Honor Fraser

Honor Fraser is a gallery on Abbot Kinney, a street I had never visited before, which made me excrutiatingly uncool. Abbot Kinney is a destination unto itself, similar to Main Street in Venice, or Sunset Boulevard in Silverlake (Sunset Junction). Surrounding the gallery are restaurants stocked with beautiful people. Honor Fraser is nestled adjacent to a design showroom, stocked with pricy yet desirable home furnishings. In fact, I walked in there thinking it was the gallery, only to complete an about face when I realized my error.

I was specifically looking forward to this show because Matt Chambers was part of the line up. He is the Basquiat of my generation, and successfully merges urban/youth/street culture with "high-brow" art. He recently showed at Angstrom Gallery in Culver City, and received mad props from the critic on Art Forum. I got to the gallery early, and it was the typical early crowd of forty and fifty-somethings. However, it was nice to be able to view the artwork without the constant fear of spilling my wine on my neighbor.

Things picked up around quarter after seven, and an outdoor grill materialized, with a table of tortillas, lettuce, cheese, etc. After chowing down on two delectable tacos, I tracked down Matt and gave him props for kicking the art world in the teeth by staying true to the game, and still making relevant, marketable artwork. The bar was serving white wine and Coronas at a great price (read: free), so I chugged a few more dranks and took off. Check out honorfraser.com.

"This shit had better be good," I thought as I found the cryptically hidden entrance to the gallery. A layer of sweat had built up on my brow, and my patience had worn thin pacing the perimeter of the gallery trying to find the way to the intersting art and free booze. As I walked in to the gallery, the relief of the cool air enveloping my body quickly lifted my spirits. Only a small handful of people meandered about the high-ceilinged gallery. The walls were white, with multiple rooms spread out over the building. The bar with the loverly libations mentioned by Roberto was staffed by a nice guy, and a 30/40's-ish couple chatted nearby. The man happened to be the artist, and a helluva nice guy. No pretense, and answered my authentic yet uneducated enthusiasm for his work with honest answers. It was his first time in LA, and I immediately accosted him with questions on how it felt to at least come to the mecca of broken dreams.

His work was entertaining and lighthearted. His work draws from the spirit of rather ordinary objects, and personifies them into life. I especially enjoyed the VHS tapes and the daddy long leg spider family. Also interesting was his technique of affixing his pieces to the wall using fabricated band-aids.

Got to peep out the work with Roberto and his very cool mom. As one of the best looking/most intelligent people I know in LA, I had a hunch that Roberto came from solid roots. It's a Yay-Area thang.

The Trophy Lounge @ another year in LA

My Mom was in town visiting this past weekend, so I brought her with me out to the gallery another year in LA to see Charles Parker Boggs' opening, "THE TROPHY LOUNGE: 9 Channels of Charles Parker Boggs. Skye met us there, Kchan and Asami showed up later on. Had a bit of trouble finding the door at first. Got inside, stepped to the bar for a cup of wine, got into the main room, and my Mom had already engaged the artist and the curator in conversation. Lots of drawings and sculpture, and none of it was labeled, so we made a game of guessing which piece was which based on the lists of titles in the gallery handout. We found that trying to connect the pieces with the titles ("Hurt Dog," for example, was a sculpture of a bleeding hot dog with a band-aid wrapped around it), made us pay closer attention.

Talked to Charles Parker Boggs a little bit. Warm, easy-going guy, based in Kentucky.

Artists he pays attention to:
Marcel Duchamp, Mike Kelley, Tom Friedman

Pretty good for a first stop. Everyone there was friendly, and my Mom had a good time, which was the important thing.

Free Booze: Two-Buck Chuck (Shiraz), Pacifico

hey, let's art.

I’d like to make it out to more art openings, look at more…art…and meet more folks, so I’m making it a project to go to openings regularly, and write about them here.

This is not an original idea. I was inspired by these guys, who were, in turn, inspired by this guy.

I work nights, so I don’t go out during the week, and so I’m not going to attempt to rack up huge numbers of art openings this year. I’ll just try to hit at least one each weekend.

I don’t know anything about art. I’ve had no training. I took an art history class in high school, and have forgotten most of what I learned in it. I’ll use this project as an excuse to ask questions, and learn a little something.