Drew Heitzler PT1
November 13, 2006
Drew Heitzler is out there doing it, seriously, living it up like the “dude” for all the sinners. But rather than taking it easy he’s working it, doing what he wants, letting the others figure out business plans and shit. Champion Fine Art, the Mandrake, his solo art career, bi-coastal curating, and good jokes about rollerbladers, hollar!
What was the original idea behind starting Champion?
The idea for Champion came about originally in 2002. Flora had applied to grad school at UCLA, and I was faced with the prospect of living in L.A. for two years. I had always been a fan of the artist run galleries that had existed in the East Village in the mid-80s, specifically International with Monument and Nature Morte, but I never seemed to have the time to get my act together and do it. Our planned move to L.A. worked as a catalyst to get me thinking about it in a serious way. I am a lazy person at heart but I am also terrified of people thinking that I am full of shit so my strategy for getting things done has always been to talk about my plans with everyone I meet. That way I have to find a way to get it done or everyone will say that I am all talk. It never occurs to me that people probably don'y really care what I do. Anyway, we didn't wind up moving to L.A. that year but I had run my mouth off so much that I felt like I had to open the gallery anyway, so Flora and I found a loft in Williamsburg with two doors, put some walls up and asked our friends to curate some shows, and opened the doors in September of 2003.
For a two year series of artist currated shows, why have your own physical space for this, rather than find a different spot for it each time?
The one thing that was very important to us was that we (meaning everyone involved) had complete control of our own destiny. At that particular moment in New York, the market was really starting to become a monster that was both tempting and terrifying. This was also the period of time when the art fairs were really coming on strong and artists were trying to sort that all out as well. Add to this the rise of the international curator as meta-artist (think Hans Ulrich Oberist) and it was quickly becoming clear that artists were losing control of the discourse. We wanted to take a little back on our own terms. That meant having our own space where we could call the shots.
Were you making your own work during this too?
In 2002 I premiered my first film, Subway Sessions, at Anthology Film Archives. I had been painter and sculptor up to that point. The film had just been a fun side project. I didn't even really consider it an art piece. But everyone liked it, and then people starting writing about it and before you know it I was a film maker. The problem was that I didn't know anything about film making. Subway Sessions was an amateur effort that I made with a point and shoot super-eight camera. So I spent the good part of the next year trying to figure out what the word aperture meant. Then I tried to make some films in a more professional way. They were complete failures, so I went back to winging it.
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daniel | 11/13/06 @ 2:36 PM
HOLLA.