Minutwar by Dave Carnie, on display at Cal’s Pharmacy 11 Ne Hancock PDX, opening February 28th 6-9pm

This Saturday night we will be having an opening for Dave Carnie’s “Minutwar”. This body of work includes some new pieces and some old, never before seen photos. Most of which are part of the “Minutwar” series. “It’s kind of like ‘Minotaur’ combined with ‘minute war,’” Carnie said of the title. “They’re like little battles. The Minotaur represents the war of the self, between your human side and your animal side. But mostly the photos are just manifestations of these stupid little wars I have every day with people. Like trying to beat the old lady in the grocery store line next to you, or not letting the asshole in the Hummer into your lane on the freeway… They’re stupid, but I’m constantly having these invisible, little, minute wars with people. Petty and childish, I know, but that’s what I do. I also enjoy farting in the grocery store.”

Dave Carnie started skateboarding in the late 70s. He became sponsored by Foundation in the mid-80s and has been a part of the skateboard industry ever since. Most notably as photographer, writer, and eventually editor in chief of Big Brother Skateboarding Magazine. Dave was with the magazine for its entire 14-year existence and was one of the creators of the TV show Jackass, which was born out of the videos made by the staff of the magazine.

An early member of the skate art scene in the early 90s (what would eventually become the “Beautiful Losers” movement), Dave’s work was shown in Hollywood, San Francisco, New York (at Aaron Rose’s infamous Alleged Gallery), and in London. He saw moderate success but eventually grew tired of the burgeoning popularity of “urban art.” “There would be these skateboard art shows,” Carnie said of the time, “but half the artists didn’t even skate. Or, they ‘used to skate.’ And then on top of that, they’d drag their girlfriends’ crappy art in as well. It was retarded.” He eventually laid down the camera to focus completely on writing and Big Brother magazine.

In the course of his career as a writer, besides writing a large portion of Big Brother magazine every month, Carnie has written for numerous other magazines including Rolling Stone, VIBE, Bizarre, Hustler, Blunt, Snowboard Magazine, SBC Magazine, (Canadian), Kingpin (Europe), Monster Children (Australia), and the LA Times. He is currently a staff writer for The Skateboard Magazine and does freelance food writing for Dining Out magazine as well as maintaining a food blog at www.foodondrunk.blogspot.com. He is also working on his first book.

I’m sure that a lot of you out there have some regrets when it comes to not purchasing a piece

of art that you loved and thought was great but was just a little out of your price range only to realize in the future that you really missed out on a great work of art at a bargain price. For some bizarre reason a lot of my old friends have become really successful in the contemporary art scene and I now find myself going thru old boxes trying to find different pieces that they had given me when I was young…. Where did I put that print that Tobin Yelland gave me? Did I loose my box that had all of those Thomas Campbell drawings and paintings on junky cardboard? Why didn’t I just spend the $75 and just get that little piece from Barry McGee, who I knew as “Twist” at the time? These things haunt me

About ten years ago when I was living with Ethan Fowler we went to a Chris Johanson opening here in Portland. Of course the work was awesome, classic Chris Johanson imagery. There was one piece that Ethan really wanted to by for our house, it was a great piece but it cost, I think $400? I really can’t remember but it was around that. So, Ethan asks me what I think and I tell him. “It’s great but for $400? That’s a lot of money…” and I proceeded to talk him out of it. BIG mistake. Yes we knew how great Chris and his work was, we loved his band “Tina Age 13” and knew that he was an equally great person, what we didn’t know was that within the next couple of years he would be an international art star and that what I considered to be a little too expensive at $400 would actually be on of the biggest bargains I have ever missed out on. This all being said, please, do not be like me, living a life of regret, laying awake at night thinking of all of those missed chances. This Saturday you will be able to make amends, come and see Dave Carnie’s first solo show in nearly 10 years. Even David Lee Roth is a fan and owns a piece of Mr. Carnies work and who doesn’t want to be like Diamond Dave? Well minus the STD’s of course.

yours, the art dept.

Posted on Monday, February 23rd, 2009.

Comments are currently closed.