Below are the 12 most recent journal entries recorded in mat's LiveJournal:

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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
3:27 pm	Dean Valentin Slams MOCA - w/ Update UPDATE: In case former MOCA-trustee and L.A. contemporary art uber-collector Dean Valentine is not your FaceBook friend, check out what he just posted on FB: "Dean Valentine believes MOCA should have more respect for the truth. Phony PR and fake fund-raising numbers are not the way to a healthy museum." When asked by his FaceBook friends for more details, Mr. Valentine responded: "Because when you scrape away all the PR bull, the operating budget--which is the only one that counts--still has an $8 to $10m hole that has to be refilled yearly." (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
1:52 am	New Coagula Issue featuring FINISHING SCHOOL Free! The New Issue of Coagula Art Journal is available right now at COAGULA.NET as a Free Downloadable PDF and is also for sale as a color glossy book from a PRINT ON DEMAND site. Issue #98 features a cover story interview with FINISHING SCHOOL, and artist's collective that takes activism and aesthetics to new territory... this time it is the food you eat that is being scrutinized and deconstructed. ALSO... commentary by publisher MAT GLEASON, Art Carer Advice by ALAN BAMBERGER, Prose by columnist GORDY GRUNDY, Poetry by GERALD LOCKLIN and cartoons by JIM CARON... PLUS a report card for recent Bergamot Station Art Exhibits. (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 11th, 2009
12:00 am	LOCALS ONLY The show I curated opens tonight. It was a lot of work but I am quite proud of it. HERE IS A CARD SCANNED The gallery is at the LA MART, it is LOOK GALLERY, free gated parking, 1933 South Broadway, just past Washington in Downtown.  OPening is 6-9 tonight. (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
11:37 pm	Culver City Artwalk Review We went to the Culver City Artwalk and I was saying yeah that was all so terrible but then I think back to individual shows and it is like, oh yeah, that was good ... oh yeah, that was great... but in the moment, the walking around, the talking to lots of people, the seeing a lot of "product" art that is not bad or offensive but is not good or memorable in any way... there is a burnout. At the core is the fact that it is pretty disrespectful and presumptuous to assume that an artwalk of this kind will deliver a memorable art experience to the viewer. The crowds are just too big and the art scattered among galleries of varying quality. So I hate to just dismiss the whole event with "It Sucked" so I guess I have to say there were good moments and some great pieces scattered about but ultimately it made me miss the ability to get intimate with an artwork and let it take over, comfortably and with no distractions. And that sucks. There is a group show at Koplin Del rio. That is the best thing I saw today. The theme is billboards as inescapable component of landscape. It was an awesome show. If you like Coop, his show at Corey Helford was overwhelming (in a good way). There were other moments out there in Culver City. I go mostly just because I know i will bump into people that I have not seen in a while. This was the case again. Long live Culver City, popular capital of the Los Angeles Art World. The photo is of COOP eating Thai Food in the office at the Corey Helford Gallery while three gallery employees ran around writing invoices for the sales of his work. Coop cleaned up at the Art Walk! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
12:51 am	Tightrope of tacky So what really makes the art world go around is the use of the absence of marketing as marketing. Every dealer is cooler than the next or the previous, all pretending to be oblivious o wanting (or most terribly, needing) a sale of an artwork. The discussion of the market, the rice, the dollars is considered to be so gauche. Funny how the echelons of art commerce epicenters are quite similar to academic departments that convince art students to make art that has no value as a sellable object. I wrote THIS ARTICLE about it (even thought they spelled my name wrong). Anyway, back to the art market... Those price lists, they are inflated. Because when someone is truly interested in the artwork and they are spending as much as one might on a  Mercedes, they are haggling with a ferocity usually reserved for the wrestling arenas of capitalism. I am curating a show with a lot of work for sale and a few pieces will be borrowed from collectors, not for sale, and yet... when I look at these artworks, they are pretty awesome, I can't help but think that everything has a price. Maybe when it is not for sale it is at its most attractive. Does one walk the tightrope of tacky in order to not appear to be doing exactly what one is doing? In a world with so many readily-replaceable art objects, apparently one does... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
1:45 am	MY TAKE: The Dalai Lama's 18 Rules For Living Someone posted this list on their livejournal and I REALLY read it and started to think... there is NO Way the Dalai Lama would say these things... Would he? Well, I had my say... 1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk. But we talk ourselves into superficial relationships and the illusion of accomplishment out of a fear of that risk kicking us in the ass. 2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson. That lesson being that an ass-kicking is not fun, so next time go straight for an attempt to gouge out your enemy's eyeballs. 3. Follow the three Rs: 1. Respect for self 2. Respect for others 3. Responsibility for all your actions. How the fuck did the Dalai Lama translate Tibetan into English and still maintain the consonant consistency? Was this even originally written in a phonetic alphabet? I'm not buying it. 4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. I too have found out that most hot chicks are high-maintenance. I wonder if the Dalai Lama and I internet dated from the same pool of L.A. actresses back in 99/00. 5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly. This definitely stopped sounding like the Dalai Lama a few numbers ago, but now it is sounding less and less like a Tibetan Buddhist. What is this, Mister Rogers for Anarchists? 6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship. Hallmark Cards goes to Tibet for Nine bitchen' words! 7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it. How many people really do this, though? When you lose a hundred bucks in Vegas, the smart thing to do is walk away from the table, but the Dalai Lama would push you back with this rule and say "Correct it. Bet $200." 8. Spend some time alone every day. Sure, that sounds like the Dalai Lama, but do you think this makes his Top 18? He takes it for granted that when he says "Get the fuck out of my room" that everyone else on Earth has the sense of mind to tell the nincompoops in their world to get the fuck out of their rooms... 9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values. Oops, i dropped my values, and seeing as they were hollow and fragile anyway, they have shattered completely, so in the midst of all this change, I am going to forge your signature on this power of attorney claim and siphon your bank account. The Dalai Lama didn't say anything about values that don't bounce back when they slip out of your hand... 10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer. Einstein said this and the Dalai Lama would probably say that chuckling like a spider monkey until everyone nods along is better than silence. 11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time. The Dalai Lama spells like a Brit? Next thing you will tell us is that he had an affair with Elizabeth II. 12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life. Sounds like the Dalai Lama gave Pat Robertson's failed 1980s presidential campaign a donation or two... 13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past. I always had trouble telling Dear Abby and Ann Landers apart... but this has got to be one of theirs, the Dalai Lama isn't going to talk about the weather with Hu Jintao. 14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality. This has self-impressed athiest Eurotard written all over it. 15. Be gentle with the earth. Oh crap, everyone is on the green bandwagon... let  me see, displace the native Tibetan population with a million Han Chinese, but throw in a solar panel on the roof at the Lhasa City Hall and we will call it even. 16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before. The Dalai Lama successfully used this line on Julia Roberts, Princess Di and a couple hundred other hotties over the years. 17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other. And who needs a quest for spiritual peace when codependency jargon fills the lecture halls. 18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it. I had to give up being executed by Maoist thugs in order to drink champagne with Madonna in her prime. If that does not just stink of success, what does, baby? (Comment on this)
Monday, May 4th, 2009
12:50 am	Joshua Tree We spent the weekend in Joshua Tree. I had never been there but I look forward to returning. I love the desert. We stayed at the Joshua Tree Inn in Room #8, which was where musician Gram Parsons died in 1973 at age 26. If his ghost is still there, he was quite well-behaved. So we are getting coffee Saturday morning and we bump into an artist from LA - a good friend. The artist and spouse are in town for a wedding. We gossip, lots of art gallery closings, plenty to gossip about. We took it easy and went to a BBQ for a friend's birthday, they rented a cool house on a dirt road and bough the Manny PacMan fight on pay preview. I was kind of freaked out because the Brit that Manny was fighting looked... well, he kinda looked like me. And in case you didn't hear, there was a second round knockout that brutal. And I was for PacMan but all of a sudden it looked - just a little - i t looked like me laid out on the ring, gasping for air, out cold. The party was a good time. I don't bet on the fights anymore, and it is much more enjoyable, as long as I am not the one getting beaten. We went to the Palm Springs museum on the way home. I have to confess that I have never been to this place and was quite impressed. They have a decent collection and had a good Wayne Thiebaud survey up. One thing they had ... they had Latin American art - Tamayo, Matta, etc. - with pre-Colombian pottery interspersed. At first it struck me as cool that they were avoiding the canon, but then I thought... well when they had the John Chamberlain Sculpture, why not have a european suit of armor form the 14th century? So I was ambivalent to the "ghetto" possibilities of this curation. And of course, we bump into another artist form LA and gab about the goings on... funny. The Palm Springs museum, though, was a LONG visit, it is full of art. Some of it may not be the pinnacle of avant garde, but when you have Frank Sinatra as one of your museum's benefactors, you can have some Western landscapes, some glass  sculptures and an array of cacti in your sculpture garden and let the art world know "I did it my way!" Deborah Butterfield Horse and a Louise Bourgeoise Spider at the Palm Springs Zoo, er... museum. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
2:09 am	ART REVIEW: Kent Twitchel @ LOOK Gallery Please visit this link, it is a video review of Kent Twitchell's recent solo show that I produced/Videographered. I made a video and mad it a review of a very cool show. ENJOY! LINK TO NEW ART TV video review of KENT TWITCHELL (Comment on this)
Monday, April 13th, 2009
12:10 am	Coagula Issue # 97 - Get it TODAY! AVAILABLE NOW as a FREE Download DOWNLOAD IT AT THIS LINK ... or ... PURCHASE THE GLOSSY COLOR BOOK ISSUE AT THIS LINK Coagula Issue #97 features an interview with artist Dan Graham on the occasion of his career retrospective BEYOND at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. Also featured in this issue: An interview with artist Sigrid Sandstrom A look at the Phoenix Art Scene with Amy Young of Perihelion Art A visit to the New York Armory with Sophia Louisa Lee. Gordy Grundy Poet Gerald Locklin Alan Bamberger Mat Gleason Cartoonist Jim Caron plus other surprises as well (Comment on this)
Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
1:53 am	Mark Dutcher solo show at Steve Turner Gallery This exhibit really inspired me to approach reviewing it in a new and different manner and now I have the urge to review every show in my newly-created method... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 19th, 2009
1:36 am	TOKYO! at NUART Wow, a few weeks ago, they sent me a screener to this film TOKYO!, three vignettes that allow the great city to star alongside visions amidst the urban pace. I don't discuss plot but the film delves into the psychology of being in a relationship that doesn't include you, delves into the dark demon of self-loathing pulsating in the postwar Japanese character and insists the country locked in its own domestic spaces come out and see the city. It is cerebral and sensual, creepy and courageous and is the most refreshingly unpredictable film in a long time. HERE IS THE PRESS AND INFORMATION (Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
10:25 pm	Artist Classified Absolutely spot-on Mock-Classified Ad about How Artists get used by companies: Capitalist Endeavor seeking Poor Artist to be Taken Advantage of   New Business that paid market rate for RENT, EQUIPMENT, PERMIT, MERCHANDISE, and HOURLY WORKERS is looking for a marginalized local artist to give us something for nothing.   If you jump through the numerous demoralizing and moronic hoops we set before you while being dramatically under compensated we will surely spread the word to our other parasitic merchant contemporaries that you are willing to be treated like a sucker. As an American artist you better get used to it.  (Comment on this)