Monday, Feb. 19, 2007 | 7:29 a.m.
Todd Goldman brandishes toy diamond rings in celebration of his "Golddigger" exhibit at the Entertainment Galleries at the Venetian. A stylish and exceptionally good-looking crowd mingles around him.
At some point most everyone laughs over the crude humor and cartoon drawings hung salon-style on the wall.
But nobody more so than Goldman, who's been laughing all the way to the bank since his first foray into the art world two years ago. That's when Jack and Carolyn Solomon of S2 Art Group agreed to do a small showing of the Florida artist's canvases.
The gallery has since sold several hundred paintings, bringing in a total of $2.5 million.
Who knew that a cross section of the population would clamor for paintings of stick figures with erections, talking poop, fart jokes, insults and nonsensical phrases matched with cute and cuddly characters?
"I don't think anyone expected it, even myself," Goldman says.
That first exhibit was to feature between 25 and 40 works by Goldman, who had never had an art show. Goldman made 111. Eighty-seven of them sold that evening and a few were sold as soon as they arrived at the offices on Main Street and Charleston Boulevard.
"It's the humor, really," Carolyn Solomon says, explaining her - and others' - interest in Goldman's work. "It's fresh, distinctive and simple. He takes a very big idea and reduces it to something that's easily understood."
And at prices between $3,000 and $10,000, it's not children buying them. It's grandmothers, stockbrokers, firemen, twentysomethings and a prostitute - a financially fit population that has moved from T-shirts and bumper stickers to wall art.
The gallery just shipped "You Suck Big Time" to a collector in the United Kingdom. Two Saudi Arabian women purchased "Smoking Kills," and a couple from Milan recently bought "I Did the Chess Team."
"Some buy it for shock value. Some buy it for investment," Carolyn Solomon says. "I don't care what your collection is about, you put this up and everyone's going to comment on it.
"It takes a certain amount of courage to have 'Fat Kids Are Harder to Kidnap' on your wall."
But even the Solomons are a bit surprised. When a painting that reads, "When I get bored I glue my cat's butt to the ceiling," was sold, Carolyn Solomon said, "I give up."
The racier paintings sell best, says Nicole Palacios, dealer for S2 Art Group.
"People wear T-shirts to express themselves, say things they wouldn't normally say. It's the same with art."
There is plenty to choose from. Goldman is prolific dreaming up new characters, absurdities and phrases.
His "Goodbye Kitty" series, a knockoff of the "Hello Kitty" line, puts the big-headed feline in a microwave, on a crucifix and with a bloody bullet in its head.
His "I Found Jesus, He Was Behind the Couch" painting is tediously declarative, as are "You Smell Like My Butt" and "Peas On Earth."
An adorable cat praying at the end of her bed has a thought bubble that reads, "Dear God, Please make everyone die. Amen." Recurring character Trendy Wendy exclaims with arms held wide open, "You suck this much."
So how did Goldman get here?
"Ass-backwards," the artist says, while sitting in a black leather chair in the back of the gallery.
True. Goldman was already creating slogans and designs for the David and Goliath T-shirt company that he started in 2000. His licensing agent connected him with S2 Art Group, a fine-art lithography company known for its limited edition prints and commercial pop art. His T-shirts, pajamas and novelties appeal to teenage girls, although the sentiment on his "Boys Are Stupid, Throw Rocks At Them" has drawn protests from angry parents.
There is more to come. He keeps churning out apparel and novelty items at the pace of his art, which often share the images. The low-priced novelty items are sold at places such as the Stupid Factory at the Venetian. There is hardly a market Goldman hasn't tapped into. "Next I'm going after the Braille market."
The Solomons had no idea what would happen when they put his work on the wall. "We were very apprehensive because it was so politically incorrect," Jack Solomon says.
Carolyn Solomon, who won't even utter some of Goldman's catchphrases, says, "I just thought it was hilarious. It was the humor really. It was really fresh."
But is it art? Is it Post-Pop as Jack Solomon puts it?
"That's an internal question," says a smiling Alan H. Cushman of AtaBoy, a Los Angeles licensing company that produces pop culture magnets, key chains, mouse pads and other gear.
"He's an artist in the spirit of Warhol. He has a finger on the pulse of our society right now. His humor is irreverent. It's fun. It makes people laugh and feel good. It's not such serious art so you don't have to be intimidated by it."
Keith Tomaszewsky, vice president of S2 Art Group, says he sells to people who have serious collections - with works by Robert Rauschenberg and Keith Haring - and sees similarities between Haring and Goldman.
"It's a different time," Tomaszewsky says. "Now our message is quick and in your face."
Goldman didn't set out to be a social commentator or to mirror society. "I'm just having fun," he says.
Gesturing toward a cartoon portrait of a friendly soap bar that reads, "Don't Forget to Wash Your Butt," Goldman says, "I'm just giving a shout out to the soaps of the world.
"I'm no Picasso or Rembrandt. It's more about the message, the attitude, the adult humor with childlike images. I'm obviously a sarcastic smart-ass. It's nice to know that other people are out there, too. It's really more accepted than I ever thought it would be."
Local collectors and Pug owners Marla Popescul and Brad Follas bought a Goldman piece that reads, "Say No to Pugs." They also own, "I don't repeat gossip so listen carefully." And Follas wants the "Mommy says I'm special because I ride the short bus," but Popescul isn't so sure.
Another local couple say they own 16 originals and three lithographs. As soon as their condo is built, they plan to hang all of them, including a 5-by-6-foot "Goodbye Kitty" featuring the cat in the microwave and "Who's Your Daddy."
"It's going to be a Todd Gallery," says Sylvie Shan, a twentysomething who first saw Goldman's work on his T-shirts when she was living in New York.
"When the place gets settled we want to have our own opening. We want to know what it's like to live in a Todd House or a 'Stupid Factory.' "
Adds Mauricio Prado, 36: "Every art gives you a reaction, but the art we get with Todd is a good feeling."
Shan interjects, "It's like a high. I like the fact that he doesn't take himself seriously."
Is it high art?
"I don't want to spend my time asking that because I enjoy it."
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