https://kostabi.orgThe official website of Mark Kostabi https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-wim-delvoye/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-wim-delvoye/You might be surprised when I say that some of Wim Delvoye’s work is pure shit. But when I opened my July/September issue of Flash Art, there it was: a slick three-page ad shilling Cloaca faeces. Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:31:08 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-chris-hammerlein/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-chris-hammerlein/Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:30:29 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-the-heavenly-tree-grows-downward/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-the-heavenly-tree-grows-downward/Harry Smith is a rising art star, a painter with growing recognition and a new show-all this despite the fact that he's been dead for more than ten years. You heard it here first, but credit the discovery to curator Raymond Foye, and artists Fred Tomaselli and Philip Taaffe.Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:27:40 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-penetration/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-penetration/Summer is when most galleries put on their group shows of gallery artists. So how does on gallery stand out from the rest? Give the group show a theme. And how does a particular theme show get the attention of this Shout writer? Title it Penetration.Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:24:41 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-tom-fruin/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-tom-fruin/Technically, Tom Fruin is guilty of possession. Pot, heroin, cocaine - anything that comes in those miniature Ziploc baggies. He's not the first. Originally, there was Arman, then Fred Tomaselli, then Damien Hirst. Fruin now joins the pantheon of serious contemporary artists who use actual drugs as an art supply.Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:23:10 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-robert-hawkins/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-robert-hawkins/Apparently Robert Hawkins has gold fangs. According to the Gracie Mansion Gallery, Hawkins-a San Francisco native, who now lives in London by way of New York- also has a ton of piercing and tattoos, none of which I could verify visually when I spoke to him on the phone.Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:20:57 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-mike-cockrill/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-mike-cockrill/No more baby-doll clown killers for Mike Cockrill. In the '80s, he was half of the ultra-controversial bad boy art team Cockrill Hughes, which was lambasted by almost all critics and accused of making some of the most tasteless and disgusting art of all time. Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:19:28 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-norman-dubrow/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-norman-dubrow/In 1983, standing in Sidney Janis Gallery on 57th Street, I overheard an older gentleman enthusiastically and very audibly explaining the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat and graffiti artists Crash and Daze to a throng of entranced fellow collectors. Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:16:39 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-lucas-samaras/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-lucas-samaras/When I lived on the 64th floor of Cityspire, on 56th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, in the early 1990s, I was determined to build the world's tallest building—Kostabi Tower, in Brooklyn. It would have been totally devoted to art, I hired a famous architect, Eli Attia, to design the “vertical art city”, and had meetings with city officials and potential investors.Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:14:53 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-alberto-giacometti/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-alberto-giacometti/Every since the World Trade Center's destruction, art looks different to me. Everything takes on new meaning. Some artists are changing their whole approach to what they do. And much art suddenly seems strangely prescient.Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:11:18 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-jay-davis/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-jay-davis/The moment I walked into the Williamsburg, Brooklyn art studio of 26-year-old painter Jay Davis, I immediately knew I was in the presence of a winner- a very professional, highly organized visionary who is more than adequately informed about the discourse of contemporary art.Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:07:48 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-wayne-thiebaud/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-wayne-thiebaud/Dear Heidi: Please send Wilfredo to the Whitney Museum to buy a copy of the Wayne Thiebaud catalog that accompanies his current retrospective. One of my dealers here in Italy has commissioned me to make a painting featuring a slot machine for a very prestigious client in Milan.Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:05:59 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-carla-accardi/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-carla-accardi/Many people agree that Carla Accardi is one of the nicest people in the art world. At 76 years old, she has more energy and curiosity than most artists in their twenties. She's friendly and welcoming to everyone, regardless of age or status.Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:04:08 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-dancing-on-the-roof-phtography-and-the-bauhaus/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-dancing-on-the-roof-phtography-and-the-bauhaus/One of my favorite TV shows has always been Batman, starring Burt Ward. Not only because of Cat Woman, the Bat Cave and the Joker, but because of those great shots where the camera was joyously tilted at a dynamic angle. Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:02:30 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-tracey-baran/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-tracey-baran/Tracey Baran's favorite movies include Frankenstein, because "it was so beautiful," and American Beauty, because she "was in it" - metaphorically. Baran was initially known for painfully real, intricately detailed photos of a bluntly dysfunctional family. Hers. Mon, 11 Oct 2021 21:00:41 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-will-cotton/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-will-cotton/After having puffed the bright-eyed, young art star Will Cotton in December 1998, when he only showed at the modest Daniel Silverstein Gallery - before he signed with the legendary Mary Boone – the typical hack journalist in me didn't want to write about him again for Shout.Mon, 11 Oct 2021 20:58:47 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-luigi-ontani/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-luigi-ontani/When I called ArtNet.com writer Charlie Finch from Rome the other day to get my monthly fix of New York art gossip, I was surprised to discover that he was not familiar with Luigi Ontani, whose retrospective exhibition at P.S.1 runs from March 11 through April 22.Mon, 11 Oct 2021 20:57:00 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-jean-kallina-and-himself-as-usual/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-jean-kallina-and-himself-as-usual/Shout is getting better every issue. One of my biggest fears is losing my column and being replaced by some other great looking artist who hangs out with all the popular people. I mean my column is a total fraud. A hoax. I basically write about my friends, people who are nice to me or people who I expect will return the favor in some form down the line. Mon, 30 Aug 2021 22:16:17 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-mark-kostabi/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-mark-kostabi/So why shouldn't I just write about myself this month? After all, I have two shows up in our beloved city this month. The manipulative politician in me would rather faux-selflessly write about many other great shows currently visible: Fred Tomaselli at James Cohan; Will Cotton at Mary Boone; or Robert Williamson at Tony Shafrazi.Mon, 30 Aug 2021 22:13:46 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-cindy-sherman/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-cindy-sherman/When I first moved to New York in January 1982, my favorite new artists were Cindy Sherman, Walter Robinson and Robert Longo, all of whom showed at Metro Pictures.Mon, 30 Aug 2021 22:06:43 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-mimmo-rotella/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-mimmo-rotella/Mon, 30 Aug 2021 22:04:35 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-jonathan-feldschuh/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-jonathan-feldschuh/I get credit for being the first writer to publish a text about Jonathan Feldschuh's first one-person show in New York. Hundreds of other serious writers will follow my lead over the next decade.Mon, 30 Aug 2021 22:02:09 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-damien-hirst-and-walter-robinson/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-damien-hirst-and-walter-robinson/Whether you like Damien Hirst's work or not, his show at the gigantic Larry Gagosian Gallery is a must-see this month. One of the most controversial artists working today, Damien Hirst is a powerful artist showing in a power gallery on the power block of Chelsea.Mon, 30 Aug 2021 21:59:14 +0000 https://kostabi.org/music/music-video/hidden-canyon/https://kostabi.org/music/music-video/hidden-canyon/Retrospective music video self-portrait of Mark Kostabi. Music Hidden Canyon composed by Mark.Thu, 19 Aug 2021 19:32:37 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-don-doe/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-don-doe/Tue, 17 Aug 2021 23:58:12 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/at-home-with-mark-kostabi-arts-bad-boy-goes-classical/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/at-home-with-mark-kostabi-arts-bad-boy-goes-classical/Tue, 17 Aug 2021 23:57:52 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-chardin/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-chardin/The great New York painter, Will Cotton, e-mailed me to say he had just seen a great Chardin show at the Met. Lucian Freud, the famous British figurative painter, recently scored some points with the press for his homage to a Chardin painting. He said he did not want to copy the Chardin: “I simply want to get as near to it as I can.”Tue, 17 Aug 2021 23:57:25 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-leemour-pelli/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-leemour-pelli/There's a great new painter in Chelsea: Leemour Pelli. Hitherto, she's been known for haunting, translucent, rubbery relief sculptures of starkly exposed yet enigmatic human bodies and her latex casts of ornately framed mirrors which contain intriguing, personal, ghostlike portraits.Tue, 17 Aug 2021 23:55:15 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-tokihiro-sato/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-tokihiro-sato/Many art dealers are not nice people. They can be pretentious, dishonest snobs. Fortunately for artists and collectors, they are no longer necessary. Thanks to the Internet, artists and collectors can now deal directly. But there's more to art than buying and selling.Tue, 17 Aug 2021 23:52:51 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-inka-essenhigh/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-inka-essenhigh/Two years ago I had never heard of Inka Essenhigh. Now I am convinced that she is the best artist to have emerged within the last decade. She entered the art scene like a lightning bolt, appearing in numerous group shows, one-person shows (at Stefan Stux Gallery and Deitch Projects), a museum show at the Albright Knox Art Gallery and various glossy magazines. Tue, 17 Aug 2021 23:50:08 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-maurizio-cattelan/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-maurizio-cattelan/Maurizio Cattelan is considered the best living Italian artist, according to art critics surveyed by Flash Art (Italian edition), when they compiled their top 100 in March 1999. Now, exactly one year later, at the Marian Goodman Gallery, New Yorkers can see for themselves what the fuss is all about.Tue, 17 Aug 2021 23:45:51 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-nam-june-paik/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-nam-june-paik/Tue, 17 Aug 2021 23:41:19 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-cecily-brown/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-cecily-brown/Tue, 17 Aug 2021 23:38:54 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-timothy-greenfield-sanders-and-tricia-keightley/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-timothy-greenfield-sanders-and-tricia-keightley/Boone Gallery is truly fascinating and an absolute must-see for anyone interested in the contemporary art scene and its players. A truly remarkable achievement, with 700 portraits taken over a span of 20 years, Greenfield-Sanders has amassed the most comprehensive photo collection of important art-world people ever taken by a single photographer.Mon, 16 Aug 2021 21:16:13 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-lee-bontecou/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-lee-bontecou/After performing an informal Saturday night surprise outdoor piano concert in front of my permanently installed bronze public sculpture here in the center of San Benedetto del Tronto called “To See Through is not to See Into,” I am thinking constantly about Lee Bontecou, whose work from 1958 to 1972 is currently visible at the Leo Castelli Gallery through November 24.Mon, 16 Aug 2021 21:15:34 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-carla-accardi-in-minimalia/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-carla-accardi-in-minimalia/One evening, during an art world dinner party in the penthouse of the Roger Smith Hotel, I told the famous American painter, Jonathan Lasker, that I thought his work had a slight connection to the Italian abstractionist, Giuseppe Capogrossi. He immediately replied by saying: “You know whose work I really like is Carla Accardi.”Mon, 16 Aug 2021 21:15:02 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-tom-sachs/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-tom-sachs/I'm in a good mood. I'm half done eating my large, thick, moist, triangular shaped brownie from Bottino take-out. I've got my paper cup filled with a second load of reliable Twinings Earl Grey tea. Mon, 16 Aug 2021 21:14:28 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-fame-after-photography/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-fame-after-photography/I am a famous artist. I am one of the world's most famous living artists. But I want more. I can't get enough. My greatest fear is being airbrushed out of art history or being dismissed as a has-been eighties art star.Mon, 16 Aug 2021 21:13:28 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-the-road-show/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-the-road-show/I confess! As yet another example of the placating incestuousness that swamps all credible relationships in the art world, I am writing about “The Road Show,” partly because my work is in it. I also hope that curator Mike Weiss (that unshaven scamp who irritates art snobs, a.k.a. “the Don King of the art world”) does more nice things that help my career because I'm “stepping up” to promote his latest remarkable act of genius.Mon, 16 Aug 2021 21:12:54 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-william-kentridge-mike-weiss-and-dot-szemiot/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-william-kentridge-mike-weiss-and-dot-szemiot/Last night my girlfriend, Gwen, bought a painting by Dot Szemiot for $70 at a silent benefit auction for Save the Teens at the China Club. The painting looks like it's worth $5000Mon, 16 Aug 2021 21:12:20 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-john-baldessari-michael-smith-and-sean-landers/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-john-baldessari-michael-smith-and-sean-landers/John Baldessari and I both got our careers started at the Molly Barnes Gallery in Los Angeles, California. As a teacher/guru at Cal Arts, Baldessari's students included David Salle and Eric Fischl. Once John did a large black and white painting—a hand-lettered blow up of his resume, listing all of his “selected on person exhibitions.”Mon, 16 Aug 2021 21:11:25 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-beatrice-wood/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-beatrice-wood/I've read dozens of articles about the late, great Beatrice Wood and they all basically say the same thing; they drop the same historical names and present the same amusing anecdotes. This article will rehash nothing. All of this is new material.Mon, 16 Aug 2021 21:10:36 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-dennis-oppenheim/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-dennis-oppenheim/About two years ago on a sunny summer morning in Venice, Italy, while Dennis Oppenheim and I were both waiting in line to enter the press opening of the Venice Biennial, he told me that he watches and likes my cable television show, “Inside Kostabi.”Mon, 16 Aug 2021 21:09:08 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-lucio-fontana/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-lucio-fontana/When I called ArtNet.com writer Charlie Finch from Rome the other day to get my monthly fix of New York art gossip, I was surprised to discover that he was not familiar with Luigi Ontani, whose retrospective exhibition at P.S.1 runs from March 11 through April 22.Mon, 16 Aug 2021 21:06:43 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-gary-simmons/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-gary-simmons/Gary Simmons' current show will be on exhibit at Metro Pictures. This gallery is located on the power block of West Chelsea, which is the absolute center for international contemporary art that feels like real art.Mon, 16 Aug 2021 20:58:38 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-william-cotton/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-william-cotton/When I first saw William Cotton's stand-out paintings in a group show at Exit Art a few years ago, I immediately wanted to meet the artist. A few days later, I visited his studio, where I was pleasantly surrounded by his unique orchestrations of current creative issues—masterfully painted, realistic images of toys emerging from a catalog of abstract glazes, scrapings, and biomorphic mush.Mon, 16 Aug 2021 20:57:42 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-sue-williams/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-sue-williams/The 1990s will be remembered as the decade in which women artists finally came to dominate the art world. It's clear that in fine art photography, no male photographer can hold a flashbulb to Nan Goldin, Sally Mann, Jean Kallina, Cindy Sherman, or Tracey Baran. In the realm of avant-garde sculptures and installations, Kiki Smith reigns supreme. When it comes to painting, I can't think of a male who is even close to being on par with Sue Williams.Mon, 16 Aug 2021 20:56:50 +0000 https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-ideas-for-the-home/https://kostabi.org/shout-magazine/mark-kostabi-on-ideas-for-the-home/Bravo to Sperone Westwater Gallery for striking a blow against provincialism in contemporary art! Although we are guaranteed to see much more of the Americans at the show because they are actively being promoted in the states, the gallery has succeeded in integrating Italian modern masters Giulio Turcato and Lucio Fontana with contemporary American painters such as Greg Bogin, Peter Halley, Jonathan Lasker, and Andy Warhol.Mon, 16 Aug 2021 20:54:15 +0000