At Long Last ALAC

This year Art Los Angeles Contemporary (ALAC) moved to the Hollywood Athletic Club, a venue that is intimate and a little glamorous, two descriptors not often affiliated with art fairs. Both factors served the art well, creating a relaxed atmosphere in which to view work by familiar artists alongside those that were possibly new to the audience in Los Angeles.

Some of the most interesting work came from New York and Chicago, although there was also plenty of local representation, including small galleries with ambitious programming featuring emerging artists. Of the fifty galleries, non-profits and independent publishers represented, eleven countries participated. 

Among the noteworthy exhibitors were Mrs Gallery, and Marinaro from New York, and Western Exhibitions, out of Chicago. From the latter, Geoffrey Todd Smith and Edie Fake had terrific, small scale gouaches, looking like direct descendants of Chicago Imagists with their colorful, abstract paintings that integrated patterns, folk and pop art.

Edie Fake

   

Edie Fake

Geoffrey Todd Smith

Marinaro showcased a series of highly textured paintings from Tracy Thomason made of oil and marble dust on linen that crossed constructivism with embellishments.

Tracy Thomason

Tracy Thomason

At Mrs. it was good to welcome back Chris Bogia to LA, who was seen last year in a show at Shulamit Nazarian. Here he  exhibited a wall sculpture using simple shapes in toy-like constructions.

Chris Bogia

Klowden Mann devoted their booth to the work of David Lloyd, displaying a suite of subtle etchings from the nineties, perhaps precursors to his later work in his colorful, playful style.

David Lloyd

The Landing had a very solid booth, leading off with a stellar painting by Brenda 
Goodman, who is currently showing at their gallery.

Brenda Goodman

Also on display is a small work by Yevgeniya Baras, which has similar qualities as Tomason's work, but earthier and on the mysterious side of the equation. 

Bozo Mag is one of the local, irreverent galleries that shows great work in a casual setting. Their booth could hold its own against any of the more established galleries with the work of Adam Rabinowitz and Hayley Barker.  As different as these two artists are, the paintings were complimentary; Barker's messy visionary and complex images balancing the muted pop art simplicity of Rabinowitz's meticulous work.

Hayley Barker

Yevgeniya Baras

 

Keita Miyazaki

Adam Rabinowitz

 

Keita Miyazaki at Rosenfeld gallery had some humorous and sensitive wall sculptures incorporating cut paper and machine parts that were captivating and lastly, at Steve Turner Gallery, Siro Cugusi, an artist from Sardina, showed one very large painting that looked like a contemporary interpretaion of the paintings in the Map room from the Vatican. Look for more of his work in April at Steve Turner Gallery.

Siro Cugusi
That concludes the 2020 art fair season. See you all next year!