WWJD, if like me, he were banned from entire blocks of bars in the 14th and U street corridor? I replied to myself “Who cares, athiest?” The real answer was to slum upwards at art openings and corresponding embassy events. It’s my candy mountain: waterfalls of decent-enough wine and keg beer, tasty finger food — and sometimes better — all for free, and one can get one’s mooch on and done with enough time to stagger home to Jim Vance and Doreen Gentzler. Could a friday night be better, joe? Maybe. But not by much.
My crawl started at the Hillyer Art Space’s First Friday where works by artists Anna U. Davis and Ante Sardelic ruled the wallspace as DJ Gavin Holland soundtracked it. Mr. Sardelic’s abstracts were like Braque in 1-bit color. Anna’s tableaus were painterly versions of party photos from the apocolypse; all sweat, tension and grimaces. There’s more than a whiff of Juxtapoz in her work, and with me, that’s a good thing.
On to a classier, more genteel crowd at the Embassy of Croatia, further west on embassy row. I have to admit, after a glance at the party through the second-floor windows, I thought three times about whether to bother. Plus, what did I know about these folks? My only points of reference were Arsenal’s Eduardo Da Silva, AC Milan’s Dario Simic the red and white checks on the national soccer team’s jersies. But, nothing ventured … Once in, I made a b-line to the stacked buffet table first, then to the bar while serenaded by a pair of classical guitarists. I got to meet Ante Sardelic, whose studio sits in the middle of what used to be Toronto’s (unofficial) artist loft and warehouse party district. Not much later, the Hillyer crowds infiltration of the embassy had begun. The embassy’s buffet proved pretty goddamn resilient, thank jeebs.
I can and will get used to this kind of livin’.
Full photo set here
Big up to Javid with the just-in-time calfskin (or something) trousers.
May 5, 2008 at 3:27 pmShorts to an Embassy event?
May 5, 2008 at 4:36 pmThose are Javid’s Parisian Party Pants, he never leaves home without them thanks goodness!
May 5, 2008 at 6:08 pmAmbassador of Shorts, meet the Ambassador of Croatia.
Ambassador of Croatia, meet the Ambassador of Shorts.
only makes sense.
it’s too bad you missed the meat market gallery, because the sculptures were actually as or more interesting than the people… but then again, you can’t hit them all…
May 5, 2008 at 10:15 pmToo true.
There were few of things I skipped friday night actually. Something close to home at Pass gallery, a bbq even closer. But it was going to be a long night (got home at 6AM the next day) after a long day following a looong week.
the line had to be drawn somewhere.
Highlights of the evening included Gavin Holland, after being told that shorts were not allowed in the Embassy, informing the large Croatian door man that what he was wearing would be unacceptable at his”Shorts” party!
May 5, 2008 at 3:08 pm