Jeremy blogs up his trip to Italy for a show @The Don Gallery.
2008 was one of the best years of my life so far. less projects, more time spent on each one, and less trips to the airport, which has become more and more like going to prison. i am fortunate enough usually with these trips to have my trusted assistant, the nightowlchohaulic, to photograph and blog my projects. he scored a sweet ass day job recently, so sadly i will try and do this myself. i apologize ahead of time, i am not as funny as he is....i recently had a show at "the don gallery" in milan italy with my good friend will barras from london. the show was called "pants vs. trousers". its a play on the english language between american english and the queens version. when i was in europe years ago, will and i painted a small wall in a public park in london. some young teenagery kids came by and started to paint with us. at some point a young girl, maybe 14 asked me if we had a rag to wipe the paint off her hand. i said no, and told her to wipe it on the inside of her pants cuff. she looked shocked, and ran off. minutes later her very pissed off puffed up boyfriend rolls up on me. he wants to know what i said, so i explained that i told her to wipe the paint inside her pants cuff, and showed him the paint inside mine. he laughed super hard, and explained that in england, pants means underpants, and trousers are where she should wipe the paint. we had a mutual laugh before getting accused of being child molesters and getting chased off. we based the theme of the show on that experience. the following photos are from our show, and the ten days we spent in milan enjoying the food in the early september italian sun.

in the past i have had a bit of trouble with the italian customs, and having work shipped into italy hasn't been so easy. so, this trip i planned ahead, and made 14 small pieces that all fit into this thrift store samsonite i scored. i walked past customs with a big smile. work officially smuggled in.

siiiiiick.

the next day we went to a flea market in gorgonzola italy just outside milano. i would hope this is where the cheese comes from, but perhaps they just eat a lot of it there. neither of my italian hosts knew the answer.

flea markets in other countries are magical because foreign junk is more interesting than domestic junk.

one of the coolest vehicles ever made: the fiat 500.

my favorite italian geezer galo came for a visit. if you ever see this dude somewhere buy him a beer.

so, the gallery was on the same street as a modeling school and some of the top modeling agencies in milan. needless to say there were a couple of pretty ladies walking by all day everyday. we opened in informal modeling agency, and held our first casting in the gallery.

so we bought a shitload of paintable italian junk at the flea market, painted it all white, and built a wall out of it. imagine all this junk and four people crammed in a volkswagen golf. thanks to the young lady that lead us to that market, it was a jackpot.

then we did some art. see also: pants and trousers. serious bmx brushing here folks. lots of nooks and crannies in that there wall.

matteo doninni aka: the don. even the don gets tired sometimes.

this dude stopped by. remember him? black arms, skated in his underwear in a shoe ad? best dude ever. stopped by milan for 6 hours on his where to someplace. nice to see you scott.

big trousers.

my foot, ape junk delivery...

big pants.

will's foot...tito the gerbil is driving. (matteo's daughter's super gerbil)

detail shots of the junk mural...

bad ass italian gnome bike

finished and ready to eat a feast of italian delights.

this funny dude named bixio came by the opening with his famous channel no. 5 powered renault four. if you have ever seen a renault four you know how rad they are. this one, and its driver are extra rad. apparently the story goes that bixio had a show in milan that included his car. the italian prime minister Silvio BERLUSCONI stopped by and offered to buy this car. he said he wanted it for his wife. he would park it in the driveway so his wife would think she was getting daily channel deliveries. bixio said the price was 30,000 euros. the deal is still pending, but the story proves that things in fashion driven milano are a still bit fucked.

i would like to thank mateo the don, bo130, and microbo for their hospitality and the daily culinary tour (which i should have photographed, but forgot). and to mr. will barras for the creative recharge. if you are ever in milan, say hello to matteo, and ask to see his motor bikes and tito. i flew home directly after the show to get picked up and head straight to mr trippe's bachelor weekend. wheeeew, beer. now its back to work on my upcoming show "ghosts of the barbary coast" here in san francisco december 4th. hope to see you there.

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