The two LA International Art Fairs in Santa Monica this weekend were night and day different, and seeing both in one day was sensory overload. Starting at Art LA, it was all contemporary work, about materials, Postmodern fracturing of anything and everything, and experimental techniques (e.g., painting on roofing slates that are laced together as an art book). There were also great paintings by several top-notch living artists (e.g., Tom La Duke of LA, Kim Dingle of NY, and Adrian Ghenie of Romania). However, my favorite artist discovery was Caetano de Almeida of Brazil, a 3rd or 4th generation Modernist with just a small Postmodernist tweak of fracturing here and there. Presented by the LA Kontainer Gallery were six of his semi-woven grid paintings on mylar (e.g., see photo) that were both formal and edgy, clearly hand-made without computer assistance, and with gorgeous color. He also had four smaller minimalist, geometric paintings so technically clean that the quirky tilts of the rectangles are almost not noticed. His $5K-20K prices were still out of reach for most of the dressed-down crowd.
Going next to the LA Art Fair, it was big-time everything. Twice as many cars, people, galleries, wine bars, dealers, freebies and elbows. Lots of traditional art (e.g., California plein air, European Impressionism and Modernism, yesterday’s quality painters and today’s name artists), with sticker shock prices (nothing overtly over $1M). Something for each taste, eye candy all over, and lots of red dots on the labels. This year also added the LA Prints Show that was so jammed with beautiful works, it was difficult to leave without being tempted. So if you love art and cannot make it this year to all the other international art fairs in Europe, Asia, NYC, etc., then these LA art fairs are a bargain and quite informative about what is in the art market these days. On Sunday, why not try an escape from a world recession or War on Terrorism?
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