The LA Art Show opens January 14 through January 18. The event celebrates twenty years of bringing established galleries, artists as well as avid collectors together under one roof.
Founded in 1994, the show has grown from a small regional event featuring 14 galleries to become the largest and longest running platform for fine art, bringing in more than 120 galleries representing 22 countries.
Originally founded by Kim Martindale (now general manager/partner), the LA Art Show has seen a lot of changes throughout the years.
“We’ve gone from being a largely regional event to one that has more than one third of its exhibitors from outside the United States. We’ve outgrown three venues before moving to the world-class Los Angeles Convention Center in 2009.”
The LA Art Show brings a diverse array of artistic genres together, from fine art, murals to street art and graffiti and has put a spotlight on nonprofit organizations such as Building Bridges, which will feature artist Zhenya Gershman at Booth #1017.
There, Gershman, whose art show debuts February 12th at the Building Bridges Art Exchange in Santa Monica, CA., will unveil her “Larger Than Life” portrait of Bryan Cranston.
Read M&C’s feature on Zhenya Gershman here!
Presented by Palm Beach Show Group, this mainstream event attracted over 50,000 attendees last year with over 7,000 of those being collectors and celebrities.
The 2015 opening night event (taking place on Wednesday, January 14, 7pm) will be hosted by A-list actors Amy Adams and Darren Le Gallo and will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Image courtesy of LA Art Show, Barbara Streisand, with Willem Van Gogh (left) and Alex Ruger (right)
Barbara Streisand and James Brolin were among the notable attendees of the 2014 opening night festivities along with Mayor Eric Garcetti. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jerry Bruckheimer, Henry Winkler and more also showed their support.
What to expect:
The Dialogs LA Lecture Series is back with the inclusion of a special designer addition. There will be a Modern & Contemporary section and Historic & Traditional Contemporary section. International art will boast pieces from galleries all the way from Korea, China, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan.
You will see exhibits from Artspace Warehouse, Axiom Contemporary, Coagula Curatorial, FP Contemporary, Gallery Luisotti, the G2 Gallery, Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, PYO Gallery, and Timothy Yarger Fine Art, who will all return for the 2015 show.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is honored to participate in the LA Art Show 2015 as the Featured Guest Country.
They will curate a special exhibition that will showcase some of the country’s top contemporary artists and highlight the nation as an international hub for culture and art. Throughout the UAE, there is an exciting new array of museums, art shows, and galleries that celebrates the nation’s rich cultural heritage, as well as displays of diverse international art.
Beginning in 2010, the LA Art Show has actively developed its international gallery offerings to provide collectors with a unique opportunity, to spot international trends and zeitgeist through art, a medium that has the ability to transcend language. This keen focus has been a hallmark of the show.
“The art and artists that have been featured at the LA Art Show have been exceptional over the years,” states LA Art Show Producer Kim Martindale. “I feel that the breadth and quality of the art has sometimes gone under the radar because of the grand scale of our event. We’ve had more than a dozen Venice Biennale artists exhibit their works at our show, as well as artists that have exhibited at major museums such as The Met and LACMA. Now that we are entering our twentieth year, it is an opportunity to look back on all of our accomplishments and the success we have amassed. Having a strong understanding of where we have been will help us chart out our next steps and direct how we want to grow in the future.”
