Dennis Hollingsworth

Progress Report

I'm delighted to be included in the honor-roll of Progress Report, a sister site to KCLOG, one of the few good art scene type local art gallery report blogs (to mention two from my list: Two Coats of Paint and Contemporary Art Daily, -the latter mention merits a hat tip to Bart Exposito, who cued me in on it recently).

Here is the background information blurb from Progress Report:

Progress Report is an visually-driven project founded by Kris Chatterson & Vince Contarino. It is dedicated to artist features, studio visits and is intended as a general curatorial resource for ourselves and others.

Progress Report aims to allow the categories of art-making to fall by the wayside by presenting a glimpse of the creative process that offer various perspectives with open-ended possibilities from the working artist?s point of view.

Artists live or die on the quantity and quality of public acclaim, and while I must admit that I have enjoyed only a relative few sips as yet from this fountain, the measure of the best quality-public-acclaim is from the grass roots upwards. To get a thumbs up from young artists is refreshing indeed and it merits a hearty shout out to this encouraging kind of infield chatter.

No, art's not fair at all, mainly because we all have to narrow down our choices on one thing or another on a daily if not an hourly basis. Top ten lists, best of lists, survey shows, round up books of contemporary art (especially painting) --we all have to choose who to include and not include within frames whose reality is limitation itself, whose imperative structures our contemporary art world in all it's facets. To make the list, even but especially so in a hand made, grass roots one like Progress Report, while this is not exactly tantamount to a dream come true... it is instead a dream come truer, very much so indeed.

Progress Report ( Kris Chatterson & Vince Contarino), Thanks ever so much!

Ahora

グループ 展

It's As If

We looked for the stars beside the sun, so we blocked it out with our hand.

And we found stars. Constellations. Nebulas. Galaxies. Other worlds.

And it was good. The world is bigger, better now that we know this.

But we forgot that the sun was there, even why it was there. Along the way, some of us became unaware that our hands are held aloft.

Others mumbled, then cried: "Fucking Sun! if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have to hold our hands up to see the sky! You g-ddamm selfish asshole! You keep the sky for yourself! You hoard all the glory! DAMN YOU TO HELL!"

Gratitude

(Imagine here pictures of the beaming faces of my friends here in Chinatown Los Angeles: full color, full frame, extensively Photoshopped, in series, their names I proudly plaster below guapo mugs.

Since this would mortify them, I satisfy myself with a word picture.)

The first thing that must be said of my recent studio move: If it weren't for the spontaneous generosity of my friends here in Los Angeles, this move would have been brutal.

Brutal.

Damaged flesh and a sharp reminder of one's mortality. Brutal.

But there they were, my friends here in this community, ready with trucks and time, happy all the while, cracking jokes as they hauled my heavy and ungainly stuff. The move is only a block away. But a little more room, a little less rent, a little more privacy, a new context with which to see the work differently, plus the promise of an insanely bangin' community cheek by jowl

The second thing is to report (as a duty to whatever historical record function this blog might have) is that my good friend, Henry Taylor, changed his mind about moving in next door. A sad day that was. But one has to respect the autonomy of one's friends, always. So the promise thus dimmed to the prospect of a bangin' community cheek by jowl... Well. Not so bad after all.

Enough said about that.

In a previous post about this subject, I estimated three days to make the move. Try three weeks: one to schlep the stuff, another to sort and arrange it all, another to reorient to the work.

Is it just me or don't we all tend to underestimate things as we sketch out the future? One thing is for sure: don't underestimate the depths of affection and regrd of our fraternal well.

New Studio

Here, two tardy Ahora posts in one. In this foto: Javier Tapia (left) and Adam Janes dropped by to say hello. Javier just arrived from Copenhagen to make a short film about ChinaTown history and prep his show at WPA that will open this February. Adam is back from New York and his installation at Cueto Projects.

The move-in to the new studio was tough, but it would have been utterly miserable without the generous help from my friends here.

Here's a shot in the beginning of last week. Stuff, piles, sorting. It took a while to climb out of it. Next week will have me back in the saddle.

Now, if I can only get my internet back up again...