Artist Matthew Tully Dugan walks through the openings of Henry Street on 4/20 and collides with Jeff Koons Uptown

HAppY420 welcome to my wet painting, lots of image blur and a haze of iconic art world lituations.

The day started with a beautiful glow. I live downtown and love getting out of my house to the busy streets of Chinatown. It doesn’t take long before you see a familiar face, skateboarder and street style icon Keith Hardy. He introduced me to his photographer friend Anna Bloda who just hosted a pop-up in this space on Essex Street which has been at least three different galleries that I can remember. I continued on to my local smokehouse for some pre-rolls of THC Crystals which I wanted to give away to a select few today – the first being my barista, Cecily Brown being my immediate second 😉

It is heavy. He is the newest addition to Pike Street and lives with the monks of this Buddhist temple. He is so big and so sweet. I usually stop at this temple to meditate for a while before a busy day and now I cherish that moment even more.

I stop to check with Will Shott at his gallery as he opens a new exhibition tonight with Lucy Charlesworth Freeman. I did the last show with Will and changed his space quite a bit, so it was great to see it go back to being fresh white with Lucy’s colorful work animating the walls. I have helped many galleries in this block over the past year with art building and manipulation and this week has been a heavy hitter, painting two separate spaces, transporting works and installing two exhibitions . Everything is in order now and we are all excited for a great night!

I stop at 56 Henry to see the team and drop half an ounce of weed to Ellie Rines. She plans to sell dime bags all night. Never hustle.

My last stop in the neighborhood is at King’s Leap where Isabelle Frances McGuire will open her solo exhibition. I sat down with gallery owner Alec Petty and artist Stephany Lazar to work out some wiring solutions for a room that uses a baby Yoda doll as a motorized vessel activated by a motion sensor. It’s an incredible sight.

Isabelle Frances McGuire, Self-Portrait2 {“Ghost”} (2023) and SuperBaby1 (unmanned) {“BB”} (2023).

I also dropped by Public Access to preview the group show curated by Diego Barcelo and Selah Wilks featuring work seen here by Marika Thunder, Sofia Leilani, Isabella Kressin and Madison Kenny. Lots of heat in this show!

I continued to Nolita or Noho or wherever the Calvin Klein billboard is to see Kendall Jenner’s new ad styled by Mel Ottenberg. For those who don’t know me, it may seem strange that this is a major destination today. The majority of my art revolves around images of Kendall, so something like that is always very exciting to me. I love seeing such large prints; it reminds me of Jack Pierson’s ‘Paintings’ (’97-’02) exhibition at Maccarone in 2015, which consisted of large close-up photographs of lips, skin and nature scenes printed on vinyl display and stretched like canvas. Mel did a TikTok a few days before talking about when he was young in New York he dreamed of having his work on a billboard and it was inspiring to imagine showing something of me on that scale.

I saw Michael Rappaport and his wife Kebe Dunn walking down the street right after that and had to politely ask for a photo. He was very grateful that I asked lol. I love seeing celebrities in nature.

Then I had a meeting with the Amanita staff to discuss some building plans they have for their space. I’m so lucky to have such a large community of people in the art world that constantly connects me with job opportunities. Kudos to Lauryn-Ashley Vandyke pictured here on her way back to the office with Sweetgreen and a big smile!

After crunching some numbers, I headed over to artist and friend Nathaniel Matthews. We met to talk about a painting by him that I’m buying to work out a payment plan. I’m so excited to add new works to my collection and I’m always happy to be able to show my support for artists who are my contemporaries. Nat was carrying a block of glass that was part of a sculpture he will soon be showing and he bought a Vichy Catalan which he was considering adding to the piece.

I went home and rolled like 20 joints to give away and went back to Henry and Pike for the openings. The 56 Henry team held on for Jo Messer’s two-space solo show. From left to right: Olivia Saporito, Zeke Estes and Alana Frances Baer.

Attendance at the vernissages was crazy: the whole block was flooded! So much love for the Henry Street scene. Pictured, top to bottom left: Leo Fitzpatrick, Eileen Kelly, Jeanette Hayes, Sam Jablon and Louis Shannon, Isabelle Frances Mcguire, Nandi Loaf, Omari Douglin, Joe Speier, Maddie Kuzak, Nate Freeman, Zac Bahaj, Lucy Charlesworth Freeman…

…and Ingrid Lundgren, Noah Beckwith, Erik Palm, Max Levai, Ellie Rines, Clayton Schiff, Cynthia Talmadge, Jo Messer.

The party continued in Juku…Jo Messer and I filmed by her dad, Nick Hidad, Meg Yates, Ellie Rines (so loud puffin) and Alex Berns.

Next, I took a quick trip to Tribeca to hang out with some besties; the 420 vibrations were reaching their peak.
From left to right: Naveed Hussain, Gabriella Fussner Chen and Harley Laratta.

I ended the evening at Mehanata with amazing sets from BabyxD and Knives. I smoked everyone one last time and hit the road. From top left to bottom right: Dagsen, Ize, BabyxD, Dom, Knives, Meg (they all have the same name iykyk).

I did a few more laps the next day. Or was it Saturday? The timeline is a little fried. I pack a lot when I don’t have work obligations and try to see as many shows as possible. I love going to 10+ shows a day and connecting the dots through history. I think the artists that appeal to me the most are the ones that seem to have deep-rooted historical nostalgia but interpret those aesthetics in a very contemporary way. I went to see Alexandra Metcalf at 15orient, Cecily Brown at the Met, and Henry Belden who opened his show in the West Village at The Meeting. All of these works read to me like unearthed relics of the future.

During my travels, I met artists Liv van Kuiken, Liliana Lacayo, Paul Lee and Sean Flynn. Henry is pictured with his boyfriend Kye Christensen-Knowles during his show in the village.

I also met artist Yuan Fang at LDGR right after I asked Jeff Koons to take a picture next to Urs Fischer’s new work because I thought it was culturally significant in a cheeky way and I’m pretty sure he agreed.

I went to see Jessica Dean Harrison at Gern in Regalia and was surprised but thrilled to meet a musician I’ve admired since high school, Cass McCombs. I acted like a total fan but he was really nice and cool. I had to leave before I embarrassed myself too terribly.

Later that night, I saw A$AP Mob co-founder A$AP Illz get out of his BMW around the corner from my apartment, so I had to take a quick photo. It was pouring rain and he still made me take two pictures because he didn’t want me to rush and he was right. The first photo was wildly out of focus and her eyes were closed.

The next day I had to go back to work. I’m producing a few new pieces that I’ll be showing at a private residence during Frieze week in mid-May. I had to pick up a huge screenprint I had developed at Kayrock in Long Island City and decided the Uber wasn’t worth it, so I took it on the bus and two trains to the drive back to downtown. I printed on DiBond aluminum, so I had a piece cut out at local sign maker Vida and had artist Mario Miron make me a frame. Always more to accomplish! It’s an absolute blessing to have such an amazing community of intensely driven people who have all dedicated their lives to the arts. Thank you all for making the dream come true!