I’ve been laying low since #class ended, but perhaps too low. I should’ve mentioned that I have new works in a group show Mirror, Mirror at Postmasters Gallery curated by Magda Sawon. The show is up through May 8th and features a new large-scale mixed media work called Cosmology #1 where I organized my personal art world ‘angels and demons’ around D&D character alignments; chaotic neutral, lawful good, chaotic evil…I know, it’s absurd but it seemed appropriate. If that’s not enough to draw you in Yevgeny Fiks and Kate Gilmore have stand out pieces in a great show. Check out the ARTslant review here.

I’ve also literally been reading up on Black Magic having just finished A.E. Waite’s “The Book of Black Magic” detailing many talismans, seals, sigils, and powers of various demons. While it might appear incongruous with my practice there are some interesting parallels about the power of invoking specific names that I feel is worth exploring. Anyway, I’m not practicing Satanic rituals (I’d have to kill one or two of the cats that live in my studio building and I don’t like what that suggests, although there are seven of them running amok), but I am working on a composite system of my own. Some of these are for my publishing residency at the Lower East Side Printshop, as well as for a show I am co-curating with Eric Trosko at Platform Gallery in Seattle that will be opening July 1st (tentatively). We may try and summon a demon to revive the ritualistic first Thursdays and compel the Mentats out there to buy art, although not even Lucifuge Rocofale may be able to compel the Microsoft drones to embrace their humanity. If you do happen to make art that aspires to be magic, not so much about magic, but that actually involves making something happen send me an email or leave a comment. I’d love to check it out.

Reading Paddy Johnson’s post “This Week in Comments Part Two: Powhida!” and the accompanying comments made me realize why Jade Townsend and I made the drawing the first place. The art world is a big ‘catastrofuc’k to borrow a term from a Miami NewTimes writer. Apparently, the dude doesn’t have a problem with a drawing that depicts the art world’s yearly descent on Miami or share the insular criticisms of the insular art world. Most of the criticism of the drawing reflects right back on the authors who are players in this game. Really, that’s one of the points of the drawing. If you engage in the commercial market, you are not an outsider. Neither Jade, wait remember there was another dude who contributed to the drawing over six months, nor I are outsiders. We don’t claim to be and have never claimed to be, but every time people ignore Jade, you make him feel like one! As far as employing a persona for this drawing, I didn’t and I make a couple of different bodies of work. This can be confusing to people, especially Paddy. In some drawings, I employ a satirical voice like in “Why You Should Buy Art.” In other paintings like the LA Weekly painting at Pulse I make work about a fictional version of “William Powhida”. Why? Because Eli Broad isn’t going to buy me and put in BCAM so I can meltdown Jeff Koons’ balloon dog. I get to write fictional satire of the art world. Then, sometimes, I make things like “Hooverville” or work with other people on art projects like #class. The outcome of this varied way of working is that you have to pay attention to what kind of art you are looking at. This might be an unreasonable request, but I don’t really care about making people feel comfortable. Fuck you! So, Howard Halle says “The art world is in need of deep reform and has been for a long time. it would be nice of artists really addressed that, mainly I think, by working for themselves first. I don’t see that happening in Powhida’s work.” I do work for myself, Howard, and I’m trying to exploit my betters’ wealth, power, and fame, and this is the hard part, to call attention to the GIANT, GLARING class disparity in the art world. The Hooverville drawing isn’t for Howard Halle who calls for reform, but I bet the dude doesn’t have five practical reforms to offer. (Howard you can prove me wrong and leave them as comments here) The drawing isn’t just about navel gazing at the art world, but to point out that it’s run buy a plutocracy, and there is giant excess supply of labor ie., artists, who are routinely fucked by the system and too terrified to do anything about it because t_hey are made to feel like they are replaceable._ The imbalance of power is repulsive. Putting aside that Jade and I went specific to grab people’s attention, the drawing is a satirical representation of our shared experiences going down to Miami and seeing the fucked up hierarchy of the art world reflected through all its’ participants, Paddy included. Jade and I weren’t comprehensive by any stretch. The drawing is a semi-autobiographical portrait based on our experiences and limited knowledge of the art world. We threw in artists we love and want to support and people we can’t stand. Paddy’s in there because she is a comedian, and resists easy judgments of people like strippers. We love strippers. The Brainstormers, Kevin Regan, Andrew Hurst, David Petersen, Daniel Hesidence, Doug McQueen, Navin Norling, and many others are in the drawing because they represent artists we know in the hierarchy of the art world. For sure we make fun of the wealthy, the famous, and the powerful. They are part of a star system that is chewing on my fucking leg right now, bleeding out what little integrity I have left, but I’m not rich and celebrity isn’t power. If you envy this, I’ll trade it right now for some money. You can have it. When I was in Miami in December fretting over the Times article that had just come out, Paddy and Hrag demanded I come out and enjoy it. They, and you, probably think that I am being disingenuous when I say the attention is troubling to me, but I’m not. The best thing about the Times article was that it wasn’t some vanity profile in Vanity magazine. It got into the contradictions of ‘pissing on my betters’ to call attention that we labor in a star system that will not benefit most of us, certainly not the scores of art students spat out of the ponzi scheme of academia. No, you are probably not going to make much money or even land a decent job in a cultural center (aka city) even if you get an MFA. Howard Halle is right on that score and any sense of entitlement young artists have should be wiped out immediately. As for the drawing being topical or mattering in ten years, I hope that like Ad Reinhardt’s (thanks for the spell check asshole) cartoons from the 1950’s they will shed light on the conditions of being an artist in the pre and post-boom, late-capitalist, personality driven star system that drives the art world. I’ve been doing this since 2005. Take a look at my website. Before that I made personal narratives that were only as interesting as my own life. I can’t imagine that MOST of the shit produced in the last decade will matter in ten or twenty years. I hope that the deer antlers, disco balls, glitter n’ glue, and neo-neo expressionist paintings gets crushed in the trash compactor of history. I know it will, and likely so will much of my art, but I think that any value it has is more about the sociology and culture of the art world than whether than I can draw well enough for you. I’m sorry I don’t have another practice where I make big-assed paintings or delve into the spiritual aspects of life, but that’s because I’m an atheist and believe in that crap we call science. I’m not here to make paintings that make you feel better about your existence on earth. Go to church. I’ll end with one last Howard Halle quote, “Working through an idea that maybe nobody understands except you, until they do understand it.” I’m pretty sure that Howard doesn’t understand the work, not just this drawing, that I’ve been in engaged in. I know Paddy doesn’t it. She’s always asking questions, not providing any attempts at analysis. That’s the problem with being a genius, no one understands me except me, and maybe Jade and Jen sometimes, but they usually just think I’m fucking crazy. Awesome. Howard, by your definition, I’m on the right track working for myself. Now, here’s a big assed version of Hooverville (click on it and prepare to scroll) where you can go look for yourself and friends. Just don’t miss the fact that you are pretty much fucked one way or another whether you’re in this drawing or not. That’s the system you have chosen to be participate in like me and Jade. Remember his name, nobody has a fucking clue what he does! That’s a sign of real genius. Have a pleasant evening.

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.