PLEASE SAVE TIME FOR MEXICO'S MOST OBNOXIOUS ARTIST
July 31, 2009
by VBS Staff
Art Talk
We know you’ve probably got plans for tomorrow, but please be a dude and set aside a few minutes for the new episode of Art Talk! with one of the Mexico City art world’s most love/hated figures, Miki Guadamur. Miki first scorched his goofy face into our radar when one of our video editors sent us the above video. Not since the early days of a young man named Adam Goren have annoyedness and adoration conspired to twist such a tangled knot in our heartstrings.
Look, we’re not going to waste a bunch of blog-words trying to sell you on Miki’s genius, just watch the episode, check out his flickr, and maybe take a gander at this article on insane bootleg jean labels he did for us a few months ago. But know in your heart of hearts that if this business isn’t for you, it’s because you are an irredeemable failure of a human being. Have a great weekend!
THE BEST PIECE OF ART IN NEW YORK/THE WORLD/THE DECADE
July 30, 2009
by JOHN MCSWAIN
Art Talk
My first run-in with Justin Lowe and Jonah Freeman’s collaborative efforts was in Miami at Art Basel 2008. Their installation “Hello Meth Lab With a View”—a reinterpretation of the original "Hello Meth Lab in the Sun (with Alexandre Singh)—was hands-down the best work shown that week. No offense to Friends With You, Adam McEwen, and some of the pieces shown at A-ron’s fantastic O.H.W.O.W. space but I’m a sucker for large-scale installations involving meth, astrology, house fires, and terrariums, and “Hello Meth Lab” had me giggling like a tween Harry Potter fanatic in line to see Equus. Luckily, as the Giant would say, it is happening again! Currently showing at Deitch Projects NYC is BLACK ACID CO-OP, the third installation by the duo and a mega mind-melting three-story project that completely transforms 18 Wooster Street into an unrecognizable freakout space.
ADDENDUM
July 27, 2009
by VBS Staff
Art Talk
For the record, Andy Kaufman did not hate public transportation. Quite the contrary. Then again, as Sebastian mentioned, you can never be too sure with that guy. PS: Here’s part two of My Breakfast with Blassie if you get sucked into the thing.
MY FRIEND MIKI
July 27, 2009
by SEBASTIAN HOFMANN
Art Talk
Miki Guadamur has been destroying the Mexican Art underground for over ten years now. One could even say he is the Mexican Art underground, though that might be a little tacky. Nevertheless, many successful artists and musicians now freely admit being influenced by him at some point. But Miki hates his past and claims that if he could erase it all he would. Talking to him you sense a bit of guilt for starting certain trends in performance art that have gone 180 degrees and are now the commercial mainstream.
LEONARD KNIGHT'S SALVATION MOUNTAIN
July 06, 2009
by PETER SUTHERLAND
Art Talk
This week’s episode of Art Talk! is about Leonard Knight, sort of the Southwestern answer to Howard Finster (minus the unfortunate R.E.M. associations). For the past three decades Leonard has been building a mountain of adobe, tires, and thousands of gallons of paint in the middle of the California badlands while living in the back of a 1940s-era firetruck. Here’s what photographer and Art Talk! filmer Peter Sutherland had to say about meeting the man in the shadow of Salvation Mountain.
I’ve vistited a lot of roadside attractions in my time and there is always a mixed feeling of, “Oh that looks cool, I want to check it out, but then I have to deal with the crazy old coot that made this thing and I dont know if I can take it.” I wanted to write about Leonard because I hope people to go visit him while he is still alive. I’m sure his mountain will be there but the experience of taking a tour with the man himself is a gift.
Leonard is the most inspiring person I’ve ever met. I literally felt good for three days after seeing him and taking his tour. There are a lot of other people that do cool things in the name of whatever but he is the real deal. He is completely stoked on God.
ANDREAS GOLDER IS GETTING TIRED OF GORE
July 02, 2009
by TOM LITTLEWOOD
Art Talk
This week’s guest on Art Talk! is Andreas Golder. I met Andreas on one of those drunken nights where you just kind of drift around in a cloud of beer and try to untangle everything in the morning. He gave me a flier for some exhibition he was putting on at the time and I probably said something insulting about his shirt that I thought was really funny. A month later I found the flier while clearing out my desk drawer and decided to go check it out. Fortunately, I must have been somewhat cordial (or actually funny) to Andreas the first go-round, because he was happy to invite me to poke around his space with a camera. Either that or he’s got a claw-hammer with my name on it tucked away somewhere in the clutter of his studio and is just waiting on the right moment.
CARLOS AMORALES LIKES MONSTERS, AS DO WE
June 22, 2009
by BERNARDO LOYOLA
Art Talk
I met Carlos Amorales two years ago when he had a big show at the Yvon Lambert Gallery in New York. Instead of showing a collection of his wide variety of paintings, animations, or sculptures he covered the huge gallery space with thousands of black paper moths. The installation was called Black Cloud and it looked like a freeze frame of a plague invading the art space. It was beautiful, intriguing and menacing at the same time, which is precisely what makes Amorales’ work fascinating.
DEVIN + GARY ARE PLAYING
June 15, 2009
by VBS Staff
Art Talk
Tonight the genius responsible for the above* is teaming up with the genius responsible for this at Santos Party House to play tunes that sound like this for $5. You’d basically need for both of your parents to be killed in a car crash to have a decent excuse not for coming to this.
*Also for directly inspiring most of the artists and comics-makers we like and completely shaping our aesthetics from age four on. If you haven’t seen our Art Talk with Gary now’s the time.
BARRY McGEE TEARS OUR FACE A NEW SMILE-HOLE
May 28, 2009
by VBS Staff
Art Talk
As lame as the whole thing may seem these days, Barry McGee is an honest-to-god legend of street art on the West Coast. His huge murals of creepy urban figures and derelicts dominated the alleys and underpasses of San Francisco during the 90s, and he even managed to transition to working, money-making gallery artist without making some Faustian trade-in of his coolness.
Having Barry agree to do an episode of Art Talk! with us was a thrill, but having him then say, “Hey, why don’t I get my friend Aaron Rose from Alleged to host it and then I can animate the whole thing?” was like being told “Hey, that orange juice I just gave you was dosed with acid, but don’t worry, I already called in sick for you at work.” Class act.
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