Surviving as a gallery in LA
Mery Lynn McCorkle
With real estate
profiteers busily boosting rents for artist lofts and art galleries in New York,
staying in the art scene means perpetually seeking cheaper rent. As a result,
galleries are popping up all over, making going to openings a logistical nightmare.
You can’t be in Harlem, Chelsea, Soho, Williamsburg, Queens, DUMBO in a
single evening. In a real sense, the New York art scene is becoming more like
Los Angeles.
So I decided to take a good look at survival strategies for galleries in Los
Angeles. While artist run spaces are admittedly all over, these generally have
a limited life span. Hard work, no pay – after a while the enthusiasm wanes.
The ones which make the decision to achieve sales or recognition follow the lead
of successful commercial galleries here. As Angela Jones at SolwayJones expressed
it, they "cluster or die." She speaks from experience. The commercial
gallery she and Michael Solway originally opened was at 2211 Broadway a few miles
from the Chinatown galleries and the Brewery art colony. The positive side of
being the only gallery around was that they got a different sort of foot traffic
– Buddhist monks in saffron robes and mothers with toddlers. The economic
reality was that local collectors did not make the trek in great numbers. Since
their collector base is not exclusive to LA, this was not devastating. But they
show Robert Smithson and Hannah Wilke in conjunction with young to mid career
artists and wanted to be more visible in the LA art scene. They decided to relocate
and are now on Wilshire in the same block near LaBrea with two other galleries
which attract the same kind of collectors. They are paying about the same rent
for half the space but think the trade off is worth it. (www.solwayjones.com)
Being around similar galleries is critical for survival. The Chinatown galleries
along Chung King Road show a high percentage of recent grads from the local art
schools. Across Hill Street on Bernard, Acuna-Hansen shows a strong mix of emerging
artists and mid career. These galleries all attract the same type of collectors.
While sales have progressively increased, Chris Acuna-Hansen still supports the
gallery with a teaching job. He and Blair, his wife, funnel all the income back
into promoting the gallery, going to art fairs. While the rents on Chung King
have doubled in the last two years, their rent remains fairly constant. The property
owner is concerned they won’t stay since he can’t figure out what they
actually sell. Acuna-Hansen is accessible because it is across the street from
a parking garage, the best place to park to go to the Chung King galleries. Parking
is a considerable issue in LA.
The galleries at 6150 Wilshire all share a parking lot complete with an attendant
and a common aesthetic sensibility. Kontainer, the current reincarnation of a
gallery right around the corner, is struggling with the same problem Post had
at that location. It’s just a few non-art buildings down from the 6150 complex
but attracts fewer viewers. Contiguous to parking is important in a town where
no one walks.
Bergamot Station in Santa Monica is the exception to the necessity of clustering
around similar galleries. There’s a bit of everything at Bergamot –
severe abstraction to the kind of work ArtForum prefers to landscape painting.
Bergamot Station is a Tourist Destination – it appears in all the guide
books I’ve seen, was written up in Conde Nast’s Traveler. Susan Schomburg
took the last raw space (and the only second floor one) two years ago. Her sales,
while steady, are supplemented by another job. Most gallerists in LA have “something
on the side” – a job, trust fund or wealthy spouse. She chose Bergamot Station
because of its range of art since she resists following a niche market, preferring
to “mix and match” styles and ages. (www.schomburggallery.com)
Not all galleries follow the rules. They fall in the “over there” category.
DiRT has been at its current location at Santa Monica Blvd. and Fairfax for eight
years. Composed of small single occupancy rooms on the second floor of a brick
hotel built in 1936, DiRT is distinctive, an artist run space which has lasted
mainly because the gallery has become the art form of its director, Rhonda Saboff.
(Check out the X rated bathroom, originally the public shower.) She admits that
it isn’t the ideal space for collectors who often prefer more traditional
spaces and shows don’t get the exposure she believes they deserve, but DiRT
has a devoted following even with limited metered parking, isolation and a hike
up stairs. (www.dirtgalleryla.com)
The downside to the LA art scene is that it’s almost a full time job driving
around to see new work. If you have a regular job and just have Saturday to go
see shows, most of the day is spent driving, not art viewing. (Driving here is
one of the circles of hell.) If you’re an artist, the tendency is to go
to the openings of close friends or galleries closer by. As a result, cliques
are reinforced. If you can’t see a wide cross section of what’s being
produced, you just don’t get a sense of the whole picture. You can’t
connect the dots.
