ART TODAY 030218 Another bold drawing from Rob Sussman – The Inadvertent self portrait, No Más
The landscape out the window is composed of buildings in Mexico — in Coyoacán and Guanajuato — where I spent a lot of time a few years ago. I love it down there. Feels more like home than here. The title’s a reference to the guy’s gesture, but could easily apply to any number of terminated habits, two of which are seen here.
ART TODAY 030118 The variations of Rob Sussman’s world, exemplified in his deck of playing cards, “to mimic the heterogeneity of the Village Gate”
Clockwise from upper left: Emma Goldman, Nina Simone, Walt Whitman, card back, James Baldwin, Marcel Duchamp, Angela Davis, card back, Henry Geldzehler, Margaret Cho. The deck was inspired by famed Greenwich Village jazz and comedy club the Village Gate. Over the course of its 35 year history, the 3-story club hosted everyone from Nina Simone to Noam Chomsky, Richard Pryor to the Velvet Underground.
ART TODAY 022818 En Route to Père Lachaise – the extraordinary illustrative mastery of Rob Sussman
En Route to Père Lachaise – Interminable pointillist odyssey. I’d returned to LA from three weeks in Asia where, in the ancient city of Luoyang, capital of numerous Chinese dynasties, I had a kind of existential meltdown/breakthrough. All sorts of arbitrary habits and assumptions were thrown into high relief. I was drunk and felt like I was facing death. What Saul Bellow described as the dark backing of a mirror.
ART TODAY 022718 Ave E by Rob Sussman – A stippled and unrequited mating dance
Drawn in the dead of summer for the daughter of a friend I was courting — unsuccessfully — this was an attempt at being a peacock for her mom. A stippled and unrequited mating dance.
ART TODAY 022618 All Gates Open inspired by a David Lynch talk on ‘where great ideas from’ – Acrostic Interview starts today
Though named after a song by Can, I drew this upon hearing David Lynch talk about where great ideas come from. “Trillions and zillions of ideas,” he said, “and they’re all there, waiting to be caught.” I wanted to communicate that sense of abundance — a kind of blossoming, voluptuous life force. Fertility run amok.
FRIEZE Los Angeles, Paramount Pictures
