So this one is about Gary Gunn and randomness.
Last year I agreed to do an exhibition in Miami. I have a sketchy friend called Tony Magnetic who tells me he has a friend in Miami called Max who wants to open a gallery in the design district. Max really likes my work and asks me if I'd like to show some paintings.
I get a good vibe off Max even though it's his first venture into the art world. So I agree and the stage is set.
The space is called AE District and I crate up the work and send it over by boat, it arrives a few days before the show is due to open. All good. around 15 new works.
Of course, this is at the worst possible time as America was totally crushed by the financial crisis.
But whatever, spirit of adventure, I figure it'll be dope to go check out Miami and I can call in on my Los Angeles friends, Corey, Conan, Brento and Marco on the way through.
The trip is most entertaining. In LA we roll straight out on the town and get hammered. Too hammered for me in fact and I bail at 3am back to Corey's place as the jetlag kicks in big time. An hour later I'm awoken with a flashlight and a shotgun pointed at my face.
I get dragged outta bed and into the living room where there are more lights and guns and noise. The whole house is full of SWAT. Marco and Corey, now cuffed and on their knees, had rolled in drunk and couldn't wake sleeping beauty so, Marco being Marco, kicked the door down. The neighbours heard the ruckus and called 5-0. It took some time to convince the cops we weren't gangbangers.
Nice first night in LA.
Anyway, from there I went on to Miami and met Max and his team. Max is a super nice guy with a good heart. The opening of the show was busy with cool kids but no sales unfortunately. I guess they're not hooked up in the art collector world yet and the financial meltdown wouldn't have helped. Nonetheless they look after me well.
At the opening party there's a band from NYC. Rick Lucy.
It's a loose collective organised by Gary Gunn and this is the first time the band has actually played together even though they just made an album.
They are awesome. We all hang out, get drunk and sit on Miami's main beach swapping stories (they wouldn't let us in to the cool night club because we were too scruffy ..... well, Gary was).
So I say, 'you should do some audio for my exhibition'. Gary says, ok, and here we are a year later and from that one real life meeting he's actually coming through with the goods. Turns out his day job is movie soundtracks and I just happen to be making a shit load of video art that needs soundtracks.
I fucking love it when shit like that happens.
And so it goes.
The sad end to the story is that 2 of the friends at the beginning of the story, Brento and Marco, were hijacked in Rio a couple of months back. brento took a couple of 9mm in the guts and is ok but Marco took 2 in the head and 2 in the chest and is stone cold dead. So wherever you are my friend, you'll be missed.
One of the soundtracks in the show will be about loss, it'll be for Marco, by Gary Gunn.
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