FirstPerson Magazine

While I was gone… this happened on my birthday Oct. 29th in New York!

New York is THEE art mecca. I felt like I was living in a magazine when First Person started there. The energy and work was real. The artists, infrastructure, collectors, collections, and interaction was unbeatable. So, hah hah, while I was sitting in my much needed Cali retreat before winter hit, our First Person artist fave, Rob Pruitt, whom we reviewed in Issue #1, finally realised his dream of producing / directing THE FIRST ANNUAL ART AWARDS! So cool, and such great recognition. Psyched LA was recognized for their Kippenberger show. Cash prize? Or just a wonderfully creative fundraiser… it feels nice to have a coming together to just say, “Good work and thank you”.

Artist of the Year
: MARY HEILMANN Curator of the Year
: CONNIE BUTLER Exhibition Outside the United States: JEFF KOONS, Château de Versailles, France
 Group Show of the Year, Gallery: Who’s Afraid of Jasper Johns?, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
 Group Show of the Year, Museum
: The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
 Calvin Klein Collection New Artist of the Year Award: RYAN TRECARTIN The Rob Pruitt Award: CYNTHIA PLASTER CASTER Solo Show of the Year, Gallery: Manzoni: A Retrospective, Gagosian Gallery, New York
 Solo Show of the Year, Museum: Martin Kippenberger: The Problem Perspective, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Museum of Modern Art, New York
 Writer of the Year: JERRY SALTZ

-Photos Rachel Chandler

Dominant Legs open tonight for GIRLS at Swedish Music Hall SF

Two great tastes that go together. We promoted GIRLS first ever show downstairs at Cafe Du Nord, thanks Guy! And tonight, we’re happy to welcome them home from their 2 month world tour. Curious to see Hanna’s band, Dominant Legs that we keep missing!

-Doors 7pm, Show 8pm :: : : : Some pretty people and sounds tonight guaranteed.

B.Nguyen, Founder / Creative Director

Broken Embraces

Tonight I had a pretty romantic evening alone and attended the Academy screening of the new Almodovar film. I asked the woman across from me in the restaurant afterwards if they gave awards to Colorists. She said that would go to Camera. But, it’s a whole different skill I thought to myself. It showed on the Embarcardero, and after meditation instead of bitching about how far it was, cabfare, not finding the venue for the first part of the film… I just looked out onto how beautiful the Bay Bridge was, and wandered into Delancey House for a dessert, which reversed back into a tortilla soup after stimulating my taste buds. (More on this unique restaurant later).

When I first saw Almodovar, I thought, geezus - trannies and more drama than a Mexican soap opera could ever drag out. But brilliant colors, larger than life characters, and tears, hospitals, gay / straight sex… all that leads to a different walk of life that he is exploring. I also first thought after seeing a David Lynch film, ‘yeah, toss in a midget and some close up of fire, et voila. But after letting these films kind of get into my psyche, they are totally suspenseful, scary, and full of questions. Of course, I’ve matured, and these films can be viewed a million times only to find more layers of complex intentions that maybe are there or aren’t.  That’s the generosity of film, is that it is accessible, over and over. And with youtube, digital print, we can be immersed in other worlds and learn so much instantly it’s just how do we navigate all this?

See more than just a movie poster film. See something that will break your heart once in a while or make you want to take a long walk along the waterfront after and the long way home. Perhaps not as light feeling as exiting Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon but I did get a sense that “something” happened.

-Opens Christmas in theatres in the US

-B.Nguyen, Founder

This little treasure is the 7” that got away… thank you so much Bonnie Prince Billy for doing this. It makes me sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy.

-Betty, Yours Truly, First Person is for you.

Have a restful weekend…

-First Person Family