Image: Yours truly with John Waters and the Quinn Twin crew at his opening at Gagosian Gallery Beverly Hills

I took a quick two-stop gallery twirl through Gagosian and M+B for their openings on Saturday night. The first, John Waters‘ was most likely, as is usually the case at the gallery, star-studded (I never notice–which is probably why my reporting gig with People magazine didn’t last too long). The public opening (there was a private viewing the night before) was certainly packed with die-hard fans of the director/artist–dare I say ’auteur’s–work.

Upstairs, I ran into Steve Diet Goedde who does some beautiful sleek fetish photography. And then there was, of course, the above documented run-in with the man of the hour. A fun kitschy pop show in general–with an exclamation point on “pop” upstairs at the Jeff Koons mini-gallery. Actually, the latter isn’t my favorite Koons work–the kind of cartoony clowny stuff that reminds me of Keith Haring or an Adult Swim billboard. I’m a tactile traditionalist and loved his geeky bunny and other earlier work. Got the chance to interview him once when Terry Richardson and I were working on a feature on him way back when. Koons was talking to me like a child–in a sweet nurturing way, not rudely–or at least like I was a high school student (maybe it was the tartan skirt)..but I digress…

Meanwhile back at the Waters show, lots of people were ogling the above piece. It was pretty stand-out fabulous–an opinion/commentary on the relationship between Ike and Tina Turner. The best part, if you ask me, is the guard on the right who is clad in a suit of the same hue as “statue Ike’s.” You could have told everyone at the opening that this was intentional and part of the work, and they would have undoubtedly believed it.

The next opening at M+B featured work by Swiss/French photographer Erwan Frotin–sort of alien looking flowers in front of subtle multi-hued backdrops. The show was entitled “Strangers,” and clearly attempts to open our eyes to the oddities of nature’s design–a line of thought I wholeheartedly approve of. The works would go so well next to some underwater photography depicting some of the “deep’s” more offbeat dwellers as well. The pieces are great-looking and simple, but in my humble opinion, work best when viewed as a set (see above thumbnail montage). If I had the funds I would certainly by three or four and place them side-by-side on a big empty white wall.

Posted by Shana Ting Lipton