LA Art Show 2016 Event Coverage Summary: Cartwheel Art’s Guest Contributors Highlights

Celebrating its twenty first year anniversary, LA Art Show 2016 delivered on its promise to be the best ever! For four days, the Los Angeles Convention Center hosted over 50,000 attendees at more than 120 galleries representing 22 countries, and our guest contributors–author/filmmaker Rodrigo Ribera D’Ebre, author/historian Steve Grody, author/photographer Dr. Paul Koudounaris, and painter Marc Trujillo brought us their takes on the 2016 LA Art Show in a series of articles on CartwheelArt.com.

In those twenty one years, LA has become a major art world center. Our city is the birth place of Low Brow and Pop Surrealism, so it was only fitting that the LA Art Show showcased this now global style with Littletopia, a special section devoted to the genres, this year co-curated by Greg Escalante– founder of Gregoria Escalante Gallery on Chung King Road, co-owner of Copro Gallery at Bergamot Station and co-founder of the seminal Low Brow art magazine, Juxtapoz–and Littletopia’s creator, Noah Antineau from Red Truck Gallery.

Los Angeles has always been a city of street art and murals, beginning with the Chicano placasos of the 1920s, and the art form’s force is seen in galleries exhibiting graf-based works at the LA Art Show, and two special exhibitions: Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles’ installation “From the Streets to Canvas” curated by Isabel Rojas-Williams, and “Virtues & Vice Street” curated by Jim Daichendt were there trying to further cement Los Angeles’ title as “Mural Capital of the World.”

In recent years, the LA Art Show has become the most internationally diverse art platform in the Western world. As a part of the Pacific Rim, the LA Art Show this year, as in the past, welcomes galleries and exhibition from Korea and China. The continent of Africa is represented in the first of a three year series, “Africa Contemporary-A Curatorial Project: Continental Shift.”

The LA Art Show was the first and only event to strategically incorporate galleries representing diverse art genres, broadening its audiences to include enthusiasts of: modern, contemporary, historic and traditional works, as well as works on paper, sculpture and installations, in one art fair. The show format was specifically selected to meet the needs of the LA market. And, it has paid off with attendance and galleries increasing year over year. This out-of-the-box thinking has been a hallmark of the show production team, which has consistently developed programming and special exhibition content, that following its debut at the LA Art Show, has grown to acclaim in the international art world.

This year for the LA Art Show, in addition to us being media sponsors for the fourth year, we had asked some of Los Angeles’ stellar art talents to contribute words and photos about what excites and engages them at the LA Art Show.

The following summarizes our guest contributors insights with links to their words and photos:

Author/filmmaker Rodrigo Rivera d’Ebre, the writer/director of the documentary Dark Progressivism examines in the past and future of the LA River, inspired by the 2016 LA Art Show panel on Los Angeles’ riparian revitalization. More here. 

Author and graffiti historian Steve Grody, a frequent speaker on Cartwheel Art Tours shares his photos and observations of this year’s LA Art Show. More here.

Dr. Paul Koudounaris, author, photographer and internationally know expert on macabre art, turns his camera on sculptures and installations that reflect his interests. More here.

Acclaimed painter Marc Trujillo gives us his insightful notes and photos from the show. More here. 

Cartwheel Art and Cartwheel Art Tours founder, Cindy Schwarzstein, provided photo coverage  from LA Art Show’s opening night, focusing  on the Littletopia section. More here. In addition, she covered the LA Art Show After Parties including: Juxtapoz Magazine, Gregorio Escalante Gallery and  New Utopia Inc.’s event at a private home in Silverlake,  Robert Williams Tribute on Chung King Road, as well as a private party at a West Hollywood collectors home.