May 12th - 19:40

Title: May 12th - 19:40 Medium: Super-8 film Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Resolution: 2880 x 2160 File Type: H.264 Codec / MP4. Comments: I met Brian many years back living in New York City when he was operating the Con Artist Collective. He was unlike other gallerists I have met before . He genuinely cared for his artists, like they were his friends. He built a unique business as a community space for artists to rent time in studios, and encouraged to foster relationships across ages and stages in their career. His gallery held many, many, group exhibitions over the years with artists who just wanted a chance to prove themselves to be seen and heard in NYC. Brian held space for me too. He opened up a small gallery called, Lazy Susan, on Henry st. after selling the Con Artist Collective business to a someone who turned out to be a con man. The gallery was in the lower east side off of division st. We installed a Twin Flames exhibition there called, Enter-Mission. It was a photography show of 10 twin cyanotypes framed on the wall when you first enter the gallery. In the back, there were milk crates holding editions of lo-fi mixed media artworks of printed Polaroids bonded to VHS tapes and wheat pastes of double exposure photographs aged on to cardboard panels. We even held a street art exhibit on the Williamsburg bridge the morning of the gallery exhibition at sun rise. Brian married a Japanese woman, before the pandemic, then they left New York to move to her home town in Ito, Japan. It has been years since we last spoke or saw one another at the gallery closing party in July, 2019. While Ethan and I were riding the fast train, I remembered Brian was living in Japan. So , I gave him a call and answered almost immediately. He told me to come on down to the cute surf town of Ito. It was perfect timing. We were already on our way towards Kyoto and jumped off at his stop. Brian had helped us find a place to stay nearby his brewery. We met with him as he was sweeping up the shop, ready to close. He gave us the grand tour of his new beloved enterprise, Beer! I asked him why he left the art world and he said it was time to do something new. He seemed very happy about the drinks he was creating. And, the business was starting to take off! A few of his local friends got off work and came by for a night cap. We all shared a few laughs, listened to raggae music, while watching a Japanese action flick he had projecting on the walls. He locked up the bar and we went out for dinner at his favorite yakitori spot that was open late on the other side of town.