THE JEREMY BLAKE SHOW 11-5-03
Ever since I did a two-page spread for Black Book Magazine, the good people
over there have had me on their invite list for ritzy openings and shi shi
events. Recently I was invited to an invite only art opening for digital
artist and painter Jeremy Blake at a gallery in Chelsea. The first in Black
Book's Artist series. I had to go.
Jeremy Blake, if you haven't heard of him, is one of the big "IT" artists
coming up in Manhattan right now, so I thought it would only be suitable to
introduce myself. I had recently seen the movie Punch Drunk Love (Adam
Sandler flick) and in case you haven't seen it, it has some really cool
camera work, and digital effects that distort the film. Those digital
effects are the work of Mr. Blake. He has a really vivid color palate in
his film work, and I was curious to see how that would translate to
painting.
I drug along RAN-D, and gave JOSH CLARKJosh Clark directions to meet us there. When
we got out of the subway it was pouring. Normally on a night when it's
raining cats and dogs in Manhattan two things happen almost instantly.
Bodega/ Magazine Shop/ Tourist Boutique owners hit the streets in front of
their shops with carts full of the cheapest ass umbrellas on earth. I'm
talking umbrellas that have a working life of about two blocks. If it's
windy, a block and a half. These umbrellas were made to stay together long
enough for you to span enough distance from the man who sold it to you, to
where it wouldn't be worth the five bucks you paid for it to go back and
demand a replacement.
The second thing that happens in Manhattan when it starts coming down is
that the taxicabs disappear. I don't understand this. It seems that when
you don't need a cab they are slowing down and honking to get your
attention, just begging for your business, but when you truly need one, they
are nowhere to be found.
Ran-D and I ducked into a small hardware store for cover. There were no
umbrellas in the store, and no rain ponchos. We started looking for garbage
bags we could buy to wear until we got to the show, but couldn't find them
either. We ended up buying a cardboard box (for like $4.00) ripping it in
half and holding the halves over our heads as we walked to the gallery. A
block away from the show we ditched the now fully saturated overpriced
cardboard halves in someone's trash and hot stepped it to the doors.
We got in and got cleared by the security and made our way to the busiest
room, which also happened to be the room with the food and booze. We started
to schmooze and got on line for drinks, all the while picking on the most
amazing spread of gourmet finger foods. When we got to the drink table,
beautiful women poured drinks of three flavors (Mai Thai's I believe) with
one of three different colored freshly cut flowers delicately placed to float
in the glass.
I ran into my editor Jordan, and we talked it up a bit, and then I headed
into the first room of the gallery to take in the paintings. Three walls of
space were lined eye level with small boxy paintings creating a colorful
dashed equally spaced line. His paintings were as I had expected very
vivid, but not as abstract as I would have imagined them to be. The were
pretty much realistic-ish paintings from photos, but with an amazing color
sense.
The greatest spectacle of the show was the center room of the three which
had seating and a movie screen and projector, which played his digital color
works and film in a loop. I sat in there and got myself a nice buzz on,
while watching the films play out in the most amazing Technicolor palate. I
chatted it up with a crap load of people and had the unique opportunity to
meet Nicole Pinto,the lead singer for Creme Blush who I had just been featured
in one of those cutting edge mags that month, what was it, Wallpaper, or
Flaunt? One of those, so she looked familiar. Anyway, it was cool to meet her, and they make cool
ass throw back music.
Sometime during the night Jeremy made an appearance, but I didn't know
exactly what he looked like, and there was no big applause on his entry or
any gathering crowds bowing down, and nobody pointed him out to me so I
sadly didn't get to meet him.
Josh showed up and we all got pretty buzzed mingling with the fashion
designers and models, magazine editors and film makers. As the night
wrapped up we grabbed our gift bags and hit the now dry streets to party
another night. We will meet some day Jeremy Blake. The world is small, and
the art world is smaller.
Just another day in the life of an Art Juggernaut.
-Cojo