIDE collecting old masters – is not new !! – he’s already made it. the art clock did not stop with JEFF KOONS, ok ? that is so 80’s !!
that’s 30 years ago already.
He should be in the MET, not the NEW MUSEUM.
and while we are at it – where the hell is that MIA – missing in action – MOMA – it’s so out of it – it’s not even part of the dialog.
it’s useless.
and so is the JOANNOU collection. it’s almost as behind-the-curve as old ELI BROAD. in fact, what’s the diff.
it does belong on a boat with high-end fifi Italian designer furniture somewhere lost at sea, not in the heart of god damn New York City !!
the Bowery !! let me tell ya – it saw better days. and more art. when it was full of bums.
and don’t get me started on THE WHITNEY – it’s not just played-out – it’s HUMA BHABHA bought and GEORGE CONDO sold-out.
and, you want to know why the art scene in NYC is tanking ?
somebody do something quick & pull the plug on those tax dollars – !!
every museum administrator and curator in this town should just be fired – across the board – period. deadbeats. the lot of them.
do they get pensions, too ?
I could tell you right now – 10 people – who could take one hundredth of that combined waste of resources – and could really give this town – a run for their money. and yeah, I’m first on the list.
talk about renegade guerilla self-promoting warfare. right on.
NYC museums listen up – better up your game – even ANTIQUES ROADSHOW has ya beat.
I say – off with their heads !!
UP-DATE: MONDAY MARCH 15, 2010
FILE THIS UNDER: MARINA, PLEASE – DON’T PEE ON ME.
well now we know, from a flood of newspaper & tabloid !! articles yesterday – why the MOMA is MIA/MISSING IN ACTION !!
Oh my god – is there anything worse than academic performance art ? yep – NAKED ENCOUNTER ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE ART.
not only that – it is re-constructed and old performance art re-staged/has-seen-its-day performance art.
how boring. how bad. how tacky. how low can you go ? how out of touch can you be, is there no mercy in this town, or what.
how do major museums indulge themselves in this kind of genuine the-emperor-wears-no-clothes delusion – everyone knows, from early childhood up – the easiest and cheapest way to get attention – for those needy and desperate enough – is to drop your undies.
where’s the inspiration and vision in that ? grab me a bad T.V. reality show – any day – over this please. just spare me.
HOLLAND COTTER can be heard to almost gag between the lines in his assessment of the MOMA’S new ‘star’ attraction !!
“it comes with a mission: to demonstrate that it is possible to preserve performance art …. through live re-creations in a museum setting. Ms. Abramovic is confident that this can be done, and to prove it has inserted re-staged pieces from her own past into an otherwise standard documentary show. Whether her faith is justified is the question. Based on the evidence here, I’d say no.”
any local art aficionado – will tell you – that when a major New York Times art critic writes pages upon pages of description – and mostly historical – you know – he just doesn’t want to rock the ‘establishment’ boat, and advertising dollars – with a scathing critique.
see: ‘PERFORMANCE ART PRESERVED, In The Flesh’/HOLLAND COTTER
things only get worse with the CAROL KINO puff piece – on the same exhibit – that followed in Sunday MARCH 14th’s, 2010 New York Times ARTS & LEISURE Section. I mean is this chick’s mindless scribbling – a paid-for flack’s paid-for dream or what ?
put it this way – short story: When you see the Carol Kino byline – usually in the Sunday section – affectionately termed the b.s. section in my household – it’s like seeing – a red flag – for pumped-up paid-for other-wise going to be ignored – puffery – with absolutely no street cred at all.
p.s. – that’s b.s. for bullshit – all you clueless international readers. the last piece she did was on PAUL McCARTHY – bye the way.
I can’t stomach her stuff so bad – I don’t even want to give it the dignity of a link.
if you really want to read that dross – google it up for yourself !!
what. ya gotta squeeze through 2 naked bodies to even get into the exhibit. OMG – please spare me. and the joke’s on you – if you let yourself be manipulated into that kind of hollow buzz thrill. trust me – you’d get a bigger thrill out of telling the thug on the subway over – to take his big black bag off the only 2 !! empty seats on the car.
if that wasn’t a bad enough omen of what was to come – I can’t think of anything I’d rather not do more, than maybe see a KIKI SMITH exhibit – than sit across from this over-hyped ‘performance artist’ – and stare into her unblinking eyes. what, you can’t even have a dialog with her – like what the hell ? I was thinking maybe we could, you know throw around – some ways – for you to … to actually charge for this mind-bendingly dull exercise in wasted time ? you know the actual heart of the current performance art dialog ?
and, the icing on the cake – I truly almost gagged, if I wasn’t already carsick – well, actually I laughed out loud – on this line of CAROL KINO’S – in the article’s 3rd paragraph: . . . “MOMA, the country’s most powerful arbiter of 20th-and 21-st century art” !!
such an absolute non-truth – it’s probably destined to become the unfunny punch line of a lot of MOMA jokes around town, today !!
. . . and guess what. for such an illustrious trend-setting Museum and gut-busting show – they actually, well ok – the curator, what the hell – let’s drop the loser’s name – KLAUS BIESENBACH, crows about the huge over-flow capacity crowd at the show’s ‘workshop’ conference – a grand staggering number of 100 participants showed up !! “more than a hundred artists, scholars and curators crowded into the boardroom of the Museum of Modern Art to talk about performance art and how it can be preserved.”
wow. for a major museum show in the heart of the so-called art capital of the world – that is just an awesome body count – even lowly Brooklyn galleries commander more than double that – also on a rainy stormy night, so – buddy BIESENBACH, don’t bang the door – on the way out, either.
p.s. he’s also the newly appointed director of P.S. 1 – so does that make him responsible for that used-to-be cutting edge site’s recent debacle of a ‘STUDIO VISIT’ program on their website ?
mark my words – they are harsh, but they are true. (institutional) ‘curator’ is gonna turn into a dark curse word in this town – chock-full of young talent seething at the bit, and unable to move sideways, let alone upwards in this leaderless climate. and up next on the agenda ? watch out for the wrath of the currently very hard-pressed galleries who try to sustain their young artists – in such an institutional rudderless dark age. talk about inglorious basterds.
the new – CHELSEA – slogan !!
EASTERN DISTRICT, is that anywhere’s close to DISTRICT 9 – just asking . . . presents:
‘EAST WILLIMSBURG’ !! – the show opens to-nite – FRIDAY MARCH 12, 2010 – at 7 PM.
there will be free drinks & a live DJ – but “no parking” – so you might want to take the L train to MORGAN.
the gallery is at 43 BOGART ST – right next to where AD HOC – used to be, you know – Bushwick !!
the other Brooklyn.
the show is being produced by the EASTERN DISTRICT IN-HOUSE CREW – that would be: CA$H4, JUAN DOE, JIM KIERMAN, LUCAS McGOWEN, NohJColey, and POSTERBOY, oops typo – skip that last one and read, BANK$Y, as in POSTERBOY/BANK$Y instead !!
EASTERN DISTRICT GALLERY
R. CRUMB – THE BOOK OF GENESIS, 2009 – a series of 207 drawings – pen & ink on paper (detail)
FILE THIS UNDER: R. CRUMB – does the BIBLE !!
the show opened on MARCH 4th – at the height of FAIR WEEK – & – was and, is absolutely the most beautiful installation in the city – hands down – now – and for what was – one of the biggest show-off weeks – in the NYC art world . . . it made up for the colossally dismal Whitney Biennial, the horribly amateur and embarrassing ARMORY and . . the generally lackluster performance of the other sundry fairs. We’re not even going to mention the critically panned and blogsphere hated JEFF KOONS curated ‘SKIN FRUIT’ at the, seems to be hated by everyone, including the so-called “Friends of ..” – – Nu Mu !!
R. CRUMB’S biblical outing – has grace and vision – and it pulls the large ZWIRNER gallery space together – just as dramatically fabulous – as the BRUCENNIAL blew up their large 350 WEST BROADWAY space !! guess we have to thank the old man of comics and the young men of BHQF – for reminding us why New York City – is supposed to be – the capital of the art world.
p.s. the opening was also a book signing, for the book that the drawings were made for, ‘The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb’, 2009, (WW.Norton), $25 a pop – and looking to be well worth it !!
but MR. CRUMB was so gracious he was even signing the exhibit cards (image above), and any and all – vintage collector items from his illustrious past – held out to him – by a diverse crew of fans !!
His super fab talented wife, also a legend to many of us, ALINE KOMINSKY, she of the flamin’ red hair and equally in-your-face comic-based output – was with him. It was a New York opening – to die for, in the truest sense of – the word.
R. CRUMB – ‘THE BIBLE ILLUMINATED: R. CRUMB’S BOOK OF GENESIS’
MARCH 4 – APRIL 24, 2010
DAVID ZWIRNER – 519 WEST 19th ST – CHELSEA, NYC
R. CRUMB at the opening, signs books.
PHOTO: NANCY SMITH, MARCH 4, 2010, NYC.
see: MORE PIX FROM THE OPENING !!
AMY GRIMM Presents: Whatever Blog PARTY !!
FRESH KILLS, BOTTLE UP & GO, RUMANIAN-BUCK & SCHOCH-O-LAUTTE
note: RUMANIUM BUCK is the side project of Giraffes frontman – AARON LAZAR
to-nite / WED FEB 17 – starts at 7:30 – $7 at the door & you need to be 21 !!
GLASSLANDS GALLERY – 289 KENT AVE – BROOKLYN
and featured on that Whatever Blog home page, today !!
it’s a riot – checK it out !!
‘LOVERS PLAY DEAD’ – DRINK UP BUTTERCUP – on YouTube !!
the 5th promo video off of – DRINK UP BUTTERCUP’S – ‘BORN AND THROWN ON HOOK’ – CD – which drops on 3/23.
BILL BRADY invites you come and see a young new artist he recently came across when he was speaking at the KANSAS CITY ART INSTITUTE last fall.
Bill says:
“They asked me to do a few studio visits while I was there and by chance Chris happened to be one of those artists. He showed me this little painting, it must have been 6 x 8 in. and the attention to detail was over the top. Some might call it pointillism, I call it attention to realism but either way the painting was rich in color and detail. Upon further inspection I realized the painting had the most amazing abstract moments. I was blown away completely !! . . .
Long story short he contacted me after graduating and told me he was working on a group of watercolors, his first ever, and he would like to show them to me. Here is a young artist who has such a clear vision that it is inspiring.”
CHRIS BIDDY – ‘NEW MESSAGE’ – OPENS FEB 11, 2010 – BILL BRADY – ATM
542 WEST 24th St – THE BACK ANNEX GALLERY SPACE
p.s. CHIS BIDDY wrote a pretty amusing, and insightful, Artist statement to accompany his small but exquisite show !!
“In my work, I chase the psychological dramas and conceited behaviors of adolescents. The girls I portray are often in bloom, teetering between innocence and self-awareness.
The first step in my work involves logging onto Myspace or Facebook to obtain my imagery, which is often derived from a cell phone. Rather than photographing my models myself I leave the responsibility of how they will represent themselves to them. This allows the models’ own personalities to come through and gives the viewer a chance to either see a silly child-like moment or one of vanity.
The focus of the subject is one of self-rejection and identity development. I find myself jealous of girlhood and the paintings are a way of projecting myself into the situation. I am interested in gender roles and what it means to be a girl or become a woman. Culturally I wonder about where I exist as the other, or how I got about constructing my own identity, there are struggles both formal and conceptual in my work .?”
p.s. he told me the opening – that girls just send him pix – sometimes – it’s their first ever time crossing paths with him personally – and ask him to point their portraits. you can see why !!
it’s funny – I saw the moments he caught in a very different light – as a new viewer – than as what one might infer from his artist statement above. I found the portraits to be both kind and intelligent. and, girl fierce – in good way. the immediacy of the self-portraits, all in this show originate as cell phone pix !! – and the moments from their own lives – that the girls choose to offer up to him – were super compelling, as well. all played out on this super small scale, that relates so well to new message mediums !!
CHRIS BIDDY at the opening of his first ever showing in NYC.
ATM’S BILL BRADY presents CHRIS BIDDY – ‘NEW MESSAGES’, in his new space on WEST 24th St.
Feb 11, 2010.
‘COURTNEY’, 2009. oil on canvas, 8 x 10 in. ($6,000)
a small oil painting by CHRIS BIDDY. Mr. Biddy previously worked in oil – but now he is really into watercolors, and the rest of the show is all new work – done since this past summer. it’s fun to see the journey from oil to watercolor in the works !!
‘Sydney and Haleigh’, 2009. watercolor, 10 x 8 in. ($3,600).
it’s a nice range of expression – and, the portraits have a definite cell phone – edge !!
its also amazing to see – what this young artist could do with watercolor – such a tempermental medium – in his first time delving into – its infinite possibilities and sensitive terrains.
CHRIS BIDDY, ‘Ciara’, 2009. watercolor. on archival paper.
the paintings are all 8 x 6 in.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
LIO MALCA – the anti-JOSH !! – in the news !!
you gotta love it !! life, as in – real-world – truth – is always way better than fiction !!
you couldn’t make this stuff up – in your wildest dreams. so, yes – WE LIVE IN PUBLIC, or what !!
some background: LIO MALCA is the guy who bought Josh’s Spring St. loft when Josh’s web bubble burst and he went belly-up – and Malca still lives there. LIO MALCA is also famous – as a footnote character – in the WE LIVE IN PUBLIC annals – as he is the collector who dropped the dime on the ALFREDO MARTINEZ phony BASDQUIAT CAPER – after a brief trial – the feds sent Alfredo away to the big house for 2 years !! on interstate wire fraud charges.
much thanks to CHARLIE FINCH for the heads-up !!
FILE THIS UNDER: what goes around – comes around.
as per: COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE – MONDAY FEB 8, 2010 – LIO MALCA SUES KATZUHITO YOSHII for $500,000+ OVER A ‘BORROWED’ BASQUIAT !!
JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT – ‘Untitled (Football Helmet)’ – the piece in dispute.
PHOTO COURTESY/COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE
COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE – ‘COLLECTOR SUES GALLERY OVER BASQUIAT’ – by SARAH HULL 02/08/2010 Manhattan (CN)
“An art collector claims a Manhattan gallery owner said he wanted to [borrow] a Basquiat painting to show it “to his family,” then sold it for $300,000 without permission. Lio Malca sued Katzuhito Yoshii and his Yoshii Gallery in New York County Court.
Malca claims the gallery at 980 Madison Ave. [uptown] sold his Jean Michel Basquiat artwork known as ‘Untitled (Football Helmet) which Yoshii had in bailment. Malca says he did not consign the work to the gallery, and it was ‘not offered as collateral against any debts,’ but was merely on loan to defendant Yoshii as a favor.
Malca claims that while Yoshii had the piece he offered to sell it to the gallery but Yoshii refused to pay the asking price of $300,000.
A few days later, Malca says, he asked for the art back, but the gallery told him it had been sold “without title”. Malca says he demanded that the gallery ‘return the artwork immediately,’ without success.
He demands damages for breach of duty as bailee, conversion, and fraud, and wants the art back or $500,000 (the “actual value of the piece”). Malca is represented by Larry Kramer with Kramer & Pollack of Mineola.
LIO MALCA – attends the opening of ‘Furniture & Architecture by Jean Prouve’ at SONNABEND GALLERY, NYC.
Feb 22, 2003.
PHOTO BY NANCY SMITH
KATZUHITO YOSHII – attends the PHILIPS CONTEMPORARY ART PREVIEW, NYC. Oct 22, 2002.
PHOTO BY NANCY SMITH
that’s so – NYC vs. LA in a nutshell – circa WINTER 2010 – 2 collectors, former partners, when I first encountered them – at each other’s throats over overpriced – decades old blue chip art now – Basquiats – and, neither of them known for their patronage. these guys are really ‘art’ bankers in the truest and saddest sense – are in the news here – while colorful and celebrated collector ELI BROAD is headlining the news out of LA !! at least Mr. BROAD is a known as a very far-reaching, influential trend-setting collector – a very generous patron of the contemporary arts, as well as a major philanthropist – albeit one with an “an iron checkbook” !! hey, from where I sit in NYC – a control freak patron is still better than a bunch of uninspired, one might even say, shifty couple of art bankers.
see: ELI BROAD – IRON CHECKBOOK SHAPES CULTURAL LOS ANGELES – JENNIFER STEINHAUER, Feb 7, 2010 – ART & DESIGN/NEW YORK TIMES !!
the thing is just how much the $$ bubble burst for the downtown art scene rebels when the bubble burst for JOSH. the sudden dead-end impact – couldn’t be more illuminated than the contrast between JOSH HARRIS and the man who bought his loft on Spring St – and, at a fire sale price I am sure – LIO MALCA. that’s why we called Lio – the anti-Josh !! (as in anti-Christ, get it ?)
Josh could also be an asshole – don’t get me wrong – I am the one who introduced the buyer Lio Malca to Josh – and they both stiffed me on the finder’s fee or any form of minimal commission – for the hook-up on a 2 million+ sale, and in very hard economic conditions – for Josh. but Josh was a patron, a true inspired independent-minded art patron – and the most amazing one that I know of so far. ok so he blew out on his tech side – but whiel the money flowed Josh fueld an art scene that was so wild – and far reaching – it became the subject of a documentary that stormed SUNDANCE – you know – that little SUNDANCE 2009 GRAND JURY PRIZE winner – WE LIVE In PUBLIC !! not only did Josh not to want to buy dead art, or even blue-chip art – he didn’t even want ya – if you were in a gallery or written up by the low-ceiling mainstream art press – Josh wanted pure juice – 100% alive and kicking. He did buy art for investment – he bought art – as part his own ‘art project ‘ – if you can follow that – a concept that went and still goes over many people’s heads !! for the artists on the scene at that time, and probably for all time going forward – this was the absolute ideal situation. a totally freak-ed inspired patron – a web visionary and internet guru no less – who paid you – and, big $$ well – to create on a huge scale – and you still !! got to keep most of the product – the product – to sell to someone else. (He did buy a few choice pieces from most of the artists – that he promptly put into storagae – he bought 2 watercolors from me, apart from shooting me his credit card for some pretty worthy antique American quilt purchases !!) but he was not into buying art for investment – his fever was all about the creative mode – in real time !! – and that was worth the $$ underwriting – and in fact – he was was kind of skeptical of it ever turning a return big bucks – at least back then, in his heart of hearts.
ok. click to the present. contrast that to ELI BROAD – one: his collecting is stale. I mean compared to Josh who – was of the absolute moment. two: his collecting begins with gallery and so-called critical ‘authentication’. three: his buying power speaks to institutions – note any similar rants, like mine to Josh – in his favor – bubbling up from the contemporary artists in LA & as a further indicator of his staleness on this level – he has to import JEFFREY DEITCH from NYC – to spark things up – he has fallen so far behind the curve – on that front, and lastly, four: just how much his headset is old school investment – he renegened on giving his collection away to the institutions he supported and now is creating a ‘lending library’. LOL.
but the contrast between JOSH HARRIS and LIO MALCA was brutal. I’m not the only one who used to pass by that former Broadway & SPRING ST loft – home of many parties and cry. unlike Josh who turned the tap on – LIO turned it off. and his kind of M.O. is pretty much indicative of the NYC collector head-set that has the downtown art scene is so bone dry and lonely – ever since. LIO was not a patron. I don’t even think you could really call him a collector. He is really an pencil pusher. an art investment banker for super rich people who want to create a diverse portfolio – one that aside from being more portable than the equivalent in gold bars – is , or was !! easily converted to liquid cash in a low profile way – and – that hopefully gains in value as well. the deal is Malca is supposed to buy them guaranteed no-lose positions. Kind of like the Mugrabis – except that family aspires to a higher profile as ‘cutting edge’ collectors – but, who really only buy a few proven (and for all accounts and purposes – art wise – dead) formulas. such as BASQUIAT, HARING, WARHOL, DAMIEN HIRST. Malca only bought WARHOLS and BASQUIATS – and, apparently – as this little legal matter – between Lio and Yoshii attests to – the whole game became way-over-wrought and over-priced. their little corner of the art market has declined at least 30% in market value to boot, obviously adding to the public tension – and they probably have some very heavy-duty people calling in with big time gripes !! YIKES !!
but who’s crying for those guys, and their shadowy clients !! not I. their M.O is much worse than lousy advice and greed – it corrupts the art scene absolutely.
what they don’t get – is it that their lack of patronage, insight – and inspiration – eats at the very roots of their sand castles. you’ve got to trickle down some of that play dough – to the truly kickin’ artists, and their grassroots gallerists – on the scene in the moment – in real time – to keep up the interest in the value of their predecessors. period. art 101.
so it was a big big hurt for the Josh Harris crew – to see this kind of art ‘banker’ installed in Josh’s loft – formerly filled with the stuff of the moment – now home to rotting and over-priced HARINGS and BASQUIATS. and if you worked for him, which I did as a representative of Josh’s in turning over the loft in working order to Lio’s liking – he paid you under $10 a hr and made you feel like a dog – while doing so. I guit. and never looked back. Alfredo tried to rip him. end of story.
summation: JOSH vs LIO. round one. JOSH bankrolled you and made you feel like a king. like being an artist – was the ultimate extreme sport. LIO bankrolled dead but certified artists and made you feel like a dog. JOSH vs LIO round two. WE LIVE IN PUBLIC sweeps SUNDANCE with the breath and vitality of his insight and vision – LIO ends up suing his former partner YOSHHII in a sleazy case of theft over an over-priced art object by a long dead artist – that has lost significant market value. (Lio and Yoshii were partners – in buying art – when I first crossed paths with them.
slight factual adjustment: ok. so Lio also sometimes, and very stingily as in, not too often – used to take baby steps and actually did buy new art. case in point. He bought some early TAYLOR McKIMENS from the CLEMINTINE GIRLS – way back when Taylor was doing those awful DONALD BAECHLER hamburgers !! when when Taylor came out with the first of the DRIPS !! family – Lio stopped in his baby step new art tracks. The amazin’ ‘DRIPS! – went right straight over his ledger markin’ head.
oh the beauty of lost opportunity . . . and woefully miscast characters.
full circle: Josh’s old loft on BROADWAY – corner of SPRING in Soho. Lio Malca bought it, fire sale – when Josh’s empire went belly-up.
that’s it – the floor-thru loft – on the 2nd floor over the store. you can just see – the head of one of Lio’s (dead) art trophies in the window. but the space is surely full of ghosts – in Ondi’s documentary – the inner WE LIVE IN PUBLIC section – where Josh records his time with TANYA – with over 60 motion sensitive hard wired interactive web cameras – even in the bathroom, and on the cat litter – !! – takes place in this exact space. it was home to many many parties – some gracious – Josh loved Grapa !! some totally over-the-top and wild – too wild to even speak of !! ask Leo Koenig !!
oh that black day, when Josh’s name came down – and Lio’s went up – on the intercom !!
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH
spurred on by the success of ONDI TIMONER – who seems to have BILL GATES – aka “the richest man in the world” – as her new BFF !! – beat that – all you losers !! – I recently happened to pass by the old stomping grounds on downtown Broadway – deep in the heart of Tribeca.
this was the site of QUIET – the million dollar+ millennium party – that JOSH HARRIS and PSEUDO.COM threw – to celebrate the turn of the century – and which fueled the core of ONDI TIMONER’S SUNDANCE winning documentary – WE LIVE IN PUBLIC.
The four story warehouse building housed the Japanese style pod or bunker hotel for the 99+ live-in artists, and in the basement – was the ALFREDO MARTINEZ shooting gallery. this building was in constant flux on the other floors – with free-flowing ‘disco’ bars, art installations, and dance floors – not to mention light shows, live sex shows, chess tournaments, interactive games, and even a Toxic room – popping up and going down – just as fast. Josh’s will put it up and Josh’s will took it down. . it was breathtaking to watch the transitions and differing visions. not to mention the competing artistic egos. it was a huge futuristic shock. open to the public 24/7. all wired by omnipresent motion-sensitive cameras for 24/7 surveillance and digitally delivered and projected onto the multi-present screens, also placed everywhere – in real time, and uncensored. you could be eating in the ‘bubble’ dining room and watch Josh, or some pretty uninhibited others – prance fully naked – and wet – in the transparent shower that dominated the last half of the floor-thru pod hotel. you could be in your pod, and according to your temperament elect to catch a close-up of someone else having live sex in their pod – or watch an artist installation take shape a few floors above !! it was sheer creative chaos – with no boundaries – that roamed the absolute !! full specter of human being-ness !! – with blazing futuristic insight and defining predelection. it was at a once perfect insight, blatant imagination meets bankrolled construction – everything was possible – no holds barred – both elegant and raunchy – in sum: the total human experience. circa DEC 1999 – JAN 2000. downtown artworld rebels meet internet geek with a million bucks to blow – who likes to par-tay hearty !! and all take off. it was like the buildings were a self-contained space ship.
the smaller 2 story building to its right – housed the ‘bubble’ communal dining room – for the resident artists and the in-house production crew – complete with an asian 4 star chef – masterminded by OWEN BUSH. serving 3 meals a day. upstairs was the administration, make that Josh’s – offices.
this little storefront schmatta shop – with its many rolls of remnants was what the whole 4 story warehouse building was like – when we first got there, that’s where we got all the fab black fabric, reams of festive red velvet, and everybody’s fave: camo, that draped various stages of the ever-changing and very much put-up on the spot with what ya got – installation . . . that’s where I got the white fleece segments that became the Quiet banners, next to Alfredo’s shooting gallery, and Cal’s Vampire headquarters and video games. not to mention – the ‘interrogation’ room.
the first thing that was done – was a crew painted the walls white, or black !! and then attacked the designated space – with all those fabric rolls – with relish. one of the first areas to go up – the ultra-cheesy live sex shows ‘competition’ – area – 70’s style swanky bordello-era beds – in rolls and rolls of red velvet and M.C. LUVVY – aka JOSH HARRIS – overseeing the action. ONDI’S final version, skewed mightly towards the internet guru aspect – was sooo censored – as to be almost a joke to those who were there for – all the fun and games. there was so much going on at all times – you could pick and choose your niche of comfort – from hauling off in Alfredo’s modernist, make that futurist plexiglas and metal-domed shooting range with real life assault rifles to ALEX ARCADIA’s half-nazi half-meditation temple with its piped-in trance-inducing music to its tiny copper goldfish swimming in a moat on its perimeter. it was violent, it was sweet, it was archival, it was mad max – above all, it was what you could personally stomach.
and there was no rock left unturned. I was supposed to put up a quilting bee – but got run around so much as Josh’s personal right-hand production assistant – that the banners and some make-shift paper lanterns – were the most I had time to devise as my own contribution to this hard-wired time capsule of Americana gone wild.
a field day of red velvet, ‘camo’ and ‘flowery fields’ meet head-on nonstop with the cameras, computers, and plexiglas !!
antique pieced quilts met red velvet live sex shows in the storefront display windows.
yeah the neighbors complained – the live sex in the in display windows – that was the first gig – to get censored.
photographer DONNA FERRATO. she lived, and still does, just around the corner on Leonard St. she heard about the QUIET party – it made huge headlines in all the press, and local mags – except the mainstream art press !! LOL. as if we could be surprised by that. but hey, JEFFREY DEITCH was there almost daily. as was ANTHONY HADEN-GUEST, and ALANA HEISS.
she was in there like a dirty shirt and she’s the one who took most of the hard copy documentary pix !!
PHOTO: DONNA FERRATO/COURTESY: WE LIVE IN PUBLIC
it was DONNA FERRATO who took this photo of me and my kid Theo, back in the early days of QUIET – when JEFF GOMPEERTZ had just finished building the pod hotel. you know there had to be a kid – it was all about the future. you can see the wiring for the ‘reality’ surveillance cameras and the mini-format multi-channel play-back screens. this was before the pod-hotel, devolved into a wild no-holds barred, and some say professionally-stocked – full-on orgy.
computer nerd that he was – Josh was fascinated by animalistic behavior (body) as much as he was fascinated and inspired by the ‘fine’ arts (mind) . . . it was all about skills … and lust !! sometimes Josh walked around as Josh the founder/CEO of Pseudo, overseeing the various stages of construction and deconstruction, handing out his credit card so freely – it was impossible to keep track of – sometimes he M.C.’d as his over-the-top alter ego – LUVVY. but often I think, he also went incognito in a strange kind of hunter’s headpiece – that completely obscured his true identity, esp in the pod hotel’s very raunchy sex free for all ending. just a good guess.
how raunchy did things get, you ask ? DONNA FERRATO’S got the pix !!
and she’s about the only with the goods, too. you go girl.
following 2 images from the pod hotel at QUIET, NYC.
DEC 1999 – JAN 2000 – subject archival photographs by DONNA FERRATO.
and you didn’t see them in WE LIVE IN PUBLIC the film – or at least the version that Ondi put out at SUNDANCE !!
this is performance artist MANGINA, aka PATRICK BUCKLEW, and yes – he really does have a peg leg – though the mangina – LOL – is fabricated. a couple of us got the first over-the-top and very raw – absolutely uncensored version – of WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – as gifts from Josh – -including moi !! maybe one day, I’ll screen it for ya !!
stocked with professionals – I think the consensus would be …
yes !!
leaving Donna’s Tribeca loft, I make a mental note to get her to show me the pix she has of the NYPD and NYFD / NEW YORK POLICE and NEW YORK FIRE DEPT – finally – shutting the place down – and, can’t help but note the footprint of silkscreen artist to the internet guru – MARK ENGER – aka – EXPLODING SKY – another key creative force in the JOSH HARRIS inner circle – on the exit door. MARK made the custom luvvy-logoed WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – jacket – that Josh is seen proudly sporting in many of the taped media interviews – that followed the big win at SUNDANCE 2009.
a bit further north on Broadway, corner of SPRING St. in Soho – was Josh’s personal 2nd floor-thru luxury loft – where he was to within a year of QUIET – turn the 24/7 motion-sensitive cams on himself and girlfriend TANYA – in the initially first-titled – WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – a project that was live-streamed in an interactive format – that was obviously – way ahead of its time. It inadvertently caught both the loss of his dot com millions, and his girlfriend, or his attempt to make a fake girlfriend look like the real thing (??) – and essentially – the loss of his mind. some said at the time – – that’s what happens when a tech visionary and futuristic guru spends too much time with them wild outlaw artists !! maybe it was just an inevitable end of what is now referred to as – the bubble decade – but whatever it was, no one can deny – what a way to blow-out. no one has bested it yet.
Collector Lio Malca bought the place – was it the summer of 2002 ? Josh retreated full-time to his Apple Orchard up-state – and, where the opening footage in the film – WE LIVE IN PUBLIC – takes place.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH – unless otherwise noted.