we honored our longtime collaboration with artist and friend~ CARLOS BATTS.
ANTEBELLUM has been many things over the years and last night it felt like church, but a really good church!
i met carlos batts when i first opened antebellum way back in 2005. batts invited me to be part of an exhibition he was curating called~ CRAZY/SEXY/HOLLYWOOD. a group show including batts, dave naz, steve diet goedde, patrick holeck, estevan oriol and me~ rick castro. i was the token homo. batts mixed it up big time. back in 2005 some people had a problem with my very homoerotic bondage images juxtaposed with very hetroerotic images. carlos did not. in fact he pushed it. "this is the way it should be," he told me.
over the years carlos & lillian batts have contributed to many exhibitions @ antebellum, including~
BLACKS, a group exhibition of erotic artworks, all genders all sexualities, all black. it was a groundbreaking show.
AUTOMOLOVE, FUCK LOVE, DIRTY SHOW HOLLYWOOD, APRIL FLORES TOY SHOW... we did so many great exhibitions together. i used to get soooo mad at carlos because he was always late installing the art. i wanted to start first thing in the morning. batts would saunter in late afternoon. i'd be pissed. i would turn to lillian and say, " you tell him something i can't get him to listen to me." lillian would reply, " i just let him do whatever he wants. it all works out that way."
now that is a marriage! carlos & lillian batts are my favorite married couple.
CARLOS & LILLIAN BATTS FOREVER
rick castro~ antebellum gallery~ november 15th~ 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment