This was posted from Walter Robinson’s Facebook account on a thread about the Hooverville drawing by Jerry Saltz. Satire? Reality? Who fucking knows, but this is the editor of Artnet.com. If there’s a magazine, I’ve never seen it. And, when I used to write for Artnet.com, I was basically asked to describe what things looked like and how much they cost. It’s one of the reasons criticism is so fucking boring these days. At least Ben Davis is writing interesting things at Artnet. Anyway, this hilarious!

Walter Robinson I can’t believe all you people like that fucken Powhida. I hate him and am going to kill him when I see him for that caricature of me, if only I knew what the little dweeb looks like. It’s ARTNET MAGAZINE editor, you dweeb, not Artnet.com editor. Stupid twerp. He tried to write for me once or twice but he’s so fucken nondescript I wouldn’t recognize him in one of his own stupid drawings. And he couldn’t write worth shit. Never gave me any of his fucken caricatures, either, the drip.

I’ve totally neglected my blog this month, since I started working on #class with Jennifer Dalton at Winkleman Gallery. The experiment has been all-consuming turning my Monday and Tuesday evenings into my ‘weekend’. Actually, that’s not even true. Until Sunday afternoon, Jade Townsend and I have been spending every free hour finishing our collaboration, ABMB Hooverville, which will be exhibited at Pulse New York with Charlie James Gallery. We started the 44" x 66" drawing back in October (I think) and finally finished our ‘proposal’ for a public art project in Miami. I’m looking forward to seeing the drawing framed outside of my studio, which has sunk to new lows of disrepair.

I’d be thrilled if things were going to lighten up in the coming month, but I’m still working on my Lower East Side Printshop publishing residency, desperately trying to complete my Brooklyn Rail drawings (not happening this month unfortunately), and have been asked to contribute work to a portrait show, Mirror, Mirror at Postmasters Gallery for April. If it sounds like I’m bitching about having too much to do, it’s not because I am ungrateful. I’m just overwhelmed by the amount of work in front of me. Between work and art, I’m finding it exceedingly difficult to fulfill obligations and take on new opportunities. Tough shit, right? Right.

Tomorrow, my drawing “Why You Should Buy Art” is being released by 20x200 and will be part of Jen Bekman’s unique approach to art fair week in New York. The amount of social obligations this week is starting to terrify me. As it all piles up around me, @zipthwung recently reminded me to prepare for a mini-tsunami of “Powhida” backlash as the I’ve probably reached a saturation point that becomes annoying. I hope not, because #class has been a fantastic experience so far, and I’ve been able to leverage some of the attention I’ve been getting to facilitate discussion, connections, exposure, and opportunities for artists, collectors, curators, dealers, art enthusiasts, and the public. The project just picked up an Artforum.com critic’s pick and has received a great deal of curious and sometimes enthusiastic press coverage. @Zacharycohen recently compiled all the press on his blog.

I’m excited for the events coming up this week including elcelso’s art shred Wednesday at 2pm and an impromptu “T-Bill Gaming” event where Tom Sanford and I will take action of the Phillips de Pury auction Saturday at noon. It promises to be a fun afternoon even if my drawing can’t (possibly) beat it’s ridiculous high estimate.

Hopefully, I can spend some time this week during the #class to reflect on everything that’s been going on there.

I’m participating in Art Table’s panel discussion BLOG THIS! at X Initiative tomorrow night, representing artists who blog. I’ve never been a prolific blogger, and I’m probably averaging about two blog posts per month. Recently, most of my efforts have gone into #class project with with artist Jennifer Dalton and our collaborative blog for the show. As the panel approached this week, I felt compelled to update this thing and I probably should.

So what’s been going on?

Jerry Saltz tagged me 2nd in his Best Art of 2009 in New York Magazine coming in behind Velazquez and ahead of late Picasso. Say it. “Picasso, Powhida, Velazquez.” It’s one thing to write “Picasso, Pollock, Powhida” in one of my drawings and something else entirely to see something similar written by Jerry Saltz. Jerry broke his silence on my NuMu drawing in rather spectacular fashion, and someone pointed out to me that he’s willing to broker my participation in the L’Affaire Joannou. I think I will be well represented, read on.

Ben Davis also implicated me in his Best of 2009 list on Artnet by saying that the best thing to come out of the New Museum affair was the profile boost it gave my work.

Stephen Kaplan shocked me senseless with his sharp and insightful take on my work, I mean it’s Steve Kaplan. His reputation precedes him.

Edward Winkleman, who now generally holds the opposite opinion from me on just about everything, offered Jen Dalton and I a chance to do something about the art market to possibly answer Damien Cave’s questions in the New York Times piece. Amazingly, the Wall Street Journal was interested and interviewed us for an article on our show #class.

I’ve also started working in earnest on my residency for the Lower East Side Printshop. I am working on a large silkscreen version of “Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell” and am starting a series of etchings. I’m all also finishing up a new drawing for the Brooklyn Rail, which will be the beginning of a monthly series for the Artseen section. While the drawings are my own, they are also coming out of discussions with the Rail art editors, John Yau, Thomas Micchelli, Ben La Rocco, and Claudia La Rocco. Ideally, at the end of the year we will be-releasing a book of all the collected drawings. My co-conspirators also suggested the idea of doing a limited edition of 666 “Howdy Koonsy” t-shirts that we will encourage people to wear to the Joannou/Koons opening. Tom Micchelli said the image called to mind “Rosemary’s Baby.” I take that as a compliment.

Jade Townsend and I are working on the “ABMB Hooverville” drawing, a small snippet was shown in the NYTimes article, that we hope to exhibit during Armory. The drawing is 60" x 40" and only a detail was presented in the paper. It’s far more ridiculous than you’re probably thinking.

Finally, Jen Dalton and I are working daily on making #class happen, and we really welcome you’re ideas whether you just plan to come in and hang out or do something fucking bizarre. We want both/and. Please email us at hashtagclass@gmail.com or post your thoughts on the blog.

Jennifer Dalton and I will be organizing a sort of think-tank at Edward Winkleman gallery in late February to explore the often uncomfortable class differences in the art world as well as the intangibles that keep us making art despite minor commercial success. It’s part of broader question about the structural excess of labor in the art market, and why artists still persist to make art despite a star system based on branding and reputation. Why are there so many of us hopelessly competing for a limited number of spots in the market? Do we hope to win the lotto? Do we have to wear blinders and ignore the statistics that coldly tell us to stop and get a job?

This is just one of the questions I have about a market selling luxury items to the wealthy for absurd amounts of money based on minor differences in talent or conception. There are many, many questions and my problem is not the art world’s problem, just one of them.

Please help us undermine our own efforts, deny commercial success/self-promotion, and roll the dice with our new project #class. It’s not an exhibition, group show, or performance. It’s just a think/work/market space that bends rules and breaks others in an effort to say ‘this is not that’ to borrow Jen’s inner thoughts about our collaborative platform.

Submission guidelines (more like suggestions), our project proposal, and comments are being hosted at hashtagclass.blogspot.com and email your thoughts about this project to hashtagclass@gmail.com