by Moira Cue
Wednesday January 19, 2011: The VIP Gala at the Los Angeles
Convention Center brought more flare than ever to the
star-studded event. As exhibitors, artists, collectors and press
got a first look at the show's offerings, performers from Cirque
du Soleil wandered in Victorian-inspired costumes and make-up
artists from Pixi offered gift bags and demonstrations. (At ticket
prices of $125 and $500, it was nice to know that the evening's
proceeds went to benefit The Art of Elysium to
expand its program to bring arts to critically ill hospitalized
children and increase substantially the number of school children
who visit the Getty through the Getty Museum's Education
Department program for Title One School visits.) Wine flowed freely; food offerings included vegan guava or saffron-flavored cubes sweetened with agave, and fennel and arugula with shaved parmesan among more. The afterparty, hosted by Kat Von D and held at the
Ritz-Carlton residences around the corner, was so packed with
cognoscenti and their cohorts that the fire marshal refused entry
to those unlucky enough to be standing at the back of the line.
For those of us who made it in, the view of the downtown skyline
from the 2-story loft on the 51st floor was breathtaking.
With all the hoopla and fanfare, I
still managed to get my fill of the art on view and converse with
gallerists and artists alike. Compared to previous years, there
was more work on paper. The 26th Annual Los Angeles/International
Fine Print Dealers Association-aka IFPDA-Fine Print Fair occurred
simultaneously within the larger exhibition space. Additionally
The Vintage Posters Section provided a special exhibition of
pop-culture and contemporary history featuring pieces from two
participating galleries, Galerie Documents from Paris, France and
Michael Maslan Vintage Posters and Photographs from Seattle, Washington.
Poster styles included: Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Mid-century
Modern and from periods including turn of the century Belle
Époque, to the stylized 1930s, to the promotional
expressions of the Post World War II Cold War era.
Also this year, there was a notable absence of images of Obama,
whose likeness was omnipresent last year. There were roughly the same
amount of Buddhas and Marilyns, including Russell Young's
diamond dust series (yes, they use real diamond dust-cool, huh?)
at Guy
Hepner. Contemporary artists nodded to Impressionism; Todd
Brainard's Monet-meets-SoCal palm tree "haystacks" at George Billis and Andrew Hem's
moody blue Gauguin-like palette in scenes populated with the
spirits of Cambodian ancestors amongst his contemporaries,
merging the Los Angeles cityscape with the one he left behind
(LeBasse Projects).
At Ferrin Gallery, Chris
Antemann's porcelain and photography, inspired by 18th century
porcelain figurines, played with gender roles (the male figurines
are nude; the female, clothed) in a tongue-in-cheek, not overly
obvious way. (Chris, by the way, is female.) At Micaëla Gallery
, Eugenia Pardue's white on white decorative floral motifs in
relief blurred the line between painting and sculpture. Lorraine
Peltz, also at Micaëla Gallery, continued the contemporary
reference to eras past by putting a fresh, feminine spin on 17th
century chandeliers.
The show had many notable "firsts," including the show's own
iPhone app which provided not only a map of the exhibition space,
but the entire show catalogue on visitor's mobile devices. Also
for the first time: Gallerist Peter
Fettermen of his namesake Bergamont Station, Santa Monica
gallery, exhibited Rarely/Unseen, a collection of formerly
unprinted photographs from Henri Cartier-Bresson, considered the
father of modern photojournalism.
China, a powerhouse of Asian Art, was a major focus of the 2011
show. A special program, China Today featured a lecture on
Contemporary Chinese art led by artist Tao Dong Dong (represented
by David Lawrence Gallery)
along with a screening of the 2006 documentary, "The Rising Tide"
providing insight into China's Contemporary art scene. A
significant number of participating Chinese galleries, a majority
of whom have never displayed works outside of China, provided
attendees with a remarkable opportunity to see what's really hot
in Asian Art. It was a pleasure to meet Tao personally
while chatting with staff members at the LACMA booth. Tao
graciously provided me with a copy of the catalogue for the 2nd
Beijing International China Cultural Artifacts Fair, wherein he
had selected an excerpt from my previous coverage of him in The
Hollywood Sentinel, and had it translated for Chinese buyers.
Shot in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen in the summer
of 2006, "The Rising Tide", directed by Robert Adanto, explores
China's march toward the future through the works of some their
most talented photographers and video artists. This unflinching
study is described as an "eye-opener" in every sense of the word.
As Richard Vine, Senior Editor, Art In America and author
of New China, New Art wrote, "If you want a living sense
of China's contemporary art scene-and the artists who are shaking
it up-check out "The Rising Tide." It reveals some of the
brightest and best new talents, capturing their works, their
words, and their faces amid a swiftly changing environment.
(See video clip below.)
The conditions of artists in China made international headlines
recently when Ai Weiwei, an artist famous for his sunflower seeds
exhibition at the Tate in London, was put under house arrest and
his studio demolished by authorities. The exhibition contains 100
million hand-made porcelain sunflower seeds made in the
"porcelain capital of the world," Jingdezhen, China, by 1,600
workers over the course of two years. Visitors were initially
encouraged to walk over the seeds, crushing them underfoot, until
concerns about the toxicity of the ceramic dust forced the museum
to rope off the installation.
While most of the older artworks at the LA Art Show was decidedly
past the point of controversial social commentary due to the
passing of time, and many of the newer artists' political
sentiments were expressed obliquely if at all, one artist I
discovered at the LA Art Show expressed a chilling reality;
Halim Alkarim, whose work references his life as an Iraqi in
exile. Alkarim grew up in Iraq and was trained at the University
of Baghdad. While living in self-exile with gypsies, he studied
Bedouin mysticism; an experience that is expressed in his
fixation on love as the ultimate human expression. His altered
photographs of witnesses to the violent regime of Saddaam
Hussein-altered for their own protection and only exhibited after
the dictator's demise-reference the hazy romanticism of John
Singer Sargent's nineteenth-century portraits of society ladies,
but in a much different context. Robischon
Gallery Director Jennifer Doran spoke to me lucidly
about the obstacles faced by Alkarim and other artists in the
gallery stable. I was truly impressed by her intelligence and
commitment. Additionally, I enjoyed discussing a still life by
Janet Fish, a rare treat, at the Abby M. Taylor booth.
With to art from India, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East,
Europe, American cities including New York, Los Angeles, San
Francicso, and Chicago, last but not least, this year marked a
first for Aboriginal art at the LA Art Show. West Hollywood
Gallery Aboriginal
Dreamtime brought original Aboriginal paintings to the fair,
a welcome addition to the massive encyclopedic display of art,
that many are calling "the most important art show in the West."
As the show draws massive sales (25 million in 2010, including 1
million on opening night) along with high profile clientele
(actors James Franco, Rhea Perlman, Kevin Bacon, Martin Sheen,
collector Eli Broad, MoCA Director Jeffrey Deitch, among more) I
can't wait to see what next year's exhibit and VIP premiere will
bring.
© 2011, The Hollywood Sentinel.