AnD @ UFO

Last Thursday was the opening night of the second installment of the Dead Art Comes Alive exhibition. I went because I wanted to represent Mimi Leung, who couldn't be here. I also wanted to see what my guitars looked like in an art gallery.

So this was a pleasant surprise: It's obvious these people have impeccable taste.It was raining like a cow p*ssing on a flat rock, which no doubt had a deleterious effect on attendance at first.

But soon enough the place filled up.Free booze always brings thegweiloflocking.People seemed very interested in Mimi's work, and I got to talk about the guitars a lot, so I was happy. I had been asked by the gallery to write descriptions for the guitars, which I did. I felt silly, though, since all I really knew was what they were made of and what kind of paint was used. So I was surprised to see my descriptions used verbatim:I know the last one's unintelligible. Cope with it.I was also heavily medicated, which suffused the evening with a soothing inability to ascribe any more than 60% reality to everything around me.

Patrick was there, and Tanya Bennett came by as well.Her art is featured next week, and I am looking forward to seeing it up close.

My only real interest in 'art' is proceduralrather than aesthetic. I'm not interested in what art 'says' as much as I'm interested in how the artist did it.

My favorite painter is Normal Rockwell, and I suppose the photorealists. I cannot imagine how they have the ability (and patience) to reproduce reality in such detail.

So when I go to UFO, I am really looking at the way the art is accomplished. I bring my reading glasses and get right up on the stuff, looking at the detail and trying to figure out which colors went first, etc.

That's probably why I dislike minimalist art so much. A 6' square white canvas with a 6" blue squiggle on it that looks like an alien snot rocket in a seemingly arbitrary position is somehow supposed to represent the struggle of Guatemalan women, and if I can't see that, I'mthe idiot???

Luckily, all the art in this show is not like that at all. I'm very happy to say that all this art is interesting, engaging, and without pretension.

And thank God for that.Go seeDead Art Comes Alive . I promise you'll enjoy it.