Alex Schaefer Feels Weird (part one)

A few months ago, Matjames Metson and I were talking about Alex Schaefer. I had been thinking about doing an interview with Alex, and I was postulating that a hundred years from now (if the air is still breathable), and people study the Ponzi schemes, the toxic mortgages, and the Global Financial Crisis which took place at the dawn of the 21st Century, that Alex will stand as the artistic documentarian of our avarice. Matjames listened to what I was saying, sighed, and said, "Well, I hope so." The doubt in his voice was understandable. These are cynical times and the public's consumption for art tends to be high in calories and seriously lacking in any nutritional value. Everybody knows the game is rigged, and they'd rather not think about it.

Shortly after that conversation, I ran into Alex at a show. He told me that he felt weird. He said he was done with the burning bank series. He said he felt weird about the gallery system, weird about painting, weird about the art world, weird about the world in general. Just weird. I told him that was a conversation I wanted to have, that THAT was the interview I wanted to do. So we juggled calendars and set a date. I parked in the lot next to the "Gronk building" on Spring Street where Alex has his studio (and where the attendant fleeced me for fifteen bucks). Almost as soon as I walked into the studio Alex started talking in rapid fire bursts of frantic energy. This wasn't going to be like any interview I've ever done. It wasn't going to be like an interview at all. I was just going to listen to Alex unabashedly dissect the seedy underbelly of the art world. I rushed to turn on my recorder, to catch him mid-screed.

...you see that in the gallery scene, or an artist trying to establish themselves, with a logo, and a thing. I just repel against that. That's why I quit video games. I did video games and made a killing for ten years. I was like, bulging my eyes out with the amount of money I was making, as an artist for fucks sake. But I just couldn't stay in it...and the irony is, everybody that stayed in it, these are people I even went to art school with, they're CEOs now. They're big money, but they look at me and they're jealous. And I look at them, and I'm jealous. They look at me like, 'Dude, you're free man!' You're overhead is digestible, you're hustling, you're making art, you're in the art world...blah, blah, blah. Then to me, I just look at my life as just a shambles most of the time. I'm just jerking around from here to there, and have no clue. I look at them, and they've got a house, kids, normal. That's how I grew up. I grew up really normal. I think that's why it's hard for me to not be - to be abnormal. I was into metal. I thought punk sucked, or it was scary and I didn't get it. For whatever reason, I don't know how I wound up an artist. I mean, I feel like I'm still learning to rebel. But I've had a lot of misconceptions about the art world, just being cast aside, through just sheer reality. The dream, and it's the same impulse, of...we want to have it made. Everybody wants to have it made. You want to be a millionaire. You want to win the lottery. You want to have it made in the shade, so you can just live like an American Express commercial for the rest of your life. So, some of these fantasies are like, if I get an article written about me in this magazine or that, then that's what it's going to take...or if I get into this gallery or this scene, that's what it's going to take. I've seen these things happen, and it's not it. They're with you for a while, or --- the thing I always have to add as a caveat too, is you are the common denominator in every bad experience and relationship that you have in your life too. So, if you're like, 'God, my relationships all suck.' Well, you sucked along with it. So, what are you bringing to it that's sucking. What am I bringing to it that's sucking. When I got out of video games, I spent about seven years just completely disengaged from the art world. I had enough money, and I was starting to teach, which supplemented my income, and I would get an occasional sale or something would happen. But I just spent a shit ton of time doing crazy weird work, but not engaging with the art scene. See, that's where I lacked. I had no presence in the art scene at all. Then I had this huge publicity thing happen with the bank paintings. It was just a weird thing. It was a flash, but there wasn't any kindling around, that I had cultivated through a network, and that's my own fault. I don't believe that it's "over" now. You know, 'Oh it's OVER!' I remember a teacher telling me this happens a lot of places in her life. Where every now and then, you're going to do a drawing or a painting that's like really great...she's talking to an art student. So like, it's really good, it's gonna blow your mind, and all your friends are going to go, 'Holy crap!', and you won't be able to do it again for months, or years. But that incredible painting, that you were able to just somehow pull off, that was beyond your ability, will become your new normal eventually...and you'll continue to have those experiences if you continue to push yourself. So, having this crazy sale on Ebay, or whatever - to me, I look at that as, well, that's the future regular price for what I'm doing, and even today, it's totally conceivable. I mean I know people that sell well, doing schmaltzy ass landscapes and nudes  for 25, 50, 200 thousand...big massive history paintings, cowboys and Indians, Chinese guys making railroads, shit like the Autry Museum, those are hammering for a lot of dough. That's a whole other level, the auction world. I'm just starting to fiddle with that. That's something where you've got to have a lot of fucking skin in the game before you get into that. You've got to have cohorts, and co-conspirators that are part of your thing. In the beginning, it's not a bad thing to tell collectors, to give them a really good deal, tell them 'You're now in Art Club, and the first rule of Art Club is you don't talk about prices...and if anybody brings up the subject matter, you make them feel as rude as if they asked a lady how old she was.' You just defer the topic completely. Then you have a conspirator. It's too soon to talk about how cheap you got a Keith, or an Alex. 'Fuck you! Fuck you!' Another problem is these collectors don't know shit. They have the same attitude as the artists, that the gallery is going to make me. I'm going to get made, like the mob or something. The collectors think the same thing. That they're going to buy this work really expensive at this she-she gallery and they're going to do everything to make it go up in value, but where's the Gertrude Steins', and the Sarah Steins' stepping up? And the Barnes', who'd have lectures at their homes and talk about art and shit like that? Collectors can fuck with you, in a good or a bad way, but most of them just are clueless. You get in a good collection, you're on their wall, they talk about you. A bad collection, and I've been collected by someone like this, where everything just went straight to storage. they loved every piece that I did, and it's just been locked away like the Ark of the Covenant. I remember really wanting to get one of those in a show, and it hadn't seen the light of day in eight years, since I painted it. I finally convinced him to show it, and getting to the painting was like the beginning of Get Smart. It was this wine and storage space in Santa Monica, security gate at the parking, security gate to get in the lobby, I.D. check and a key to get in the room, then your own thing has a key, and it's all fans and perfect temperature. Every painting was hermetically sealed, in a little box, with a little document on the outside, a Polaroid of the piece, and all the information, what was paid for it, when it was bought, blah, blah, blah. what the fuck are you doing dude?

But Alex it's not art anymore, it's money! Savings accruing interest.

Well, I guess?! The guys got offices in Beverly Hills, and New York. He's got a condo on the east coast, where his ex-wife lives with the kids, and he's got a place in Santa Monica. It's an Art Deco, beautiful place. He's got wall space. Fucking A! It's weird. It's all part of the 'fun'. But see, eventually someone will crack that open and that's the cool thing about painting...it's there, and hopefully my material processes are good enough that they haven't cracked too much, you know. I know that if they're sealed up, they're not gonna get sun bleached.

There's a degree to which you just have to let the paintings go, and do what they will.

Dude! You know this show that I'm selling all these pieces at  Blackstone this month? Literaly, I was just going to take all those pieces, and rent a haul trailer, do a big loop around California and just leave the paintings. Just leave them. Leave them in alleys, parking lots, just leave a little note on it. I don't have room for this. I'm an artist. Hey, have a free painting. You want it? I was just over it. But then a friend of mine convinced me to try to sell them. It's not my normal thing to try to just sell, sell. sell.

Some of them you were giving away, right?

The drawings, yeah. That was the High Roller bonus, you get a beautiful drawing. But yeah, I can see why artists burn pieces. you get to a certain point where you're like, ugh! There's a famous quote by someone that said, 'Show me an artist who doesn't sell, and I'll show you a man with a storage problem.' Then I get hope too, because like, Manet's 'Olympia' hung on the wall of his studio for twelve, fourteen years, unsold...and Manet did everything every hustling artist tries to do. They rented their own gallery space to try to flog their own stuff. They timed it so their exhibition was at the exact same time as the Salon was having it's show. So, that was like Art Basel now, and there were little satellite fairs that were all around the big shoop-da-doo! It wasn't any different. So, Manet, renting a storage space and throwing all his paintings up on the wall, that's like everyone at Art Basel Miami renting a U-haul and putting lights in it, trying to sell their own work. There's nothing new under the sun, as long as art has been like a commodity. As opposed to, well, you know...it was different for certain artists, where you were made.

If you had a Medici behind you.

Or, if you were Leonardo, it was like working for the Defense Department. You worked for the king, so you got an apartment, you got all your food taken care of, travel, art supplies. He didn't pay for anything. He just got to sit around and make art, draw and THINK. Although the majority of Leonardo Da Vinci's work was like military stuff, armaments, towers. But he was taken care of. It was different. 

I was worried that I was gonna get here and you wouldn't feel weird anymore.

Ha...You know, it's just the realization that getting into the gallery doesn't mean your 'made'. I had a lot of fucking sparks and selling that just happened to me...because I did something, then it got a story and everyone picked up on it, then it was a news thing, and those works were easy to sell. It's harder to sell nudes and landscapes, and I'm really glad that I'm doing it at Blackstone. Part of it for me, is to say to collectors that I know everyone wants a fucking wheat field. But would you NOT buy a Van Gogh because it was just a painting of people walking down an alley, or going to church or whatever. People don't understand. Oh, it's a wheat field! It's a flaming bank, ack! If you believe that the painting is going to go up, everything I do is gonna go up, along with that painting. So, the gallery sold the pieces as long as it was easy to sell. The last communication I had, I'm not naming names, but people can do research and probably figure it out, they said, 'Alex, do you have anymore burning bank paintings?' I said I had one more and that I wasn't going to do any fucking more. It's over. That could have been my pet rock, or whatever, but fuck that! I'm not into it. So I said, 'Yeah, I have one left and it's the last one.' They said they want to buy it for $3,000. I thought, just, fuck! I just sold a kick-ass landscape to some collector in Hong Kong, off the internet for a thousand. Now they want to sell the burning bank painting, it's the last one, it's got provenance, and I'm going to get fifteen hundred bucks out of a cut? And I have the piece. It's mine, it's in MY hands. No paperwork ever comes between artists and the galleries, you know? They keep it fast and loose as possible. So I said, "Here's what you do, tell the guy who wants it, it's $5,000 or I'm going to burn it. Fuck you! It's my painting." Then he came back and he said, "Okay, I'll give you $2,500 of the cut." So that means you'll still get half of what you want, which is $5,000. So that immediately kind of made me feel like I was getting dicked around with. That's a huge jump in a 50/50 split, you know? That's suddenly turning into ten grand. I said, "No. You should get more than that. Tell the guy, five thousand or I'm going to burn it."

At this point, I asked Alex if I could see the painting in question, the last burning bank. He got up and started pouring through stacks of paintings. He couldn't find it. He started to panic. For the next hour we searched the studio to no avail. Alex was really upset and he asked me to leave. I found out when I got home that the painting had been taken for ransom by a secret and mysterious gallery order.

I'll post part two of this interview in a couple weeks, if the situation resolves itself.

In the meantime, you can see other work by Alex Schaefer at:

Blackstone Gallery

Summer Flies at Flower Pepper Gallery
now through August 1st

Masters Of Illusion at bG Gallery (Bergamot)

July 19 - August 20

Ultimate Beach at bG Gallery (Ocean Ave.)

July 26 -August 9

He is also frequently found taking part in the crazy circus that is The Hive Gallery.

Fair warning to the prudes, some of the photos below may offend your delicate sensibilities.

"Alex Schaefer-style" painter paints coming soon to Urban Outfitters?

Alex confronting the storage problem.

Lucky Strikes

Alex and his one quart Pyrex coffee "mug".

The color values of money.

NSFW?

Art Pick of the Year: Hearsay at Begovich

You read that right. Hearsay: Artists Reveal Urban Legends at Begovich Gallery is my art pick of the YEAR! This is the first time I've made such a sweeping declaration, but this exhibition (curated by Lauren Haisch and Wendy Sherman) has been years in the making. I first met Wendy around July of 2012. She was working on it even then. You're unlikely to see a more meticulously curated art exhibit all year.

As the title suggests, it is a visual examination of oft-told campfire stories, tall tales, and sinister folklore. What do our darkest fears look like? What is lurking under the bed? What happens when you let three dozen artists tackle those myths that keep them up at night? Well, pretty arresting visual phantasms are bound to happen. Especially when the group of artists are as top-shelf as the ones assembled here. Among the roughly 35 artists featured, you'll find Llyn Foulkes, Robert Williams, Matjames Metson, Nicola Verlato, Mike Cockrill, Christopher Ulrich, and Ransom & Mitchell. The urban legends run the gamut from perennial favorites like Bigfoot and cryo-Disney to cautionary tales like the micro-waved poodle, and razor-blade apples. There's the purple squirrel, and the babysitter/clown standoff. Some are personal hauntings, while others are barely whispered memories that continue to permeate our collective subconscious. There's a lot to chew on here, and it's not for the timid or the faint of heart. Hearsay, much like the stories it explores, will have people talking for a while.

I've been waiting for this one a long time. I reached out to Wendy yesterday to find out just how long.

Exactly how long have you been working on this show?

Three years! We originally were hoping for an opening date of October 2013, so it could be a Halloween show, but the date was already reserved in the gallery. Then we were scheduled to open in January of 2014 at Grand Central Art Center, but the gallery director at the Begovich wanted to produce the exhibition on campus. He though we would have more flexibility to design the exhibition how we wanted it to look.  He also wanted to give us more time to work on the catalog and hopefully have the book release coincide with the opening – which is what I had planned! In a perfect world! The catalog should be released this Fall (September 2014).

 Is this your master thesis?

Yes. I graduate with an MFA in Exhibition Design / Museum Studies in May.

 Did the artists pick their own legends or did you assign?

We wanted the artists to choose their own legends because we wanted them to create a work that meant something to them. Since we were also asking them for a statement about their artwork. We felt it was important to the concept of the exhibition that the artists be personally invested in their work, so they weren’t just cranking out an illustration assignment that we were handing over to them.

If you go to only one art exhibit this year, this is the one.

Hearsay: Contemporary Artists Reveal Urban Legends 
March 29 through May 8, 2014
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 12, 2014, 5 – 8 pm

Begovich Gallery, Cal State Fullerton
800 North State College Blvd., Fullerton, CA 92831

The Haunting of the Haunted Painting by Nicola Verlato

Keep Your Hands Inside The Car... by Robert Williams

Finding a Bigfoot Dropping by Clayton Bailey

Portrait of Walt by Llyn Foulkes

The Purple Squirrel by Sarina Brewer

Witch Tree by Mark Gleason

What The Tree Remembers by Laurie Hassold

The Procession by Marnie Weber

Red Mask by Hellen Jo

photos courtesy of Wendy Sherman

All Tomorrow's Parties

So you're stuck in Los Angeles on a Saturday night, and there's absolutely nothing for an intellectual such as yourself to do. Well, that's just horseshit! On the off chance that I haven't promoted Matjames Metson enough, let me remind you that his second solo show at Coagula Curatorial, 'A Better Home For A Quiet Wolf' has it's grand unveiling at 7pm tomorrow.

But before that, you can hear Coagula's diabolical mastermind Mat Gleason exhort upon 'The Future of Art' at a panel discussion alongside Marlene Picard, and Jim Daichendt. The discussion will be moderated by Daniel Rolnik at Flower Pepper Gallery at 1pm. While you're there, check out the 'Season Of Spring' show. It's pretty cool.

Also, if you're ambitious and feel like gallery hopping, 'Face It', a jam packed, all-star group show opens tomorrow night at Gabba Gallery! I could passively/aggressively whine about how I would have been perfect for 'Face It', but since I'm in the above mentioned 'Season of Spring' show, and both my pieces have sold, I'll exercise a modicum of restraint. Hey! Rolnik has work in 'Face It' too, so you have three events tomorrow that are all somewhat connected. I'll give a KrossD print to the first person to tie them all to Kevin Bacon.

Coagula Curatorial
974 Chung King Road
Los Angeles, California 90012


Flower Pepper Gallery
121 East Union Street
Pasadena, CA 91103

The Gabba Gallery
3126 Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, Ca. 90057

Art Picks of the Month - March 2014

"March comes in like a lion..."

Every so often the art gods smile down on Los Angeles and give us a cornucopia of fine art to behold. Such is the case this March. You have a plethora of choices, so let me help narrow them down for you. Some of my favorite artists drawing breath are showing work in L.A. this month. Grab you're calendar and a pen (not a pencil). Here's what you need to see:

March 1st:

Daniel Rolnik curated "The Season of Spring" for Flower Pepper in Pasadena. The exhibit faetures something like 138 artists from around the globe, including JAW Cooper, Liz McGrath, Anthony Ausgang, Alex Schaefer, and Ryan McIntosh. This show isn't fucking around! The prices will range from free (yeah) to around $200. Why would you miss this?

In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I am in the show too. But I'd be recommending it regardless. You can click here for a little interview I did for the show.

Opening reception: March 1st, 6 pm. It's cash and carry so get there early.

Flower Pepper Gallery
121 East Union Street
Pasadena, CA 91103
Tel: 626.795.1895


March 8th:

"Drawings by Lowell Darling" at Future Studio Gallery.

It's Lowell Darling. Just trust me.

Opening reception: March 8th, 7 pm

Future Studio Gallery
5558 N. Figueroa St.
Los Angeles, CA 90042
(323) 254-4565


March 15th:

"A Better Home for a Quiet Wolf" - Matjames Metson at Coagula Curatorial.

Look, nobody is doing what Matjames is doing, NOBODY. You're gonna hear more from me (and him) about that soon. In the meantime, you can read the first thing I ever wrote about the guy by clicking here.
I've seen some of the new work in progress, and really, it's upper tier.

Opening reception: March 15th, 7 pm.

Coagula Curatorial
974 Chung King Road, Los Angeles CA 90012
(424) 226-2485


March 29th:

"Sinful Saints & Saintly Sinners at the Margins of the Americas" at The Fowler Museum.

In case "A Quiet Wolf" doesn't satiate your appetite, Matjames is in this show too.

Opening Reception: March 29th, 6 pm.
RSVP by March 7, 2014
(310) 206-7001 or fowlerRSVP@arts.ucla.edu

The Fowler Museum is located in the heart of UCLA's north campus.

3 Works of Art That Didn't Suck in 2013

So, do you want the good news or the bad news first? Bad it is.

Art in 2013 was largely a dismal, maggoty pile of banal bullshit. Across the board, it was a dank sulfurous cloud of awful. Music? Pitchfork, Stereogum, and ack, Rolling Stone all compiled "Best of 2013" lists placing Vampire Weekend, Kanye, and Daft Punk as high water marks. A bloody nadir if ever I saw one. Cinema? The most acclaimed movies of recent years have left me yawning (and longing for John Waters' early work).

But it was in the visual arts that things got well and truly wretched. All the promise that the rise (and fusion) of lowbrow, pop surrealism, & street art held has been co-opted and boiled down to tchotchkes and sneakers. I know some of you, and for the most part I like you, but this Keane obsession must stop...and the bunnies...and that gawdam suicidal bear! I swear I've seen that fucking bear in nearly every high profile "urban" art gallery in Los Angeles. Dude, I'm glad you've found a way to make a living but do you have anything else to say? Anything at all?

Things weren't any better in the upper echelons either. "High Art" consisted of the usual oblique, esoteric nose-thumbing, or lamp shows. I stopped writing about art here because the only things compelling me to do so were venom and sadness. You have to do better. I do too. I know I'm not exempt.

Here's the good news though...when the walls are so crowded with repugnant garbage, the great stuff jumps out at you fast. I really wish this list was longer, but here are my three favorite works of art from 2013:

3) "American Nightmare" by Jason Andrew Hite

I'm not a huge fan of "preachy" art. I say this with tongue firmly in cheek. I make my fair share of preachy art. It matters how you do it though. No one goes to a gallery to be scolded. When I walked into Copro back in March and saw this piece, it was like hearing "California Uber Alles" for the first time. I was shaken to my core. I immediately grabbed Greg Escalante and said "Who made this?!" Greg, if you're reading, this may be the best thing you showed all year.


2) "I Don't Sing" by Brandi Read

Here's what I know about Brandi Read:

1) She seized my attention with a series of paintings of caryatids in April.
2) She's struggled harder than an artist of her caliber should have to, just to provide for her daughter.
3) That's her daughter in the above painting.

I don't want to even mention the gallery where this showed. The theme was just ridiculous. Google "Put A Bird On It" and you'll be amazed at how many galleries took Portlandia's satirical skit as a literal suggestion.
Brandi's response is everything I want art to be.


1) " a young Bessie Smith" by Hudson Marquez

Fine, call me a cheat. I do not care. This piece has been seen by very few people. It's never been exhibited in a gallery. It's in my home, I see it everyday. There are a number of reasons why I love this piece so much, but what it really boils down to is that I have immense affection for both Hudson and Bessie. Great art can be as simple as that...or this:

I have more good news, 2013 ends tomorrow and good riddance.

2014 is already showing quite a bit of promise though. I've had a sneek peek at a frighteningly good piece that Matjames Metson will show at the Fowler.

Also, on Jan 11th, "Two Johns and a Whore" opens at Coagula Curatorial. That show is curated by Lisa Derrick. I don't expect Lisa to show bunnies...or pull any punches.

So, Happy New Year! Give me something to write about.

The KrossD List: 5 Best Art Exhibits of 2012

'Tis the time of year when I usually cull together unsolicited lists of my favorite things of said year, music, movies, books and the like. 2012 however, provided such an unexpected bombardment of personal upheaval (the best sort of upheaval, mind you), that I have only been able to focus on the "art" type of art. It's been a great year for that. Therefore I present to you my list of the five best Los Angeles exhibits of the year (and links to my reasons why). Cheers to you all!


5) "Image Not Available" - Rero at Fabien Castanier Gallery






4) "Narcolandia" - Group show at Coagula Curatorial






3) "Zero Gravity" - Nicola Verlato at Merry Karnowsky Gallery

2) "Method Attic" - Matjames Metson at Coagula Curatorial

(drum roll please)

1) "Make It Dark" - Mecedes Helnwein at Merry Karnowsky Gallery

Honorable mentions:
"Art is a MiXTAPE" at Lebasse Projects
"Ice Loves Rococo" - Van Arno at CHG Circa
"Interviews" at Curio by AFN
 KrossD at Gallery 3 (hey, it's my list. I'll do what I want.)

5 Questions (and then some) with Mat Gleason

Mat Gleason is a smart guy. Just ask him, he’ll tell you himself. I’ll broach no argument there. Upon witnessing the ubiquitous insurgence of punk rock zines of the eighties and nineties he asked himself an obvious question, why has no one done this for art? His answer became Coagula Art Journal, which debuted in 1992 with corrosive, acerbic, well written essays that exposed the ugly underbelly of the art world. While the moneyed galleries, museums, curators, and collectors tried their best to ignore him, Gleason’s art journal became wildly popular with art patrons, and artists themselves. The success of Coagula Art Journal, 20 years running now, has afforded him the opportunity to open his own gallery, Coagula Curatorial. Since his gallery opened in April 2012, he’s shown the likes of Gronk, Karen Finley, Tim Youd, Llyn Foulkes, Leigh Salgado, Matjames Metson and Germs, just to name a few. And he’s still making people nervous.

Gleason took a short break from preparing a trip to Florida (where Coagula will have the largest booth at Miami Project), to sit down and answer 5 questions from me. It turned into ten…

1)   You recently spent about a week in a hospital bed. How’s your heart? What’s going on?

“(laughs) Hey, under federal hypo requirements, you can’t ask that. No, you know what; I was born with a heart issue. I was raised in a hospital. So, when I was eight, I was already past the existential crisis of living on borrowed time, but a lot of complications show up with these surgeries later in life. I was drinking quadruple espressos, and they were like no, no, no! Now they have counseling for kids. A lot of people who had what I had would do two lines of coke and drop dead. So, you know, the fact that I’m alive…I really just dodged a lot of bullets, like cultural bullets. So now, we have a more aware culture. I was just there yesterday and the doctor was telling me that kids with my condition, or similar conditions, they have a camp, where they basically explain to them you really have to be responsible for your own behavior. You cannot smoke, you cannot drink. If you do it a lot, it will exacerbate your problem. So, it’s something I’ve lived with my whole life. If I drop dead tomorrow, I’ve already won the lottery.”

2)   Who will you have at the Miami Project and what do you have planned for the Coagula booth?

“We’re taking seven artists, including Karen Finley, who’s really well-known internationally, performance artist. She’s going to be doing a performance, in the booth, called “SEXT Me If You Can”, working with the idea of sexting as a new form of exhibitionism. For $500.00, I give you Karen Finley’s phone number, and you get a code, so you can only do this once, and you sext her, whatever you want to show her. In the booth in Miami, she’s going to be making paintings, and your painting was sold to you. So, you bought her phone number, and you bought the painting that you want her to make. She will make it as part of her performance. Totally anonymous.

(We’re taking) Llyn Foulkes, we have access right now to his complete pigment prints, some his greatest paintings, signed numbered editions. So that’s a big coup. Leigh Salgado, great artist. Vito Lorusso, who is in the gallery now, showing with Leigh, and then we are taking Matjames Metson, whose an assemblage artist, a great salvager. He makes just amazing stuff out of salvaged material. Abel Alejandre. Abel’s great, he’s one of our better selling artists actually. We did really well with his show here, very popular, but still very sophisticated stuff. There’s nothing cheap about his work. Tim Youd, he was the show that opened our gallery.”

      

3)   Are you going to be venturing across the causeway to Basel?

“I don’t know how busy I’ll be. You know what, I hope not, because that means things will be rocking in our booth, but if I’m like, ‘oh yeah, I think I’m gonna head over there now, nothing’s happening here’...that’s a very bad sign.”

4)    In 1999 you named Karen Finley Artist of the Decade. You didn’t award  that crown in the aughts, did you?

“Um, I wrote some article. I don’t even remember what it was for, but I named Robert Williams as the artist of the decade, but I write so much that I couldn’t tell you specifically what I wrote that for.

The big thing this decade is, how is the street art going to shake out? Where is that going’? I mean it’s getting pretty cheesy, pretty fast. That to me is the most interesting thing. That’s really going to determine the direction this decade takes. But, at the beginning of the sixties, there was no Pop art. Something could show up. You never know.”

5)   What should an artist do to gain your attention? What do you look for in an artist and/or art work?

“Honesty, Integrity in the work, as a person of course.  I’m much more interested in art that is…real. Not realistic, REAL. Like, ‘this is real art. This announces itself as art.’ There are so many trends of people making things that try to ‘oh, I want to find the line between art and design, or I want to find the line between art and crime or something’…whatever. I don’t. I want to find ART. The people out on the periphery, well, it’s a false periphery. You know, conceptually we describe it this way. The more ART something is, that’s where the actual edge is, and it is a true art experience. I don’t like words like pure, but I like words like TRUE. Purity is a gauge of the physical, but I like art that goes beyond just having a material presence.”

 

6)   Your Art World Habits video series is brilliant. What do you consider the single biggest mistake artists make?

“Oh, the single biggest mistake artists make is to think that they can just skate by with a limited signature style, and only a few artworks. That’s the biggest fallacy. People get very comfortable. Comfort, you know what? THAT’S the biggest mistake an artist can make, comfort. Once I drank with Charles Bukowski, and he said that he preferred alcohol over pot, because pot makes you feel satisfied, and satisfaction is the enemy of art.”

7)   Despite a somewhat notorious reputation among the art hierarchy, you have the respect of actual artists and, I imagine, you pretty much get the ones you want.  Are there any artists you really long to show at Coagula, but haven’t been able to get?

“You know, actually, the artists that I want to show, a lot of them are top-dollar artists, for example. I don’t want to say any names, but you know…once an artist has any power, they cut people off as quickly as a gallery. You know, you have to, you have to. These artists that start doing favors for everybody get fucked. So, I’ve approached people, but I’m smart enough to say ‘how big will I have to get for you to show with me?’  I know the game, you know, and they respect that, and they respect that they’re being asked. But I know how the game is played, and I’m not against that. I’m against people not knowing it, or hoarding that information on how the game is played. People want to pretend that it’s always the best art. No, it’s the wealthiest people and the most connected people. You definitely have to cut in line. It didn’t just happen, you know. You bought a publicist, and you worked it, you know?”

 
8)    Would you ever open a gallery in NY?

“I don’t like New York. I used to not be allowed in a lot of galleries in New York. Nah, I’m pretty much the opposite of New York. I mean, look, yeah, if you hit the jackpot. That’s always a doable proposition in the art world, and that’s fine. If an opportunity came up that made sense…actually, I’d do it if it helped the artists out, and I was able to make some money or something. That’d be cool. That’d be fun.”

 

9)   Last time I saw you, we talked a bit about our mutual love of Bob Dylan? Do you have one particular Dylan song that you return to time and time again, or a favorite line of his?

“Whenever I travel, like bus, train, plane…oh my god, I’ve been doing this since 1985, 1986? As the vehicle I’m in starts to leave, I listen to ‘Visions Of Johanna*", and I don’t know why. What I will tell you about Bob Dylan…well, I was not a good student. Not to be arrogant, but I was a kid who always felt I was smarter than most of my teachers, and I was proven correct many times. I was proven incorrect sometimes too, in embarrassing and humiliating experiences, which I accepted because if you dish it out, you gotta take it. So, the way education is structured in America, it didn’t work for me. The only time it ever worked for me was when I was in grade school with nuns, and then it was like God was telling you that you had to do something, and in the absoluteness of the nun, I was able to learn. I didn’t learn anything in a school after the nuns. I was just a kid that couldn’t pay attention, didn’t pay attention, and was smarter than everybody. I got kicked out of high school. I got kicked out of a couple colleges, so, whatever. I might have flushed away an opportunity to have done something different with my life. If I wanted to go to Harvard, my dad would’ve paid for Harvard, you know. My dad paid for Cal State LA and I fucked around at Cal State, but I did learn how to do a newspaper, which started Coagula, so I actually did learn, before getting kicked out. I started out as an art major, and ended up doing Coagula. But the thing about Bob Dylan, and I learned this intuitively, I didn’t articulate it until years later, was we have the western way of teaching. You sit there with forty people, and the teacher lectures, okay? But there’s other ways to learn. When I first heard Dylan, I was into punk, and then when I heard Dylan, I said ‘oh this is the guy!’ Then I listened to everything he did, inside, outside, upside down, for years and years and years. What I was able to articulate early on…I used to say ‘well, Bob’s my professor. He’s better than any school teacher.’ That’s actually the rabbinical method, but the problem with the rabbinical method is it’s perverted into the guru, and the guru has a stigma of people mindlessly following the guru, the leader…who takes them on their life quest. I don’t want to say spiritual quest, much more how to actually live, you know. So, I’m a rabbinical learner, so I know everything Dylan’s ever done, every song he’s ever sung. And Leonard Cohen, you know…Cohen, he mentions rabbis in his songs and stuff. But it’s a way to learn. Just follow one person, and get as much from the thing they do, and not…see the problem with gurus is, what happens is the guru ends up banging the hot chick in the group of people following him, you know? So, I don’t care about Bob Dylan the man. But the art, what he is preaching, and I consider him to be preaching, it’s an absolute blueprint on how to transform yourself, and live. So, you mention Dylan, and that’s a very important part of my life. That’s my school.”

 
10)   Before Coagula, you had planned to be an artist, but you don’t paint anymore. Why not?

“I was an art major at Cal State LA. I was terrible. Oh no, no, no, because my art is my writing, and my persona. That’s my art. So, that’s my creative gesture, and the thing that I do to live on and to live bigger than one can encounter all the people you can encounter through your art. I wanted to be a painter. I ego identified with being an artist. You know, 'I’m going to be an artist', and I had a studio, and I had a bunch of canvases that I bought at the canvas store, and I made paintings that I thought were supposed to be…you know, I could tell you why it was historically important, and where I fit in, in this…but it was a painful break, but it was growing up too. But that was me, I was already happier with my writing. People would always respond to my writing. Always. It’s the responding to your art, you know, if they never responded to my writing, maybe I would have worked harder or differently at the art. When I say most art sucks, I was making art and I couldn’t get my hand to do what my mind and my eye had envisioned…and that’s all I ask of people.”

Thanks Mat!


Coagula Curatorial
977 Chung King Road
Los Angeles, California 90012
The gallery is open Wednesday thru Saturday, Noon – 5 PM...and you should really go!


*KrossD note to persnickety assholes: Yes, the link to "Visions Of Johanna" is a wildly different version of the song than the one on Blonde On Blonde. It's still pretty great, and if you don't know the original, than stop reading this blog and go do your homework. I'm just kidding, you should tell your mom about me!

5 Questions With JENNIFER J. JELENSKI

I will, for the rest of my days, be plagued and pricked by the thorns of a particular decision I made regarding Jennifer J. Jelenski. In August of 2008, my wife and I went to the "Cream Of The Crop" show at La Luz de Jesus. My better half was drawn to the work of JAW Cooper. I was pulled toward Jennifer J. Jelenski's paintings. One, in particular, I coveted, called "Teething Ring".

We admired both women's work, but after much discussion, we ultimately brought home a few JAW Cooper pieces. Leaving "Teething Ring" on the wall, to be purchased (I would find out later) by Morgan Spurlock. As much as I love Jessica Cooper's work, I still think about "Teething Ring"...with more than just a tinge of regret.

I've kept an eye out for Jelenski ever since. Fortuitously, La Luz seems to have embraced her with open arms. She has been featured in several group shows there, and was even selected to be in the stunning La Luz de Jesus 25 retrospective (show and book).

Jelenski's art seems to exist in the clouds, which is not to say a rarefied air, but rather a fluffy white bed of comfort. Inviting, yet mysterious and distant. The titles often raise more questions then they answer: "Purple Monkey Dishwasher", "Honey & Rutting Victrola". Her creatures may be armed and wrathful, but they are also pretty damn cuddly. She seems to constantly be playing two sides against each other. Not lowbrow, and not quite pop surrealism, yet both at once. Her paintings are complex, in a simple way. Chaotic, but orderly. Cute, and menacing. Fun, yet deadly serious. This is art obsessed with BALANCE. I'm a huge fan!

Jennifer J. Jelenski is an intensely private person, so I'm thrilled and honored that she would agree to do this (infrequent) feature on my humble little blog. Here's what she had to say:

1) Your images are often assembled in the shape of a Mandala, and seem to draw a lot of inspiration from Hindu art, and I know you practice yoga.What can you tell me about the bats, bunnies, and monkeys?

Jennifer: "Tibetan Art from the 12th -17th century is a tremendous source of inspiration for me.
This art shares stories. My hope is to bring people closer to finding these stories for themselves.
The animals I work with are meant to be cute. Endearing warm fuzzies invoke a very similar feeling as compassion.
Many people believe we naturally can not be compassionate and that work must be done to enable ones self to become compassionate.
My hope is to trick folks into unlocking this super power!
Yoga is a physical expression of my creativity, prayer in motion, as well as a great way to balance such a sedentary lifestyle."

 2) One of the astounding things about your work, for me, is that you paint complex, intricate fields of color that are bordered by head-scratchingly clean, and consistent line-weights.How on Earth do you achieve that crisp line?

Jennifer: "Thank you!!
A few things I do to achieve such a look are:
Never work wet on wet.
Wear jeweler's glasses while working.
I give my paintings plenty of time to dry.
Apply many many layers of paint.
Use sandpaper to remove any offending textures.
And I use the best tools I can afford and replace worn out tools often.
(I go through 4 dozen brushes or more a year)"



3) How long do you typically work on a sketch, before you're ready to paint, and (sneaking in an extra question) are you brand loyal with paint?

Jennifer: "I may work a drawing or idea for months.
They all start out small.
As a composition develops, I'll draw it over and over.
Until I feel it's problems are resolved to the best of my ability.

I use mostly Golden acrylics.
After an image is drawn onto a canvas, I'll mix my pallet.
Then pour the mixed colors into wee plastic pots.
The colors stay fresh for a year this way.
While I'm working I put a few brushes full of the mixed color into an Ink pot.
Mix this with a bit of gel medium, GAC, and water to begin painting.
I want a lite, creamy texture that is never runny or pasty."

4) I ask everyone this.What are you listening to while you work?

Jennifer: "My tunes!!!!!
Currently I listen to:
Lots of Biosphere. Lots of Lustmord.
Atticus Ross, Book of Eli sound track
Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo sound track

My most recent fixation,
Ambient Metal!
For this genre I like:
Jakob, Subsets of SetJakob, Cale:DrewJakob, SolaceIsis, Panopticon (love the track 'In Fiction')
Pelican, What We All Come To Need (#1 fave tune of the moment, The Creeper)"

 5) You seem to be a big kid at heart.What's your favorite children's novel?

Jennifer: "I'm an avid reader, but I haven't read any children's books in a very long time.
Stories that I adored when I was young and still do today would be:
Benjamin Bunny, Beatrix Potter
The Hobbit, J.R.Tolkien

Keith, Thank you so much for this opportunity to share with your readers."

No...Thank You Jennifer!

Jennifer J. Jelenski is primarily self-taught. She is a former doll-maker, tattoo and make-up artist. While she steadfastly refuses to dwell on the past, she has begrudgingly permitted me to say that she has shown her art at Rosemary's Billy Goat Odditorium, Blue Rooster, The Hive, and Cannibal Flower, in addition to La Luz de Jesus Gallery. She has exhibited alongside such luminaries as Gary Baseman, Matjames Metson, Clayton Brothers, Nathan Ota, Chris Mars, Isabel Samaras and others...and fiercely held her own !

I will keep you all posted on any future Jelenski shows.

~KrossD
6/18/2012


All images courtesy of Jennifer J. Jelenski