GAYLETTER

Judy Chicago‘s recently published book Deflowered commemorates an exhibition of the same name at Nye + Brown in Los Angeles that focused on her early (1961-1973) drawings, paintings and sculptures. The book is both an insightful overview of the multiorgasmic (see the interview with Lucy Lippard reprinted in the book for more on that) feminist icon’s early career as well as an objet d’art in its own right.

The book, like the exhibition, concerns itself with Chicago’s earlier work, more minimalist and abstract but still vivaciously teeming with traces of the sexual human body. These series may come as a pleasant surprise to those more familiar with higher profile works like The Dinner Party (which is on long-term display at the Brooklyn Museum‘s Sackler Center for Feminist Art, so hop on the 3 train and check it out now if you haven’t already!).

The book itself is strikingly beautiful, featuring a brilliant tangerine cover overlaid with a translucent and turquoise jacket that envelops the shape and heft of a proper coffee table book. Mine looks radiant next to a bouquet of red and yellow gladioluses in my living room.

Speaking of flowers, Chicago’s yonic motif manifests itself in works ranging from ornate yet precisely painted car hoods to the effusive sprays of colored fire and smoke in the included DVD of several pyrotechnic displays. Early minimalist sculptures of phallic pillars or triangular arrangements of 3 shimmering mounds never veer too far from a commitment to exploring feminism, the body, and the luminous flux of my home state of California’s peculiar atmosphere and light. …

Martín Gutierrez is an interdisciplinary artist who appears to be chasing after the concept of fluidity in his mind, body, persona and work. He graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Printmaking but that doesn’t really describe him appropriately — he’s a dancer, a set designer, a musician, a costume designer, a make up artist, a photographer, a model and a gender bending Madonna fan. Gutierrez is an articulate and complex artist. Raised in both the Bay Area and central Vermont; Gutierrez was a wildly creative child who grew up experimenting with essentially all creative mediums, this has allowed him to take full creative control as he knows it all. There is an extensive sense of ambiguity in Gutierrez’s artwork — which is mirrored in the man.

When I asked Martín about that lovely lady (pictured above), he told me “Her name is Milan and she is visiting just for the show. She is very much a stand in for me, acting as a performative aspect and an installation.”

When did you start making art? I’m gonna be cheeky and ask, what are we calling art? I grew up making what I wanted or didn’t have… costumes, macaroni necklaces, dolls. I was an excessively creative child, drawing, dancing, and dressing up every day. The art community’s acceptance has enabled me to do what I love and call it art, but who’s to say when it began.

Where are you from? I was born in Berkeley, California to an American mother and Guatemalan father. …

‘First Kiss‘ is a film project by artist Idan Bitton. It’s an 84 minute and 24 second documentation of two men kissing — still camera, white background, no music, no costumes, no bullshit — simplicity at it’s simplest. It’s truthful and exposed. The kiss is set up like a laboratory experiment, as it’s very sterile, very conducted, very organized and straightforward — then magic and science converge, much like the subjects of the piece.

“We shared a very special experience by making this video, which I will cherish forever. He is a good friend and a beautiful artist that is open for new creative experiences. For me, falling in love is a choice — we chose to be in love for 84 minutes, we shared each other’s true self and beauty for these moments. The camera just happened to be recording.”

Personally, I am amazed at the commitment seen in this work. 84 minutes and 24 seconds is a really long time to have ones tongue down another’s throat. I get very excited thinking about where both of their minds wandered off to as they projected an extreme declaration of love. Were they consciously kissing the entire time? I doubt it. I’m sure a lot of self-reflection took place here — self-reflection at the hands of another.

“First Kiss offers a view into an intimate moment between two men. The kiss does not interact with the viewers nor seeks their approval. It just is, alive and present for 84:24 minutes.” …

Live Nude Dancing is a collaborative film project by photographer Daniel Trese, choreographer Ryan Heffington and animator Johnny Woods. Live Nude Dancing is an extension of the acclaimed show KTCHN by Ryan Heffington that was commissioned by MOCAtv. This is a film project that explores ideas of celebrity culture, human loneliness, fashion shows, public vs private image and the new drag culture.

Live Nude Dancing shifts from absurd realities to fantasies on an extremely lavish, colourful, disorientating and chaotic stage that somewhat seems like a metaphorical wrestling ring. This short film also features the track Greedy Boy by Alex Black. We spoke to Daniel Trese about the piece.

Why is it called Live Nude Dancing when there is in fact no live nude dancing? Live Nude Dancing is what all the signs say above stripper bars here in LA, so I thought it was the perfect title for this file, as Gayle, the main character, actually partially ends up stripping in literal terms, but mainly ends up stripping his soul through the pimping and hustling involved in surviving celebrity

How did you and Ryan Heffington meet? Ryan and I first worked together when I photographed him for a special portfolio commissioned by Paco and Manolo for their magazine KINK based out of Barcelona. That was back in 2010, and we have been friends ever since. It was a really beautiful and intimate series shot in the Mojave Desert. I still have a print from that project above my dinning room table. …

Now — this news is not particularly recent, but I felt it was an interesting enough topic to bring up considering the issue many gays had with the recent Bert and Ernie New Yorker cover. Also I doubt this story reached any major news providers so maybe you haven’t heard about it. Legendary comic book artist, Robert Crumb, proposed a cover for The New Yorker, which was rejected for reasons unknown to us and to Crumb himself.

For those of you who don’t know — R. Crumb is a twisted, psychotic, neurotic, obsessive, irrational, anti-social, old-time music loving freak who, in my opinion, is always right when it comes to commenting on modern society. I have been a major R. Crumb fan for a while now and it still hurts when I see this cover that could’ve made major waves of awkward interpretations regarding gay marriage in New York.

This drawing is greatly ambiguous, everything from the gender of the couple to the expression on the clerks face. Is the cigarette butt on the floor meant to represent filth or carelessness? The sign that reads “Gender Inspection” is too absurdly funny and at the same time severely disheartening. Everyone knows that R. Crumb has a twisted sense of humor while maintaining sharp social criticism, but it’s often difficult to understand exactly what he’s communicating (except for when he illustrates his sexual fantasies of getting piggy back rides from Amazonian bodied women, that’s always pretty clear). Apparently this cover design is too “out there” for The New Yorker. …

Although the commute from Brooklyn to New York City is suffocatingly long and the path from the L train to the 2, 3 at 14th St. is unexpectedly steep (literally climbing up that mountain everyday), I get a lot of pleasure from all the drawings scribbled on top of subway station ads. Most of the time it’s someone blacking out the eyes of a reality-TV star, making her look demonic or adding a thought bubble that is entirely inappropriate for children.

Back in the early 80s, there was a different type of subway art emerging from the bowels of NYC. Keith Haring: 31 Subway Drawings (Art Issue Editions, $50.00) is an amazing compilation of chalk subway drawings produced from 1980 to 1985. “Haring’s drawings now exist solely in the posterity of myth. Because they were not meant to last…” The drawings themselves are intriguing, but when seen in photos (by Tseng Kwong Chi) they take on a fascinating historical context — juxtaposed with subway ads from the era, and commuters going about their business.

Not only does the book highlight the various “underground” works of Keith Haring, but also reveals to the modern viewer how these different forms of subway art aren’t just child’s play.

My perception of subway art has changed since reading the book, and I’m making sure to document it whenever it catches my eye, or makes me smile.

 …

I’m so excited about this, Boy! Oh, Boy! is a Summer group photography show about men at Casa de Costa.  They’re having an opening reception with a rooftop BBQ on June 29th (Saturday) from 3:00PM-7:00PM. Jason Costa curated the show with some help from Josh McNey — “Josh has relationships with a number of the artists in the show, and that was tremendously helpful in pulling the show together.” 

The exhibition contains work by twelve artists that work ” in this specialized genre” (He’s talking about the male gaze here). Those include Kevin Amato, David Armstrong, Doug Ischar, Paul Jasmin, Christopher Makos, Josh Mcney, Slava Mogutin, Jack Pierson, Walter Pfeiffer, Richard Renaldi, Paul Solberg and Arthur Tress.

Jason tells me that this group is “the cream of the crop” when it comes to male portraiture. “These are the contemporary names that come up again and again. This show includes artists in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s — it covers three or four generations, but they are all living and still actively working.”  

Check it out, before you head to our party!

Kevin Amato, ‘Christian Trees Sunlight’

Doug Ischar, ‘MW 16’

Josh McNey, ‘B-Mad Seurat’

Richard Renaldi, ‘Matt and Matt’

Arthur Tress, ‘Flying Dream’

Walter Pfeiffer, ‘Untitled’

  …