Word of advice: never agree to shoot an art opening the day after getting tattooed on your calf. It’s going to hurt and you are going to look like an idiot. Literally 24 hours after going under Sunny Buick’s gun, I went to cover the latest show at Jonathan LeVine’s Gallery for Juxtapoz, and I’m just glad that everyone was all smiles, because it took me half an hour to hobble across the room.
Jonathan LeVine hosted Tim Biskup and Titi Freak. Both artists are great on their own, but its cool to see contrasting styles under one roof. Often, gallery owners try ganging similar artists together, but in this case, Biskup and Titi’s work provided an escape from each other. That makes no sense, but roll with it.
Biskup’s work, in particular, was so different from the prints and toys I used to buy from him a few years back. It was great to see his stature rise in such a small amount of time. I also had a blast photographing him against the giant dead dragon in the middle of the room. Titi Freak spun some great yo-yo tricks earlier in the evening for video and was kind enough to oblige me with a series of shots of him in action. We set it up so that he would throw yo-yo out at me without hitting the lens and even did a dry run to make sure he wouldn’t hit it. The shot came out great, and the lens is still okay.
