Category Archives: Art

Dear Jenna von Oÿ,

I loved you on Blossom as her quirky, fast-talking sidekick Six. You know what I also love? David Benjamin Sherry. I’ve been obsessing over his work for a while now. I went to an opening of his show at OHWOW Gallery recently and it not only blew my socks off it blew them all the way to the moon where they spontaneously combusted over how much they liked his work. In case you don’t know, David Benjamin Sherry looks like this:

He’s totally cool. I would so wear that outfit. Sherry’s show, Wonderful Land, was at OHWOW Gallery, a place I’ve never been before but now want to marry because of its name.

The scene at OHWOW Gallery was totally amazing, and everyone wore outfits that were equally festive and intimidating. Gallery goers sipped champagne whilst perusing the amazing work, thinking about their feelings, and trying to express through body language how alienated they felt from everyone around them.

Now, onto the work:

On of my favorite aspects of the show were the images of Yosemite. As you may know, I grew up there and I love it. But growing up there also means growing up around a lot of barfy, full-Kodak-color, gross nature photography. It’s refreshing to see someone finally represent that beautiful space in a complex, original way.

Winter Sunrise over Yosemite Valley, Yosemite, California, 2013

Canyon de Chelly, Chinle, Arizona, 2013

Ubehebe Crater, Cottonwood Mountain, Death Valley, California 2013

Yosemite Falls, Yosemite, California, 2013

Sunrise over Zabriskie Point, Death Valley, California, 2013

Wave on the Coyote Buttes, Paria Canyon, Arizona, 2013

Sunrise on Mesquite Flat Dunes, Death Valley, California, 2013

Winter Storm in Zion Canyon, Zion, Utah, 2013

Storm Clearing Over Kings Canyon, Three Rivers, California, 2013

Winter Morning Fog, Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite, California, 2013

Saguaro Field, Tucson, Arizona, 2013

Sunrise, Grand Canyon, Arizona, 2013

Desert Hills, Death Valley, California, 2013

Fallen Rocks, Monument Valley, Arizona, 2013

Lower Yosemite Falls, Yosemite, California, 2013

Moon Over Rocks, Monument Valley, Arizona, 2013

See more installation views from the show at OHWOW here.

To learn more about David Benjamin Sherry and see more of his work, visit his website. Now I’m going to go kill myself in hopes that I come back as a fly on the wall in the home of someone who owns a David Benjamin Sherry print so that I can stare at it all day, wishing it were mine. Dreamz…

Love,
Orlando

Dear Diary,

Most of the time when we think of fancy artists we think of people in a faraway place. I tend to imagine them standing, tortured, in front of a blank canvas in their downtown LA studios, wearing tight black jeans and huge white t-shirts. People don’t often imagine that they could be sitting RIGHT NEXT TO an artistic genius. I was recently made aware of this when I found out Tessa Neustadt, my colleague at Emily Henderson Design, makes awesome photographs I want to put all over my body. I mean all over my apartment. Here they are:

All of the delightful images above are available for purchase at ridiculously reasonable prices:

They can be purchased directly by Contacting Tessa here. I think I’m going to grab some of the treescapes. Or maybe a cityscape. I want all of them.

Love,
Orlando

Dear St. Vincent,

I’m in love with your music video for “Cheerleader” directed by Hiro Murai. According to Yatzer, the video was inspired by the art of Ron Mueck, an artist who makes enormous sculptures of humans in awkward positions. Annie Clark (AKA St. Vincent) looks beautiful. Like a giant porcelain doll. The whole thing is amazing. Enjoy!

Love,
Orlando

Dear Hedi Slimane,

You are my favorite photographer. Everyone knows that. You have a wonderful fashion diary I look at all the time. It brings me great joy. But lately every time I look at one of your photographs they make me want to be an active participant in the awesome world you document because everyone looks so cool and aloof and glamorous. Below is a list of things your photos make me want to do:

1. Sit on the ground and contemplate my feelings.

2. Play a guitar on a diving board whist wearing skinny jeans.

3. Stand with a group and watch a non-existent ghost band perform.

4. Laugh with my awkwardcool friends whilst drinking a beer.

5. Be a mid-century abandoned building in Palm Springs, baking in the sun.

6. Cuddle on the sofa with my friends.

7. Give a concert while thinking about how misunderstood I am.

8. Be a cluster of balloons, beautiful yet forgotten.

There are plenty more images to stare at on Hedi’s Diary. Look at it every day. If it’s the last thing you do.

Love,
Orlando

Dear Andrew Salgado,

A few months ago, I was waddling around a holiday party hosted by Ken Dolls when I stumbled upon one of your brilliant paintings (“It’s Not About Love”) in their living room. I spent the rest of the party scheming how I would fit the painting under my winter coat so I could take it home. Sadly, I left without it. But I was happy to discover your work because I find it completely inspiring. When I see something done in a new way, such as a figure rendered in a way never before seen, it reminds me that there are discoveries yet to make and perhaps life isn’t as boring and prescribed as I thought. Not that I think that (Okay sometimes I do, but not often. Okay maybe often). Below are a selection of some of my favorite pieces from your body of work.

All images courtesy of Andrew Salgado.

Beams the Mannerist

The Opposite of Intention

Pink Study 1

It Ain’t Divine

Hold

The Silence Consumes Every Move

The Tide

King Is Dead / Long Live The King (Diptych)

Boy With A Bloody Nose

The Conversation

A Shapeless Doubt

It’s Not About Love

Playtime

The Bewildered Pursuit

I Wish I had Known About This Hammer Heart

The Deafening

One Man’s Joy Is Another Man’s Sadness

I Can’t Quite Remember But I Never Forget

A Dream Of The Sea

An Altered Peace

Thank you for making all these beautiful pieces. Someday, when I am a rich Gay man cackling in a giant house in the Hollywood Hills, I will buy one of your paintings and hang it above my fireplace, remembering fondly the first time I saw your work and how thoroughly it rocked my world.

Love,
Orlando

PS: See more gorgeous images at andrewsalgado.com. And then maybe buy something. For me.

Dear John Monn,

I love your beautiful art. It’s filled with texture, color, and an undercurrent of unease. Read your artist statement here:

I am exploring the differences between the hunter and hunted, and ultimately, what is sacred and what is disposable in our society. In this latest series in my body of work I am attempting to navigate a path for viewers to look back to simpler times. Maybe some illumination of the present can be found along the way.

Drawing has always been the immediate way I make art. Years of pointillism, with slow deliberate accumulation of detail, changed the way I think about constructing a piece.  Representational works on paper with ink dots evolved into the ammunition of testosterone- fueled suburban youth, airsoft BBs. Tangible “monuments to the disposable” the pellets are arranged in shot- pattern abstractions and frozen in time.

Blowing up cheap plastic toy army men with firecrackers was a hallowed rite of passage among my young peers. We buried, burned, melted and destroyed these disposable men in routine play. What we were thinking and why were our imaginations so fully engaged? Why were we ultimately compelled to destroy these simple, inanimate miniature replicas?  Why were they created and manufactured?

It is now 20+ years since that time and I am still wondering about that, as well as many other personal and societal compulsions we live with in our complex world. From that experience I have employed these now-haunted toys to suggest four personifications (the hunter, the hunted, sacred heroes and the disposable) simultaneously. By using epoxy and melted plastic I group the figures that are associated with childhood and nostalgia in a contemporary context that mirrors our adult attempts to conquer with limited loss.

I will always draw.  But along the way I am compelled to find expression with other media in response to the world around me, as my inner world is stirred and inspired. 

 [John Monn]

And now onto the work:

PXLT

Airsoft ammunition and epoxy resin on canvas over panel, with metal coating.  20″ x 20″. 2012.

Details:

SOLAR

1/4″ brass ball bearings and tinted epoxy on canvas over panel. 16″ diameter. 2012.

RFLCT

Plastic army men and epoxy on canvas chromed. 35″ x 32″.2012.

TARP/T

Plastic army men, enamel and epoxy on canvas over panel. 24″ x 24″. 2013

VRTX

6mm glow in the dark (tracers) airsoft ammunition and epoxy on canvas over panel. 42″ x 42″. 2012.

VECTOR POTENT/AL

B27 target, copper coated steel shot and tinted epoxy on canvas over panel. 22″ x 22″. 2012.

Detail:

INFERNO

Cowboys and Indians toys embedded in epoxy resin on canvas over panel. 40″ diameter. 2012.

MLTD

Melted plastic army men and epoxy on canvas over panel, chromed. 14″ x 21″. 2012.

Detail:

LUNAR

1/4″ aluminum ball bearings and tinted epoxy on canvas over panel. 16″ diameter. 2012.

QU/CKSAND

Plastic army men, enamel, concrete and epoxy on canvas over panel. 20″x 24.”

Thanks for the work, keep it up!

Love,
Orlando

PS: Visit John’s website to see which of these are available for purchase and contact him about buying. And then buy something. Support artists. They’re our last hope for the future.

Dear Santa Monica,

I resent you. Not because you’re not appealing and I don’t appreciate your pretty coastal views and your superior coffee shops. But mostly because you’re so far away. When someone moves West from the central part of Los Angeles (West Hollywood, Hollywood, Los Feliz, Silverlake, etc), we all pretty much say goodbye to them. People who live on the West Side are pretty much dead to everyone else. This is why I found it so hard to work up the motivation to drive all the way to Santa Monica on Sunday to enjoy the Art Los Angeles Contemporary at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica. Despite having a totally awkward name (doesn’t it seem like “Art” and “Los Angeles” should switch places?), the event was a ton of fun, filled with art that I coveted which filled me both with delight at how beautiful it was and overwhelmed me with sadness that I could not own each and every piece. Someday I want to be an art thief and just steal all the art I want and have the most glamorous house filled with art and everyone will be jealous. Except for Donny Deutsch, who already has an amazing art collection (details to follow).

This is the Barker Hangar, which at some point had airplanes in it and now just houses glamourous art events.

And onto the art, which speaks for itself:

Alexander Kroll

Alexander Kroll

Thomas Dozol

Gay Sidenote: Thomas Dozol is dating Michael Stipe (REM) and they live in a glamorous apartment in Lower Manhattan. Read the article about and see proof here:

Jon Pylypchuk

Shirana Shahbazi

Sarah Cain

Mark Flood

Thomas Jeppe

ACE Gallery

Yunhee Min

Yunhee Min

Yunhee Min

Denis Darzacq

Denis Darzacq

Matthew Stone

Matthew Stone

Matthew Stone

Lee Materazzi

Lee Materazzi

Mel Bochner

Adam Belt

Kelsey Brookes

Kelsey Brookes

Luka Finiesen

Luka Finiesen

Cathryn Boch

This is actually a beach towel, but they displayed it as a painting and I thought it was genius:

 Rirkrit Tiravanija

Alyssa Phoebus Mumtaz

The Art Los Angeles Contemporary was a beautiful event, full of amazing art and stylish men in ironic, wide-legged capri pants (don’t even ask me what that is, I’m still processing). The sky was dark and tumultuous, much like the storm of art-desire that brewed within my heart.

Someday, I want to live in a place like Donny Deutsch’s Crazy Manhattan Townhouse. I don’t even know if I like the style, but you really can get away with a lot stylistically when you have Warhols hanging on the wall:

Oh yeah, that’s just my Damien Hirst above the sofa. Glamour.

Barbara Kruger. I’ve always loved her. GIMME.

So, there we have it. If I don’t buy millions of dollars worth of art, get a giant house to put it in, and spend the rest of my life staring at it I will consider my life a complete failure.

Love,

Orlando

Dear JJ,

I know they’re not brand new or anything, but I love this video and this wonderful song. You’re delightful.

Love,
Orlando