~CHEWING GUM !! DAN COLEN – YOU GO GO !!
the blogshere moves real fast — ya can’t be sticky !!
MORE VITO SCHNABEL – BRUCENNIAL OPENING PIX – COMING UP – SHORTLY !!
OR, FILE THIS UNDER: CHEWING GUM / MY WORLD MEETS DAN COLEN & ROB PRUITT – HEAD-ON . . .
HERE’S THE JUMP START:
FRI SEPT 17 – 10:06 AM: DON’T WORRY BOUT WHAT ROBERTA SAYS, DAN COLEN – LOL – THIS IS THE WOMAN WHO WOULD BRING YOU – RACHEL HARRISON !!
SPEAKING OF WHICH – HEY, HEY, HEY – CHA CHA CHARLIE !! WANNA COME WORK FOR ME ?
WE’LL CHANGE THE SITE’S NAME – TO – CRACKULA & PALS !!
OR EVEN – JUST: CRACKULA & CHA CHA !! CRACK & CHA ?
CRACKULA – ? – OF COURSE – THAT’S ME !! – AS IN . . . I, NANCY CRACKULA SMITH SAY . . . GUESS WHO GAVE ME THE MONIKER WAY BACK, CRACK FOR SHORT & IT SUITS ME JUST FINE !! – MR. FINCH HIMSELF !! WHO ELSE.
SMART AS A WHIP & CRAZY AS A FOX !! – OR, SO I LIKE TO THINK !!
I KNOW MY STUFF – BUT, HE KNOWS – HIS !!
HEY, THINK ABOUT IT. IF ALFREDO HAD BURNED OUT & DIED AT 27 – I’D BE – THE NEW GLENN O’BRIEN !!
GLENN – HE WAS SO CUTE – IN ‘RADIANT CHILD’ – WASN’T – HE !!
IT WAS WALTER – WHO NAMED MY PHOTO REPORT ON ARTNET – (2002-2004) – ART LOVERS – BORING !! – BUT THE NAME STUCK – LIKE A GODDAMN PIECE – OF BUBBLE GUM !! DAN COLEN – YOU GO GO !!
I ran into Alfredo at the Rob Pruitt opening. he said Charlie Finch had just stopped to talk to him. and had just told him – his nickname for me. he said never knew. but, he liked it so much – he told Charlie he was going to go home that very night – and paint a painting and call it Crackula. not sure if that was in my honor – or not.
he got a hair cut, thank god. he is looking so cute . . .
he’s almost as cute as a panda bear.
or – “the bear is back” – as Josh Harris was heard to grumble under his breath, recently.
and, he should know.
PANDA BEAR PAINTING – BY ROB PRUITT.
‘Panda Pattern: Lily Pulitzer Spring 2010’, 2010.
acrylic, enamel and glitter on canvas. 96 x 138 in.
‘ROB PRUITT: PATTERN and DEGRADATION’ – MACCARONE GALLERY
we caught up to Charlie Finch at the ALGUS GREENSPON GALLERY opening, just across the street.
the heavy week of fall art season openings – and hard partying – seemed to have taken a toll on his attire – but he was in fine form – crackin’ plenty funny – otherwise !!
among many of the bon mots – here are some of the more pertinent subjects that came up . . .
he told me:
1. that ANTHONY HADEN-GUEST not only read & was a fan of artlovers – but that he was stealing my stuff – off the site – for his own column !! when asked – Charlie – said yes. that was for the record.
2. Charlie himself is going to begin contributing to the prestigious Paris Review.
3. he said he wanted to write on me for artnet – but Walter wouldn’t let him.
4. he lectured me on tossing LUCILLE BALL – a kid from a poverty-stricken broken home – under the bus, in my brief stab at getting ‘YOO-HOO MRS. GOLDBERG’ some face time. he made me feel so bad I almost came home and deleted the whole goddamn post. I was just trying to say GERTRUDE BERG initiated the sitcom format – and though it was not as successful a cultural time traveler – as – ‘I LOVE LUCY’ – the earliest seed of the genre was indeed her’s. you have to give her credit for that – and for the fact that not only did she play the lead role – live – TV was live then – but she wrote every goddamn show – fresh each morning, too – each show colored by what was up – in the world, New York City at large, but mostly in the ethnic ghetto of the Lower East Side – that very day. every day. 5 days a week. Lucy had a whole roomful of writers.
5. He told me I had “a bit of a chip on my shoulder” and his advice was to cool it – a bit. if I wanted to move up in the world of the powers that be – do I ?
6. He told me to go see the BASQUIAT flick – ‘RADIANT CHILD’ – it was great. and I did. and it was.
7. and finally, he told me something – his dad always told him:
” . . . if you sit by the river long enough, everybody floats by !!”
DAN COLEN: POETRY.
. . . although I skipped the opening – to make the – ALLYSON MELLBERG – ‘AN UNEARTHLY CHILD’ – opening at CINDERS in BROOKLYN – I did make the DAN COLEN show – ‘POETRY’- at GAGOSIAN – a few days later.
a lot of my friends – and colleagues, no names – were trashing the show – even joking that the big CAROL VOGEL piece in the NEW YORK TIMES last Friday – was not just a puff piece – but a “paid-for” puff piece. and they were even surmising numbers – up to $50,000 – LOL.
so I wanted to see it – for myself.
how the hell, do you trash a show that – moves like this !!
DAN COLON, ‘Cracks in the Clouds’, 2010. motorcycles, variable
DAN COLEN, ‘In a Million Years’, 2010. oil on canvas. 90 x 204 in.
pretty cool.
DAN COLEN, ‘The Sweetest Thing’, 2010. Brick wall, concrete. steel, re-bar. 156 x 284 x 100 in.
yeah, I’ve hit a few brick walls, too. I can relate. most def.
DAN COLEN, ‘Overture (“Two Minutes in Silver Wells, Two Minutes There, It was Going to be over in this Bedroom in Encino”)’, 2010. Half pipe made of plywood, metal. 92 (H) x 122 (W) x 368 (L) in.
DAN COLEN, ‘Another Country’, 2010. chewing gum on canvas. 110 x 210 in.
detail, ‘Another Country”.
detail, ‘Another Country’.
gummy hand print – on the canvas edge – DAN COLEN, ‘Another Country’.
photo of DAN COLEN – in ‘NEST’ – a book of photos documenting the infamous JULY 26 – AUGUST 18, 2007 – DAN COLEN / DASH SNOW collaboration at DEITCH PROJECTS !!
they’ve got a copy at the front desk you can browse. Gagosian Gallery – 24th ST/CHELSEA.
see: ‘A WILD TRIP FROM BATHROOM TO GALLERY’/by CAROL VOGEL/NEW YORK TIMES/SEPT 9, 2010.
see: ‘DAN COLEN: POETRY’/REVIEW by ROBERTA SMITH/NEW YORK TIMES/SEPT 17, 2010.
see: ‘A PENITENT REFLECTS ON THE WILDERNESS’/by RANDY KENNEDY/NEW YORK TIMES/SEPT 15, 2010.
ALL PHOTOS COPYRIGHT: NANCY SMITH – UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED