Day: October 12, 2012

Recommended: Interview with Mike Cockrill in Whitehot magazine. Saw Cockrill's work at Kim Foster years ago and thought the subject matter was brave in a Balthus-like way that we weren't seeing in the then-hot Yalies who were flirting with sexual subject matter. Didn't know the collaborative work he did with Judge Hughes in the '80s -- the reproduction in the interview shines, with glints of Peter Saul and John Wesley. Seen as jpegs, Cockrill's newest work in the studio ventures into the terrain of George Condo's East Village Cubism but possibly bests what Condo's doing now for sheer straight-into-the-Id commitment.

While you're at Whitehot, be sure to gawk at the people photos from Richard Phillips' Gagosian opening. If you are an artist not living in New York, the eerie combination of glamour and extreme social awkwardness might give you serious pause about ever wanting to move here. Haven't seen the paintings yet but they don't look good. Am doing a bit of a mea culpa for writing about Phillips in the mid-'90s - in self defense his work didn't have the polish it has now: he had just started copying the dated fashion photos and the slight clumsiness read as a critique rather than a path to standing next to Sasha Grey.