Some of My Favorite Painters

So, these are some of my favorite artists. They're all really well known and there aren't any big secrets here. Christopher Wool. Lives In New York, just pushing it to the limit -- abstract paintings and I love his silk screening techniques and the way that looks. There's Charlene Von Heyl. German artists also in New York and they're married. Also pushing it. I love the playfulness and vocabulary. There's Arshile Gorky. Who committed suicide after he discovered his wife was having an affair with Mata, his hero. Really tragic. Hung himself. There's Sigmar Polk. Huge influence on everybody and me included. Took a ton of acid and lived in communes when he was younger. Acerbic humor in his paintings. It is just the max. There's Albert Oehlin which you could probably say is Polke's protege. Also a tremendous sense of humor in his work and very, very creative. There's Joanne Greenbaum, an abstract painter in New York. I don't know a lot about her but I just love her work. It's so simple. And Very, very direct… playful vocabulary and bright primary colors. Laura Owens, California artist. Also deconstructing abstraction.Chris Martin. A Williamsburg painter and love the simplicity of his work, and the playfulness there. So that's about it, really…. Oh, and I forgot Michael Majorus. A bit of a tragedy there. Died in a plane crash really young. I don't even think he was 35. A figure from the 90s taking a very popular kind of commercial imagery and using that as vocabulary in his work, really interesting painter.

Forest Gnome and Cupid

“Forest Gnome with Cupid”. The gnome is the blue/fuchsia raster dot figure that's smiling. 

Love's Not Love

‘‘Love's not Love’’ and ‘‘Love's Love”.

From Wally Wood’s, L'll Abner.

Galería Esther Montoriol with Pere Llobera, JUJA. June to September 2020. 

JUJA Paintings Pere Llobera & Syd Mostow

Collaborative painting show with Pere Llobera. We decided to work the same format, 2 × 1.5 meter paper works on a similar theme. That was in 2020, at Galería Esther Montoriol in Barcelona.

4 Happy Bunnies

‘‘4 Happy Bunnies”. The flames coming out of their butts isn't about eating beans. Or farting. They are jetting through the sky. They control cosmic energy. They are really free. Frolicking up and away.         

“3 Happy Bunnies”

Hanging our show. Pere Llobera, Syd Mostow, at Galería Esther Montoriol. 2020

Leaders Aren't Made, They are Created

''Leaders Aren't Made, They’re Created''
The beaver is receiving special powers—superpowers, by the fairy.  A fearless leader, or just a beaver on a tree trunk. Can beavers grift?
200 × 150 cm, 79’’ x 59’’, painted drawing (is that even possible?) on Fabriano paper, 2018. 

Mickey Mouse and Pluto

“Love's not Love”. Galería Ester Montoriol, 2020. JUJA. Mickey Mouse doing it with Pluto. It’s Cupid’s fault. 

As vulgar as this seems, it's about the cupid.

Don't Eat Meat, Eat Pussy

A friend’s (Geni F., R.I.P.) daughter has tattooed on the back of her arm “EAT PUSSY, NOT ANIMALS”.  I am not sure if she's vegetarian or vegan, but she's definitely against eating certain kinds of meats. I think she'd approve of this painting, which got trashed, BTW.

Titian

Based on "Mars Venus and Cupid" by Titian. 

The original Titian is such a powerful painting. My dear friend Toni Serra, R.I.P. suggested the image. So I painted it. 

Oh my Ears, my Whiskers 1

First in a series, “Oh My Ears, My Whiskers”. 40 × 50 cm, mixed media on wood. A landscape. A house. An exuberant bunny. 

Oh my Ears, my Whiskers 5

‘‘Oh My Ears, My Whiskers 5’’. 40 × 50 cm, mixed media on wood. 

A FOR-REAL Painter -- the real MacCoy Rory MacBeth

2 very different paintings by the same artist Rory MacBeth. Although they deal with the same issue of authenticity and originality.

This image is of one of his amazing paintings. And it is a painting, not a piece of sterling board, although you wouldn't know it. A real challenge to our notion of reality as it is perceived, and to our expectations of how things really are and not how they just appear to be.

Rory Macbeth was once a Street Painter. We met in Barcelona in 1988. A phenomenal painter, and phenomenally talented. Now he shows all over the place aside from having been one of the organizers of Pilot, in London, an archive and showcase of unrepresented artists.

Gratutious Street Agit-Prop Posters

This is the first poster in a series of 3 street posters, A2 size, that I did and were pasted-up in the autumn of '95 in Barcelona. It depicts a woman in leathers (S+M) painting a fellatio. It says: “Being an Artist is Easy… Intensive 3-week courses….Pastiching…all graduates will show in the most prestigious galleries… collectors to buy your work…learn to paint like Tapies, Picasso….Salon Autónimo de Barcelona, Riereta 10" (which was the actual address of my studio) and there were people actually coming by inquiring about taking classes.  Which astounded me. I did these posters as I was quite fed-up with Barcelona art scene. I moved two years later to New York.

2nd Installment of Gratuitous Street Posters

This is the 2nd street poster A2 size (40 x 58 cm) 16 x 2’’ that went up on the streets in Barcelona in the autumn of '95. It says “You are a Wanker, and you're not alone either --¡Yes Yes!.....Salon Autónimo of Barcelona”. Depicting Dopey (of the 7 Dwarfs) jerking off onto what looks like a Tapiés painting. 

3rd installment which never got printed. It depicts the folkloric “caganet”, the crapping man, the traditional crèche figure which Catalans like to adorn their Christmas Nativity Scenes with. So I made him crapping out a painting instead of, well, crap. Fecundity is creation. It says, “I don't paint my paintings anymore. I crap them out—that way I can produce more art and produce it faster—Barcelona, Autonomous Salon "

Caganer

At that time, the media, and government institutions were referring to “artists” as young creators. This was a way to deflect the “art” debate by changing its name in an attempt to create an art scene. There was a huge concern in general that local artists weren't getting any attention. Neither by collectors in Barcelona, museums, or internationally. But no one seemed to ask if they, the artists, whoever they were, that nefarious group of creators, deserved any attention at all, which they probably didn't. Whining artists that no one cared about anyway. The other side of the coin was this: if the people who were worried about artist activity had any idea of what they were talking about, which they didn't, then maybe they'd realize that what creates an art scene is first taste, then money, but not talk. But in the end, Barcelona was put on the map because of the Olympics in 1992. Now it is overrun by tourists.