Final Sunset of the Year Sunset on Pacific Boulevard Looking East from 55th Street, Huntington Park, California, 12-31-07

In 2007 I moved in with my girlfriend into a house in Huntington Park, an urban city four miles south of Central Los Angeles. I inherited two dogs with the property. Leigh and I are closer than ever before and very happy with our new domestic situation. I got her carpeting and blinds for Christmas and she was ecstatic.

I started a new job in July at Gallery C. I am curating shows there, my title is: Exhibitions Director. It is a high profile gig to be sure. My big accomplishments there in 2007 were:
-Greenlighted CalAsia, a successful group show curated by Chip Tom featuring the work of Ruth Asawa, Emily Cheng and photographer Arthur Ou
-Curated Recent Paintings, a solo show the artist Kenny Harris
-Curated Onshore Flow a solow show of painter Roland Reiss
On my first day there I let 27 artists go and 13 more followed a week later. We have a team in place now to do some serious art world reshuffling.

I Published 6 issues of Coagula Art Journal after hiring Scarlet Cheng to be the editor of my magazine in June. I published a book of poetry that I had written in 1993.

My podcast, The Mat Gleason 7 was a big hit over at ArtScene Visual Radio.

At the I-5 Gallery in Downtown L.A., I curated New Year in Black and White as well as jurying a fundraiser for the non-profit OPEN CALL Brewery Art show in May. As president of the Non-profit there, I oversaw the Spring and Fall Brewery Artwalk, but that too has a team of good, committed and hard-working people, so I am not taking credit for this massive event actually taking place.

In 2007, I was on teevee a lot – two episodes of YOUR LA and an episode of ART or NOT for Ovation Network. That one got some play.

My baseball blog, Halos Heaven, had its millionth unique visitor. I was chosen by ESPN.com to write the Face of the Franchise as the representative blogger for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Sporting News chose me to participate in a celebrity Strat-O-Matic league in the offseason, with Strat players such as Curt Schilling and Howard Stern producer Gary “Baba-Booey” Dell’albate. The LA Times chose me to write a 5-part editorial on the steroid scandal, debating the issue with New York Sun columnist Tim Marchman. I hosted a weekly fantasy baseball internet radio show on Karma Air.com entitled Karmaball.

I was happy with my poker playing this year although I did not do as much of it as in recent years due to my real-world job obligations.

Travelling: Leigh and I went to Vegas two times, we went to Ventura for two nights and saw Morrissey perform there, and we stayed in Anaheim for two nights for Opening Day.

No Country for Old Men

and

Sweeney Todd

I did not have any expectations of either going in (looking to kill time for NO COUNTRY and took my Johnny-Depp-Loving girlfriend to the other) but will now happily swear by either of these films.

But then again, I liked Shoot ‘Em Up, so maybe I am just freaky…

My first curations as Exhibitions Director at Gallery C was a 2-solo show combo of Roland Reiss and Kenny Harris.

In this Long Beach Press-Telegram Review of the shows, reviewer Shirle Gottlieb nails it all. The shows run thru January 5. Enjoy!

I have been sitting the gallery today, alone, although the foot-trafic has been steady. I gave one woman advice on buying art and so I will pass this last half hour of work writing down the same advice for you.

Rules To Buy Art From A Gallery

1. Don’t Be Intimidated.
A few galleries will imply that you are not worthy of an artwork, not ready for it or that they are saving this artwork for someone else. Don’t give them the chance to steer you to lesser artists or artworks - art is like love - hold out for the one you love or until something better comes along.

2. Haggle
Guess why prices are so high in an art gallery? Because nearly everyone asks for a discount. You should ask for one too.

3. Hold Out for Quality and Irreplacability
Prints are cheaper than paintings because ther are plenty more of them - crappy materials fall apart, sometimes quickly. If the artwork looks nice but junky (in a junk way, not a cool masterfully-junk-like-rendering-way) make sure you are on to something. Archivability is a beeyotch and Giclees are garbage.

4. Make a Payment Plan
If you can do it for the goddamn furniture, the gallery sure as better let you do it for the artwork that will make that sofa look ten times nicer.

5. Ask to Meet the Artist
This will show you the reputability of the gallery - it is the art world equivalent of Habeas Corpus - if the gallery can produce the body, then this is the gallery to work with - if not there is a player out there selling the same artist’s work for cheaper and with acces to the better artworks.

So if you have an hour to spare and want to listen to me talking about what is going on in the Los Angeles art scene, the latest episode of THE MAT GLEASON SEVEN is up at the Art Scene Visual Radio website.

I wish I had been recorded when I gave a talk at Gallery C Sunday afternoon about curating to the MOCA Contemporaries. It went well, the feedback was great.

Okay, so a toddler makes splashy paintings and a mum in England posts them on the Saatchi site. Some schmoe there drops 40 buck on one to hang above his couch and a Berlin Gallery mass e-mails everyone on that site to rent their gallery, so the Daily Mail reports that the kid has the art world fooled.

But it is the art world who has the Daly Mail fooled. The art world doesn’t participate on the Saatchi site - once an artist or gallery is truly ensconced in the art world, they want nothing to do with the democracy of the Saatchi internet free-for-all.

British culture seems to be posited on the certainty that people with good grammar and pretentious accents have all the answers and that art is never the answer. Fuck the hooligans.

When I was a kid, there were fewer celebrities than there are today.

And for a few years, Evel Knievel was at or near the top of the pyramid of living gods.

Sure, I am older and it is funny to look at the pictures of him in his glory and roll my eyes at the redneck irony, but when you are a kid and there is this guy riding his motorcycle thru the air, the simplicity of his supreme leadership of the species to go beyond the ordinary - it is just the most easily apparent thing in the world and all-consuming in its simplicity: Ride your motorcycle and jump over some busses = perfection of why we are put on the earth.

If they called it performance art, Evel could have gotten his MFA from an art school. But in the society of the spectacle, he had a greater calling.