The Rise & Fall of Patrick Painter

n the wake of a torrential downpour lematic, Angeleno art dealer to reach the high He showed the hard stuff and worked with not in early January, a sizeable and slight- climes of the international art world...and only some of my favorite artists but he also of- ly random group of artists, collectors then all but vanish. fered a contrarian vision to the L.A. art scene.” and art-curious celebrities descended upon Mason Poole Mason Ithe L.A. Convention Center for an “opening A recent post to the gallery’s Instagram said: “In “In New York everybody had a couple of great night premiere party”—hosted by Mad Men case you’re wondering... We are still located @ artists in the stable, but Patrick had a pretty con- star Jon Hamm—celebrating the 23rd edition Bergamot Station in Santa Monica!” Such a piti- centrated group in one place—it was just this of the L.A. Art Show. Inside this somewhat ful social-media plea would have been unthink- powerhouse,” says Sarah Watson, now the di- inscrutable international sprawl, stateside able in Painter’s prime, when he lorded over the rector of Sprueth Magers Los Angeles, who left dealers seemed split between kitschy street- L.A. scene like the bastard son of P. T. Barnum her director position at Deitch Projects in 1997 / Photography by / Photography art samplings and secondary-market stand- and Suge Knight, a street-styled autodidact art to open Painter’s gallery. “People knew him re- bys, while Asian and European powerhouses savant who was mentored by a Who’s Who of ally well through his editions, and artists loved like Seoul’s SM Fine Art and Berlin’s König legendary dealers, including Leo Castelli and to work with him. He was maybe controversial Galerie respectively showcased Korean Dan- Walter Hopps, by day and by night scandalized at that time—here’s this new guy taking all these saekhwa masters and the in-demand min- cities from L.A. to Berlin alongside art gods like artists and doing well—but that’s the art world.” imalist sculptures of Mexican conceptual Mike Kelley and Martin Kippenberger. Michael Slenske Slenske Michael artist Jose Dávila. Elsewhere a silver-maned Early on Painter made it a principle to never Matthew Modine entertained a gaggle of From the beginning the Long Beach-born deal- consign work from Manhattan galleries— Text by Text collectors admiring the actor’s photography er identified his operation—Patrick Painter, “People were writing checks to New York for from the set of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Inc.—as a corporation first and a gallery sec- artists who lived down the street,” he says. “I Jacket, while another group of Hollywood ond, a nod to another early mentor, pioneering never understood that”—and his mafia-like “For many years Patrick was the show, or as much of the show as the artists were,” says Dean Valentine. “That matters, because when you’re living in Los Angeles and you have to drive twenty miles to get to a gallery, you want the tour to have been worth it.” heavies in one of the fair’s larger booths cir- New York dealer Marian Goodman. “She’d say, presence, embellished with a gangster rapper’s cled around a husky wheelchair-bound deal- ‘It’s the art business, Patrick, not a hobby. Al- wardrobe and a fleet of Lamborghinis (includ- er. He was wearing snakeskin tennis shoes, ways remember that,’” recalls Painter. “I always ing a Versace edition), lent a certain wild-west black Adidas track pants, a billowy black wanted to keep that in mind.” cachet to a wide swath of artists who are now at T-shirt, black knit gloves, blue-lensed Per- the center of today’s contemporary discourse. sols, and a tiny black beanie with a sequined Fueled by four-days-on, one-day-off cocaine Chanel logo that belonged to his wife. benders, Painter did just that, once presiding “Once I was at a party in London’s Cadogan over four L.A. galleries—two in Bergamot Sta- Square hosted by Ivor Braka, a prestigious Brit- Though he’d shed his second skin of cash- tion, one in the Pacific Design Center and an- ish art dealer,” recalls Marc Spiegler, the global mere tracksuits, custom Alexander McQueen other on Melrose—with assistance from a string director of Art Basel. “I was talking to a young furs and blinged-out Chrome Hearts baubles; of top-flight directors (Sarah Watson, Sachi British dealer, and we were looking at a Francis and his hair had mellowed from its trademark Yoshimoto, Mayo Thompson, Heather Harmon, Picabia painting. Patrick rolls up to the two of platinum shock to a buzzed pewter; and his Michael Briggs) who oversaw a global footprint us in his velour tracksuit and rocking a dookie once-intimidating bulldog posture had atro- that spanned the early “hotel fairs” to Art Basel. rope chain. He says, ‘Yo, I’ve got the greatest eff- phied around the chrome frame of his Nova ing Picabia in L.A.’ He showed us a picture on wheelchair; and he was sober, headed home “Patrick Painter, to me, is a myth,” says ascen- his phone and then strode away into the night. THE RISE AND FALL AND RISE OF AND FALL early—not famously passed out inside his dant L.A. gallerist Nino Mier. “I wasn’t a collec- And this tony old Etonian dealer says, ‘Who was booth in the salad days of Art Basel—there was tor, advisor or gallerist when he was at his peak, that?’ I said, ‘That’s Patrick Painter.’ And he says, THE OG ART DEALER WHOSE OUTRAGEOUS no mistaking the man in black tonight. This but I look back at what he did, who he showed gobsmacked, ‘Impossible! Patrick Painter is a PERSONA ONCE SHOCKED L.A. IS READY was Patrick Painter, perhaps the most com- and how he conducted his business—good and legendary Los Angeles gallerist.’ And I said, FOR A COMEBACK. DEAL WITH IT. plicated and controversial, iconic yet prob- bad—and I have to say that he had massive balls. ‘No, man, believe me, that’s Patrick Painter.’” 86 87 “From the beginning he was very savvy, and I always enjoyed connecting with Douglas, Rodney Graham and Jeff Wall, he show any paintings at all because of my name, beachside Greene & Greene bungalow to go him, because it’s quite rare that someone launched the business with photo editions by so I showed Harmony Korine, Dan Graham, to the Southern California Military Academy. Wall, Juan Muñoz, Richard Prince and Larry Tony Oursler. I wanted to make it really clear it His older brother, Craig, drowned in a surfing comes onto the scene and just gets it very Johnson and then began producing basically wasn’t a painting gallery.” While wildcards like accident in Hermosa Beach when Painter was anything an artist wanted—provided it was outlaw auteur Korine set the tone for Painter’s one, so his step-siblings—including Greg and quickly,” says Jeffrey Deitch. “their vision and looked like their original riotous, star-studded openings, where Korine Joe Escalante, who became, respectively, a re- work”—from vinyl carpets with Andrea Zit- was once sucker-punched by a fan, some sug- nowned L.A. gallerist and a founding member tel to silicone dwarf-head sculptures with gest the dealer was the real draw. of the Vandals—were his nuclear family. While Despite appearances, Painter’s eye was in- from Felsen. He also began selling the works Paul McCarthy to a pair of silver rings by the Painter remained close with them during his deed the stuff of legend. He was the first per- of his new stars for much higher prices— late Cuban-American artist Felix Gonzales- “For many years Patrick was the show, or as formative years, he grew estranged from them son to show Picabia in L.A. His pioneering still relatively cheap in today’s market—and Torres, which fetched more than $400,000 at much of the show as the artists were,” says Dean as adults, and Painter says Joe once called him multiples company, Patrick Painter Editions, helped facilitate the production of marquee a 2011 Christie’s sale. Valentine, who collected heavily with Painter “violent” on his Barely Legal Radio show. put out high-caliber works with nearly ev- pieces like Poetics, Kelley’s large-scale video- when he was the president of Walt Disney Tele- ery contemporary luminary (and repped projection with Tony Oursler, and John Glenn “The value my editions went to is shocking, I vision. “That matters, because when you’re liv- “I don’t remember saying that, but if I did say the estate of conceptual icon Bas Jan Ader) Memorial Detroit River Reclamation Project, a wish I could have afforded to keep them all,” ing in Los Angeles and you have to drive twenty that, I’m sure I was telling a joke, he was never during its 17-year run. His brick-and-mortar gallery-filling sculptural installation that de- says Painter today. “Sometimes I gave them miles to get to a gallery, you want the tour to violent,” says Escalante, who remarked how operations would give a major L.A. platform buted in Kelley’s “Black Out” show at Painter’s away as presents to artists—or traded with have been worth it. Patrick added an entertain- happy Painter looked when they caught up at to countless others: Glenn Brown, Richard Bergamot space in 2002. A precursor of sorts to them—and looking back I wish I would have ment value that was really helpful.” the L.A.

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