So 2008 has come and gone. Every year I look back on what I did this year. I am packing right now to leave in the morning to spend New Year’s Eve/Day in Las Vegas.

2008 was a depressing year but it had its moments. I lost a prestigious job and two dogs. All of my work in the art world have been deeply impacted by the economic pillage, er, crisis. Everyone in the art world got kicked in the financial groin this year and 2009 promises no relief. But no time to whine. You are either in this out of love and hoping the money follows or you are just trying it on for size until something else fits.

I adopted a 2-year-old Pit Bull/Catahoula mix and the territorial little fucker is watching my house while I am gone so that is protected. Two dogs (Snoop and Coco) that I inherited both died this year. I got them when my girlfriend and I moved into this house in 2007. I never ever imagined falling in love with a dog as deeply as I have with the spotted and tireless Aybar.

I published 6 issues of Coagula Art Journal, celebrated my 15th year of sobriety, curated some great art shows (8 Under 28, Animal Magnetism, The $2 Bill Show, Postcards from the Edge), appeared in the Ovation-TV Network’s documentary on Jeff Koons (Beyond Heaven) voicing a critical dissenting opinion, taught a seminar on curating (Curators College) and wrote some published articles on art that I am proud of. I was a guest on a sports talk radio show for 2 hours in October because of the baseball blog (Halos Heaven) I have built. So there were highlights.

But losing my job as a gallery director because of the bad economy and then seeing real estate deal after real estate deal for a new gallery fall through was just depressing. Sissyphus and I were art world cronies, it seemed there was just nowhere to get traction this year as the whole art world slipped badly from its perch. And two lovely dogs dying sucks. Of course, the passing in 2008 of Coagula’s New York editor Baird Jones reminds me that the alternative is far, far worse.

But we hit Vegas twice and that was nice. My girlfriend and I have now lived under the same roof for 18 months and it is great. I have a freelance writing job that pays some bills as well so there is a lot to be grateful for, but I will most be grateful to see 2008 go on Wednesday night.

Cross Posted at COAGULA DOT COM

Artist Robert Graham in March, 2008 at Ace Gallery in Beverly Hills for the opening reception of some of his recent work. The artist died Saturday.

What I always appreciated about Robert Graham was his precision without caring about perfection. Working with the human form is working with an imperfect form and he knew it, but he endeavored to precisely render what was there and only to idealize it as it could possibly be - he took realism to the cliff of perfection but did not throw it off, he left it right there on the edge, as glorious and precarious as real life itself.

Graham’s statue of an indigenous Latina representing the Virgin Mary at the entrance to the Queen of Angels Cathedral is perhaps the most politically radical sculpture on permanent display anywhere in Los Angeles. After the rich white bread conservatives built that palace, Graham installed the future of everything their institution is headed toward with a symbol of everything about their faith that they try to ignore, marginalize or gentrify.

May he Rest in Peace unless Bernini needs a studio assistant.

–Mat Gleason

Artist Robert Graham in March, 2008 at Ace Gallery in Beverly Hills for the opening reception of some of his recent work. The artist died Saturday.

What I always appreciated about Robert Graham was his precision without caring about perfection. Working with the human form is working with an imperfect form and he knew it, but he endeavored to precisely render what was there and only to idealize it as it could possibly be - he took realism to the cliff of perfection but did not throw it off, he left it right there on the edge, as glorious and precarious as real life itself.

Graham’s statue of an indigenous Latina representing the Virgin Mary at the entrance to the Queen of Angels Cathedral is perhaps the most politically radical sculpture on permanent display anywhere in Los Angeles. After the rich white bread conservatives built that palace, Graham installed the future of everything their institution is headed toward with a symbol of everything about their faith that they try to ignore, marginalize or gentrify.

May he Rest in Peace unless Bernini needs a studio assistant.

–Mat Gleason

Artist Herbert Siguenza at a Highland Park exhibit of his recent I-Phone artworks, sketched by fingertip on the gadget’s screen and then blown up and printed out as digital editions. Technology has meant that artists are finally owning the means of production.

So the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art is going to get rescued by a donation of $30 Million from Eli Broad. He says there are no strings attached. I don’t believe that but let’s pretend it is a perfect world and everything is fine. Okay, let’s see…

Does this mean that director Jeremy Strick will be canned?

Does this change MOCA from being the private country club for its trustees that it is?

Does this change MOCA from buying bullshit art – like curator Ann Goldstein’s terrible artist husband Christopher Williams, the most inconsequential photographer in the history of the medium?

Does this mean that when MOCA will stop with the bullshit shows “that question institutional practice” all the while reinforcing the careers of MOCA’s pet institution questioners?

Will a single fucker at MOCA please articulate in two comprehensible/logical sentences why Takashi Murakami and Martin Kippenberger are worthy of solo shows?… oh and when you do compose those two sentences, please skip the infantile OOO AAHHH Art Historically important, challenging, complex, bold and idiosyncratic vision, allows for multiple readings, fragments the point of reference… you know the fog an tripe that fills your catalogs and press releases but only pulls the handjob you are giving your art world friends deeper into your closet.

The answers are: Probably, No, No or the bitch will quit and name names, No and Not possible.

CROSS POSTED AT COAGULA.COM

So the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art is going to get rescued by a donation of $30 Million from Eli Broad. He says there are no strings attached. I don?€™t believe that but let?€™s pretend it is a perfect world and everything is fine. Okay, let?€™s see…

Does this mean that director Jeremy Strick will be canned?

Does this change MOCA from being the private country club for its trustees that it is?

Does this change MOCA from buying bullshit art ?€“ like curator Ann Goldstein?€™s?  terrible artist husband Christopher Williams, the most inconsequential photographer in the history of the medium?

Does this mean that when MOCA will stop with the bullshit shows ?€?that question institutional practice?€? all the while reinforcing the careers of MOCA?€™s pet institution questioners?

Will a single fucker at MOCA please articulate in two comprehensible/logical sentences why Takashi Murakami and Martin Kippenberger are worthy of solo shows?… oh and when you do compose those two sentences, please skip the infantile OOO AAHHH Art Historically important, challenging, complex, bold and idiosyncratic vision, allows for multiple readings, fragments the point of reference… you know the fog an tripe that fills your catalogs and press releases but only pulls the handjob you are giving your art world friends deeper into your closet.

The answers are: Probably, No, No or the bitch will quit and name names, No and Not possible.

Stuart Rapeport and one of his PIZZA PAINTINGS

At FUTURE STUDIO in Highland Park, artist Stuart Rapeport decided to make art about something we all subsist on. Not love or philosophical discourse nor the sublime trance of being in the presence of beauty. Nope, he painted Pizza. Lots of Pizza. The art would have stuffed the entire opening crowd if it had been edible.