I was at an opening the other night. I ran into this friend of mine. She is a painter and when I saw her she was chatting with this other guy who I found out is a painter too. So this woman says to us, "You know, all three of us where all in the same show together once..." And it turned out to be true. Back in the summer of 1995 we'd all been in a big group show at a gallery called
K and E on Broome Street in SoHo. It was a show called HOT.
I showed a big flashing sign that said the word SEXY on the floor made with wood and painted metal and light bulbs.
.At the time all of my work was letters and words. Giant welded steel sentences that said things like, "NICE GUYS FINISH LAST..." over and over again. Collages with torn photos and rub on letters.
The director of the gallery really liked my work. We'd done a show together already and she told
me she really wanted to keep working together, but the owner of the gallery didn't like the work.
She told me my work was "too abstract."
TOO ABSTRACT!?!
It was all words and letters! There was nothing abstract about it.

Anyway I bring this up because I was talking to a friend of mine last night who was sort of considering all of the work in my show up at A.Bartos. So this guys says,"You know, the only piece in the show that doesn't have any words is the Van Gogh painting..."
Which is sort of true except for the furniture and wall pieces etc. But the funny part was
for some reason my immediate response was,
"...The Applause Sign doesn't have any words, either!"
See. I guess I'm not so smart after all.
DK