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“I haven’t really slept much in the last few weeks,” Jon Cournoyer half-laughs and half-sighs on the phone from the
Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica. The L.A.-based curator, artist and musician is on the final stretch to opening
Rock, Paper, Scissor, a three-day art affair and musical bonanza that’s been incubating since last summer.
More ethereally, it’s been in the works for more than a decade. Having assembled a roster of artists and musicians he never imagined he’d get on one bill, Cournoyer admits, “I am a giant fan of everyone in the show, so I guess it started there, maybe 15 years ago.” Last summer, while he was chatting with Raymond Pettibon (longtime album art designer for Black Flag and a well-respected fine artist), Cournoyer came up with the idea of an exhibit featuring the artwork of musicians. He didn’t have high expectations.
“We started throwing names out, and it seemed really far-fetched,” he says of the show, which includes work by Sonic Youth founders Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo. “But everyone’s excited and into it. I had no idea I would end up with this roster. It’s been like a dream; these guys are my heroes.”
Legendary pop artist Ron English, who is also a lyricist for several bands, is throwing work in the mix, as is Daniel Johnston, the subject of the 2006 documentary "The Devil and Daniel Johnston." An eccentric icon in music and art subcultures, Johnston is widely considered a founding figure in the alternative music genre and this show includes some rare, never-before-seen early drawings and paintings shipped by his long-time tour manager and close friend, Don Goede.
The musicians involved in the exhibit, Cournoyer notes, don’t merely dabble in visual arts when they’re off tour or make doodles between albums. “Each of them are established artists,” he says. “They’ve excelled at both mediums.” Pettibon, for example, has exhibited work at
MOCA, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and institutions internationally. Gordon, the bassist of Sonic Youth, graduated from Otis College and has worked as an artist, curator and art journalist. Johnston packaged most of his musical releases with his own album art.
Pieces have been arriving at the gallery over the past few months, and Cournoyer says the show is “miraculously coming together.” But harnessing the energy of a rock-based collection presents new curatorial considerations. Cournoyer, who is also designing the exhibition catalog for the show, says he’s hanging the pieces unlike any show he’s organized before. He wants the exhibit to be an “edgy and beautiful thing to walk through” and as work arrives, he’s fitting pieces into a certain flow. He calls it “more of a performance installation.”
Ranaldo, a guitarist in Sonic Youth and a pioneer of rock audio, will exhibit a timeworn hand-painted guitar that seems to explode hand-lettered poetry onto a blank white wall. English will contribute bizarre, intricately rendered portraits of children impeccably made up in full Kiss attire, their hips jutting out behind an oversize guitar.
Moore will display a collage featuring archival photos of Lou Reed and others juxtaposed with cut-and-paste type reading “The Egolessness of Heroes.” Gordon’s work includes paintings based on noise bands, bearing titles like "Sickness" and "Hair Police." Even Gibby Haynes, the charismatic and theatrical frontman of the Butthole Surfers, will show his two-dimensional outpourings.
Among this melange, lyrics sheets will grace the walls as installation pieces. Of the parallel between verse and the visual arts, Pettibon notes: “They are the same for me. Writing lyrics is very similar to making art.”
These multi-hyphenate artists aren’t just donning their art berets: The exhibit’s opening reception takes place Feb. 28, but festivities will begin the night before at
Spaceland, with live sets by the Niche Makers (featuring Cournoyer and Pettibon), Ron English’s band Electric Illuminati, plus Mike Watt and other, as-yet-unnamed special guests.
Saturday’s opening reception at Robert Berman Gallery will feature the premiere of the show’s artwork, plenty of rock celebrities to ogle and a set by Shepard Fairey (aka DJ Diabetic). The gallery is one of the oldest in Bergamot Station, occupying two spaces and boasting a history of exhibits by Keith Haring, William S. Burroughs and Man Ray.
Of Southern California’s reputation for art, Cournoyer laments, “A lot of the L.A. art scene doesn’t get the praise it deserves.” But he champions Robert Berman Gallery and says: “I'm glad I ended up there and not one of the glossier galleries in town as [it feels] very connected to the old-school art world of L.A. Personally, I think that’s priceless.”
Rock, Paper, Scissor will soldier on with one more evening of revelry Sunday with a concert at the
Santa Monica Museum of Art, just a few doors down from the Robert Berman space. As a benefit for the museum, the Niche Makers, Mike Watt and Ron English (plus more special guests) will take the outdoor stage; in true “party like a rock star” fashion, open-bar libations will be flowing.
Cournoyer has nothing but praise for the museum, gushing, “They do everything with integrity; I’m thrilled to be working with them.” Proceeds from the concert will help fund future exhibitions at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, which may just inspire more musicians to take to the easel.
When did the ambitious curator determine Rock, Paper, Scissor would be an epic three-day affair? “When I decided to run my psyche and body into the ground,” Courveyor deadpans. He drops the irony and says in earnest, “I feel it's a special and important show…and it warrants a good, long weekend binge.”