So tonight I went to Gottfried Helnwein's show at his studio in downtown L.A. and just about everyone was there. I turn to the right -- Sean Penn. I turn to the left -- Beck. Arnold is dropping off a gift. Kevin Smith is wandering around in big, baggy shorts and looking at Gottfried's larger works. Leo (DiCaprio) looks like a cat. Mena Suvari is upset about the flourescent lighting. Shannyn Sossamon shows up and we drink a beer together. My attorney is there (I mean, isn't everyone?) and he gives me some free legal advice…
Roger Avary director, writer, producer Avary's Domain, www avary.com28 June 2002

Los Angeles TimesJuly 5, 2002Gina Piccalo and Louise RougCITY OF ANGLES: ART AMID THE STARS,
For a recent transplant, Helnwein attracted much Hollywood.
Artist Gottfried Helnwein opens a show of his paintings at his downtown studio in front of a star-studded crowd, including musician Marilyn Manson.
When Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein opened a show of his paintings recently, celebrities crowded his downtown studio. Leonardo DiCaprio rubbed Elbows with Marilyn Manson. Beck chatted with Kevin Smith. Mena Suvari stopped for a photo op, and Sean Penn lent his cool. For a recent transplant, Helnwein attracted much Hollywood.

Beyond the paintings, actor Jason Lee was the reason for the high celebrity quotient.
"You can use Hollywood to your advantage," he said recently in his photography studio. At the opening, he said, guests had expected a typical industry schmooze party but had been drawn in by the art -- haunting large scale works, some of still-born children.
"They were enthralled by the work," he said. "It was a quiet, strange exhibit."
If people come for the celebrities but end up looking at the art, he has achieved his goal, he said.
For Helnwein, the mix of music, Hollywood and artists had served another purpose - generating more work.
He and Manson had agreed to do a project together, and Smith had commissioned him to do a large scale painting of his daughter. Helnwein couldn't wait to meet Dennis Hopper.
He was following in the (big) footsteps of another Austrian. As it had for Arnold, L.A. lay glittering in front of Helnwein. He was glad he had come West.
"New York is dead," he said.
Lee explained his vision -- drawing more people to contemporary art, and, in particular, to the gallery on Traction Avenue - as he and Helnwein gave a tour of Lee's studio and the gallery around the corner. (Helnwein has a studio loft next door to Lee's).
In Lee's studio, one of Helnwein's canvases, "Epiphany II (Presentation at the Temple)," a hyperrealisit painting in blue tones, depicts a young girl lying on a kitchen table in front of a semi-circle of disfigured men in formal suits.
"People are used to seeing things 24 frames a second," said Lee, adding that his goal was to get people to concentrate on just one frame at a time.
"This town needs it more than anywhere else."

OK! magazine, UK, August 28, 2002GOTTFRIED HELNWEIN - NEW LA STUDIO, Tamara Beckwith

Some of his work is disturbing to say the least, and has been described as "the visual equivalent of a contact sport". He uses art as a way to fight back at society, his pictures forcing people to face things they might prefer to forget about. Children feature heavily, as do bandages and chilling images from the wartime era. All very challanging, yet fascinating.

The man himself seemed far too well-scrubbed to pass for an artist -- dashingly handsome doesn't do him justice! I immediately thought of Dennis Hopper in "Easy Rider" but that could have been his bandanna. Dressed head-to-toe in black, he rarely removed his extremely dark shades, but he was effortlessly charming with plenty to talk about.