sitting here in the andi campognone booth at the red dot fair... happy with the work i've got here though no sales as yet... thats cool. the reception last night was a good time although they managed to run out of beer and we were left with a choice of brandy or straight gin... indeed. fortunately the artist james austin murray went for beers and the party continued...

afterwards stopped by gary snyder project space for the john griefen show... griefen is one of the truely heroic painters at work in nyc today. his monochromes have a meaty, physical feel thats at once lyrical and wholly masculine. a formidable colorist, he moves between high octane and soft smoky tonalities with ease...

right now a few people are cruising the red dot... slow scene. earlier in the day i did the armory with the lovely erica, andi's assistant, and was amused to note how utterly (and predictably) bogus the contemporary art was... no real point in going into it, but yeah... the modern wing was truely inspirational-- particularly some great work by sam francis and norman blum-- but the best that could be said of the contemporary wing was that there was champagne to be had for $16 a shot...