I have a love/hate relationship with Richard Prince. For the most part, I'm really into the concepts behind his work. Half of the time, though, the actual work kinda sucks. Thankfully, the other half of the time, his work -- conceptually and the actual pieces -- is amazing.

One thing's for sure: Prince is a hot commodity in the art world and has been for some time. Despite his rock star status, he's involved in a very cool, but somewhat unexpected show called She at a relatively unknown gallery in LA called Michael Kohn Gallery. I have to admit, I'm not big on the LA art scene -- my favorites are Peres Projects and Regen Projects -- so maybe this is a big deal, but I'd say someone at Prince's level being part of a show with a somewhat obscure artist who died in the mid 70's is pretty hot.

Says the NY Times: As artists' biographies go, those of Wallace Berman and Richard Prince could hardly be more different. Berman, who died at 50 in 1976, the victim of a drunken driver, was a kind of Beat guru flying just below the radar, showing his work in only one conventional gallery exhibition during his lifetime and popping into rare view in strange places: a cameo in Easy Rider; the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, where his face is wedged next to Tony Curtis's, just below Jung's.

By contrast Mr. Prince, 59, labored in obscurity for years but not exactly by choice: he wanted a larger audience and found it. For more than two decades he has been one of the most influential contemporary artists, and his work — paintings, photography, car-centric sculpture — has sold for many millions of dollars.

For the first time Mr. Prince's work will appear alongside Berman's in a show called She. The exhibition focuses on a common subject where the two artists overlap in odd and unexpected ways: women.

Read the full article here. Don't forget to checkout Prince's site -- which is chock full of images of his work and interviews -- his Wiki, as well as Berman's Wiki. I don't know about you, but until now, I'd never heard of Berman, but his work looks interesting. I'm much more interested in the photos than the collages, but that's just me.

If you're in LA, you won't want to miss this one.

She
Richard Prince + Wallace Berman
Michael Kohn Gallery
01.15 - 03.08.09