By DGC Contributing Writer: Seraphine
January 16th, 2017- Los Angeles
LA Art Show
The premiere art event in Los Angeles for seeing, experiencing, collecting and purchasing works of art is now in its 22nd year. The LA Art Show had its opening night premiere at the Los Angeles Convention Center on Wednesday, January 11th with host Emma Roberts, followed by a reception with delicious food and libations from some of Los Angeles’ best eateries. The show then opened its doors to the public for four wonderful days. Since its beginning, the La Art Show has been a dominant force in showcasing the most pivotal and dynamic artistic passions and ambitiousness from artists world-wide. This year’s diverse list of exhibitors represented 19 countries, from 100 galleries across a sprawling 200,000 square foot of impressive exhibition space.
“Our corporate partners, especially Stella Artois and The Agency, have earned well-deserved recognition for their commitment to sponsoring arts programming and events around the world,” says Kim Martindale, general manager and producer of the LA Art Show.
“We are delighted that they are bringing international art projects and new collectors to our community.”
Casual art lovers and serious collectors enjoyed walking around the massive showroom and discovering exciting pieces of art, sculpture and live performance work. This year, the La Art Show focused on modern and post-war contemporary works as well as Latin American art which coincides with The Getty’s upcoming Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a formidable exploration of Latin American and Latino art in conversation with Los Angeles. Original old masters like Monet were also on display as represented by M.S. Rau Antiques from the French Quarter in New Orleans.
“When I started the fair 22 years ago my original intention was to bring the international art world to Los Angeles,” says Kim Martindale, LA Art Show producer. “In the last few years, however, with all the institutional heft emanating from Los Angeles, I now hope to showcase the city and its art community to the world.” In partnership with international galleries and LA’s most prestigious art institutions, the fair’s expanded, international curatorial team is addressing emerging art market trends while bringing a new audience to the fair and the city of Los Angeles.
DGC asked the artists themselves (or their reps) on what creativity means to them and what aspiring artists might do to achieve success. Spanish artist Conchi Alvarez came to the show representing herself and her paintings of brightly contemporary portraitures of young matadors and multi-colored landscapes of Spain.
“The young artist must be totally connected and be part of the feelings about the art that is created”, said Alvarez. She even recommended a book by Padro Paramo about magical realism. At her gallery in Malaga, Spain she looks for such feeling and strength when adding art work to her intimate group of represented artists.
Simard Bilodeau Contemporary, which is run by two owners, Guy Simard and Eve-Marie Bilodeau said “it is all about the art and its content” and went on to give advice for upcoming artists “don’t be what people expect…but do be authentic.”
Director and founder of Building Bridges Art Exchange, Marisa Caichiolo, an Argentinean artist, who began her non-profit contemporary art space in Santa Monica’s Bergamot Station Arts Center in 2005 said “We have rotating exhibitions from around the world, artist residencies, workshops and lectures hosted by a diverse team of artists with social and political focus”, said Caichiolo. Her advice for aspiring artists is to engage, get involved and have something to say and say it creatively in your medium.
The Dosshaus team, Zoey Taylor and David Connelly, are two progressive artists at Caichiolo’s Bergamot Station who do just that. These multi-disciplinary artists enjoy engaging an audience in painting, sculpture, installation and performance to photography, film, and video. Team Dosshaus create using cardboard in a 3D environmental creation where each item is painted as 2D art thus becoming a 2D/3D exhibit from a typewriter to a piano to the clothes they were wearing during the exhibition.
Stephen Dinse, the Operations Manager for Tansey Contemporary Gallery, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Denver, Colorado was also representing artists at the La Art Show. “Our best sellers at this time are women artists”, Dinse said. Tansey gallery owners and directors Jen and Mike Tansey look for what Dinse summarized as “high craft ability and something different”.
Gail Potocki, an award-winning Symbolist artist from Detroit, Michigan, represented by Galerie Fledermaus, utilizes her skills and techniques of the Old Masters but in a delightful 21st century twist. Potocki has exhibited in Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and Scotland. Three of her fascinating paintings were featured at the LA Art Show where her creativity reflected a “stepping outside” of the reality of portraiture, using old masters techniques married with an image of the unusual.
Gallery We, located in Seoul, South Korea, showcases contemporary art in paintings, sculpture, mixed media, installations and photography. Gallery We has mostly Korean artists such as Hyun Sook Jeong whose work combines aspects of 2 dimension and 3 dimension in such a manner as to keep the viewer occupied and suspended.
Miki Yokoyama, an artist originally from Fukushima, Japan, has lived in Los Angeles for the last 10 years. She creates larger than life environments out of what appears to be inflatable 3D lighted sculptures. Yokoyama, along with Namiki Rile and Kareisha Phillips, wowed the crowds as they morphed into moving human body art and thus living sculptures resembling reptilian scale-like abstract shades of black and white. When asked what one piece of advice she would give aspiring artists she replied “believe in yourself and be confident.”
A group of artists who consider their work to be “production in action” was shown at the O. Ascanio Gallery. “Artists should produce a lot of pieces, do your research and make something powerful with confidence as those three things will show through your work and your ability to communicate with the viewing public”, said the O. Ascanio rep. One of their artists, Anrika Rupp, is a physical engineer who brings that part of her history into her pieces in which she uses clear acrylic balls of many sizes glued together and into a subliminal abstract which might be passed by unless one stops to take in the context. For instance, looking into one ball the viewer may lose track of the original acrylic ball and then ascend into another world of underlying colors and if time allowed, maybe even further into the endless rabbit hole of limitless shape and color.
Kim Abeles is an artist who creates 2D and 3D art relating to her biographical research of “strong females”. Abeles traveled to Joan of Arc’s birthplace for inspiration for her latest works sponsored by the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk.
Curator of the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk, Nat George encourages the local community to support local artists by taking a self guided tour the second Thursday of each month.
For more info on the La Art Walk, click HERE
About Contributing DGC Writer: Seraphine
A graduate of Art Center College of Design – Pasadena, California with a
Master’s In Advertising/Graphic Design and a BFA in
Fine Art from CSUN, Seraphine has shown at the New Orleans
Museum of Fine Art and in gallery exhibitions throughout
the United States. She lives in southern California with her three dogs.
LA ART Show Social Media:
Facebook: @laartshow
Twitter: @laartshow
Instagram: @laartshow #LAAS2017
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