Dennis Hollingsworth

Roger Herman, WoodCuts at Inmo Gallery

My cup runneth over.

I almost forgot to blog this show, a survey of Roger Herman's woodcuts.

Inmo gallery has been reconstituted in the heart of downtown LA, right in the hard heart of this city.

Inmo is a guy and a gallery that has had a first incarnation on Chung King Road in the early days of ChinaTown. Inmo is a strange and funny and strange guy... but I think finally, a good guy who is innovative in ways he is forced to be, a kind of artworld misfit and lucky for it. For example, he has a history of showing architect's work, something completely overlooked by everyone from LACE to LACMA to MOCA to the Getty (institutions here in LA who should be taking on this mantle). If people were freaking out over vandalized museums in Bagdad a couple of years ago in the Iraq invasion... well, there are mountains of historical treasure moldering in the drawers of architecture firms here in this city, retired and otherwise. This, the city of MOCA's Case Study Program. Inmo's next show will showcase Eric Owen Moss.

Inmo scored this building probably through some municipal effort to revitalize downtown LA. This place is very much the hard street, with soup kitchens and homeless centers, one must practice a studied cool while tuning up the cat-like wariness to the max. Inmo got what looks to be a former hotel first floor. I don't knwo what it was like when he got it, but it looks like he chainsawed and swept up and then hung up llighting and a sign.

It takes a Roger Herman to hang in this varigated environment. His work easily maches the vivisected vigor of the interior.

In a previous post, I made a claim of Roger's instrumental influence as a teacher at UCLA. Here is evidence. Across the street, is this storefront. Roger persuaded a famous collector to donate a talented printer and his equipment to the school, housed in this location. Nose to the glass, check it out.