Talking About Los Angeles Art: The LA Art Show Panel Preview
Along with the opportunity to view both established and emerging artists and visit galleries from around the world, The LA Art Show delivers exciting panels focusing on Los Angeles art present and past, with an emphasis on both collecting and experiencing art.
Thursday January 24
Starting at 2pm American Art Collector Magazine, which focuses on traditional fine art, presents To Live and Paint in LA, moderated by the magazine’s Joshua Rose., with panelists Gary Baseman, Greg “Craola” Simkins, and Jason Shawn Alexander. The LA Art Show promises:
This panel will consist of artists from a wide range of genres and mediums discussing topics that affect them and that they must deal with every day, such as the difference between the two coasts, the decision of working in Los Angeles while selling in New York City, the influence/effect/seduction of the entertainment industry, the people who collect their work, and the general creative scene in Los Angeles right now at this moment, as it is happening.
At 4pm it’s the Gallery Roundtable! Peter Mays, Executive Director of the Los Angeles Art Association, will discuss current trends in art and what to expect from the Los Angeles art scene in the coming years. He should know: Along with leading Los Angeles’ nationally regarded outdoor public art programming (more murals, please!), the LAAA and its La Cienega exhibition space, Gallery 825, he has implemented cultural exchanges with Switzerland (Basel), Korea, Germany and China, initiated collaborative programming with institutions like Harvard, MOCA and Otis, as well as with artists Tim Hawkinson and Lita Albuquerque. Mays’ fellow panelists, comprised of leading gallerists and curators, has yet to be listed at press time, but expect a lively discussion during the Gallery Roundtable.
Friday, January 25
The back story of art–its provenance, the historical and socio-political climate in which it was created, the artist’s own story–all add additional depth and layers to a piece. Here at CARTWHEEL we put works in context by bringing you interviews and studio visits, plus impressions of the openings and of the art itself. Art doesn’t exist in a vacuum–and even if it did, that vacuum would be part of the story!
At 2pm, artist/journalist Bruce Helander, the editor-in-chief of The Art Economist magazine who has written extensively on the art market and profiled collectors, moderates a panel with Don Thompson (Professor Emeritus of Marketing at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto, and author of nine books, including The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art); and Richard Polsky, a Sausalito-based private dealer specializing in Post-1960 art and the author of a number of books on the art market, including I Bought Andy Warhol, I Sold Andy Warhol (too soon), and The Art Prophets. Expect some discussion of which Los Angeles artists are “undervalued.”
Saturday January 26
At noon, gallerist Jack Rutberg of Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, who curated the significant exhibition for the LA Art Show the Letters from Los Angeles: Text in Southern California Art, hosts the eponymous panel discussion . The panel features acclaimed artist Mark Steven Greenfield, whose work reclaims images of blackface performers and combines them with text designed engage the viewer and suspend their reactions; Los Angeles Pop artist, the legendary Alexis Smith whose work explores America’s cultural, social, and political evolution while drawing on literary influences ranging from Walt Whitman to Raymond Chandler; and The discussion and Q&A will address how L.A. is uniquely identified by text (e.g., the Hollywood Sign, MGM, etc.) and the significance of text in their art and that of their peers.
Mural lovers, don’t miss this panel at 4pm! We at CARTWHEEL love murals and street art–check our all our related posts below!–and Los Angeles has amazing (legally and illegally) painted murals that transform the cityscape, creating visual surprises that enhance the driving experience into moments of wonder rather than frustration over the traffic. The Mural Conservancy Los Angeles presents a panel of artists, political representatives, non-profits, and gallery owners discussing the current mural resurgence in Los Angeles. Moderated by Isabel Rojas‐Williams, Executive Director, Mural Conservancy Los Angeles (MCLA), Rebuilding Our Heritage: Ordinance Reform and the Impending Mural Resurgence in L.A. features panelists Judithe Hernández, a founding member of the Chicano Art/Los Angeles Mural movements; fellow acclaimed muralist Man One and Glenna Avila, the Wallis Annenberg Director of the Community Arts Partnership at CalArts who has held a variety of positions with the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, including Director of the Los Angeles Murals Program; Tanner Blackman, from the City of Los Angeles’ Department of Planning and one of the writers of the “time/place/manner” administrative permitting system to allow for the creation of new fine art murals on private property as well as a “vintage mural permit” to protect and preserve the City’s existing fine art murals (one of our heroes!); and Chris Espinoza manager of El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, which includes Olvera Street and the newly restored, monumental David Alfaro Siqueiros American Tropical (La América Tropical) mural.
Sunday January 27
The CARTWHEEL team collect art, and with the Joys of Collecting Panel at 2pm we’ll be gaining certain insights from two of the biggest, most serious collectors in Los Angeles whose gifts have been instrumental in building MOCA’s collection. Blake Byrnes is a collector, MOCA Trustee, and Chair of Acquistions Committee at MOCA who provided the single largest gift by a private collector to the MOCA’s permanent collection which includes landmark works by such artists as Baldessari, Dumas, Gober, Mike Kelly, Paul McCarthy and Oldenburg, among others. Cliff Einstein is the Chairman Emeritus MOCA whose 1983 investment, with his wife Mandy, in an Italian furniture design company led to a lifelong love affair with art and the desire to collect works of significant contemporary art. The Joys of Collecting panel is moderated by artist/journalist Bruce Helander who has written about numerous art collectors; in addition to curating museum and gallery shows, writing and creating art, he is also an art appraiser and art advisor.
NOTE: Panels are subject to change. Please refer to The LA Art Show website for updates.
Top: Circumlocution (detail), by Bruce Richards. Courtesy of the artist.