Dealer Kim Light presenting a painting grid on paper by artist Kim Dingle at ArtLA 2008 at the Santa Monica Civic
We went to the Art Fair at the Santa Monica Civic on Friday.
Each year the vibe in ArtLA is different, but the aesthetic shared by the art fair participants remains forever firmly entrenched in the “Duchampian Abortion” genre. Unlike in fairs past, the commitment to even an anti-aesthetic is hardly present in the face of so, so many small prints and drawings in the comfortable $400-$900 range.
This edition of the fair was about selling out… and cheap. The occasional good artwork was lost in a sea of thirtysomething slacker artists overhung by fortysomething trust-fund art dealers already looking nervous and desperate to cover their nut spent on securing a booth for this attempt at gravity in such terribly unserious times.
Thank god for Lizabeth Olveira and Kim Light, each who had the decency to present a booth that displayed art by an artist instead of product by a passing trend. Perhaps the security of a Culver City lease in the shadow of Tim Blum’s mullet gives them the confidence that every other ball-less depARTment Store at this fair lacked.
Highlight of the fair, though, was a Randall Scott sighting, 14 years after his TBA gallery here closed and before he became a Washington DC contemporary art dealing hotshot.