Focus Photo Finishers
Mark Gonzales

Catalogue published in conjunction with Mark Gonzales’s “Round N’ Round” exhibition at New York’s Franklin Parrasch Gallery in October and November 2009, this two volume compendium of drawings, postcards, poems, painted-over newspapers, and photographs by or depicting Mark Gonzales covers an international correspondence spanning more than a decade beginning in 1993. Geographically emanating from such diverse points as San Francisco, Tonga, Paris, Berlin and New Zealand, all were sent in a consistent and copious correspondence between those locales and Manhattan and Brooklyn. Both a primer and survey of Gonzales’ wide-ranging artistic exploits, and a graphic and photocopied link to the newer sculpture and video in “Round N’ Round,” the material in Focus Photos Finishers includes, but is by no means limited to: altered fashion advertisements, drawn and written on postcards picturing Herbert Huncke, Robert Johnson, and a Russian circus bear (amongst other subjects), a portrait of Emily Dickinson, four-time world champion surfer Mark Richard’s autograph on the title page of Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge obtained during a flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, a cloth skateboard patch presented to Gonzales in Czechoslovakia prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, representations of 2nd Century B.C. Parthian statues, faxes sent from High Speed Productions featuring a drawing of Michael Jackson complaining “I’ve never been so Insalted,” a photograph of Lee Ralph next to a palm tree, aphoristic texts (“God called out loud but not one would hear him so he went underground he’s low key"), and numerous drawings displaying the full spectrum of Gonzales’s varied and unmistakable styles. Contained together in a transparent plastic wrapper, volume one is 8 ½ by 5 ½,” 14 pages with a color cover and pink pages, volume two is 8 ½” by 7 ½,” 34 pages with a color outside and inside cover and a color centerfold. Edition of 100, $20.

View Installation

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“The king of the zoo is the man with the food”

Flowerbomb
Gil Gonzalez

Gil Gonzalez was born in Iquitos, Peru sometime in the late 1960s and grew
up between Lima and Miami before settling in Boca Raton as a teenager. All
evidence points to his artistic endeavors beginning in this period, where he
reportedly honed his style while working as a busboy at Café Bellino.
Records show that he graduated from Pope John Paul II High School in 1987,
but after that the arc of Gonzalez' life is more a matter of conjecture than
fact. He seems to have made his way to Southern California, supporting
himself by working in restaurants and for the G T swimming pool cleaning
firm in Hawthorne. The proximity of Hawthorne to South Gate might have
fueled the persistent rumors that Gonzalez is the brother of skateboarder
and artist Mark Gonzales, though their surnames are spelled differently and
Gonzales stridently denies the connection. Sometime in the mid-1990s
Gonzalez was institutionalized for several weeks at the Valley Convalescent
Center in El Centro, but the trail goes cold after that, and in fact he was
completely unknown until these works were found in a Tecate twelve-pack box
next to a shed by an empty swimming pool in Torrance in 2007. Gonzalez'
varied, twisted and scatological output does not have an close analogy in
contemporary art, outsider or otherwise, and his inscrutable and id-gone
awry world of shit, skulls, dogs and cats, the mysterious "Daisey
Devillanese," self-destructive elephants, "Honkey Nutz", and $3
incontinence-inducing soybean bean burgers exists in a realm totally of his
own making, a profane yet unexpectedly touching extra-dimensional universe.
Discovered by pure chance, this effervescence of an exceptional artist¹s
unconscious mind is being unleashed upon a public possibly unprepared but
also maybe unknowingly receptive to his one-of-a-kind achievement. 49
pages, color cover and centerfold, $8.

Almost News

“Rolling open with a satisfying whoosh, the solid overstuffed drawers would reveal upright cardboard files whose condition ranged from crispy brand new to disintegrating scraps. “Schauffler, Jr;, William G. Col. Airforce D E A D 10/22/51,” for instance, on the Personality side, or on the Subject side: “Toys: Historical,” “Models: Ships and Submarines,” or “Portugal: Industry: Misc.” There were “Hands,” “Magicians and Mind Readers,” “Brushes,” and “Monocycles.” Everything was broken down into a thousand, a hundred thousand, a million different categories, subgroups, subsets, and variations. There were wild unfulfilled notions that had been photographed in the planning, the making, the testing, or the aftermath, curious pursuits, causes, philosophies, social issues, ideas, and adventures never dreamed of.” Catalogue for “Almost News” at KS Art, New York, February-April 2009. 46 pages, $10

Installation Views

HANDLEBAR FISH 3/57
“One young aquarium fan in Hamburg, Germany, solved the problem of transporting a pair of goldfish from his home to that of a friend by placing them in a water-filled plastic bag and fastening it to the handlebar of his bicycle, as above. The ride joggled the fish a bit -- but they arrived safely.”

Insieme

Desirée Hammen

"People who have the package in their hands are the best."

Catalogue for Desirée Hammen’s one-night exhibition at the Elk Gallery on Crosby Street, December 20th, 2008, “Insieme” brings together all (and more) that was on display that cold sleety evening, including examples of Hammen’s painstakingly handcrafted clothes that mix fineness and grit with the spirit of sidewalk detritus that animates much of her intuitive couture, and vestments done in conjunction with the Painted collective. Also featured are willing strangers and the cigarettes they gave as part of “Share,” the idiosyncratic domesticity of the “Home Sweet Home,” and evidence of mask wearing at an “Animal Farm” event/birthday party in Mölnbo, Sweden. The fruits of inventive collaboration, trash appreciation, and exquisite craftsmanship comingle in these lush photographs, showcasing art and raiment as unexpected surprise and the action, reaction and randomness of unscripted social discourse. The crooked and weathered ten-foot long stick discovered near Smith Street and W. 9th in Red Hook that Hammen dressed in a one-of-a-kind sewed coat is on the last page, in situ. 40 pages, full-color, $12.

ikdesiree.blogspot.com

Installation Views

Nothing... yet...

Artus de Lavilléon

"Un homme obsedé est un homme possede du demon"

Catalogue for the "No Deposit ­ No Return (I¹m Not an Underground Artist)"
exhibition at the Elk Gallery on Guanghua Lu in Beijing, April 2008.
"Nothing...Yet..." is the bastard offspring of a collaborative miscegenation
between Elk and Deadpan, overflowing with de Lavilléon¹s witty, scabrous,
incisive drawings that mix social commentary, true life experience, comely
females, alternately hilarious and angst-ridden personal revelations, and a
healthy dose of raunchiness. Spawned by Spring Festival fireworks and
discussions over baozi in Sanlitun, this tome is both a record of the
artist's six-month stay in the northern capital and document of the process
that led to "No Deposit ­ No Return" materializing on the walls surrounding
a mini-ramp in a downtown Beijing warehouse. French skate-punkism and
Situationist détournement and "customization" with Debordian comic book
overtones, told through image and text depictions of Chinese Hip-Hop kids,
guilty visits to McDonalds, punk snobs, workers eating lunch, old skaters,
art collectors, dead cowboys and washed-up boxers, along with attendant
rants, aphorisms and dialogue. Guest appearances by Mao Zedong, Andy
Warhol, Karl Lagerfeld, Minnie Mouse, Marc Jacobs and Chen Wenling, along
with written musings and dialogue cut-ups from Breathless by de Lavilléon
and Jocko Weyland's essay "Wasting Time to Be Free (Je crois que je
gagne!)" Lushly illustrated, provocative, and the definitive printed
manifestation of the Art Posthume declaration "You must not do to be, you
must be to be." C'est la vie.
90 pages with a color cover, in English, French and Chinese. $12.

artusdelavilleon.com

"Putain de tatouage de merde! C'est que ca fait un malde chien!"

Installation Views

Sleepers

Rick Charnoski

"Poorman's wealth, brother to death,
The balm of woe - the indifferent judge between high and low."

Taking pictures of sleepers is like bird watching. Rick Charnoski is a
sleeper watcher nonpareil, documenting everything from poetic New York
subway slumberers to four women enjoying a quick vehicular nap. "Sleepers"
is comprised of amazing photographs showing people of all sorts and stripes
dozing on benches, planes, trains and on the grass, interspersed with
Charnoski's handwritten textual commentary such as "In Japan They Sleep
Too" and "Meanwhile in LA, a person adapts to the bum-proof bench with a
yoga mat." In addition quotes from various sources, including Noam Chomsky's
notorious nonsensical sentence "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" are
liberally sprinkled through this one of a kind book. Also: sidewalk
explosions (melting like soft cheese in the hot sun), different sleeper -
same spot, the fire nap, and an incredible double down in Greenpoint.
60 pages with a color cover and 4 inside color pages, $8

"Sleep is the state of natural rest observed in most mammals, birds, fish,
as well as invertebrates such as the fruit fly Drosophila."

La Perruquière

Gloria Toyun Park

"WIG (1) Subs. An artificial head of hair, from the French Perruque and
through the forms, Peruke, Periwyk and Periwig, became wig by 1765, as a
result of the elision of the first two syllables. See also Periwig.
'Beneath an ample wig he tucks his hair.' 1760. (Woty)" - From James Stevens
Cox, The Illustrated Dictionary of Hairdressing and Wigmaking, 1966

Catalogue for the comprehensive exhibition "La Perruqueière" (The Female
Wigmaker) at the Elk Gallery on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, May-June 2007.
Includes documentation of Parks's wigs, drawings, rock pieces, appearances at
Wigstock, the performances "She, Sublime" and "Hypothermic Runway Rack" and
stills from her films and videos. With photographs of the artist and her
work by Patrick McMullen, Bill Cunningham, Angelika Grundler, Andreas
Bleckmann, Misa Martin, and Jocko Weyland's essay "From Ahgashee to
La Perruquière: Gloria Toyun Park Returns to Koreatown." Related imagery
by James Stevens Cox, Yi In-Mun, and Ashley Bickerton.
48 pages with a color cover and four inside color pages. $8

"Hair is potent because it defines our sexuality - though hair
has no gender" - Gloria Park

Installation Views

The Regency

 

"Climb over the fence and go directly south along the side of the building...
use the chair to climb over the wall...please be advised that by
attending the exhibition you will be trespassing and thereby are subject to
the possible consequences of breaking the law...also keep in mind that
you will have to climb two five-foot high walls and that sensible shoes are
recommended due to debris and other obstacles...The Regency does not
have bathroom facilities, though that does not necessarily mean you can't go
to the bathroom there."

Catalogue for one-day exhibition at The Regency apartment complex (R.I.P.) in
Hollywood on March 4th, 2007. Includes artwork by Nicole Andrews, Gerardo
Castillo, Rick Charnoski, Bill Daniel, Frank Grow, John Brinton Hogan, Sue
Huang, Brian Kennon, Julie Lequin, MachineHistories, Doug Magnuson, René
Margritte, Coan Nichols, and various unidentified Regency visitors and
residents.
44 pages with eight inside color pages and a foldout color
back cover, a Divine sticker by William McCurtin, and a CD of
Daniel Pineda's sound piece "Whirlpools@Regency," $15

"Perhaps the Regency now was officially dead; but it sure had
been a nice wake." --Kate Wolf

Installation Views

Now I Hate Summer

 

"Malibu is summer....summer is ruined. Now you have to share your summer
vacation with everybody - I hate to share my time with working slobs. Summer
has had it. You have to share it with everyone else. Now I hate summer: for
four months out of the year now I have to sweat it out." --Miki Dora

Catalogue for exhibition at the Elk Gallery in New York running from December
2006 to January 2007. Includes Craig Stecyk's essay "Victims of
Circumstantial Evidence, or, You'll Never Hear Surf Music Again", Jocko
Weyland's "Hydro-Knight Templars" and artwork by Billy Al Bengston
Rick Charnoski, Judy Chicago, Anthony Friedkin, Rick Griffin, Robert Irwin,
John McCracken, Joe Quigg, Ed Roth, Anne Truitt and Von Dutch, with two
poems by Francis Picabia.
44 pages with color centerfold and foldout back cover, $10.

"Waves are the ultimate illusion. They come out of nowhere, instantaneously
materialize and just as quickly they break and vanish. Chasing after such
fleeting mirages is a complete waste of time. That is what I choose to do
with my life." - Miki Dora

Installation Views

Teen Book

Kate Haug
&
Nicole Andrews

"I love you, forgive me, I am love, I am a heart." The poetic truths of high
school journal keepers, both actual and transformed by Haug five years after
graduation. Dispassionate terseness belied by those undeniable poetic truths
as raw feeling seethes right below the surface. Listlessness and
dissatisfaction commingle with possibility in California's Central Valley
during the mid-1980s. Tallow factories, wineries, speed, Chevelles, alcohol,
blowjobs, boys that smell like chlorine, Caprices, Taco Bell, Corvettes, and
lots of driving. "One night we all drove to Manteca to get some speed. We
drank the whole way there - traveling up the 99 north from Modesto. For some
reason the car seems small in my memory even though I know it was big. It is
probably because I passed out along the way." Interlaced with Haug's stories
are Nicole Andrews' evocative, haunting drawings of pools, men in bars,
couples kissing, and solitary figures blankly confronting the viewer. A
perfect compliment and foil to the text, Andrews' wayward characters embody
an overarching sense of aimlessness, of time going by without anything
happening, and the irrevocable passing of youth's expectations. Completed in
1997 but never published, Teen Book is finally, deservedly, seeing the light
of day. With front and back cover photos taken in Modesto by the
incomparable Marcy Robinson.
48 pages, $6

An early and crucial participant in the Burnside Project, Mark Hubbard has
subsequently - in his capacity as head of Grindline Skateparks - been
responsible for the construction of over 50 outstanding and seminal
skateparks in the United States. Though his work in concrete is justifiably
world famous, his preparatory drawings, schematics, and writings collected
in this volume are less well known. Included are plans later manifested in
three dimensions at Orca's Island, Washington and Mammoth Mountain,
California, just to name two pilgrimage sites, as well as bewildering M.C.
Escher-like mazes, designs for multi-media projection devices, photographs
of the Grindline crew at work, archival newspaper articles, fantasies by
teenage attendees of city council hearings, prose poems from the road and
Northwest Indian influenced color artwork. Imbued with an individualistic
and uncommon sensibility, these drawings completely transcend their
practical origins by the fact that almost all of them have been realized as
actual, built concrete wonderlands enjoyed by adherents from around the
globe. A comprehensive, mind-boggling artistic outpouring brought together
in one place that forms an unorthodox biography of a true visionary and folk hero.
52 pages. $6.

Primarily known for his paintings, drawings and mosaics, Thomas Hauser’s photography constitutes a rich new vein in a twenty-year career of restless, single-minded artistic exploration. Saturated colors and pitch-perfect compositions buoy achingly pretty flower studies, Naples at night, seemingly deserted buildings and little brightly-hued cars, mysterious balloons, ominously draped chairs and cameras of all sorts, interspersed with something else entirely. That, the primary focus of this volume, is an intense concentration on the baroquely multi-hued world of female undergarments, panties that is, both by themselves and worn on, pulled down around or stretched tight over the barely concealed pudenda of one very unselfconscious model. A close-up, unflinching, unsentimental look at one woman’s body, they are also wildly colorful and celebratory and anchor a collection that manages to find the beauty and terror of the sublime in the mundane as well as the agonizingly pulchritudinous. Offensive to some, controversial to others, certainly, but also mesmerizing and strangely incendiary.
All-color, 40 pages. $15.

www.thomashauser.net

 

Peter Nolan Smith is a New England-born former
nightclub bouncer and diamond dealer who now lives in
Thailand. The self-professed "failurologist" narrator of
"Famous for Never", "Gay Boy" and "One RPM" is both
to-the-point and toughly poetic as he vividly evokes
1980s New York, Paris and Hamburg as well as
contemporary Watchic Pond and Pattaya. Jean-Michel Basquiat,
Klaus Nomi, Brigitte Bardot and Rock Hudson make
appearances; so do Anita Bryant, perennial Red Sox
scapegoat Bill Buckner and a pseudo-anarchist teenager
who goes by the name Bakunin. Prodigious drug and
alcohol abuse, Studio 54, insanity, naked men
chained to trees in the woods, and refrigerator
destruction are just some of the elements in these
elegiac and celebratory paeans to lost fortunes,
the loss of loved ones and the redemptive powers of
street basketball and hope.
50 pages. $6.

Lies Like Truth, or,
A Little Bit of Luck
and a Dash of Larceny

by John Godley