Forget Chinese Democracy, Chinatown in Los Angeles was treated to artist Keith Walsh’s amazing one-man band THE KEITH WALSH EXPERIENCE in November. Loud, abrasive and utterly creative, Keith Walsh added an element of melodic chaos to a night out at the wine and cheese galleries.

So fuck the economic crisis and the fear it spreads, Annie Wharton is partners in a new gallery called THE COMPANY that opened its doors on Yale Street in Chinatown Saturday night with cool group show called HUMAN RESOURCES (as evidenced by this living sculpture, to the left of Ms Wharton).

My email inbox is stuffed with pleas, my FaceBook account is repeating the same chorus: Save MOCA… L.A. MOCA needs us all… come to Sunday?€™s meeting of how to save the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

Uh, no I won?€™t be going. I would love to see MOCA survive and thrive. But without attending, I can tell you what will happen. There will be an impressive crush of people. The size of the group will create more of a sense of disorganization than unity. Any idiots who bring signs will get the ?€?art world ice treatment?€? from those who feel that they are anointed members of the art world. Those who dress audaciously to attract individual attention will get the psychic sneer from the anointed ones.

I won?€™t be going because once thy open the floor to speakers, there will be someone who rambles on and on about the community. And what this person will really be saying is ?€?Put me in charge.?€? And then someone will bring up the lack of local artists in shows and what they will really be saying is ?€?This museum needs to show my art.?€? And then someone will remind everyone that this is OUR museum. Which it is not, since we cannot see the books, cannot see how much the museum spends buying art, cannot become members of the country club without being rich and qualifying. When anyone gets up and says a bad word about the THIEVERY that has gone on at the museum with the money, that person will be castigated by other speakers as ?€?too negative.?€?

I won?€™t be going because Sunday will be a clusterfuck. The people who teach will be upset that it is not conducted in a more collegial fashion. The fuckers who pillaged MOCA will stand there and pretend to earnestly be taking it all in when they cannot stand to be near the ?€?common people.?€? The artists who speak will be shilling for themselves. A prestigious audience plant or two will suck up to MOCA powers-that-be unaware that some of these people will either be going to jail or at the every least be banished form the institutional art world forever.

I won?€™t be going because now is not the time for town hall meetings. Now is the time for the state attorney general to do his job. Were the powers that be at MOCA smart enough to buy art at retail prices and receive kickback money on these purchases? The private art dealers and the museum green-lighters will go to jail if this was the case. If MOCA higher-ups were NOT embezzling the money in a variety of schemes pretty much based on the above scenario, were they really just insipidly partying in the art world on the donors?€™ dimes? Not illegal, but stupid, career-ending and symptomatic of the narcissism that comes when you believe your own bullshit and/or buy the sucker’s sales pitch that Murakami is a good artist.

Mat Gleason, Tulsa Kinney, Steve Bush (L-R, Coagula, ARTillery and THE Magazine, respectively)

A rare chance to get three powers behind the pen in one picture - photographed at L2Kontemporary Gallery’s Five Year Anniversary Party Saturday Night in Chinatown, Los Angeles
Photo: Leigh Salgado

My email inbox is stuffed with pleas, my FaceBook account is repeating the same chorus: Save MOCA… L.A. MOCA needs us all… come to Sunday’s meeting of how to save the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

Uh, no I won’t be going. I would love to see MOCA survive and thrive. But without attending, I can tell you what will happen. There will be an impressive crush of people. The size of the group will create more of a sense of disorganization than unity. Any idiots who bring signs will get the “art world ice treatment” from those who feel that they are anointed members of the art world. Those who dress audaciously to attract individual attention will get the psychic sneer from the anointed ones.

I won’t be going because once thy open the floor to speakers, there will be someone who rambles on and on about the community. And what this person will really be saying is “Put me in charge.” And then someone will bring up the lack of local artists in shows and what they will really be saying is “This museum needs to show my art.” And then someone will remind everyone that this is OUR museum. Which it is not, since we cannot see the books, cannot see how much the museum spends buying art, cannot become members of the country club without being rich and qualifying. When anyone gets up and says a bad word about the THIEVERY that has gone on at the museum with the money, that person will be castigated by other speakers as “too negative.”

I won’t be going because Sunday will be a clusterfuck. The people who teach will be upset that it is not conducted in a more collegial fashion. The fuckers who pillaged MOCA will stand there and pretend to earnestly be taking it all in when they cannot stand to be near the “common people.” The artists who speak will be shilling for themselves. A prestigious audience plant or two will suck up to MOCA powers-that-be unaware that some of these people will either be going to jail or at the every least be banished form the institutional art world forever.

I won’t be going because now is not the time for town hall meetings. Now is the time for the state attorney general to do his job. Were the powers that be at MOCA smart enough to buy art at retail prices and receive kickback money on these purchases? The private art dealers and the museum green-lighters will go to jail if this was the case. If MOCA higher-ups were NOT embezzling the money in a variety of schemes pretty much based on the above scenario, were they really just insipidly partying in the art world on the donors’ dimes? Not illegal, but stupid, career-ending and symptomatic of the narcissism that comes when you believe your own bullshit and/or buy the sucker’s sales pitch that Murakami is a good artist.

The LA Times broke the story that our Museum of Contemporary Art is in deep financial trouble… Look, this is terrible and no matter what can be done to resolve it, we have to step gingerly because we could easily lose it all if the next few months are not handled with delicate and deliberate measures.

Oh, wait, I said WE. Ooops, there I go again, clinging to the myth that this is OUR museum. The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art is a cultural country club masquerading as a public institution. There is zero transparency in the way this institution has been run. So many of its recent art shows have been little more than collaborations with art dealers that it cannot reasonably be assumed that this institution has been run to do anything but financially benefit friends and insiders.

Since MOCA is a California non-profit educational institution, the State of California must immediately look into how this corporation has allocated its money. If this place is broke, one reason might be envelopes of cash. The integrity of this institution is at question. Its Board of Trustees have obviously looked to the Museum cabal of Jeremy Strick and Paul Schimmel as a two-headed Jim Jones, drinking the Murakami and Kippenberger kool-aid while art dealers were too damn nearby to not make a buck on the back of this museum.

They are closing the Geffen Building for six months? HA! It will not be reopened in June and maybe never. The Geffen has a 3-minute roof ?€“ its old lumber ceiling will burn up in 3 minutes ?€“ ever notice they never exhibit any art there that is worth more than a few hundred grand? Why? Insurers look at things like fires burning up expensive paintings. MOCA is not allowed to show its collection in its own building!!!! MOCA admins have known this for years ?€“ they learned about when they tried to put in a coffee shop in the Geffen. They could have spent the money to make the Geffen fireproof in order to give Los Angeles a showcase for their fabulous encyclopedic collection of postwar art. But instead they installed a Luis Vuitton boutique in the museum and let the retailer keep all the money.

Sure they did, no envelopes of cash floating around this noble set of museum administrators ?€“ of course, maybe they ARE too stupid to embezzle, shill dough, launder money and other painfully apparent practices that go on behind the scenes when the money suddenly disappears during the same year that there were lines around the building for the Murakami show, that there was a $1200 per ticket Kanye West concert at the museum ?€“ the same year?

The bottom line here is that we cannot trust the cabal controlling MOCA to have been operating this institution for the benefit of the museum ?€“ the self-interest of some of the powers that be has been put before the best interests of the institution. A full investigation is warranted.

Of course, this brings new meaning to the old name for the Geffen: The Temporary Contemporary. MOCA will be gone soon, swallowed by another institution and the financial crimes that were committed with donated money will disappear from art history.
–Mat Gleason

The LA Times broke the story that our Museum of Contemporary Art is in deep financial trouble… Look, this is terrible and no matter what can be done to resolve it, we have to step gingerly because we could easily lose it all if the next few months are not handled with delicate and deliberate measures.

Oh, wait, I said WE. Ooops, there I go again, clinging to the myth that this is OUR museum. The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art is a cultural country club masquerading as a public institution. There is zero transparency in the way this institution has been run. So many of its recent art shows have been little more than collaborations with art dealers that it cannot reasonably be assumed that this institution has been run to do anything but financially benefit friends and insiders.

Since MOCA is a California non-profit educational institution, the State of California must immediately look into how this corporation has allocated its money. If this place is broke, one reason might be envelopes of cash. The integrity of this institution is at question. Its Board of Trustees have obviously looked to the Museum cabal of Jeremy Strick and Paul Schimmel as a two-headed Jim Jones, drinking the Murakami and Kippenberger kool-aid while art dealers were too damn nearby to not make a buck on the back of this museum.

They are closing the Geffen Building for six months? HA! It will not be reopened in June and maybe never. The Geffen has a 3-minute roof – its old lumber ceiling will burn up in 3 minutes – ever notice they never exhibit any art there that is worth more than a few hundred grand? Why? Insurers look at things like fires burning up expensive paintings. MOCA is not allowed to show its collection in its own building!!!! MOCA admins have known this for years – they learned about when they tried to put in a coffee shop in the Geffen. They could have spent the money to make the Geffen fireproof in order to give Los Angeles a showcase for their fabulous encyclopedic collection of postwar art. But instead they installed a Luis Vuitton boutique in the museum and let the retailer keep all the money.

Sure they did, no envelopes of cash floating around this noble set of museum administrators – of course, maybe they ARE too stupid to embezzle, shill dough, launder money and other painfully apparent practices that go on behind the scenes when the money suddenly disappears during the same year that there were lines around the building for the Murakami show, that there was a $1200 per ticket Kanye West concert at the museum – the same year?

The bottom line here is that we cannot trust the cabal controlling MOCA to have been operating this institution for the benefit of the museum – the self-interest of some of the powers that be has been put before the best interests of the institution. A full investigation is warranted.

Of course, this brings new meaning to the old name for the Geffen: The Temporary Contemporary. MOCA will be gone soon, swallowed by another institution and the financial crimes that were committed with donated money will disappear from art history.
–Mat Gleason

 
Sunset at Bergamot Station on Saturday, November 15, 2008 - after a day of raging fires throughout Southern California.

Patricia Correia with every rubber band she collected from her mail in the 14 years that her gallery was at Bergamot Station.

After more than 17 years in the business, 14 of them at Bergamot Station, Patricia Correia is retiring from being an active art dealer and held a final show at her space celebrating art from many of the 175+ exhibits that her gallery hosted in Santa Monica as well as in its original location on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice. Her plans include converting a hundred-year-old barn at her estate in Topanga Canyon into a private art exhibition space and visual arts support foundation.

“Most of the collectors who have followed me over the years lived in Topanga or Malibu, so this will be a case of bringing the art closer to them and cutting down on the parties and extra stuff that don’t really lead to sales or cultivating artists’ careers,” she told me amidst the throng of last-chance buyers and well-wishers.

The exhibit touched on many of the artists who had shown in the gallery and even had two small paintings by Richard Godfrey which had previously hung in the gallery on Bergamot Station’s opening night in 1994. Some Llyn Foulkes pieces shared wall space with small works by Jose Lozano, Susan Tibbles, Bari Kumar, Samantha Harrison, Steve Schmidt and a hundred others.

“I am gonna miss the foot traffic at Bergamot, but I have a boyfriend and five dogs to keep me company while we begin work on gutting the barn and structuring my Correia Arts Foundation. I like to divide up my projects into 17-year blocks, don’t you?” she joked while tapping another keg to keep one final all-night party going.