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Raymond Pettibon's Opening Was Largely Shenanigan-Free

Sometimes stuff's interesting enough it can trump wanting to get wrapped up in social business. I really wanted everyone to please kindly step aside so I could look at Raymond Pettibon's latest work.

Unless you’re emotionally unstable, chances are you’re not going to have a wild-hearted epiphany at a gallery opening, no matter how truly great the art actually is. There are just too many people around, and that’s part of the deal. Still, I really wanted everyone to please kindly step aside so I could look at Raymond Pettibon’s latest work, the reception for which was at Regen Projects in Los Angeles last weekend.

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Who at this point has the authority to try to contextualize or criticize Pettibon? Well, maybe Nick Gazin did in this interview because he happily admits his art is majorly influenced by Pettibon’s. But not me. I’d like to simply enjoy the latest bunch of stuff by a guy whose art poses as delinquency while encapsulating the more interesting of the Los Angeles fixations—surrealism through pastiche, punk, surfing, sex, glamour, alienation, stage, death, cosmic carnival—plus baseball and the superhero function of human nature.

Looking back, I realize perhaps readers like to see photos of people obscuring art. I didn't take too many of those. Sometimes stuff's interesting enough it can trump wanting to get wrapped up in social shenanigans.

This may sound pretentious: I think these “OO”s were my favorite thing in the whole show. They look like when the engine just turns over after you think it might not.

I turned a bit social when I saw these two, who I didn’t know, and told them they were the cutest ladies there. It’s my line for making friends. Turns out the one on the left is Logan White, who shot a photo feature for us a few years ago called Blood Roses. And weirdly, it’s the only feature for which I secretly took the uncorrected proofs from the VICE office back in the day. Coincidence news!

Is this a black star, an eclipsed sun, or staring deep into the soul of a camera lens?

I walked up to Brian Butler (on the right) and his friend while they were talking about a writer similar to H.P. Lovecraft but not H.P. Lovecraft…la la la, I kind of tuned it out, and then dialed it back in when Brian told this story about how, just for kicks, he and some other guy contacted people on Craigslist to test drive their Maseratis for sale.

Everyone was like, “Oh yes, yes, the waves.”

Desire in Pursuyt of the Whole
Regen Projects II
9016 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles
Through December 22