Berlin - metr gay Bear Verison

Check out the Cameo!

Walk On Outta My Mind

I did a little more work on this painting and it's finally done. The splatters on the tile spell out this song title.

Kanye West - Flashing Lights

This is so sexy and Ill, definately check out the ending

Olafur Eliasson at MoMA

This is such a cool show, smart and enjoyable on so many levels. Even bored teenagers are laughing and excited with these works. There are all kinds of massive ideas brought up by this work. Distinctions between inside and outside, manmade replicas of natural phenomena like a rainbow, waterfalls traveling upward. And the giant round tilted rotating mirror that seems to mesmerize every visitor to PS1. This is one of the few art shows that I would really recommend to absolutely anyone. It's at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhatten and PS1 in queens. Don't forget to see both parts!

Happy Hour

I was on my way to the gym around 4 and i stopped into Rivington Arms where I ran into Stephen and George visiting from San Diego. So I became their guide to the lower east side galleries...on our last stop we ran into Mikel and Ingar visiting from Berlin and after some mandatory sneaker shopping we went into spitzers corner for some amazing beers. Happy Hour!

Walk On Outta My Mind

Garbage Truck.

> One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the
> airport. We were driving in the right lane when
> suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space
> right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his
> brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just
> inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head
> around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver
> just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was
> really friendly.
>
> So I asked, "Why did you just do that? This guy
> almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!"
> This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now
> call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck."
>
> He explained that many people are like garbage
> trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of
> frustration, full of anger, and full of
> disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need
> a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on
> you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave,
> wish them well, and move on. Don't take their
> garbage and spread it to other people at work, at
> home, or on the streets.
>
> The bottom line is that successful people do not let
> garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short
> to wake up in the morning with regrets, so.....
> "Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the
> ones who don't."
> Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety
> percent how you take it
--

Dare

Sensual Seduction Snoop Dogg

i've never really been a Snoop Dogg fan before but I LOVE this video...let me know what you think...

Vermeer

I have been working on these new paintings, interiors and windows and and very specific shadows and lighting....so I thought I would try making a Vermeer. It was really hard!!

Tomma Abts at The New Museum in New York

I Loved this show! There are maybe 16 small canvases in a large , cavernous room and each canvas, when you get up to them, opens up and reveals a whole world to the viewer. One thing that saves them from being merely decorative is the layers of painting beneath, revealing the final painting to be a product of a process of trial and error. These paintings have an amazing presence, well worth seeing. Check out the New Museum website here..

Bernard Buffet Retrospective In Frankfurt

First off let me say that I am 100% genuine in my enthusiasm here. I love this guy's work and I know a lot of people ridicule him, and don't take his work seriously. Granted, it is a little bit congealed stylistically . But for me it symbolozes a certain postwar europeon angst.. the existentialism of Sartre, the theatricality of Fassbinder and these starkly illuminated compositions by Bernard Buffet are all of a piece for me. This is probably a once in a lifetime event, to see such a major show by this artist and I am defiantely gonna try and make it there. Its up till August 3 at Museum für Moderne Kunst
Frankfurt am Main

Gossip - Listen Up!

I have been hearing about The Gossip for over 10 years. My downstairs neighbor used to go see them at Mercury Lounge, just down the street from where I live and invited me along, I never went. Finally I made it over to Webster Hall Last night to see them and yes, they are AWESOME live. Beth ditto was born to be on stage, I couldn't take my eyes off of her. She's a great natural performer, amazing dancer too!

This video features perennial New York mayoral candidate and drag king Murray Hill. Murray emceed last night's show too. I love New York and welcome future transplants!

Boyz2Men

"Boys ignore the good guys. Grown men ignore the bad guys. Boys make you cum. Grown men make you come home. Boys worry about not being handsome and/or studly enough for their man. Grown men know that they are hot and desireable for any man. Boys try to monopolize all their man's time (i.e, don't want him hanging with his friends). Grown men realize that a lil' bit of space makes the ''together time' even more special -- and goes to kick it with his own friends! Boys think a guy crying is weak. Grown men offer their shoulder and a tissue. Boys want to be spoiled and 'tell' their man so. Grown men 'show' him and make him comfortable enough to reciprocate w/o fear of losing his 'manhood'. Boys get hurt by one man and make all men pay for it. Grown men know that that was just one man. Boys fall in love,chase aimlessly after the object of their affection, ignoring all 'signs'. Grown men know that sometimes the one you love, don't always love you back-- and move on, without bitterness. Boys will read this and get an attitude. Grown men will read this and pass it on to other Grown men"

Margiela Twins

Dining Alfresco

After the book signing Van, Mark, AA and I had our first outdoor dinner of the year at a sidewalk cafe in chelsea. Here I am with my older brother AA. This guy is always trying to think of ways to help others. If I were to write out a list of all the artists whom this guy has substantially helped out...it would just go on and on and on. AA has a sense of community and trust. He seems to operate from a feeling that there is more than enough for everyone and that helping will only put more good in the world, for everyone to benefit from. There is a strong sense of community in the art world, once you've been helped by someone, its great to get in there and help someone back. It's a nice family to be a part of.

A Year Of Drawings

Just got back from hanging the drawings at Printed Matter in preparation for the book signing event there tomorrow. We were able to hang all 12 drawings in chronological order. So if you are in town come by and check it out. Here's some info from the press release:

Printed Matter, Inc. is pleased to announce the launch of Erik Hanson’s A Year of Playlists, a newspaper-style publication of monthly drawings made by the artist while listening to pop music. Please join us along with the artist on Saturday, April 12, from 5:00 – 7:00 PM to celebrate the launch. Printed Matter is located at 195 Tenth Avenue (between 21st and 22nd Street).

Drawn over the course of 2007, A Year of Playlists consists of 12 works showcasing matchbooks drawn while listening to pop songs—each matchbook is a visual rendering of a particular song. It is common for music to define or reflect one’s mood and in these drawings, while seemingly haphazard and scrappy, the numerous matchbooks sketch a narrative of the artist’s life over the course of a year.

A Year of Playlists was published by Regency Arts Press Ltd. as the first publication in its Works on Paper series, a series of modest artists’ books devoted to works on paper by artists who work in a variety of media.

Feeling Groovy

I've gotten in the habit lately of getting up real early and hitting the gym first thing in the morning. It's a good routine, as once I get the gym out of the way I have the whole day spread out in front of me and I get a lot more done. Another benefit is that I get to walk around in the post dawn, early spring sunlight...which is Awesome. I've also been struck a few times lately by this thought , it's something like "I am living EXACTLY the life I always imagined for myself". It's kind of amazing and unsettling at the same time, it makes me very thankful, humble and appreciative. It also causes me to stop feeling like something is lacking, when I stop and take stock of all that I have in my life it's pretty amazing... I am in the middle of this abundence of riches, friends, career recognition....If you were to ask me "Isn't there anything you want?" of course I have a whole long list of things that I want...it's just that I accept that I can't have everything at once , and what I do have is pretty great. I accept that I can't make other people do what I want, and that it's really more interesting to accept that other people are going to do whatever they want anyway, and that's really cool, Thanks you guys!

Analog

I snapped this walking past the storefront that is East Village Radio, just a few minutes ago. Its a really cool station, check it out here...

A Year of Playlists

Last year I made one drawing per month, of the music that I was listening to at the time. The collected drawings function as a kind of diary of my year, sad music, happy music, brazilian music....all a reflection of what was going on in my life at the time.You're invited to the signing party for my book "A Year Of Playlists" at Printed Matter this Saturday, April 12 from 5-7 PM, located at 195 10th Avenue (22nd street). The book is out on Regency Arts Press, check out their website for other books by People like Kathe Burkhardt, Mike Smith and others. Printed Matter will also be exhibiting all of the original drawings from the book from Friday through Sunday. You are all welcome to attend the exhibition and booksigning...theres usually beer and wine served. Check out the Printed Matter website here.

Empty Tube

I met with Lauren today to discuss some of the details of the book launch this weekend at printed matter and she said that her husband Wayne had a "Thing" that he wanted to give me....so I went down to Wayne's studio and he gave me this tube...and when I took it home and opened it up...it was empty...is this an art piece??

Robert Morris At The New School

I went to the new school tonight to hear Robert Morris speak as part of Sculpture Center's "Subjective Histories of Sculpture" series...where artists talk about their own histories. For an hour and a half Morris, who is 77 years old, talked about his youthful employment in train yards around Kansas City, where he grew up. The various positions he held, the risks and dangers of each job, the sounds and smells associated with train work, along with stories about the guy who lost his arm under a train wheel, the wrestling coach who had a heart attack on the way to a meet. All the while images of his sculpture and choreography were projected on a screen behind him. The stories were vivid and descriptive down to the last detail and when it was question time, I asked if he had only recently written these recollections down. He reached into his hat and pulled out a quotation from Nietzsche and read. I loved that this heard edged proto-minimalism was born from trains on the missouri plains. The hanging piece , above, is called "cloud".

WACK at PS1

I saw this show of feminest art last week and it really stuck with. I walked out of there thinking " I have no idea what it is like to be a woman", i really don't, I can't imagine. Thats half of the people that I share this planet with, right off the bat I can never fully understand. I would say thats pretty powerfull art if it can drive home a concept like that to me. defiantely a reason to come back and spend some time with this very important show. Jerry Saltzs' assessment in New York magazine that " this exhibition shows us the birth of just about every art trend that's in vogue today" definately rang true. Room after room, this work made exclusively by females and mostly from the 70's, looked like a tour through the hippest chelsea galleries of today. There was so much work there that I liked, standouts include Ketty LaRocca, one of the few females to be considered part of the Italian Art Povera group. La Rocca died at around 40, but left behind an imnpressive body of conceptual works like"Verbum, Paroloa, ..." pictured here, Margaret Henderson's depictions of emasculated male superheroes and barbed wire bound female superheroes in outfits that predated and possibly influenced Miyake and Gaultier. Maria Lassing, Suzy Lake, Lynda Benglis and Nancy Grossman all looked great along with a brazilian whose name escapes me, but made the 2 sided drawing of letters depicted above, and this amazing colloge painting of stones in 4 panels also pictured above. And I also loved Joan Semmel's Erotic Yellow, pictured above

New Yorker

Here Come The Warm Jets

The Bear Prom

The Blow off party was a blast, great music and a really friendly atmosphere. Gorgeous guys and average joes. A fun way to spend saturday night. I got to talk to Bob Mould, really nice guy. I used to Dj at the club where Husker Du first played in Minneapolis.

Kraftwerk Computer love

This guy once asked me to make a drawing of his girlfriend's favorite song , which was computer love! I thought, man...this relationship dosnt sound so good..

Kraftwerk- Computerworld, live in New York, 1998

I was actually at this concert with Bill

Green Haired Lady Doll

When I let the celler door to my studio plop down onto a garbage bag this dolls head popped out...hmmm green is the color of self love.....

Art Fair Weekend

Saturday was the big pile-up of events, I met Bill and Paul at PS1 where we ran into Matts Liederstam, and we all checked out Wack , the '70's feminist art exhibit. It was a great exhibition. 4 gay guys checkin out the feminist art, Yeah! Then there was a fondue dinner at 11 rivington, that was a lot of fun! Then Bill ad I did lower east side galleries on Sunday and ran into Marge Jacobson...who is being blogged herre for the first time ever!

Dare

David Yarritu hosted a really fun edition of Leather Squirrel at julius tonight. I brought my friend Guillermo and we chatted with lots of people from the fashion and art worlds. Cool party and Julius is always worth a stop if you are hankering for a good greasy Bar Burger. Then we headed off to Nowhere , where DJ Damian was spinning another "Dare" heavy set. I sometimes forget what an important album that is.

ABC - Be Near Me

Check out David Yarritu's Guitar, he's the guy in the glasses

The Leather Squirrel

These parties are a blast , check out david in the abc video, thats him w/the glasses

Seaside Graffitti From Asbury Park

Photo By Van Wifvat