Lights, Camera, Frieze: Los Angeles' main art fairs huddle around Hollywood
December’s Miami Art Week isn’t the only time of year dedicated to international art fairs in the United States. Los Angeles in February, New York in May, and Chicago in September are other destinations for gallerists, dealers, art advisors, collectors, critics, and curators alike to convene for week-long art expositions. It so happens that this week in February has become LA’s art week, which is centered around larger art fair magnates like Frieze Los Angeles and Art Los Angeles Contemporary (ALAC). Although only in the sophomore edition of its Los Angeles iteration, Frieze will likely attract celebrities as well as a lot of hype to its Paramount Pictures Studio home. Frieze is already a staple among the art fair circuit with fairs in New York and London. For the local veteran fair, this is ALAC’s 11th edition and has relocated from Santa Monica’s Barker Hanger to Hollywood Athletic Club on Sunset Boulevard.
Having two large fairs located in such close proximity certainly centralizes the main activities, and perhaps adds convenience for collectors, consultants, and other fair-goers by avoiding the dreaded LA traffic. Other art fairs sprinkled throughout (and outside) the city include Spring/Break Art Show in Downtown LA, stARTup Art Fair on Venice Beach, and Art Palm Springs for those interested in venturing east on I-10 through the San Gorgonio Pass.
DOCUMENT, Room 1124, Felix LA, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 2020
NEW KID ON THE BLOCK
Although also in its second year, Felix LA is the local art fair newcomer. Felix is housed within the comfy and chic niceties of the boutique Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. At its inaugural edition last year, the new fair attracted leading galleries from around the world, some of which include Corbett vs. Dempsey from Chicago, Rachel Uffner Gallery and Anton Kern from New York, Tanya Leighton from Berlin, and local favorites like Nino Mier from Los Angeles. This year, Felix welcomes even more galleries from around the world who are ready to give the offbeat fair a chance.
Exhibitors set up shop within their hotel room, which may be a cabana room overlooking the courtyard pool or garden. Bedroom furniture and fixtures obviously present their own set of considerations logistically to showcase artwork. Exhibitors adapt the type and size of the art that they ship (or hand-carry) as well as how they install or present the selected work. The lack of an empty white-walled backdrop also challenges the expectations for the audience. The experience is intimate and lends itself to a more laid-back, personable encounter with artwork and the art community.
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Felix LA
ARMED TO SUCCEED?
This isn’t the first time the art world has looked to hotels to host art fairs. First made popular in the mid-1990s was the Gramercy International Art Fair hosted at the Gramercy Park Hotel and the Chateau Marmont, both in New York City, NY. The alternative art fair evolved into one of the most renowned contemporary art fairs today: The Armory Show, now famously hosted on Pier 92 (or 90) and 94 each May .
Felix’s revival of the hotel art fair model was followed by the Chicago Invitational hosted at the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel by the New Art Dealers Alliance in September of 2019. Time will tell if the hotel model is here to stay this time around.
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