Art Fairs
See What Galleries Are Bringing to Art LA Contemporary
The fair is reintroducing the "Freeways" section devoted to young galleries.
The fair is reintroducing the "Freeways" section devoted to young galleries.
Eileen Kinsella ShareShare This Article
The eighth edition of Art Los Angeles Contemporary (ALAC) opens January 26 at Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica airport, with over 60 local and international exhibitors. The fair continues to gather momentum as it presents a vibrant roster of the city’s top galleries alongside East Coast and international booths.
This year sees new exhibitors from Asia and Latin America, including 10 Chancery Lane from Hong Kong, 313 Art Project from Seoul, and Vermelho from Sao Paulo. Many galleries will be returning to the fair including M+B, Josh Lilley, and Kayne Griffin Corcoran, which will present a selection of paintings and drawings by David Lynch.
The fair is also reintroducing the “Freeways” section, which focuses on young galleries, including Club Pro, and Jenny’s, both of Los Angeles, and Queer Thoughts, from New York.
It will be interesting this time around to see how the lack of art fair competition—Paramount Ranch wrapped up its third and final edition last year and the LA Art Show ran earlier this month—might impact or even strengthen ALAC’s attendance.
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Marc LeBlanc is curating the programming schedule for “Anything You Sow” at the ALAC Theatre. The initiative focuses on performative work by composer William Basinski, screenings by Pat O’Neill, a talk by performance artist Jasmine Nyende, filmmaker Roger Corman and Mary Woronov in conversation with collective Veggiecloud.
Downtown LA gallery Francois Ghebaly will show a selection of its artist stable, but is focusing in particular on works by Kathleen Ryan. The gallery will be opening her first US solo exhibition on Friday, January 27 (7-10 p.m.) in conjunction with the fair.
“I am coming back for my fifth successive year,” London dealer Josh Lilley told artnet News. “So I do have a strong sense of what has proved successful. Last year we did a mixed presentation. We sold everything, and so this year I am coming back with a two-artist display; painter Nick Goss, and sculptor Henna Vainio.” Lilley said that the gallery has exhibited Goss in London, and has had “displays in Miami, Frieze, Paris, and New York.”
Lilley continued: “This is the first time we have shown Henna, and I am really excited by what she is doing. We are hoping the combination with Goss will prove a success.”
Tracy Williams will be showing New York-based artist Adam Henry with a new suite of paintings that challenge perception using a four-color model. The artist reconfigures color to explore logic through repetition and variation. It also becomes a political act. “In a time when perception is being radically challenged by the believability of information, Henry’s painted conundrums become all the more timely,” said a spokesperson for the gallery.
“We are looking forward to ALAC,” Jenny Borland, co-director of the offbeat Jenny’s gallery on Sunset Boulevard. “We participated in Paramount Ranch the last few years so it will be interesting to see how they compare, mainly in terms of the audience,” she said. “We were flattered to be included as one of the few younger galleries and are optimistic about meeting both local people and visitors who may not be familiar with our program.”
Jenny’s booth contains a solo presentation of works by Liz Craft, many of which were featured in the exhibition “Mirror Cells” at the Whitney Museum this past summer.
Other local galleries are also dipping their toes into the water. “ALAC will be our first fair,” Carlye Packer director of downtown gallery Club Pro told artnet News via email. “As such a new gallery (under 9 months old), it is incredible to work with ALAC; they have been extremely supportive and encouraging. Our booth will host a project with Devin Troy Strother titled Water Cooler Talk—a play on the cubicle / booth. Devin is creating an office environment, she says. “It will be on the border of being extremely commercial and experimental / project-oriented booth.”
ALAC will also feature a number of on-site installations by local artists Rafa Esparza and Timo Fahler, courtesy of Club Pro, and performances by the artist known as Puppies Puppies.
Packer described the installation as “the second iteration of a collaborative installation,” which debuted in September. This iteration will be titled Through.
There are also some new galleries from the East Coast ready to participate. “We’ll be showing at the fair as Marinaro, which is my new gallery. I’m taking over from Zach Feuer and Joel Mesler,” Lauren Marinaro explained to artnet News via email. “We’ll be showing Jane Corrigan and Phil Wagner. We wanted to have two strong solo booths and give exposure to Jane in LA and highlight Phil in his home city,” Marinaro wrote, noting, “I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of LA galleries and the younger section.”