"GROOVENIANS" SET TO BOW THIS FALL
1980s cartoon-artist Kenny Scharf unveils his new 30-minute cartoon series, "The Groovenians," at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art on Oct. 19 -- after a sneak preview at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York on Aug. 22. The computer-generated, 3D cartoon is "a little autobiographical," Scharf said, and tells the story of two kids from the boring planet Jeepers (a place not unlike the Valley), who dream of escaping to Groovinia, an enchanted land of artists (not unlike New York). Scharf has rounded up some of his old New York collaborators to do the voices -- Drina deNiro, Dennis Hopper, Paul Reubens, Debbie Mazar, Vince Gallo, RuPaul and Ann Magnuson, who does three characters. Devo vet Mark Mothersbaugh is in charge of the music, and the B-52s have performed the theme. "I'm really happy with it," Scharf said. "I sacrificed everything for it for the last three years. It's very different from anything else they have going -- totally psychedelic." Let's hope the audience likes it as well -- the Cartoon Network has so far ordered only a single episode, which bows on Nov. 24 at 10 p.m.
SCHNABEL DAUGHTER NEW ART STAR
Besides having become the most celebrated living painter today, Neo-Ex artist Julian Schnabel is also launching a new art dynasty. His 21-year-old daughter Lola Schnabel (from his marriage to his first wife Jacqueline) has published her first "artist's book," titled Remember Me, a limited edition of 1,000 signed and numbered hardcover copies put out by Perceval Press of Santa Monica. The beautifully produced 26-page tome features the young artist's evocative Polaroid color photos (white horses in a woods, three nude girls in a tub, artist Luigi Ontani in a cemetery) paired with rough-hewn drawings and watercolors of figures that resemble the senior Schnabel and family friend Francesco Clemente. What's more, the $30 book includes a brief poetic essay by notorious East Village scribe Rene Ricard. "She has researched the wilder shores of the heart by means of transportation known only to herself," he writes. "And has returned with the evidence crushed within these pages."
A book-signing is slated for Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions on Sunday, Aug. 18, 5-7 pm., in conjunction with fellow Perceval Press artist and author Viggo Mortensen, who in addition to his current show of photographs at Robert Mann Gallery (July 12-Aug. 23, 2002) also most recently starred in 28 Days and Lord of the Rings.
POLLOCK LIVES IN NEW SPRINGS PRODUCTION
Art-world Hamptonites are gathering at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs, Long Island, this Sunday on Aug. 18 for the final shoot of an independent biopic on Jackson Pollock, helmed by the indefatigable SoHo painter and Art Seen cable television producer Bill Rabinovitch. The climactic scene, mounted with the approval of Pollock-Krasner House overseer Helen Harrison, features an allegorical recreation of the making of Blue Poles, Pollock's huge masterpiece that was notoriously done in collaboration (or not, as the historical case may be) with Tony Smith and Barnett Newman. In Rabinovitch's film, charismatic NYU painting professor Barnaby Ruhe plays Pollock -- though Dennis Oppenheim stood in on a couple of occasions, Rabinovitch said -- while the beautiful young starlet Lisa Renko plays Krasner.
"Ruhe looks more like Pollock than Pollock," said Rabinovitch, who is inviting critic Robert Hughes, Photo Realist Chuck Close and other local artists to take part in the recreation of the legendary painting on a large blank canvas that will be spread out on the study center grounds. His version features a beautiful muse, played by the Russian princess Tatiana Vidus, who is stolen by Willem de Kooning from Pollock, who consequently loses his mojo. Rabinovitch has taken certain liberties with the Pollock saga, however. Pollock doesn't die in the car crash, and is still agelessly alive and creative today. For more info, email rabinart@aol.com.
HAUNCH OF VENISON FOR LONDON ART HUNGER
London art dealers Harry Blain and Graham Southern have teamed up to open a gallery called Haunch of Venison in a 10,000-square-foot Georgian house located just off Bond Street. The three-story building, once the residence of Admiral Lord Nelson and formerly leased by Anthony d'Offay for a new project space, is being renovated by architect Nick Malby. Blains Fine Art, founded ten years ago at 23 Bruton Street by Blain and Charlie Phillips, will be acquired and maintained by Haunch of Venison as a second viewing space. Christiane Schneider, former curator at the Dia Center, is in charge of the exhibition program, which is to feature important contemporary and post-war art. For more info, contact Haunch of Venison at 6 Haunch of Venison Yard, London W1K 6ES.
SUITE 106 TO SOHO
The off-the-beaten-track New York gallery Suite 106, which opened last fall in a ground-floor room in the Milburn Hotel on West 76th Street, is relocating to SoHo. Inaugurating the new space at 112 Mercer Street is a show of "Rock-u-mental" paintings by Edy Ferguson and an eight-minute video by Chicago artist Ken Fandell, opening to the public on Sept. 10, 2002. Suite 106 codirector Irena Popiashvili (with Marisa Newman) has also signed on to be the coordinator of the Georgian Pavilion at the 2003 Venice Biennale. For more info email info@suite106.com.
GOLDMAN TEVIS TO SPLIT
Hip Los Angeles dealers Mary Goldman and John Tevis, who founded Goldman Tevis in L.A.'s Chinatown district three years ago, have amiably ended their partnership. Goldman is carrying on the gallery on her own; Mary Goldman Gallery opens at the same location, 932 Chung King Road, on Oct. 5 with an exhibition of new work by Jessica Bronson.
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