LOS ANGELES – As the wildfires that destroyed much of Los Angeles last week are gradually brought under control, thousands of Angelenos are beginning to survey the damage and look ahead to the long road to recovery. There has been much discussion for both LA’s art community and the international art world about the city’s upcoming art fairs, scheduled for the third week of February. Amid some concern that going ahead with these events would be inappropriate or financially imprudent, other sources said Hyperallergic that the grants would provide crucial sources of support and solidarity.
Perhaps the biggest question left hanging in the air was about the fate of the fair week behemoth, Frieze, which typically has a much higher proportion of international and non-local participants than the smaller fairs. On Friday afternoon, January 17, the fair finally sent an email announcing that the sixth edition, which would start on February 20, would go ahead as planned.
Felix Art Fair, which will take place again this year at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, will also take place.
“We believe our purpose as a homegrown LA fair remains clear: to support the artists and galleries that make up our cultural fabric,” read an email sent to participants on January 13. The decision, the email continued, came from “a strong determination to help heal, rebuild and support this city’s creative community.”
The fair’s organizers recently established the Felix Wildfire Fund Sadness x hope will benefit the victims, with 100% of donations going to artists and arts workers affected by the fires, Felix co-founder Mills Morán said Hyperallergic via email.
Chris Sharp, founder of the Santa Monica Post Office fair that debuts next month, also confirmed this Hyperallergic that the show would go on as planned.
“LA needs this now more than ever,” Sharp said. “It’s an important moment to give people the feeling that we are rebuilding, that there is something to stand up for… It’s crucial. Many of these people are economically dependent on this period to provide for their livelihood.”
LA’s longest-running art fair, the LA Art Show, has confirmed it will return to the LA Convention Center for its 30th anniversary edition. Representatives for the Spring Break Art Show have not yet responded Hyperallergic‘s request for comment.
Hannah Hoffman, whose eponymous gallery with locations in MacArthur Park and East Hollywood/Melrose Hill is participating in Frieze LA, echoed Sharp’s sentiment, noting that the economic impact of art fairs — and the consequences of a last-minute cancellation — “much further then reaches out to the artists and galleries who are the most visible participants.”
“These grants support an extensive network of vendors, partners and employees whose livelihoods depend on them during this moment of extraordinary uncertainty,” Hoffman said. Hyperallergic. “If the fairs move forward, as they appear to, we will need our community of collectors, curators, friends and colleagues to make them a success.”
Artist Kelly Akashi, who lost her home and studio in Altadena to the Eaton Fire, was among the first to emphasize the economic and moral support the grants could provide to affected artists.
“But my position, and I make it clear to people, is [that] your duty is first and foremost to your artists. And everyone should support current and future shows,” she wrote in a message to artist Mark Verabioff, which he shared on his Instagram. “Capitalism doesn’t give you a hall pass to relax, even if you lose everything.”
She reiterated that belief in a conversation with Hyperallergicwhich states: “I don’t want the economic impact to spread and affect other artists. I’m here to celebrate the achievements of other artists. I want this community to be healthy so they can provide me with that care.”
The Other art fairwhere artists, rather than galleries, exhibit their own works, is also on schedule to open Feb. 20 in Atwater Village.
“In five weeks, Angelenos will be looking for a place to be uplifted, welcomed and inspired,” fair director and LA native Nicole Garton wrote in an email to 140 exhibitors, about half of whom are based outside LA. .
“We intend to offer that space to people and provide respite to a community that has suffered so much loss,” Garton said, noting that other major cultural events, including the upcoming Academy Awards and the Grammys“have continued as planned amid earthquake disasters, civil uprisings and more.”
There are indeed financial risks associated with participating in an art fair even in the best of times, especially for galleries that travel and transport work from across the country or the world, and questions have been raised about whether LA will host multiple events so soon after the fair can organize fairs. disaster.
“It’s clearly a hugely complex situation – logistically, economically, emotionally and psychologically,” said Matthew Higgs, director of the New York non-profit art space White Columns and founder and curator of the Independent Art Fair. Hyperallergic via email. “I believe that people were and remain genuinely concerned about the desirability of organizing art fairs in the vicinity of such an unprecedented and still evolving situation.”
He acknowledged that most, if not all, of the fairs would go ahead, adding, “I know that many people in the Los Angeles arts community want the fairs to happen, hoping that they will act as an galvanizing moment to help start the reconstruction process.”
Felix’s Morán said a small number of galleries outside Los Angeles expressed concerns, especially about whether attendance and sales would suffer. But so far no one has asked for it to stop, he said.
“We want the global arts community to come and experience it firsthand and be reminded of why they fell in love with this city in the first place,” he said.
Despite the reported Fearing some out-of-town dealers, Wendy Olsoff, co-founder of New York’s PPOW gallery, said she was willing to participate in the inaugural Santa Monica Post Office.
“Everyone is a little confused outside of LA, and there’s a lot of speculation,” she admitted in a phone call from Singapore, where the gallery is currently participating in the Art SG fair. “I listen to my friends and dealers in LA. I take my cues from them.”
She recalled the period after the September 11 attacks, when her gallery on Broome Street was “covered in ashes.” Despite the tragedy, they went ahead with a planned opening and dinner.
“It was so good,” she recalled. “Just being together was incredibly healing.”
LA gallerist Charlie James, who will be exhibiting at Felix, praised the fair’s decision to move forward.
“Art has a role to play in how we process this catastrophe, and to stop gathering around it, whether out of a sense of decorum or fear of business loss, is, in my opinion, counterproductive,” James shared. Hyperallergic. “Forward is the only answer I have found, even in the midst of sadness and pain.”
