The Quick And The Dead: Vale/Basquiat Show Wild Success at Edwin Tanazzi Gallery

(Excerpt from American Artist, vol. 32, no. 2, Feb. 1989)

Michael Vale—the young artist whose meteoric rise into the blue-chip art world has left many people with their jaws (and checkbooks) open—made history Friday night at the cavernous Edwin Tanazzi Gallery in downtown Los Angeles. The exhibition has allowed Vale, not yet twenty, to become the first living artist to garner equal representation in a two-person gallery show with the iconic and recently deceased painter Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Despite the Tanazzi Gallery’s insistence that no more than two of Vale’s paintings could be purchased by any individual collector at the opening, his section of the show—thirty-two new paintings, some of them upward of fifteen feet in length—was sold out within the hour. Basquiat’s work was on loan from various collectors, as well as his estate—currently being overseen by his father, Gerald Basquiat, who is embroiled in several legal battles regarding ownership of many of the pieces being shown . . .

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Controversial Artist Michael Vale Convicted of Public Drunkenness, Assault, Sentenced to Rehabilitation Center

(Excerpt from Outside the Lines: A Journal of Outsider Art, no. 112, May 2008)

In a textbook example of the tenuous nature of the art world, Michael Vale—who less than a decade ago was considered one of the most renowned contemporary artists in America, with early and mid-period canvasses still reaching six figures at auction—was sentenced to a 90-day treatment center in Portland, Oregon today. He was convicted last December of DUII and second degree assault after getting into a physical altercation with the driver of another vehicle involved in a collision.

Sources close to the artist hardly seem surprised. “Mike’s really been going down a dark road for a while,” says Jacob Burfine, a gallery curator who showed Vale’s work when the two lived in Los Angeles. Years later, after both of them had moved to Portland, Burfine unsuccessfully attempted to arrange some exhibitions for Vale, despite the artist’s marked drop in status and sales. “It’s gotten to the point where he’s so volatile it’s hard to even talk to him sometimes. I don’t think he’s painted in years. Not that I can necessarily blame him, the way things have turned out. Hopefully this will make some kind of impact.”

Vale was at one time married to mystery novelist Candice Hessler; Burfine and others say that Vale’s recklessness has intensified since their divorce. “He’s definitely stepped it up in the years since he and Candice split. Honestly, you hear the term ‘loose cannon,’ you think of Mike Vale. The fact that he doesn’t even own his own paintings anymore probably doesn’t help,” says Burfine, referring to Vale’s controversial decision to give exclusive rights and ownership to all work created before 1999 to his previous agent. The agent, Jared Brophy of the Brophy Agency in Los Angeles, claims that there was nothing disreputable or illegal about the contract, which gave him complete control over Vale’s entire catalog of work up to that year, including percentages of resale prices at auction. “There’s nothing hinky about it,” Brophy insists. “I was trying to help him out. Mike needed some money badly and I was becoming unimpressed with the quality of his newer work; it was losing its vitality, its rage. The early and mid-period work has this fantastic, kinetic edge, but he’d just been phoning it in for a while. I gave him a flat fee, a very generous one, for contractual rights so he could pay off some debts. That’s it.” It’s believed that Vale’s paintings have fetched tens of millions of dollars since Brophy gained control over them, while Vale himself hasn’t had a show of new work in years. The contract—which many insiders believe is a questionable one at best and would most likely be overturned by a judge should it ever be brought to court—won’t be up for renewal for nearly another twenty years.

We were unable to contact Vale regarding his sentencing, and his lawyer declined to comment. It’s unclear whether he will challenge the court’s verdict or enter the rehabilitation program . . .

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Drunks Do the Darnedest Things (When They’re Totally Fucked Up): Has-Been Artist Turns Vigilante Against Evil, Evil Gallery Windows

(Excerpt from the Portland Mercury, July 31, 2013)

Looks like somebody can’t handle their liquor. Police reports obtained by the Mercury indicate that painterly has-been Mike Vale got all Bruce Lee down in the Pearl District on Monday night, kicking and punching out the display windows of seven galleries before being apprehended by police. After being discharged from St. Vincent’s for severe lacerations, he was arrested under a shitload of charges and taken to the drunk tank.

The galleries, including Tobias Chang Fine Art, Green Light Go! and Visions, refused to press charges after Vale’s ex-wife, mystery writer Candice Hessler, paid for the damages. Vale’s still looking at possible county time for being wasted in public, and maybe even a felony charge for tussling with the cops.

“In a way, I feel sorry for the guy,” Tobias Chang said of Vale, who at one time had regularly sold out exhibitions in New York, LA, Milan and Paris. “I mean, he was bigger than God at one point, in terms of the art world. I’d still even be interested in looking at any new work that he’s done, in spite of all this.”

Yet it appears that Vale—who’s now employed at a car wash and can regularly be seen getting eighty-sixed from local bars—is less interested in painting and more interested in property damage. Stay classy, Mike!