As the interview with Art Los Angeles Contemporary director Tim Fleming continues from part one, he excitedly discusses the galleries displaying at the upcoming fair. The fair opens in Santa Monica's Barker Hangar this Thursday, Jan. 24, continuing through Sunday, Jan. 27.
L.C. In terms of the galleries, what can we expect to see?
T.F. For years, the fair has had a very straightforward recipe of being half Los Angeles galleries and half galleries from the rest of the world. But this year, and with the French exchange in particular, we consciously decided to get just a little more international. We still have a wonderful local Los Angeles presence - really wonderful galleries from LA.
There is a lot more interest this year. It's a reflection of the galleries and of the fair getting broader recognition. A lot of galleries apply from all over the world. We made a decision, when all the applications came in, to tweak the recipe a little bit and become more international. We're really excited about it.
L.C. Taking a broad perspective, which aspects of what is happening now in contemporary art will emerge from the fair?
T.F. Well, that's the beauty of this sort of project - you don't really know. Galleries apply, and you work very hard with an advisory committee who goes through the applications and makes decisions on who should be accepted into the fair. You really don't know what you're going to see until the crates arrive, and they open up, and the work goes up, and the people filter in. It's a new experience every year, especially when we're slightly changing our recipe this year.
One of the constants that we're definitely focused on is this balance between… very established galleries, galleries who have been in business twenty years or more, and young galleries, who are barely a year [old]… all in the wonderful 40,000 square foot space. That kind of energy really feeds into the whole. It's very much what's happening now in contemporary art just by that sort of juxtaposition of the very established and the very young galleries.
You know, it's like… it's Los Angeles. We have to think about our audience, and think about what kinds of things walk the line of the industry meets art, meets France… meets everything. We just put it all together and see what happens at the end.
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