SQUATTER'S RITES

What would you do if the landlord stopped collecting rent and allowed squatters to take over an abandoned Fairfax-district apartment right next to yours? Why, commandeer the empty site, run extension cords from your pad into the space and create an art collective, of course. Tha's exactly what host/artist - not to mention beautiful - ANDY SCHEER did when he brought together artists HOLLAND, DAVID FRUDIS, MICHAEL MORRISON, JOHNNY OTTO, and just plain old OTTO for ARTSQUAT recently. Judging by the refreshments (beer and a boozy pink punch - what squatter can afford champagne?), this was no fancy-shmancy party. Among the smart art tarts milling and swilling while reviewing the hand-painted photographs, illustrations, and paintings were actor ALEXIS ARQUETTE, superstar CANDYASS, hairchopper FRANKIE PAYNE, PETRA HAYDEN (formerly of THAT DOG), Aussie transplants BELINDA GAVIN and her hot boyfriend MULLY, saucy SELENA, who got into the spirit of the evening by painting "ARTSQUAT" across her breasts (now that's what we call titillating), club king JOSH WELLS, photographer ANDY DEVINE, cocksucker to the stars HAGATHA, the long-lost but not missed SHELVELVA KENNEDY-SINATRA, and brassy babe MISS ANDRA.

TRIBAL.SEXUAL

TEACH YOURSELF. VALUE YOUR GENES. MAKE ART.

After his ungraceful, terrifying birth in 1966, the fourth of what would become a tribe of six kids, Johnny Otto went on to lead a life of extreme dolor. Otto received little notice while attending Catholic school, but did manage to walk away with his faith in humanity severly destroyed. Otto stopped attending church at the age of seventeen choosing instead to become friends with the neighborhood thieves, swindlers, and cretins whom he was certain were better people that the bible swinging jocks and cheerleaders. Realizing from an early age, the cruel, barbaric nature of the world, Otto isolated himself as much as possible from his fellow man and created an alternative, chimerical reality manifest through his poetry, art, music, and film. Otto's work often reflects a hedonistic world occupied by disfigured savages that, despite their chaotic arrangement, seem to be in a state of permanent bliss, seeking and finding unity in masses.

He struggles to find his place amongst the myriad of other misfits and crackpots that populate the urban landscape that we affectionately refer to as "civilization". In the future one should expect to see Johnny Otto living off the land in the south of France, painting grotesque epitomes of the human form, with Crumb on one side, and the plebeians tending the grape vines on the other other side. Until then please help restore his dwindling spirit by being kind to strangers, avoiding hate, greed and ignorance. And buy his damn art.

To request more info, get pricing, inquire about medium, to find out about any other details or to exhibit Johnny Otto's paintings, please EMAIL

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

EDUCATION

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

SOME EXHIBITIONS (from 1988 - Present)

COLLECTIONS