The absolute stand-out work at the L.A. Art Show was Desire Obtain Cherish's Designer Pill Packs at The McLoughlin Gallery. Spot-on brutal commentary on the business of art, Designer Pill Packs state baldly that neither art nor consumer goods are a panacea for shallow weltschmerz or consumptive malaise. DOC's barbed doses for frenzied possession could have been a hard sell, especially for those more inclined to the diamond-dusted prints of Hirst and Fairey. (Warhol did diamond dust prints in 1980, most notably returning to his roots as a commercial artist with his Shoes series, one of which will be at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas for Warhol Out West which opens February 8, 2013.)
Side note: Prada packages their skincare line in tiny individual-use packages, each ampoule or tube sealed in plastic.
But DOC, so brutal and fierce and in your face, pretty much the pissoir of the whole show, was popular both with viewers and consumers, uh, collectors. Look for his solo show opening March 25 at KM Fine Arts.
And to flow over to Duchamp, Stoney Road Press from Dublin, Ireland was exhibiting a very unique piece in their beautiful selection of fine art editions: The last portrait of Marcel Duchamp by Irish-born sculptor/conceptual artist, novelist and critic Brian O'Doherty (aka Patrick Ireland).
In 1966, Brian O'Doherty created the last portrait of his friend and influencer Marcel Ducham.
In April 1966 conceptual artist and arts journalist Brian O'Doherty, who received his medical degree form Trinty College and Cambridge University before shifting careers, invited Marcel Duchamp to dinner in his apartment in New York. O'Doherty offered to make a "portrait" of his friend, and then surprised Duchamp by hooking him up to an EKG machine and recording a cardiographic tracing of his heart, a portrait which deliniated his actual heart.
Desire Obtain Cherish's images of dead celebrities are quite a bit different than O'Doherty's last of the living Duchamp: A mosaic portrait of Amy Winehouse is created from 850 individually wrapped crack pipes for Amy Fuck No, while the same technique with 6,500 pill capsules is employed for Marilyn, Unveiled and Basquait Punched, the latter references Michael Halsband's photo series for the Basquiat-Warhol collaboration, as well as the effects of the duo's collaboration.
Desire. Obtain. Cherish. Yup.
For more of CARTWHEEL's coverage of the L.A. Art Show, please visit CARTWHEELart.com.