Quintessa Matranga’s”Dockweiler Seashore” (2024) can be on view on the new Santa Monica Put up Workplace truthful. (picture courtesy Home of Seiko)
There’s a brand new child on the block. With subsequent month’s LA artwork truthful week quick approaching, a newcomer to the circuit has simply been introduced: The debut version of Santa Monica Put up Workplace, named for its location in a 1938 Artwork Deco constructing, will run from February 20 to 22, concurrently with Frieze LA, Felix, and the Spring Break Artwork Present. Organized by Chris Sharp, who opened his eponymous LA gallery in 2021, the truthful will characteristic 28 galleries from the US and overseas, every showcasing single-artist shows.
Dismayed by the rising prices of taking part in artwork festivals, which will be financially onerous for rising in addition to middle-market galleries, Sharp wished to give attention to camaraderie and affordability.
“Every few years, a couple of galleries will get together to invent a new fair, because the current fair system has become too corporate,” he instructed Hyperallergic. “I wanted to create something by galleries for galleries, that’s more about community, more collegial.”
Lin Might Saeed, “Lioness Relief” (2015), Styrofoam, acrylic paint, wooden, 22 7/8 x 33 1/8 x 6 3/4 inches (58.1 x 84.1 x 17.1 cm) (picture courtesy The Property of Lin Might Saeed, Jacky Strenz, Frankfurt/Principal, and Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles)
The exhibitor payment can be $6,000 for galleries and $2,000 for mission areas, with $10 tickets for the general public. By comparability, sales space charges at Felix ranged from $10,000 to $20,000 in 2024. At Artwork Basel Miami Seashore, a a lot larger truthful, cubicles began at $26,000 final December.
Santa Monica Put up Workplace is modeled after Place des Vosges in Paris, a equally intimate truthful that Sharp launched with a handful of galleries throughout Artwork Basel Paris in 2024.
“It reminds me of when we went to Miami and did a fair called Seven with six other galleries during Art Basel,” PPOW gallery co-founder Wendy Olsoff instructed Hyperallergic. “This is a good time to do something out of the box.”
Joseph Jones, “Rainbow Cat” (2024), oil and acrylic on linen, 11 1/2 x 8 inches (29 x 21 cm) (photograph by Evan Walsh, courtesy the artist and Ehrlich Steinberg, Los Angeles)
The roster of members consists of established galleries reminiscent of Sprüth Magers and PPOW, LA-based veterans Michael Benevento and Overduin & Co., Cooper Cole in Toronto, Et al. from San Francisco, and rising areas Ehrlich Steinberg and Home of Seiko, a San Francisco-based gallery that can be opening up an LA outpost in a Highland Park storefront window this spring.
“The cost doesn’t feel like a risk,” Home of Seiko Founder Cole Solinger instructed Hyperallergic. “My year won’t be destroyed if this display doesn’t perform well. The metrics of success are more open-ended.”
LA’s artwork scene has exploded over the previous decade, with dozens of hometown galleries popping up, worldwide galleries transferring in, and the institution of recent museums. The primary version of Frieze LA debuted in 2019, adopted by Felix the next yr, creating a world sensation every February. Nevertheless, rising prices have created excessive obstacles to entry for a lot of smaller areas.
“With the much talked about growth of the LA art scene and a number of new, emerging galleries opening (of which we are one), there is a need for a smaller scale and more intimate fair in the city,” mentioned Tabitha Steinberg, co-founder of Ehrlich Steinberg. This sentiment shouldn’t be distinctive to LA, as evidenced by two new upstart festivals in New York final yr, That ’70s Present and Esther.
Harry Gould Harvey IV, “Presupposition Of Saint Anne” (2023), coloured pencil, charcoal, xerox, White Oak from Prudence Island, 19 1/2 x 16 x 2 1/4 inches (49.5 x 40.6 x 5.7 cm) (photograph by JSP Artwork Images, courtesy Harry Gould Harvey IV and PPOW)
Charles Smith, who based Cruise Management Modern gallery in Cambria, a village on California’s central coast, in 2021, famous a sure serendipity within the truthful’s location, particularly poignant given his earlier job as a mail provider.
“The kind of ‘too big to fail’ attitude of the postal system maybe in some ways mirrors contemporary fair culture,” he instructed Hyperallergic.
Sharp made clear that Santa Monica Put up Workplace is certainly a industrial endeavor, although one the place he hopes the low price of entry, open flooring plan, and no-frills method will enable for a better sense of experimentation and change to develop.
“I’m looking forward to just connecting and relating with others that care about what I care about,” Smith mentioned. “It’s that simple for me.”
Lula Broglio, “The Sound of a Flower Growing” (2024), oil on canvas, 9 1/2 x 7 inches (~24.1 x 17.8 cm) (picture courtesy the artist and Tureen, Dallas)