Super Mario's Art: Fine Art in the Fast lane: September 2009

Friday, September 11, 2009

Gallery Season Preview - LA

September 12th marks the beginning of the gallery season not only here in LA, but also in New York. From Chelsea to Bergamont Station, hundreds of galleries will be showing their new exhibits and presenting new work. It was exactly one year ago, in the midst of a presidential election, that the financial melt-down began and the country slid into recession. The gallery scene looks alot different then a year ago. Some galleries have closed to my dismay, while some have consolidated and moved to new spaces. Galleries like Lizabeth Oliveria, Meisler & Hug, David Patton, Anna Helwig and others have closed since last year.

When I hear about a gallery closing, I do feel a sense of loss. I think Robert Smith in the New York Times put it most eloquently by saying, "An art gallery is like a single-cell organism: it is the crudest but also the most essential life form in the art-world food chain. It is among the easiest of public forums to start up, and therefore the most efficient means of introducing new blood into the system. All it takes is one person with the single-minded determination to get the work of an artist or two seen and a reasonably clean, well-lighted space of almost any size — something that is becoming a more affordable option as rents soften and storefronts..."

When a gallery closes, I feel that a conduit or a way for artists to show their work dies. As the new season begins, I go the openings tomorrow with greater appreciation of the galleries that take risks and show the most cutting edge art out there. I look forward to seeing as many gallery openings tomorrow. I will have a report as well pictures (an experiment, let's see how it works). Have a great weekend.