Los Angeles is the second biggest art market in the U.S. after NYC (source: UBS), filled with outstanding galleries, world class museums, and several significant shows. The LA Art Show is the oldest art fair of LA in recent history and is always fun to attend. The LA Art Show has a long history in LA, and remains strong with local community, institutional, and government support.
The entrance area was surprisingly not crowded as I made my way inside this Saturday afternoon. The LA Art Show is always exciting to attend, which we have done nearly every year since it first began.
The Convention Center itself is very nice and upscale as far as convention centers go, and a sprawling space. This show took up just a portion of it, and yet still, it was good sized.
On the site at https://LAArtShow.com you see all of the gallerists that exhibited. 101 of them I counted to be precise. The Show also partnered with Artsy, linking all the galleries at the show to also be on sale on Artsy.
Out of this many galleries, you can be certain that you will find a good amount of art that you will really like, or even really love. Most gallerists I encountered were particularly friendly this year.
Yoon Song A at ArtToken of South Korea had nice work. There are paint mixtures in certain countries such as South Korea not found in the U.S, which lends a subtle yet nuanced appellation of striking hues in color palates rarely seen in the U.S. Yoon SongA’s, work signifies this painterly chemical differentiation. Yoon SongA’s whimsical, animationesque approach harkens to a subtle homage of one of my favorite non-Western artists-of which there are many-Chagall.
Seong Taejin also has nice work, also at Arttoken. A printmaker who works with “monotype,” the artist depicts scenes using a carving knife, and adds fluorescent and primary colors afterwards.
Shin Jehyun, also with Arttoken makes interesting work. Using painting, installation, performance, music, video, and more, Shin also states he uses non-art fields such as math to critique the art world itself.
Robert R. Obier, whose literature opines himself as an artist, architect, and industrial designer, makes striking, 3-dimensional metal sculptures of robotic masculine figures reminiscent of Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” and H.R. Giger’s predominant brown and gray palate. Obier’s Artist Statement rails about “not becoming victim to the seductive power of the metaverse.” Don’t worry, we’re not drinking the cool aid, or wearing the goggles! And I’ll give you two words to remember, lest you forgot–Cambridge Analytica.
David Yarrow’s Breaking Bad (featuring Cindy Crawford at the Joshua Tree Saloon) is a great photograph, that was featured here at Melissa Morgan Fine Art in Palm Desert, CA.
Bruce Lurie Gallery always gives an exciting presentation of art. This year being no exception. Not only is Bruce Lurie an outstanding gallerist, who knows how to deal with the public and actually sell art-unlike so many gallerists, he also knows how to promote. At one booth of the Bruce Lurie Gallery, which featured a fabulous giant Gumby statue, there were also free posters and little plastic baggies filled with art bumper stickers by numerous of his exhibited artists. A wise move. I’ve always loved bumper stickers. Like pop art in general-which Bruce Lurie Gallery specializes in, they are fast, immediate, powerful, and communicate vividly in an instant about someone just from that single image or collection of words contained in the small frame. MR LA, and Guerin Swing were two of Lurie Gallery’s numerous artists exhibited.
Bruce Lurie has a refined taste in art and is a powerful dealer who has been on the scene starting in New York back in the 80’s dealing with Jean Michel-Basquiat when Bruce Lurie worked with Leo Castelli.
John Zhang Long is a skilled artist from China, now based in LA. His Moonstruck Ink series was collected by the Art Institute of Chicago, where I worked years ago.
J.T. Burke was a charming artist I met who creates beautiful college art using costume jewelry, and then photographing the representations of his ornate, powerful landscapes and worlds.
One gallery had some beautiful prints by Salvador Dali. Unfortunately, the literature on the work the kind Asian gallerist here gave me does not have their gallery name or address on the literature. Feel free to contact us as we will update accordingly.
Way at the back of the show, was on my favorite artists, Jose Luis Zuno. He and his gallerist were both present, along with some of his prolific work. There were signs stating, “No photos,” so I can’t show you what his work looks like, but imagine a more roughly composed, psychedelic, fluid looking version of Keith Haring x10, mixed with revolutionary political words and concepts, and you get the idea. I spoke at length with the artists’ gallerist, his punk rocker friend as we discussed old punk shows we’d seen including for him–the Ramones, and for me–the Sex Pistols reunion tour, and I spoke with the artist Jose himself, who appears as timeless shaman, bringing a vibe of tranquility and justice to his scene.
The Warriors were an impressive collection of life-size 3-D printed wood sculptures by Guillermo Bert. Art from AI or 3D printing is controversial, in that it may lead one to question what element of creativity and talent is actually behind AI generated or 3D printed art? The Warriors were impressive, particularly for their scale and size. At least he did it, and they were very cool to see.
Other notable booths were Art Globale, Markowicz Fine Art, Jessie Chaney Photography, Tizoc Gallery, Cynthia Corbett Gallery, Soul Art Space, Fiona Wang, MRG Fine Art, Terra Varna, Art Code, Carson Ferri-Grant, Arcadia, and Feiran Wang.
