Nice to be on board, amigo! I'm so jealous of Kris, that bastard being able to move from LA to NYC -- which is my favorite city on the planet. The blog makes it seem (almost) like I'm there, thanks man.
Anyway, when I get the chance I'll keep both coasts current with what's going on in LA. Like Kris suggested, I'm an opening whore so I see my role as announcing what of note is opening where and who was there. As an artist, I will not assume a critical role but be more of a low-rent version of Scene and Herd. Think of me as a very polite Left Coast Page Six. I promise to NOT post images of my drunken - or sober - friends in compromising positions. In fact, my first images have little to do with the visual arts....
I attended the Johnny Ramone Tribute at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery Friday night and it was a total blast. I got to meet lone surviving OR Tommy and CJ. As a former punk band bass player myself, it was a real honor to meet both of them. The Ramones were -- and are --a HUGE influence on me, both musically and artistically. Marky was there too, standing by Johnny's grave and politely posing for pictures with anyone. I caught a glimpse of Linda Ramone in a shocking lime green dress but didn't get to talk to her.
Saturday night featured openings at Bergamot Station: Sigmar Polke at Patrick Painter and the Otis Faculty group show "Omage" at Track 16 (disclaimer: I am Otis faculty so this is a bit of shameless self-promotion). We then went to Culver City to check out Kyle Kilty's abstract paintings at Kinkead Contemporary. After that we went for dinner to Natalee Thai in Culver City.
If you live in LA and go to Culver City openings with any frequency, you should totally check out Natalee post-opening for dinner. They have awesome food, reasonable prices, full bar and have a patio where you can smoke while you eat ( I know, New Yorkers -- there ARE actually some Angelenos who smoke! Who knew?). The crew included Fette (who also has an LA art blog at the-flog.com), gallerist John Kinkead and wife Amy, painters yours truly, Jel Markovic, Lester Monzon and Sharon Ben-Tal as well as visiting New Yorker Alex Yang).
Of course there is NO better post-opening place in LA than El Coyote, but we'll talk about that another day ;-) The image Kris posted in his intro for me is a painting I did of the El Coyote patio. I Looooooove that place you'd better believe I spell it L-U-V! Been going there for almost 30 years now.
Anyway, I'll post more later this week after I see the Marlena Dumas (NOT pronounced dumbass) show at MOCA...
Stay out of trouble you crazy kids!
