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The opening night for my exhibition, “B-Shots” was Sunday March 31st at Balconi Coffee in West LA. I imagined it would be myself and a few friends rolling through. It’s not an “art show”, as I imagine art shows. This is more of a document of a time period. The late 80s and early to mid 90s.
I was actually more impressed and thankful to the artists who came and lent support. Mari Inukai, Luke Chueh, Edwin Ushiro, Andrew Hem, Sean Chao, Rob Sato, Ako Castuera, Kris Chau, Leah Chun, and I know I’m forgetting some at this moment. There was so much talent in the room, it was overwhelming. It was also great to talk about the shows, the bands, and listen to some of them via a playlist. Also, I recognized Dee Plakas, the drummer of L7 in a group of folks who were checking it out. That was a holy shit moment! Although these photos are pulled from half of my negatives that I only recently found, I’m now bound to find the other half and compile an even larger collection some time soon.
That’s Kris Chau and Ako Castuera taking a look.
A note I wrote about the exhibition.
I made a zine for the exhibition, “From the Pit” along with a special display box made by Dirty Dean.
A group shot near the end. Thanks for coming through. I’ll add a bit more some time soon.
flicks by DJ Tony Jr.
Last Friday, I attended the media preview for the Mike Kelley retrospective at MOCA and it’s amazing–the biggest showing of the much-loved L.A.-based artist’s work ever. It started with an assortment of short speeches, starting off with new MOCA director Philippe Vergne calling it a homecoming after debuting at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and making stops in Paris and New York. Mary Clare Stevens, Executive Director of the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts described the artist’s personal involvement in the show’s evolution and Ann Goldstein, the former director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and exhibition curator, added that the show began as related to theme but shifted to chronology upon the artist’s death in 2012.
MOCA Curator Bennett Simpson emphasized MOCA’s history of supporting the artist (who was part of the museum’s “First Show” and has been in almost 30 more including one that he curated) and added that the current stop includes a Chinatown-related piece that has never been shown in Los Angeles before. Framed and Frame (1999) is located on the upper floor, and challenges the audience with concepts of context but also alludes to the Downtown L.A. area’s punk rock history via sex and drugs paraphernalia mixed in with the traditional wishing well icons.
Another large piece is Kandors (2007-2011), a collection of sculptures of Superman’s hometown reimagined from various comic book pages. The reference to the alien city, shrunken by the iconic hero’s arch-enemy Braniac and kept under glass, is esoteric to many but is folklore to hardcore comic book readers. Kelley created a video installation mashing up the four-color hero with the goth poetry of Sylva Plath, but never realized his plan to introduce the Art Forum scene to the Comic-Con crowd online.