Dennis Hollingsworth

THREE PAINTINGS

I got to the opening early. This, the first shot where Dan Hug has applied the finishing touches to the table of plenty.

I have described Roger as the pirate of ChinaTown, and I think it fits. He's a rascal, a perpetrator, someone to deal with, an active agent... all of the positve attributes that modernity has tamed the word 'pirate' into. More to the point, Roger is an independant agent as an artist in Los Angeles. He's kind of outside of the system at the same time he is deeply inside the artworld in this city.

He has long been a teacher at UCLA, an active shaper of the program. He has shown at ACE Gallery and has managed to emerge mutually victorious from an collaborative encounter with the monumental Doug Chrismas, a feat formidable in itself. Direct, aggressive, fearless. People have called me the godfather of ChinaTown (shucks), but that label can go to others, Joel Mesler immediately comes to mind, so does Hubert and Roger as well.

I have heard a lot about Hubert's work over the years, but I had litttle chance to see much of it, so I was glad to see this show. I hear that Hubert is a superstar in Austria. He splits his time between his place there and his place in LA. Looking at his catalogues, I can see the legend of postmodern bondage that I've heard about so much. Later, I came across a local weekly newspaper with the subject of Shibari on the cover... I guess there is an idea in the air. I haven't talked to Hubert about this yet. I hope to soon. Keep posted.

Bart has been gearing up for this triad of a show, the kind of event one's loins naturally girds up with. I mean, when one is about to hang with pirates and godfathers, you've got to get your act together somehow.

And he did. Bart looked good in the room, his fan belt forms spinning and flipping within the frame and between the two other frames in the room.

The guys backslap before the crowds come in, the best time to be there.