Thursday, October 23, 2008

Matt Leines at Desert Island comics PLUG!!!

540 Metropolitan Ave Brooklyn NY 11211 718.388.5087 www.desertislandbrooklyn.com
You Are Forgiven by Matt Leines
Book Release and Signing
Friday, October 24th, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
Desert Island, 540 Metropolitan Avenue,
Brooklyn
You Are Forgiven, the first monograph by
renowned artist Matt Leines, is a lavish
hardcover book featuring more than 100
color illustrations and including an
introduction by art legend Gary Panter and
an essay by Taylor McKimens. A limited
edition silkscreen print will also be released
at the event. Leines will be signing both the
book and print.
You Are Forgiven provides a vivid retrospective of the past several years of Leines’ detailobsessed
and process-driven work. Through his graphic and illustrative techniques, Leines
blends imagery from his suburban American youth with iconographic visual traditions from
far-flung civilizations and traditions, creating a highly original, modern psychedelic stew. You
Are Forgiven offers an in-depth look into the world of Matt Leines, beautifully assembling his
diverse and intricate body of work into a lavish hardcover book.
“… Matt is mapping the collective art of a none-existent tribe in a no-mans-land far away. Exotic and
invincible. A magnanimous people, yet possessed of a fierce and independent spirit, forged and
tempered by age after age of adversity or calm, calamity and advantage. Centuries of plenty and eons
of famine – everlasting warfare and subterfuge. Maybe he will tell us everything about these nations
and maybe not. Yet, we can learn much about them by observing the artifacts produced by so great
and tenacious peoples.”
Gary Panter
“… Matt is relentlessly inventing extraordinary characters and the scenarios that envelop them. The
imagery has the strangely familiar look of medieval or archaic artwork. But as much as it appears to
have been unearthed in some archeological dig in the ruins of an ancient lost civilization wrought with
mysterious powers and gods, very little of it is directly referencing any specific historical artworks or
imagery. The intricate line work and patterning lends a timeless quality which is then shaken up by a
clash with subject matter that seems to reference multiple times and dimensions.”
Taylor McKimens
PUBLISHED BY: Free News Projects
FORMAT: Hardback, 9.5 x 10.925 in. / 144 pgs / 125 color.
ISBN: 978-0977652358 PUBLICATION DATE: 10/15/2008 PRICE: $45.00

Saturday, October 18, 2008

when bad is GOOD?...cinema

you know when you watch a movie and it's SOOOO BAD that's funny and then kind of entertaining. Well i'm watching a film on the Sci Fi channel (that ought to tell you something right there!) called Pterodactl. But more on this in a moment for i must digress for a bit. Bad movies are often the norm, and for one reason or another we graviatate to some of them. most often they're sequels of decent films, and i have my own bad films that i love...

1-the Omen 2. teenage damian!!...what more could you ask for? when i saw this in the movies (yes i'm THAT old) i was very dissapointed as i thought the Omen was awesome (yes i saw that film when it came out too, and YES i'm really THAT old). i mean you can see every character getting offed from a mile away so there's no shock to any of it. but after many viewings on t.v. i love this film, and will watch any part of it if it's on t.v. BUT then there's the omen 3!! and now we enter into a realm of luridly delecious and completely HORRENDOUS film making! staring the youngish Sam Neill (of Jurasic Park fame) as a grown up Damian. THIS MOVIE SUCKS SO MUCH, and is SO OFFENSIVE that again, it's quite good because like badly dubbed Shaw Bros Kung Fu flix, it's FUNNY. 1 word...the way Damian whines to a wooden jesus on a cross and calls him (that word) Nazzerine! Bad. VERY BAD. and ooooooh so funny.

2-The Substitute (only the bad sequels starring a hard up Treat Williams...#'s 2-4?). I love these films. He plays a smug ex vietnam (how original!!!) vet killer as a substitute high-school teacher, giving in school and after school wupass to unruly school bullies.

**there are toooooo many bad films that i like, so i'll just stop here.

but then there's Pterodactl. i'm not sure if anybody should see this movie. premiss: scientists (no known actors...and none with any talent) and their students discover Pterodactls on some island somewhere. ok, bad enough, but it gets better, i mean worse. the big name in this movie?: Coolio.
he's a bad ass (right?) soldier hunting down a Turkish terrorist (or something like that). But the soldiers he's with are assholes. um, something like that. and then there's a cute blond bimbo, a nerdy science geek or 3, and pathetic soldiers, and the ABSOLUTE WORST CGI stuff i've ever seen. Pterodactls thankfully kill most of the actors!!!! coolio dies in a blaze of glory, and the only 2 cool characters survive. lots of horrible acting. lots of horrible special effects. and the story ends with the hero kissing his girlfriend...and then pan to a whole new clutch of eggs and a big T Rex or something. THE END.

i watched this whole piece shit, just to confirm it's consistency of excremental greatness...and it was as i hoped. shitty to the end.
you could write a book about bad film making with this movie as the prototype for all time. study frame by frame, and there you have it! the blueprint for BAD film making. Thank you Sci Fi channel. thank you!!!!!!! *this was a made for tv movie. so i'm not sure if it deserves as much mention as i've given it?

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

italian masters and beyond

a great big THANKS to all the artists, collectors, friends and family who helped make the opening last friday night such a fun evening! First-timers Ben Katchor, Chris Claremont, Gina Gagliano (first second books), Martina & Frank from MF Gallery!, Danijel Zezelj, and everyone else who's names i can't recall.

biggest thanks to Claudio from Napoli comicon. he's my buddy, and he really helped hook this show up! to his lovely girlfriend Gisele ...we had a fine meal together!

so, i was pretty preoccupied during the week leading up to the show, and of course quite exhausted after the show ended.

new stuff to report like my fun visit to the offices of First Second books and yes....talks are in motion towards a cool group show featuring many of their author artists!! Big cheers to Gina and Calista!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

poker on the brain

walkin down bridge st. on route to my gallery and i bump in to pro poker player Billy Gazes. i recognized him from his appearances on the world series poker tour.
very nice guy, he chatted and came by to check out the art in the gallery.