Stephen Kaltenbach at Anotheryearinla

Stephen Kaltenbach was the other artist whose opening I went to on Saturday. Kaltenbach is a conceptual artist with a deep sense of humor, and FBC! has been a fan of his work since relatively late, actually, thanks to my former boss Lynn Zelevansky. Without her I wouldn't have discovered anotheryearinla and Kaltenbach's work. If by happenstance one of my reader was moneyed, I suggest you buy a nice time-capsule (absolutely randomly: "Content", OK?) and donate it to LACMA.
Kaltenbach is better-known for a series of ads in Artforum in the late 1960s, which I'd love to give you more info about but everything I have here is in hard copy, somewhere in my archives. My archives are a pile of folders, papers and books that currently look like the tower of Pisa, as I need bookshelves. It won't kill you to do a bit of research yourself anyway, so have fun doing it, it's a great artwork. Also should be a pre-requisite for all grad students entering art schools (along with Paul McCarthy's video "Painter").
For his last show he mounted a mini-retrospective of his Time Capsules that looked awesome, and witty, and if you really, really, like me you can donate that "Content" one to me and give another artwork to LACMA. I won't tell.

It was a fun opening as usual at David and Cathy Stone, and FBC! was delighted to meet artists Mark A. Rodriguez and Nadege Monchera there, as well as new art dealer Charlie James (he's opening where Telic used to be in Chinatown), Stephen Kaltenbach himself and the always delightful Peter Frank! Peter is the associate editor for new art magazine 'The" where yours truly may write in the future (NB: no website is listed on the masthead, so I'll let you Google "the", OK?). Both Peter and Stephen gave me tips for my novel, seeing they were in NYC at the right period, and following our fruitful conversation Kaltenbach himself agreed to a cameo appearance in the story. Needless to say, I'm thrilled.
Have fun going to see his show, and don't neglect to ask and see the "canceled" copy of the misprinted catalog (and buy yourself the right one when it's out, Lucy Lippard among others had written an essay). It's like those unique stamps worth tons of money by virtue of never having been put in circulation. Maybe it will end up inside a future time capsule...

Pictures: "Content", "open before my retrospective at Pompidou Center", "Only owner may open", Stephen Kaltenbach in front of "Moment", David Stone and Peter Frank. Artworks titles are approximative, I don't have the checklist with me.

Julie Lequin Totally Deserves To Be Your Neighbor Or at Least Cubicle Mate

A while ago I posted a couple of "fake" New Yorker cartoons by Mark A. Rodriguez, which are in fact a conceptual art project*. Those had been forwarded to me by a common friend of Julie Lequin, who advised I asked Julie to see her work.
I diligently complied (I totally trust Da Best Curator In Town's advice) and Julie forwarded me links to two older videos she had made. I clicked on them and truly enjoyed them, first of all because it's refreshing to see video (as opposed to, say, narrative figurative painting), then because they were hilariously funny and did remind me slightly of an artist I adore, Michael Smith.

I love the self-deprecating irony of the artist as procrastinator, and the speech/accent reduction lesson is a) very Hollywood and b)something I totally relate to as a French-speaking expat. I'll be able to pronounce "th" when my US friends will be able to pronounce "r" and "u" correctly (not to mention when they stop pronouncing "t" as a "d").
What I like in Julie's work is how it doesn't take itself too seriously. After seeing her work I can't imagine Julie uttering statements such as " After MY death, I want museums to show MY WORK only the way I WANT" and "The Museum owes ME this because I AM the artist". I've heard this in real life and I really wonder how people can say this without feeling ridiculous and pompous. Seriously folks, being artists doesn't dispense you from being human, even if you are very, very successful, as in *straight-out-of-grad-school-successful*. It's not an excuse for behaving like self-absorbed egomaniacs. Honest.

Julie is also publishing a book that's coming up soon, the one she's speaking about in the second video. You can see some pictures above.
Her work is a first-person narrative of what it's like to be a young artist trying to make work in a new adopted country and having to contend with post-graduate school realities. And visa and job issues.
After seeing the two videos I'm sure you will share my enthusiasm for Julie's work. She so totally deserves to be your neighbor, or even your cubicle mate, and to instill a much-needed dose of pragmatic humor in the overblown LA art egoslandscape.
But there's a catch. Julie is French Canadian and right now, she needs a part-time job so she can stay here in LA and extend her visa. So if you guys can help her by letting her be your office or studio assistant, please drop me a line and I'll forward it to her. It would be a pity if she had to go back to Canada and couldn't share her work with us. Come on you guys, don't let Canada get her back!






* The complete series is intended as a groundbreaking new feature of Artforum, to introduce funny pages in the print edition. The idea would be to curate funny pages with other artists once the initial series had run its course. If someone at Artforum listens, please drop me a line and I'll forward to Mark.

Mark A. Rodriguez NYer cartoons

A few days ago I've been sent some cartoons in the New Yorker style by Mark. A. Rodriguez. I liked them so much I contacted the artist to ask if I could add them to my blog and he kindly agreed to let me post 2 of them. These are part of a larger project he is not finished yet so I'm very thankful he let me have them.
Please demonstrate your good manners and respect for the artist by refraining from posting elsewhere.

I particularly like the reference to Steve Kaltenbach (please also see here) in the first cartoon, and the Charles Ray one will be familiar to LA art people.
Enjoy!

Thanks to Julie Lequin and Rita Gonzalez for signaling these to my attention and helping me get in touch with Mark.