There is low art, and there is high art. Yes, it is a moot point, as the placement of a hierarchy in all art is certainly relative. So why classify in the first place.? I will tell you why. Because whether you are, as the late and great Townes Van Zandt would say, “High, low or in between,” your work, your art, actually DESERVES the distinction. Do you want to know why? Because some crap out there masquerading under the guise of art, isn’t fucking art at all! I mean let’s be honest here. Just because you can slap a little bright orange house paint onto a canvas and sell it to some poor sucker from Walnut Creek for a ridiculous amount of money does not make you a god damned artist.
I have to say, this review has been a long time coming.
I know there will be some people out there who think that I am nothing but the world’s biggest KOOZ! (Yes, Fatty, we know…you’ve already WEIGHED in on this subject) But I feel, FINALLY, that it is my duty to say something.
Adorning Glamarama’s hair spray scented walls is “new” work, although I’ve seen most of these…err…pieces, on walls in previous “openings” by DanYol, the artist. Don’t laugh. I’ve actually heard this guy answer his phone this way, “Hi! This is DanYol…the artist.”
It is just more of the same. Little paper doll girls and boys (I don’t know, does the “artist” consider these iconic images?) drag queens, and animals, traced onto Sunday School style decoupage and splashed with brightly colored latex paint and assorted other detritus (for some reason, apparently known only to the “artist”, there are little pieces of assorted crap glued onto most of these pieces), inane cardboard cut-outs of toast and french fries with some scribbling on them, piles of fast food toys. It’s all been done girl. Stop plaigerizing other people’s ideas. The bold monochromatic portraits do not harken Warhol. Just because you can splash some paint does not make you a Pollack or a Basquiat. DanYol can be quite the charming little pide piper, but let’s look at the work. This is just bad. Stop bandying about the names of real artists just to promote your own lame shit. Piling things into corners like Mike Kelley or the late and truly fabulous Felix Gonzalez-Torres is just embarrassing and an insult to the memory of a true artist.
And now, just to prove that I am not, just a bitter old queen, I will now set the story straight. The truth of the matter is this. It doesn’t HAVE to be art! There is an enormous and extremely lucrative industry out there where design and decoration is king. It is just waiting for you neredowells who have too much free time and cheap paint. People will always want to buy paintings to match their sofas and drapes. Check out Woody Allen’s, Hannah and her sisters.
I don’t understand how Glamarama, which is really just a hair salon, can show work by clever folks like Jason Mercier and then force their customers who mercilessly have to sit in their chairs, for however long, to stare at nothing but this ridiculous purple and green vomit. There aren’t better artists in this city to promote? How in the hell did you let this happen?
Vive Duchamp! Picasso, Matisse and Griffon and Sabine? I’m pretty sure that artist’s name is Nick Bantock.
Adonisaurus is a brand new band from the adorable Derek Schmidt of the fabulous All My Pretty Ones, Brian Whitty and DanYol. Honestly, I didn’t really know what to think. On one hand, I felt like they were being serious and really trying to express some cohesive and lyrical ideas, but then it was very hard to understand or to gauge the sincerity of this premise when most of the words were either lost due to poor sound or drowned out by electro polyphonics that were just way too busy or incongruous. There were moments when DanYol, the artist…yes, the one and the same…when his percussive elements were just too abrasive and did not serve the music at all. But I won’t say that some of the songs were not fun. Some were just not very interesting. Some were cute and had a real danceability. But this was the Adonisaurus debut. Nerves and bad sound aside, I’m looking forward to hearing what they come up with for their next show. Hopefully it will be at a better venue, with better sound and better wall decorations.
