project:gallery's main man Beau Basse road-tripped over to Riverside, California this past Sunday, March 30, for the opening festivities of Barry McGee and Clare Rojas' show The Big Sad which is running concurrently with Raymond Pettibon's Thank You for Staying. Beau brings us his photos of the art, the root beer, the banjos and more.

Just got back from a little road trip to the Riverside Art Museum and the opening of "The Big Sad" featuring Barry McGee and Clare Rojas.

We expected a big LA contingent, but the turnout was pretty small as you can see from the pictures, and kind of a little sad. By the time 6pm rolled around, we were the only ones there...

I was however not sad about the work - Barry and Clare did an amazing job as usual. I saw some of Clare's work a few months ago for sale at Basel, but was too embarrassed to inquire about it....I will have to settle with her Red Fox/Blue Deer book.

The Riverside Art Museum was actually a really cool building, but seemed to have some issues finding a direction and an audience. There was actually sort of a swap meet outside on the lawn, with one high school student selling really bad knock off Jeff Soto's. I wonder how Jeff felt about it, because he was there too - and is actually on the calendar at the museum this fall.

I was excited to see Raymond Pettibon's collection as well, but it turned out to only be three pieces.

Either way I am glad we made it out, and I highly suggest taking the trip from LA. Its not that far of a drive and you can take a look at the amazing Mission Inn down the street - rumored to be the inspiration for the Eagles song "Hotel California."