Same Old Fair

Finally ALL the LA fairs are over. This fair business is getting tiresome. When is the trend going to end? There were three fairs in Los Angeles this year. First, Photo LA, then the FADA fair (Fine Art Dealer Association), then Art Los Angeles Contemporary fair. They all happened on separate weeks, but consecutively. I wasn't sure if that was better or worse. If they happened all at once, then you can get them over all at once. But it's hard to be all places at once, especially in LA. So, that's the main reason I haven't been blogging, because I've been shlepping magazines, spilling wine at the opening receptions and putting on art shows.

But I wanted to talk about my impression of the art fairs. Now that they are over, I'm sure that my assessment is colored by my weariness and the banality of it all. I'm tired of fairs, and I mean that both physically and emotionally. But this last art fair really brought out the ugl

iness. There was nothing in particular wrong with the art or the layout or the people or the lighting. It was actually all of it together! The same people, the same art, the same magazines, the same wine, the same food, the same crap. And the same overpriced drinks. 

With all the fairs in LA, there was just too much familiarity. I'm not sure I want to see certain people EVERY week. It was all just too much. So with that sort of negativity in mind, I just sort of lost it with the last fair, which was at the Pacific Design Center. 

If you're not familiar with PDC, it's basically laid out like a mall. Every front entrance is floor to ceiling glass. I haven't done much investigating, but apparently there's a few floors that are completely unoccupied. It was a brilliant idea of ALAC director Tim Fleming's to put his fair there. It's a readymade. So, that sounds great—right? Well not exactly, in my mind. I couldn't get past the "mall" atmo. So that, coupled with my sheer exhaustion of the fairs before (not to mention Miami fairs a previous month), put me in a foul mood towards art fairs in general.

Why are we still having them in this troubled economy? Why this persistence? I think it's obvious that fairs aren't the cash cows they once were a few years ago. The art world is so stubborn that way. The art world never really wanted to admit they were caught up in the recession, and that bullheadedness persists with the perennial art fairs. What is the desire? It can't be just money, or can it? Do people really want to go through that much torture?

The answer is yes. The art market has slowed, and the fairs provide a glimmer of hope. But now they just seem to be going through the motions. No fanfare. And even if there was, would it be welcomed?

And guess what? I'm off to Spain next week for yet another art fair, ARCO. I guess I need an attitude adjustment. I'll be blogging more regularly, and hopefully the new atmosphere will give me a lift.

Above photo: Artillery Publisher Paige Wery (the tall one), and moi. Wine always helps attitudes too. Photo by Lynda Burdick