Dennis Hollingsworth

Hotel California

Today, I'm delivering a painting to a show Dan Hug and Roger Dickes have put together at Glendale's Community College, "Hotel California":

THE GLENDALE COLLEGE ART GALLERY PRESENTS:
?HOTEL CALIFORNIA?
organized by Daniel Hug and Roger Dickes

?HOTEL CALIFORNIA?, the upcoming exhibition at The Glendale College Art Gallery, takes a casual snapshot of Los Angeles painting in the early millennium. The intention of this show, which consists of twenty-one small paintings under 24? x 36?, is to, with a relaxed hand, strike a chord that sounds like painting in this city.

The selection of artists and works in the show is diverse enough whereby one would see what might be similar or dissimilar, harmonious or dissonant, within the range of material presented. Otherwise, ?HOTEL CALIFORNIA? celebrates the bringing together of an impressive array of artists, satisfying the curiosity of the organizers with regard to how such a show might look.

The list of participating artists is as follows: Alicia Beach, Linda Besemer, Amy Bessone, Kristin Calabrese, Ingrid Calame, Lecia Dole-Recio, Mari Eastman, Anoka Faruqee, Kim Fisher, Will Fowler, Monique Van Genderen, Violet Hopkins, Dennis Hollingsworth, Karen Lofgren, Jodie Mohr, Rebecca Morris, JP Munro, Monique Prieto, Laura Owens, and Mary Weatherford.

?HOTEL CALIFORNIA? is the fourth exhibition of the 2005-2006 season for the Glendale College Art Gallery. The show is on view from February 4th ? March 18th, 2006 and a reception for the artists will be held on Saturday, February 4th, from 4-7 pm.

Eagle's lyrics play in my head and Ed Ruscha's spirit hovers aloft... and Ed's not dead yet. It's as if the 60's and the 70's were invoked with an imaginary line summoned to draw a connection thru the nineties and into this first decade of our vaunted 21st century. The second paragraph is a crack up. It might also read: "We're throwing an intutited selection of small art works up on the wall to see what sticks enough to call it Californian." Fair enough... honorable and honest, even. At least there is a sense of exploration and discovery instead of some didactic statement wagging a curatorial finger in our face. Although, I would like to ask Dan and Roger if there isn't a second intention with the show. I mean, seventeen women and three men? (I wonder what a painter's census in California might reveal? I don't mean to count, but somebody probably did somewhere along the lline. Or is there really gender weight in the story of painting here in SoCal?) Not that there is anything wrong with that. I'm just sayin'.

No doubt, there were many versions of the curatorial intent as the show developed, vestigal, floating in the airbrushed-spattered ether behind the big Eddie R. An attempt to grapple with the identity of California is a tough task, there are so many facets that can leave us dazzled to blindness. Trying to compose a comprehensive (wagging?) statement would overwhelm any curator: California north and south; California through the decades (including the 80's, which I wonder if that one is represented here); California-the-Dark as in "Day of the Locust" or "Ask the Dust" and Schimmel's famous "Helter Skelter"; California's gestation of media/film culture; California-the-Light as in "Finish Fetish"; California hispa?ola as in the deep Latino legacy; California and Asia; California of the expats, immigrants and refugees; California's hippy history and the rich prehistory of utopian metaphysical nirvana seeking movements... Such a show would take several museums up and down the state and several years to pull off.

Hey! That's not a bad idea!