spruth-magers-los-angeles
The future home of Sprüth Magers Los Angeles, at 5900 Wilshire Boulevard.
Photo: Google Street View screenshot.

London and Berlin-based gallery Sprüth Magers has confirmed that its new Los Angeles outpost will be in West Hollywood. Located at 5900 Wilshire Boulevard, it will be directly across the street from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in the renowned Miracle Mile district.

Renovation has just begun on the space, housed in a 14,000 square-foot, 1960s-era stand-alone building, though it shares an address with the trophy building of the area, the iconic 5900 Wilshire—the tallest in the district, pending LACMA’s proposed condo tower—which was purchased in 2005 and renovated by the Ratkovich Company. Sprüth Magers has worked with several Los Angeles artists on shows in its London and Berlin spaces, including Barbara Kruger, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, and Kenneth Anger. It joins other galleries like Maccarone, Gavlak, and Hauser & Wirth, which are expanding their footprint with spaces in LA (see “Hauser Wirth & Schimmel to Open in LA Flour Mill in January 2015“).

Its opening comes at a time when galleries in the city of LA are moving around in unconventional ways lately (see “West Coast Gallerists Bet Big on Los Angeles’s East Side“).

Along Museum Row, Sprüth Magers’s neighbors will appropriately include a cluster of museums, namely the Page Museum (and the La Brea Tar Pits), the Craft & Folk Art Museum, and the Architecture and Design Museum.

“It’s an artist’s city,” Philomene Magers told the Financial Times about LA in November 2013, when news was swirling about the gallery’s plans to open an LA outpost. The art dealer was comparing the city favorably to Berlin. “It’s the cultural and intellectual climate of the city that really excites us. And while we already have collectors in the region, we are hoping to meet many more.”

The space, which will be run by Sarah Watson (formerly of L&M Arts), will open next spring with an exhibition of the work of LA–based conceptual artist John Baldessari.