By James Tarmy, Bloomberg
After the wildfires burned swaths of the Palisades and Altadena, there was speculation that the art fair Frieze Los Angeles, soon to open its sixth edition, would be postponed or canceled.
Initially, Frieze announced that it was “assessing” its options, but quickly Christine Messineo, the fair’s director, began to hear from galleries, artists and museums.
“They were very much like, ‘Los Angeles needs you, and it’s counting on you for this moment to galvanize the community and gather us around the arts,’” she says. “There was no decision to be made; it was like, ‘Absolutely, we’re coming, we’re here.’”
And so
It’s an impulse, dealer Jeffrey Deitch says, that’s only natural. “People want to connect, and people want to see other people,” he says. “I saw this after 9/11 in New York City in the art world.”
Frieze has unveiled a laundry list of initiatives tied to the fair. They range from the strictly commercial — the Frieze Arts Alliance is a group of museums that effectively pledged to spend money at the fair, thereby guaranteeing at least modest overall success — to efforts directed at individuals affected by the fires, including a fundraising initiative called “Galleries Together” that supports LA fire relief efforts.
Initiatives along these lines already have a precedent: The artist Yoshimoto Nara made merchandise in conjunction with the FireAid Benefit Concert for California Wildfire Victims; his gallery Blum (which is currently hosting a Nara solo show) has some of that merchandise for sale. “On Saturdays, we’re having 800 people through and selling 300, 400 pieces,” says its owner, Tim Blum. “All of those monies are going to victims of the fires.”
Doors Open
Messineo is quick to tell potential visitors that “there are plenty of hotels available. You’re not displacing anyone at this point in time. It’s OK to visit Los Angeles.” Similarly, dealers have opened new shows since the fires and say they’re ready to welcome a stream of out-of-towners. “We’re hoping that people are coming to Los Angeles and are looking to support this extraordinary community of artists, art workers, galleries, institutions and museums,” says dealer David Kordansky.
As in previous years, Frieze will be the centerpiece of the week, flanked by a variety of satellite fairs, including Felix (Feb. 19-23), which will once again occupy a warren of rooms in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and the smaller Post-Fair, located in a former post office in Santa Monica. These will be augmented by a halo of openings including (but certainly not limited to) solo exhibitions of new work by Nina Chanel Abney and Tschabalala Self at Deitch (opening Feb. 15); Jacqueline Humphries at Matthew Marks Gallery (opening Feb. 19); Lisa Yuskavage at David Zwirner (opening Feb. 18); and Woody De Othello at Karma (opening Feb. 19). “We’re reaching out to our base of collectors and supporters and just making sure that if they’re in town, they’re coming through and visiting us,” Kordansky says.
Sales Outlook
Most dealers are cautiously optimistic that sales will be a success, even if things don’t fly off the walls. “An adviser we work with got in touch, asking us to highlight certain works because she’s working with a client in London who really wants to buy from an LA gallery of an LA artist, to be supportive,” says Commonwealth and Council gallery’s Kibum Kim, whose booth at Frieze will feature multiple local artists including Gala Porras-Kim and Carolina Caycedo. “So I think it will be perhaps fewer folks, but ones who are more engaged and invested, hopefully.”
And while Ghebaly says that “our local collectors are maybe still thinking more about recovery than expansion,” some collectors who lost artworks in the fires could be interested in replacing what they had.
“Art insurance payments have already gone out,” Blum says. “I actually sold something last week to a client who lost something in the fire and was paid out.” And although in another instance a collector ended up not buying a replacement artwork “because their headspace was just not there for it yet,” Blum continues, “those that love art, love art.”