Beautiful Losers

I stumbled upon this creatively inspiring documentary the other day and feel duty-bound to share it. The film focuses on a group of artists who met in New York (mostly through their shared involvement in the skateboard community) in the early 90's and - with the help of a small gallery called Alleged - propelled each other into the art world limelight. What really resonates with me is the overriding theme that art isn't about technique, schooling, or subject matter. Art is about creating something for the sake of creating it. That's it.

Here are a few of the artists featured, and a sample of their work:

-ESPO-

-Geoff McFetridge-

-Ed Templeton-

-Harmony Korine-

-Barry McGee-

-Margaret Kilgallen-

Here's the trailer:

Los Angeles, or: how I missed Dark Night of the Soul

I have no illusions about being the first to blog about Dark Night Of The Soul, the collaboration between filmmaker/visual artist David Lynch and musicians Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, however....

In case you haven't heard, 'Dark Night' is a gallery show predicated upon exploring the ways in which music and visual art converge: sometimes in compliment to each other, other times exposing tension between the two. It's also a round-table experiment in artists influencing one another. The Press release puts it thusly: "The artists worked together and were inspired by each other— Lynch making photographs influenced by the original songs that Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse were creating. "

The Michael Kohn Gallery in LA is (as far as I can tell) the only gallery that will host the installation. Lynch's photographs are displayed on the walls as the music Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse wrote play over the gallery's speakers. I walked past the gallery my first night in LA.

So what's the problem? Well, much my chagrin, the exhibition ended on July 11, four days prior to my arrival. According to the website, the limited edition book and CD are sold out.

Just my luck...