Introduction-Jason Hanasik

(Image above: Installation image from the exhibition: 10 Days/10 Photographers. My work is on the left. Dana Gentile's work is on the right.)

So, Kris asked me to start contributing to the gallery's blog and I figured I would start by just posting a quick introduction of who I am and what I am interested in writing about.

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About Me: Since it seems to work for ArtForum, why not: My Current-ish Top Ten

1. Julia Sugarbaker- The den mother of the Sugarbaker design enterprises in downtown Atlanta, Julia is always poised with great advice and prepared to take down the incipient and closed-minded who walk among us. Played by Dixie Carter on the television show Designing Women, Julia Sugarbaker is the epitome of what a fine Southern person should be: full of charm, wit and above all character.

2. Rufus, Rufus, Rufus- The 2006 re-performance of Judy Garland's seminal concert at Carnegie Hall by Rufus Wainwright was nothing short of a masterpiece. Wainwright's near perfect echo of Garland brought us back to that moment in 1961 when the world was about to change. His dedication to boyfriend, Jorn, mid-concert reminds us how far we have come in a little over 30 years.

3. Paul Cadmus- An exquisite painter who work taught me, across a seven decade divide, how to spot my people with red neckties, a sideways glance, and a lingering eye. My one major art regret is that I wasn't born ten years earlier (and a dancer) for I would have found him in Connecticut and commissioned a nude drawing.

4. Lincoln- This complicated man left us with a treasure trove of thoughts and words that, if redeployed correctly, just might help us mend our current union. The compassion he shows in his letter to Mrs. Bixby after the loss of her five sons needs to find it's way into the hands of the current administration immediately.

5. The Hustler Series by Philip-Lorca DiCorcia- DiCorcia managed to do two things I love: get around a law set up to protect "family values" and make some of my favorite images of the male body.

6. "Disease" by The Ark- While I was living five miles from Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network few things made me happier and sadder at the same than blaring this Swedish glam rock band's song from my car's speakers at full blast. A vocal portrait that starts out with the line, "and the lions ate the Christians and the Christians burned the witches," the song updates the Romeo and Juliet allegory for a second wave AIDS generation.

7. The Stonewall Experiment- An out of print book that looks at the psychohistory of the gay male self image from the Uranians to the gays to the dandies to the queers. A book that is not apologetic for who its reader is, young gay men, but welcomes everyone else to read over his shoulder.

8. Jesper Just- A Danish artist working in film who makes me both want to pick up a video camera and wonder if I can really add anything to the discussion. The pairing of the screaming men's choir with vocal standards was the best sucker punch I have ever experienced (first hand) in a gallery setting.

9. The Hunt- Even though I love my boyfriend, there is nothing that can replace that rush of coming upon a gay male public sex area. Surprisingly, it's not the voyeurism that gets me going. Instead, it's the hunt, the men circulating around me and me around them. Above all, the ingenuity of the sex dens that some of them create.

10. San Francisco, CA- The catch phrase for all things hedonistic and liberal, a big small town, located on the water, a place I used to be able to get married in, and my current home. This town continues to surprise me every couple months. Sorry NYC, I think I only need to visit you on holiday from now on.

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As for the blog, I am interested in writing about the following: the art scene in San Francisco, the MFA world (just finished getting one of those), teaching (something I am doing at the ASUC art studio on the UC Berkeley campus), and what artworks and publications related to the art world which fascinate(d) me.

Like any "blogger," comments are always welcome.