Michael Workman

It's a bustling night at the West Loop's Bucket Rider Gallery, where a crowd of curiosity-seekers has turned out in celebration of hip Denton, Texas-based art magazine "Art Prostitute." Gallery co-directors Keith Couser and Andrew Rafacz are mingling with artists and patrons alike, kidding and kibitzing freely (full disclosure time: this reporter rents the space to the gallery's owners). "It's always nice to have a free night, when somebody else does all the work," quips Couser, smiling and toasting his plastic cup of wine. Art Prostitute editors Mark Searcy and Brian Gibb are definitely on the stick, actively handing out copies of the magazine's fifth issue, "Still Alive," a theme that alludes to the delay between issues caused by the effort to open the group's new gallery space. It also alludes to the untimely death of promising young Philadelphia-based painter Rebecca Westcott at the age of 28. Hit by a DWI driver while trying to change a flat tire along I-90 in Connecticut, she's commemorated on the second inside page with a photo of the artist in her studio. Her work lives on.

And this captures the magazine's artist-centric strategy: each issue, combine profiles of up-and-coming young artists with a showcase of their work; this issue it's Gary Baseman, Tiffany Bozic, Kozyndan and Chicago fave Cody Hudson. It's a handsome publication, perfect-bound with lush, full-color images throughout and four smallish square posters in a slipcase on the inside back cover. As most publishing events go, this one's a success right from the beginning: visitors have a reason to toast and do it despite their wounded hearts.

(2005-02-01)

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