Not Your Parent's Art Show :: MANNY GONZALEZ

Not Your Parent's Art Show
by Manny Gonzalez

A few months back, some friends and I met for a movie then headed down to the Bikini for a brew and the standard post-film dissection. As we got closer, an orange glow appeared over Grand Avenue. Shit, I thought, the bar's on fire. But it wasn't. Instead, it was the sleazy motel across the street. You can imagine what a relief that was. The name of the motel escapes me but not the vibe of the Leche party that went down in the adjacent grotto-inspired lounge earlier in the spring. To borrow a quote from my man LL, the spot was milky cereal, baby. And although it seemed the highlight of that evening was a local hip-hop crew, it soon dawned on me that the art on the walls of a candle-lit room was the true headliner. Art displays and music events have been around forever; this time the artwork seemed to stand out and speak louder than ever.

As it turns out, Fortoul Presents are the minds behind Leche and several other gallery affairs over the last year or so. The brothers Fortoul - Isaac, 26, and Gabriel, 29 - are no strangers to the downtown racket. Their Stay Gold shop on Roosevelt has become a popular boutique where you can find clothing emblazoned with Isaac's unique designs as well as installations from artists such as Alicia O'Reilly and Bobby Castañeda. They had also been throwing down a number of Art Lounge events at the Main Stay before it closed it's doors in June. Even the flyers themselves have become quite popular due to their clever design and deceptively simple yet smart illustrations. Prior to the opening of their newest space The Fort (723 W. Polk), I had a chance to ask the guys a few questions, along with Miss O'Reilly, Mr. Castañeda, photographer Eddie Dizan, and self-described "apprentice" Medea Blue McDermott.

How long have you known each other?
Gabriel: My brother and I have known Bobby and the Main Stay's Craigg (Turner) and Vic (Hong) for a few years now.
Alicia: I've known these guys for almost a year.
Medea: Four months, maybe five.

When did you begin working with art?
Bobby: Forever, since I was four.
Alicia: I've been drawing my whole life.
Gabriel: I've been bossy my whole life. (Laughs) Nah, I'm the only one here that doesn't do art. I'd rather dedicate myself to putting things together.
Bobby: He basically puts everything together, networks, and handles the
upcoming shows.

How did the Art Lounge come about?
Gabriel: There was nothing like it downtown at the time. We don't own a bar and we wanted to make an event that would encompass art, music, and film.
Bobby: And booze. But it also started out of necessity. It's a long time from First Friday to First Friday and we're not the type of artists to sit around waiting for them.

Art clusters seem to be getting a lot of attention these days. Is this the way
to go?
Gabriel: Even though we can get a bit lazy, everybody is still independent. A kick in the ass once in a while can help.
Alicia: I think everybody really gets encouragement from each other and it's evident in the group shows that we do.
Bobby: We've been doing this for a minute and we each have roles. As a collective, we get a lot more done. We're like Voltron.
Gabriel: We're not individually wealthy enough to do a lot of things on our own. To put things together on a larger scale, we gather our resources. Not to mention all the wacky ideas we get from each other.
Alicia: We really do play off each other's styles. We come from totally different art backgrounds but there's always something new we can learn.

What influences you to keep creating?
Alicia: Egon Schiele is my hands down favorite artist. His style is where I'm at right now.
Bobby: Graf writers, anybody who has the balls to do what they're gonna do. It could be anybody. Someone with drive drives me more. It makes me feel like "if you can do it, I can do it more."
Isaac: All these guys here. Like Alicia was saying, we feed off each other. We spend all day together and when I can see their process, it's not the same as seeing just a finished piece. And because we hang out, I can see their emotions through their art.

How does the art community in Phoenix compare now to how it was a few years ago?
Gabriel: I'm trying to make an impression here. I don't want Phoenix to be New York... but I think we should have an element of New York culture, LA culture, hispanic culture, whatever it may be. I think it's progressed since I've been here. I can see it and I think we've been a big part of it. I hope that we all can influence Phoenix culture and be a major driving force for the movement and steer it in a certain direction. If we don't make an impression now, it may be another ten years of the same shit.
Bobby: Yeah, before it gets stagnant. Before the Main Stay started getting big, First Fridays had always brought a lot of people but at eleven o'clock, everything would shut down. That would be it. Now, things go on until 1 am. Galleries are having after-parties.
Gabriel: We were here a year before we met Bobby and found First Friday. We started doing our own thing because before, you couldn't go anywhere in downtown Phoenix to hear good hip-hop music other than clubs and their radio shit. Now, you can go to a bunch of places like the Hidden House and the Paper Heart. We also wanted to have that element of underground hip-hop.
Alicia: I hated it (Phoenix) for the longest time. Being from Michigan and coming from such a vibrant art and music culture, it was so hard to get acclimated out here. I think we all came together with the point to create our own culture. Now, it's the perfect place to do what we're doing.
Bobby: We're trying to hold it down in both areas, Roosevelt and Grand. We're thinking two steps ahead. We want to be everywhere. We want to bring more DJs on, with some spoken word, something spontaneous, like with the monkey-masked belly dancer.
Gabriel: Now it's building up steam. Our mission is to bring people here and help turn Grand around.
Medea: The culture has been here for a while. I run into people now that knew my dad. My dad's been out of the scene for a few years.
Bobby: Older galleries can have a certain fear of change, but we're always changing. I hate seeing the same old art. Why do they have this if no one wants to see the same piece at each First Friday? So we keep things fresh by making new work.

What are your preferred mediums to work with?
Alicia: Mostly charcoal and then I go into it with paint afterward. Charcoal is my main medium. I love sculpture but I don't do it enough. Fashion.
Gabriel: I know these guys always switch up their mediums, my brother and Bobby. Always trying different shit.
Medea: I also dabble in film and photography.
Bobby: I know what I'm good at. I don't want to undertake something where only 50% of my abilities are being used.
Medea: I've seen him paint with ranch chip dip before.
Bobby: Leave it alone! I'm still working on that. It's fun.
Gabriel: But you'll still go from paint to water colors to drawing to working with your hands.
Alicia: Sometimes you have to go to a different medium just to get the job done, you know?
Bobby: Look at the flyers... you'll see the progression of the different styles. We've used pictures, line drawings, everything. Another medium is the shirts.
Eddie: The thing is, it doesn't matter what medium you choose, no one will say no if you're good at it. If you get the spotlight, run with it.

What is your process when working?
Gabriel: Every month, we try to come up with a theme between us all. My brother works on the flyer. Then we get to work.
Bobby: Once it's actually printed up on the flier, then we know it's out there and people are expecting it. We'll be grinding at it and people will come into the show while we're still hanging things up. 10 o'clock at night and we're still sweating.
Eddie: Even putting together the party and partying itself can still feel like work.
Bobby: Productive Thursdays is the night before First Friday. Everybody is still working on Frantic Friday!
Isaac: But it all works out in the end.

Do you know what a piece will look like in the end?
Alicia: No. I'll start to have an idea... I'll have images to go through unless it's a spontaneous subject. Sometimes it gets frustrating, if you feel limited by your skills. But that's what drives you to do more work and better your skills.
Gabriel: There's no way. I'm sure you guys have some idea, but...
Bobby: Well, you've got to have your reference, too.
Medea: No, it always changes.

Who is your work for?
Alicia: For ourselves. And to advance the whole group.
Bobby: I do it for the little people.
Medea: I do it to piss off other artists. To shit-talk, hoping that they would do something back.
Alicia: If we're doing a group show and everybody's putting so much work into the group show, then your particular piece isn't just about yourself.
Gabriel: Phoenix culture needs that.
Medea: And for a pitcher at the Bikini. (Laughs)

What kind of reactions do you get from your work and the shows?
Alicia: It's always been just positive stuff.
Bobby: The one I liked was 'who painted that fucking painting that says 'run, nigger, run?' The funny thing is, this other artist saw it and she's black. I thought she was gonna kick my ass. But instead she said "I liked that a lot'. I would rather have a real reaction rather than someone regurgitating something they heard. I like the brick-to-the-face technique.
Alicia: I think a lot of us want to get away from the First Friday thing where people get in the habit of just filing in and out of galleries. We want to get away from that.
Bobby: They're like cattle. There's so many people on Roosevelt if you stop on the sidewalk, you stop the whole line. You can't stop and stare. It's drive-thru art. With this new place, we're gonna get our own bus and start shuttling people over here.
Alicia: That's another thing. We really want to get people to stay here and we have different components to do that. We have music, DJs...
Bobby: The artwork comes earlier in the day and we might have something afterward and get them to come back. Like Saturday Afters. There were a
few galleries that were open on the saturday afternoon but they would close at five. So we started showing the eight millimeter movies to draw people in. Now it's turned into second First Friday.
Medea: I see a sifting process especially since we're now on Grand. People are starting to come here late at night.
Gabriel: We have different crowds. There are people that come to see the art, that like the art, and have met us through the artwork. Then we have other artists come in. And then we have the people that met us through the parties and they only come for the parties.
Medea: The energy that these places gather, like the Main Stay, would bring all types of people and all types of conversation.
Gabriel: We always change the venue, too. We even get Tempe artists to come out.
Bobby: Since he started working with the Brickhouse, some of the Leche parties would even have nationwide artists. You'll see all sorts of people in a smaller setting.
Gabriel: We're steering this in the direction that it's going, hoping for other people to catch on...
Bobby: ...So we can start going to their events.

How does the business end of your art affect it?
Bobby: At first, it was just a show for the sake of doing a show. But then you realize the rent has to be paid and you gotta eat.
Gabriel: At the end of the day, people don't know how much work has gone into putting on the shows... or how much Eddie and Damon (Breidenbach)
help us out with getting the behind-the-scenes aspect ready.
Isaac: If we had jobs then we wouldn't get anything done.
Gabriel: That's why we have the graphic design side of it, too.
Bobby: Yeah, if you don't eat, you can't resist.

What's in the future?
Gabriel: Well, we have the chance to get in on the ground floor of the Phoenix movement. We have a chance to make a major impact. What we'd
like to do is take the Art Lounge on tour and bring it to new cities and vice-versa. We want to get people talking. We're like a family right now because the art scene is so small.
Alicia: By the time this comes out, we'll have already opened this space with a brand new name.
Gabriel: Definitely not Leche.
Bobby: I guess as a collective, the name will come to us and feel right. Then on the other hand, why choose a name and potentially pigeonhole ourselves, right?

Exactly. For an ensemble that already does so much, the best formula is to keep heads guessing. Armed with the success of the Art Lounge, Leche, and Stay Gold, and in the footsteps of the Main Stay, this group (which includes artists Heather Gargon and Ken Situ) is in a prime position to continue helping shape the downtown climate. The Fortoul Presents crew teamed up recently with the anti._space gang to help organize the recent Hurricane Katrina survivors benefit at the Icehouse. The fundraiser attracted the attention and sponsorship of a number of downtown establishments, galleries, and collectives, including the mayor's office. The evening was very special as a couple hundred people turned out to listen to local musicians, enjoy a children's pavilion, and bid on extraordinary pieces donated by many local artists as well as goods and services from small businesses. With players like these, the proverbial bar keeps getting raised one art show at a time.

:: contact Manny Gonzalez :: mgonzalez56@cox.net