Rome Snowboard Design Syndicate

I was out in lovely Southern California for a few days last week, and one of the highlights of my time there was the opening of the Dennis Hopper retrospective at the Geffen MOCA in Los Angeles. This show was important for several reason: It was the first show under new Director Jeffrey Deitch (jeffrey, and his gallery in NYC were responsible for putting on just about every important artist in the past 15 years). The show was curated by famed artist and director Julian Schnabel. Hopper himself was involved in the process of putting the show together until he passed away back in May, and it is the first time a vast majority of his work is on display in the same place.

I knew that Hopper was an artist, and that he surrounded himself with other famous artist of the time, but man, i had no idea. His photographs act as the centerpiece – 9 huge walls filled with them, all hung salon style. Out from there, in the surrounding space, are his painting, combines, more photos, sculptures and some films. A truly incredible show, and one you should all go out and see if you are in the LA area.

Some iPhotos i snapped while having my mind blown:

online, looking into the lobby space. there was a second pop style sculpture on the other side of the lobby

all sorts of information

overview of some of the photo walls. place was packed!

from a series of images shot in the south

Rauschenberg-inspired combine. photograph with found objects(tissue boxes)

this is a mellow 20 foot tall canvas, based on one of his photos

another wall of photos, mostly artist and gallery folks

2 shots of Warhol at the Factory

Warhol and his 'workers' at the factory

3 shots of artist Robert Rauschenberg getting his tongue stamped for reasons unknown

this film was playing in one of the rooms. It was a 45 second loop of a guy sitting in a lawn chair and getting blown up. Photos left and right are before and after images, and the film projector itself was pretty cool looking

Little did i know that the Geffen has a really solid permanent collection. It was a nice surprise after checking out the show. Few snaps of what i saw below.

Christopher Wool painting. This was done in the 50's kids...

Allen Ruppersberg collage piece. wow.

and finally, a personal favorite of mine, Jean-Michel Basquiat. just amazing

Okay so some of us have been enjoying the World Cup here in the office… there’s a bunch of us that grew up playing the game… ze German office is obviously psyched that they are still in it…

That said, there is definitely a group of people I’m friends with that are mystified by it all.  I thought this was a good demonstration of how the conversation goes…

(The whole clip is good but John Hodgeman comes on at 1:00 and starts the conversation that I’m referring to)

Here’s an email from our warehouse up in the Netherlands:

RE: Holland-Brasil

Dear All,

As you probably know our country plays against Brasil tomorrow for the worldcup.

Match starts at 16.00 hours our time.

We are allowed to leave the office at 15.15 hours to see this match with family and friends (or in the pub) and I will certainly use this option.

If you have any urgent matters, please let me know overnight.

Anyways, hopefully your country is still in it and they have the tactical nuance to keep progressing in the tournament unlike ours.  (kudos to Pat Morris on the “anthem”)