When Frieze, the cornerstone of L.A. Art Week, confirmed at the end of January that the fair would proceed as planned, its organizers added a subtitle: “A Celebration of Creative Resilience and Community Rebuilding.” And celebrate they did, last week at the fair’s sixth edition—with sold-out stands, thousands of guests, and several pioneering public programs. A similar header could be aptly applied to the other fairs that ran simultaneously—Felix Art Fair, Post-Fair, The Other Art Fair, and The L.A. Art Show—and the innumerable benefits and exhibitions that opened across the city.
A palpable sense of festivity and camaraderie could be felt from Santa Monica to the east side as the art world convened en masse for the first time following last month’s devastating wildfires that ravaged more than 40,000 acres of land and more than 10,000 homes across Los Angeles County. Unanimously, the local artists, gallerists, and collectors that Artsy spoke with expressed an infectious mix of pride, enthusiasm, and relief regarding the week’s healthy turnout. Lingering fears of empty booths and a somber atmosphere were quickly assuaged, along with any doubts about the arts community’s capacity for meaningful support and solidarity.
The week was characterized by widespread efforts to balance mourning and levity, acknowledging the gravity of the recent tragedy while creating conditions for those affected to regain some financial stability and semblance of normalcy. Even at Frieze, the most commercialized of the fairs, the profusion of museum-quality presentations by local and international galleries like Roberts Projects, Gagosian, and Almine Rech was accompanied by robust fire-relief initiatives. These included a Black Trustee Alliance booth that gathered oral histories from Altadena’s Black community, as well as “Galleries Together,” a dynamic shared gallery presentation led by Victoria Miro that featured works by Angelenos like Devin Troy Strother, Max Hooper Schneider, and Tidawhitney Lek to benefit the L.A. Arts Community Fire Relief Fund. The fair’s organizers also formed the Frieze Arts Alliance, where major institutions, from the Guggenheim Museum to the ICA Miami, banded together in a commitment to focus their acquisition budgets on local artists and galleries.
At Felix, the eclectic boutique fair staged in the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, a significant portion of the lobby was dedicated to “Foundations,” an exhibition organized by the aid group L.A. AYUDA Network. Over 100 local artists, including rafa esparza, Lauren Bon, noé olivas, and Beatriz Cortez, created objects inspired by cornerstones, which simultaneously represent the first step toward rebuilding and serve as a reminder that nothing can be built from one stone—or by one individual—alone. Arranged across low benches, some particularly poignant interpretations featured materials pulled from the rubble of destroyed homes, while others were more playful, incorporating flash drives, soda bottles, and neon paint. Throughout the three floors of the fair, galleries hosted vibrant presentations that reminded visitors of art’s singular ability to inspire wonder and delight. (The tropical fruit-bedecked cocktails in everyone’s hands may have contributed, too.)
Along with stones, artists were also invited to create fridge magnets. In Boyle Heights, the gallery Pio Pico’s benefit sale, featuring magnets by more than 100 artists displayed across wall-mounted refrigerator doors, offered yet another example of the ingenuity of the city’s creative community and their knack for maintaining a sense of humor in the face of heartbreak. Gloopy electric candle sticks by Chris Lux, mythical aqua-resin and acrylic masks by Amy Bessone, and static mobiles containing seed pods and plastic dinosaurs by Julian Josiah MacMillan were among the works attracting the most attention.
Other fundraisers allowed visitors to engage aesthetically, emotionally, and financially in the reconstruction of the local cultural landscape. For example, the pop-up benefit “One Hundred Percent,” curated by Adam Moshaydi, featured works priced between $50 and $50,000 from nearly 100 artists displaced by the fires, including L.A. stalwarts like Paul McCarthy and Kathryn Andrews. Another highlight was “Out of the Ashes” at Craig Krull Gallery in Bergamot Station Art Center. Curated by Krull and Douglas Marshall, the show began as a direct fire relief effort and evolved into an opportunity for artists to share their stories. Each of the more than 30 works on view—spanning photographs like Kevin Cooley’s haunting images of the remains of his Altadena home, ethereal acrylic paintings by Gary Palmer, and sculptures such as Camilla Taylor’s salvaged aluminum gyres—was accompanied by an interpretive statement from the artist recalling their experiences. On Saturday night, the gallery hosted a packed artist talk with the watery-eyed crowd spilling into the courtyard.
A similar communal sensibility informed several other exceptional group shows, many of which were staged in striking historic locales. These included Loyal’s annual takeover of the lobby at the legendary El Royale apartments, Peter Blake Gallery’s eclectic “BLAKEHAUS Beverly Hills” at Richard Neutra’s William H. Levit House, and Jack Siebert Projects’s “Modèle Vivant” in a mid-century home originally commissioned by Walt Disney in the 1960s. Although not technically a group show, the new alternative art fair Post-Fair saw 29 participating galleries spread throughout the expansive corridors of an elegant 1940s Art Deco building in Santa Monica. Without the usual stand structures and with ample breathing room, the airy, light-filled space more closely resembled a museum exhibition than a white-tent event.
The most popular parties, or at least those with the longest lines, also took place at an array of iconic venues, including the revival of beloved Chinatown dive bar Hop Louie for an evening cohosted by the galleries Bel Ami and Hannah Hoffman and the designer Eckhaus Latta, as well as an intimate cocktail party at the Chateau Marmont with The Art Newspaper and Aston Martin. Just around the corner on Marmont Lane, Albertz Benda’s opening celebration for its latest exhibition, “Saddle Up: Artistic Journeys Through Cowboy Culture,” was another highlight.
Among the many memorable exhibition openings, Bruce Nauman at Marian Goodman Gallery, Lisa Yuskavage at David Zwirner, Kelly Akashi at Lisson Gallery, and Woody De Othello at Karma were among the most talked about. “Emotion is energy in motion,” explained De Othello. “It is felt rather than seen, almost like wave lengths or sound reverberations.” His hope for the surreal ceramic vessels scattered about the yellow-light-flooded gallery was that they might encourage us to fine-tune our sensitivity to the unseen, namely the emotions of other human beings.
Considering the outpouring of support and compassion in the city over the past two months, these sculptures and the Art Week, more broadly, offered a glimpse into precisely what the people of L.A. have done and continue to do: turning up the dial on their capacity for empathy, reminding all of us that together is the only way through.
from Artsy News https://ift.tt/Dg4TSqX
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