30 ARTIST'S TAKES ON OUR DIVIDED STATES OF AMERICA

November 06, 2016

Paddle 8 has a nice selection of works on paper inspired by America and politics. I have a new book, Yes: Transform Your Life with Color By Number that comes out on Election Day, so I thought I’d put the two together. Never have we seen such a contentious election as this that has divided our country in two. I created a HOPE painting for President Obama‘s first run in 2008 (based on a vintage paint by number of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor) and I just revised it for the book and a commission, VOTE. (You can download the blank with palette here and enter to win a free print and a signed copy of my book.)

Let’s just HOPE that people do exercise their right and let’s also ask that God, PLEASE –bless America in three days.

#ARTTOUR: REFLECTING ON BACK-TO-BACK, COAST-TO-COAST EXHIBITS

December 15, 2014

Seems like ages ago when I left NYC for Florida, but it was just December 2 when there was a press preview at the Cornell Museum in Delray Beach for Language Art, a show I’m featured in along with artists Mary Coyle, Michael Dinges, Reed Dixon, William Halliday, Kathy Halper, Robert Indiana, Meryl Pataky, Johnny Romeo, Matthew Rose and Annie Vought. Curator Melanie Johansen and the museum team couldn’t have been more welcoming and gracious to me –as was everyone I met. (Unbeknownst to me, though Melanie was biting her nails all afternoon as a large diptych of mine “The Future was Better”, was only delivered just 30 minutes before the show opened! Whew! The Future was almost the past before we got started.) Two nights later, when I was down the beach in Miami for Art Basel, the official opening happened with a martini party and hundreds of revelers pouring in the square to see the HUGE tree lit up (it’s one of the largest in the country and it’s hollow and you can go inside!) I missed all that fun, but here are some pics. Can’t reveal anything just yet but a year from now, I’ll be back in Delray for something exciting! To me, anyway.

With Curator Melanie Johansen next to, “Never Look or You’ll Never Leap”

It may or may not be the World’s Tallest artificial tree, but at 100 feet, it’s BIG!

The Cornell Museum all lit up with Language Art

After 3 days at Art Basel with my pal Susan Kilkenny, I flew to San Francisco on December 7th for the opening for The Jealous Curator: From Blog To Book To Gallery at the Bedford Gallery. It’s actually outside San Francisco in Walnut Creek at the Lesher Center for the Arts. The author, Danielle Krysa wrote a book Creative Block: Advice and Projects From 50 Successful Artists, which I am still amazed to be included in and this was the basis for the exhibit with 20 of the 50 artists in the book represented. Btw, the Huffington Post just named Creative Block one of the Best Art Books of 2014! And the great site Brain Pickings also picked Creative Block as one of their faves of ’14. Not bad, huh? See the book come to life was great for everyone, especially Danielle who wrote the blog and the book on these folks without ever seeing 90% of the work in person, so this show was a surprise. Danielle signed books and being the schmuck I am, I forced people to let me sign their books too, not realizing that six of the other artists were also there. Curator Carrie Lederer and her team were also incredibly accommodating and nice to deal with, the whole experience was really a cake walk. There was a great DIY area where visitors can color three of my project PBN pages and also a chalkboard in addition to the 4 paintings and one mirror piece I had on display. After the opening, Danielle, the artists, Lisa Congdon, Lisa Golightly, Stephanie Vovas and others all went across the street and had martinis and chatted. What a fun smart group –just like the author herself, who btw, just got her third book deal, which is a sort of follow-up to CB. The next day, Danielle and I returned to give a talk… no, I didn’t force myself on the crowd, this time I was ASKED.

...and people say female artists don’t get enough attention! (I like being the only guy.)

The crowd of docents listening to Danielle speak about each artist

CELEBRITY ARTHAMPTONS & THE PRIDE AGENDA Ft. LADY BUNNY

July 14, 2014

I drove my old Volvo station wagon with my dog Lamonte out to see ArtHamptons and hang out with my friends at the beach this weekend. I was discussing with one of my old pals who lives out here year ’round how much the Hamptons have changed in the last two decades. Originally, it was primarily farm land and a way to escape to the beach from the heat of the city. But as more money started to pour in, more of the people who came for the beauty of the place have started to exit. Artists have always worked out here. Famously, Pollack, DeKooning and further out in Montauk, Warhol, who really played more than worked. A few years ago the Parrish Art Museum moved into a new space and around the same time ArtHamptons arrived. This was my first year and it was sort of what I expected. There’s always a lot of money out here, so to spend a few thousand on some art in an afternoon is comparable to me going to Target for a shopfest. There was some good work, but more mediocre to bad, in my opinion. I ran into painter Peter Reginato, who had some nice work (we are currently in a group show in Chelsea together) but there wasn’t enough other good work to make a story, so famous faces became my theme. You know it’s not a great show when you are taking pics of Mr. Brainwash, the subject of the great documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop. He does his best to be pop and splashy, but with limited success. There were multiple Kate Mosses and Marilyns’ throughout the fair. Celebrity culture was aptly represented by the patron saint of just about any fair these days; Andy Warhol. Richard Pettibon did these tiny, 2 x 2″ portraits years and years ago and they serve as a reminder of how clairvoyant Andy was about pop culture, celebrity and the media and how out of control his Pandora has gotten. When the Kardashians flock here to film their show, you kinda know the party must have been over a while ago.

Right next door to ArtHamptons was the party for the Empire State Pride Agenda where legendary Lady Bunny DJ’d and posed her way through an afternoon of dancing and fun with hundreds of supporters and friends. This event was inclusive to all as the kids (gaybees or otherwise) got in on the action with play area sponsored by Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams. So, needless to say it didn’t get too wild, as it was over by the time the sun went down. But Bunny can bring the old school (and apparently, even the PRE-school) together under the big tent that is the LGBTQ community in 2014.

Lady Bunny arrives at the Pride Agenda (by drone?) Photo: Mark Kennedy Dumoulin

HAPPY 4TH FROM ED, ANDY, GEORGIA & ME!

July 04, 2014

I thought I’d give you a little sampling of some of the most famous works most closely associated with these Unites States. This isn’t a museum survey that is all-inclusive… it is deficient in many areas – but this is just me, not a curatorial body, so take it for what it’s worth. Warhol appears a few times as does Ed Ruscha, two of my favorites. When Obama ran in 2008, I created this HOPE piece for Art For Obama from a vintage paint by number original. When it was auctioned, with the proceeds went to his campaign, the buyer ended up being in his administration and subsequently, I got a tour of the West Wing! (It was also made into a soap box for Anthropologie.) So, I had to include it here – sue me if I’m not quite in these guy’s league. It’s a free country, isn’t it?! I’m SO excited that the new Whitey Museum, whose mission is to highlight American artists, is opening up next Spring just a block from my studio in the Meatpacking District. I have to say, I AM proud to be an American artist –specifically, a gay New York one – but I really it doesn’t differ much from being an artist from anywhere else in the world. The best work grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you, no matter what country the maker lives in. That’s why it’s called “universal truth”. But it takes the viewer to mean ANYTHING at all. That is what makes it art.

Ansel Adams, Andy Warhol, Peter Max, Georgia O'Keefe

Jasper Johns, Robert Indiana, Shepard Fairey, Trey Speegle

Diane Arbus, Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Robert Frank