{"id":38082,"date":"2018-10-12T11:40:38","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T16:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/?p=38082"},"modified":"2019-02-20T14:22:44","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T19:22:44","slug":"update-ben-buchanan-the-shadowman-skip-the-femmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/the-bomb\/2018\/10\/12\/update-ben-buchanan-the-shadowman-skip-the-femmes\/","title":{"rendered":"~UP-DATE: BEN BUCHANAN & THE SHADOWMAN \/ & PLEASE: skip the femmes . . curators: Alfie & Jelly !!"},"content":{"rendered":"

back when New York City – rhymed with GRITTY.<\/p>\n

there was a guy I call . . . friggin LCR \/ or: LITTLE ‘CRACKHEAD’ RICHARD<\/p>\n

who wasn’t pretty. <\/p>\n

and, friggin friggin please !!
\nLEAVE THE GIRLS – OUT OF IT.
\nLEAVE THE GIRLS – ALONE. <\/p>\n

‘The Shadowman Meets the Feminine’ . . co-curated by ALFREDO MARTINEZ & JULIA MORRISON
\n CONTRA GALLERY, CHELSEA <\/a> \/ OPENED OCT 11, 2018<\/p>\n

‘The Shadowman Meets The Feminine’ ?
\nhands down, the worst<\/em> title of a show . . . e-v-e-r.
\nAlfie, whatever . . were you thinking ?<\/p>\n

but, esp with regard to . . POOR LITTLE RICHARD HAMBLETON.
\nhe really<\/strong> was a rat. & an infected<\/em> rat, at that.
\na thief, and a crackhead,
\nand above all else, a total . . . MISOGYNIST. <\/p>\n

HAMBLETON was the late 20th C. street art equivalent . . of HARVEY WEINSTEIN \/ a real predator.
\nand a nasty nasty one – at that. there’s no celebration in this sorry ass art life story. why do people glorify it ?
\nif<\/strong> my keyboard had emoji digits, I would be inserting a string of vomiting yellow faces right now.<\/p>\n

I can tell you first-hand<\/strong> \/ from living just around the corner – from that vomit-inducing character . . . in the Lower east Side, in the 1980s, that he whored his girlfriends, & in particular one pretty red-haired one, (when she first arrived), name of Bonnie . . who followed him all the way down from Vancouver Canada . . .
\nhe had her out there on Chrystie St, when it was truly, truly the devil’s Playground \/ in the hard-core hooker’s uniform of the day, micro-skirt and black fishnet stockings \/ & now with the bad skin of a druggie, luring trashy, dangerous druggie \/ criminal \/ etc lowlifes . .
\n& getting in their cars – for $5 blowjobs, or worse.
\nwho else would want to touch her ? <\/p>\n

we lived in the east storefront of 5 Rivington St., just 2 doors up from the Bowery at the time.
\nlong story short: Simon (Cerigo, my hubby) had sublet<\/strong> the storefront from Richard<\/strong>, who had used it as a studio, while he ‘lived’ in an apt on the first floor \/ until he moved around the corner to Chrystie when his career ‘took off’.
\nwe paid something like $600\/month. We had just<\/strong> gotten gentrified out of a great loft space in Tribeca, on Franklin St., and this was all Simon & me could afford. and, had the paperwork for, & that’s a joke, btw . . . no ‘pay stubs’ needed in the L.E.S.of the 80s \/ the storefronts in particular – were all but abandoned, and boarded-up. crime was rife, homeless bums lined the Bowery, and flopped everywhere, competing for turf with very hardcore, and I mean heavy-duty drug dealers.
\nbasically you kept your eyes averted at all times.
\nthere were drug battles \/ cops vs dealers \/ dealers vs dealers \/ with guns & bad knives \/ overhead on the rooftops, and down on the streets, and through the alleys, basically 24\/7.<\/p>\n

I cried when we moved in, I had one small child and the only thing that sustained me was the ‘art’ that coursed through the nabe \/ just as much as the drugs. and we are talking heavy-duty drugs here, not hipster pot & designer ‘jellies’. you kind of skipped over the over-dosed, and most likely dead \/ like hop scotch. the storefront, which was large enough, was painted entirely black<\/strong> \/ black as night – over 100% of the surface; walls, ceiling, and even the floors . . were painted black.
\nblack paint even covered the one back window.
\nPaint it black, was no longer just another teen anthem, from my suburban Montreal, coming-of-age rebellion. <\/p>\n

ok, so fast forward a month, once we painted the place . . white, it wasn’t so bad.
\nwe had the entire floor from back-to-front \/ big enough to be both studio for 2 artists, & with a high enough ceiling to paint big canvases, when we had the money, and a big enough space to store the paintings we bought and then flipped, when we had the money \/ including an early Jack Goldstein ‘Lightning’ (!!) . . . and to this day his largest, btw.
\nand a decent enough living space in back.
\nand, it was a great location.
\nlocation, location, location is<\/em> everything, it was<\/em> the friggin bleeding heart of the 80s.
\nwe dealt . . in paintings fresh off the easel, or in Keith Harings’ case, fresh off the subway wall \/ and, high-end audio equipment, including very expensive tube amplifiers.
\nwe were like the mini-Marakesh \/ black market . . of the Lower East Side. <\/p>\n

for a few years Simon even had a legit gallery on Ave A & 12th St. Basquiat and Haring lived around the corner.
\nit was a short stroll to the Red Bar, and to any<\/strong> gallery that was worth seeing \/ from like 14th St. over to Soho . . was walking distance. Nothing was happening anywhere else, not midtown, not uptown, let alone Brooklyn. forget Queens.
\nwalking there . . was a process, in and of itself. artists, dealers (drug dealers) and thieves mixing it up \/ the mafia had their HQ in Rays pizza shop on Prince St. \/ on many an afternoon I saw Simon and the real John Gotti . . crossing the corner \/ shoulder-to-shoulder, kings of different countries – unknown to each other \/ but, right in same ‘macho’ stride \/ & same build.
\nshort & stocky, but all muscle.
\nin a word: PUNKS.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNANCY SMITH, & SIMON CERIGO . . . with Kate and Theo,
\nin front of the storefront we sublet from Richard Hambleton, 5 Rivington St, Lower East Side, NYC, ca 1989.
\nPhoto: Scot Harrison<\/p>\n

yeah, back in the day \/ when NYC rhymed with . . Gritty.<\/p>\n

we painted the place all white, and erected . . literally, a concrete ‘bunker’ in front of the boarded-up storefront \/ which was once was a window. so it was very safe, inside. and everything was cool, until Little ‘Crackhead’ Richard took our rent, and didn’t pay the landlord.<\/strong>
\nabout a year into living there, & then it was . . all-out war.<\/p>\n

Simon was kind of a naturally built fighter \/ a natural-born street thug, a punk with a trigger temper, and a chip on his shoulder & raw, ancient Greek fisherman DNA roots. so Little ‘Crackhead’ Richard . . ran to the other side of the street when he saw him coming.
\nI, on the other hand had a toughness that wasn’t so obvious, but I loved those mean streets, and they loved me back. Richard once tried to run me over, with his stupid little black bike, and I mean really !!!
\nwith viciousness in his heart, and in his intention. high on the evil crack.
\nyo, some pretty heavy street dealers, were a witness<\/strong>, and boy did they a-come running to my defense.
\nneedless to say, that was last <\/strong>time, LCR \/ Little ‘Crackhead’ Richard . . . messed with me.
\n
\nlong story even shorter:<\/strong> we ended up in landlord tenant court for 9 years, and we didn’t pay rent<\/strong>, not one thin dime for the entire 9 years. you can’t rent sub-standard non-code places – to families, with young children, even sub-tenants, in NYC.
\nwhen the Lower East Side really blew up, they paid us $80,000<\/strong> cold hard cash \/ to get the hell, out.
\n5 Rivington, East Storefront, is now a 5 star hipster \/ Japanese upscale lifestyle joint, called ‘Green Fingers Market’, (!!), and the rent is something like $12 grand, or was it $20 grand \/ a month, I stopped counting years, ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nso, do I really want to promote, let alone, review a show – on Richard Hambleton. what do you think ?
\nesp, one with such a lame – title ?
\nAlfie, whatever were you thinking ?
\nI know, let me guess. the pot of gold, at the end of the art market rainbow.
\nlong live dead artists . . !!!!!!
\nlong live dead Street artists . . even more !!!!
\nthey are even better after the fact – that’s fer sure. & a hell of a lot easier to deal with, too.
\ndead. <\/p>\n

ps: dig that bulldog clip – keeping the cold out. classic Hambleton.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nRICHARD HAMBLETON – LOS ANGELES, 1986 \/ PHOTO BY: BEN BUCHANAN<\/p>\n

good grief.
\nI know talking bad about the dead is in poor form, but wtf ??!!!
\nI always knew Basquiat would be a real long term contender, but LCR ? \/ Little ‘Crackhead’ Richard ?
\nnever.
\nwe had <\/strong>a piece of his, and dumped it as soon as possible. double your money – and, out.
\nlisten up my young millennials \/ there’s gold in them thar trash \/ where you least expect it. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nno, my interest lies more in the . . . back story.<\/p>\n

with BEN BUCHANAN, who has a small wall of his archival photos \/ now art world legends, and a couple of Hambeltons pieces,
\nat Contra, a scruffy enough spot btw, as to provide some strange relief \/ from the endless ‘hipster-dom’ of Brooklyn, Ridgewood, and Queens. <\/p>\n

BEN,<\/strong> now located in London, was a 20-something stumbling about the scene, like we all were.
\nlike: this is just New York Friggin City – party on !!!
\nwhen his boss at AREA, gave him those famous last words:
\n“YO, YOU !! YES, YOU<\/em> KID !! – TAKE SOME PHOTOS !!!!!!” <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\naccidental photographer, BEN BUCHANAN . . photog of art world legends, including Basquiat & yes, even LCR \/ Little ‘Crackhead’ Richard. <\/p>\n

so, fast forward to last night, OCT 12, 2018 \/ thanks to the show’s co-curator, Alfredo Martinez<\/strong>,
\nwho has a friendship with Ben going back decades, here, here<\/strong> in this grimy, almost forsaken Chelsea ‘street art’ gallery of a puppy mill, here’s the accidental photog<\/strong>, with a big grin, and why the F, not ?
\ncool AF, indeed. <\/p>\n

and with a couple of LCR \/ Little ‘Crackhead’ Hambleton paintings, that he prob got off Poor Richard . . for ciggie money, and that he’s now hoping to get big bucks for \/ the ‘golden’ one above to the left, and the larger ‘Shadowman’ . . behind him.
\ngrin away, dude – all the power to ya.<\/strong>
\nyou deserve every penny you get. it’s the early<\/strong> pix, that make these short-lived legends, that burst so gloriously into flames, and died too soon, come to life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n‘JMB \/JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT . . at Boy George’s birthday party at AREA, NYC. 1985’.
\nPHOTO BY BEN BUCHANAN, PRINTED 2018 \/ EDITION 1\/5.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n‘JMB Needle on the record at AREA NYC 1985’.
\nPHOTO BY BEN BUCHANAN, PRINTED 2018 \/ EDITION 1\/5 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\na RICHARD HAMBLETON painting, from his own collection,
\nwhich photog Ben Buchanan has up for sale at . . CONTRA GALLERY<\/a>.
\nalong with his photographs.
\nhey . .<\/strong> as I was told, a few times !! \/ artnet sold a Hambleton for over $150,000 last week !!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nat the opening:
\nBEN BUCHANAN, and co-curator of ‘The Shadowman meets the Feminine’ . . ALFREDO MARTINEZ.
\n(Alfie was up all night, hanging the show.)
\nlol, unraveling the artlovers code:
\nhe’s . . Alfie when he got dough \/ and just plain Alfredo the rest of the time. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nJELLY aka JULIA MORRISON, the other curator of the show, with her own, (2) coming of age . . paintings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI SPY WITH MY LITTLE, not . . crackhead eye:
\nan ALFREDO MARTINEZ gun painting on the wall.
\nwhat, dated 2013 ?
\nI told you, his (current) work was – all sold out !!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOUT OF SIGHT, in Los Vegas, BUT NOT . . FORGOTTEN !!
\na knock-dead gorgeous \/ ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ LIGHT-BOX – by JOSH HARRIS.<\/p>\n

‘PSEUDO’ BOSS & MILLENNIUM PARTY ‘QUIET’ MC . . yes, that<\/strong> JOSH ‘LUVVY’ HARRIS.
\nto be played by the super hot !! JONAH HILL \/ in a ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ \/ TAKE-TWO . . .
\na BEN STILLER helmmed Hollywood feature re-make \/ coming to a theater near you . . . soon.<\/p>\n

a classic . . . ‘WE LIVE IN PUBLIC’ light-box – by the man \/ JOSH HARRIS himself !!!!!!
\nI’d scoop<\/strong> that up, in a nano-second, if I had a pocketful of cash, no doubt about it.
\nah, thank god the (mainstream) art world is full of dummies, or else, where would I . . be ?
\nor: you could put it this way \/ thank god I have no <\/strong>pocket full of dough, or I’d just be buying<\/strong>, and not writing \/ and laughing . . like a little piggy \/ all the way home.<\/p>\n

PHOTOS OF THE OPENING: NANCY SMITH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

back when New York City – rhymed with GRITTY. there was a guy I call . . . friggin LCR \/ or: LITTLE ‘CRACKHEAD’ RICHARD who wasn’t pretty. and, friggin friggin please !! LEAVE THE GIRLS – OUT OF IT. LEAVE THE GIRLS – ALONE. ‘The Shadowman Meets the Feminine’ . . co-curated by ALFREDO […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38082"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38082"}],"version-history":[{"count":59,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39232,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38082\/revisions\/39232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artloversnewyork.com\/zine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}