Eastside Wins!

A couple of weeks ago, just before I went to DC, I was in Culver City looking at art. There were a couple of interesting shows, such as Andrea Cohen at Walter Maciel and Soo Kim at Sandroni Rey. But everything else....wow. Boring-ass, half finished, sloppy painting carried the day. Even Takashi Murakami at Blum & Poe seemed repetitive and so-what after the MOCA extravaganza this fall. So I finished that afternoon feeling profoundly bored with art and wondering if my own work is similarly blah (not a good feeling with a couple more shows in the pipeline).

But yesterday, gallery-going and looking at paintings were redeemed for me. I went to Kristi Engle Gallery in Highland Park to catch the tail end of Mary Addison Hackett's solo show there. This time....Wow! I could feel from looking at these paintings that Hackett was really going for it; they glowed with her joy in their making. I got up close to study these paintings, and I felt like each one held a hundred little lessons on how to paint: here's how to make crisp linear marks but not make it over-labored; this is how you paint things out and make it look like you meant to; here's how to smoosh one color into another; this is a good way to reference another painter (Phillip Guston, in this case); fluorescent paints open up whole new worlds of color. Rock on!

Tomorrow, June 7, is the last day of this show. Go check it out!

Here & Now @ Transformer Gallery

Last week I was in Washington, DC, installing work for the group show Here & Now at Transformer Gallery. The show had already gained some press around town, because part of it (at a satellite location) got shut down by the City. So, despite a huge rainstorm, we had a really great turnout at our talk and opening reception (thanks to Steve, Justin, and BMac especially!). It was wonderful to learn a little bit about the DC area's art community and to be part of it for a little while.

It was also a wonderful experience to go to a new place and make artwork. I was more or less improv-ing as I worked, letting the experiences I had in the city, in the gallery, and looking out the window inform my choices. I felt very open to the world around me for that whole week, expecting to find inspiration in every face or around every corner. Thanks, DC!

Final installment of Here & Now, with work by me and the amazing Valerie Molnar, on view at Transformer Gallery through June 14. Go see it!