Despite sluggish economy, art fairs are thriving in L.A.

Three Southern California art fairs in January, two of them in one weekend? In this economy? It may defy logic, but business is business.

As conceived when the financial outlook was rosier, Photo LA, an annual marketplace for a kaleidoscopic range of photography, will begin tonight with a gala preview and continue through the weekend at Santa Monica Airport's Barker Hangar. Art LA, a showcase and sales venue for edgy new work, is gearing up for its Jan. 23-25 gig, also at Barker Hangar. And the Los Angeles Art Show, offering an eclectic survey of art from the last two centuries, is sticking with its plan to leave Barker for the much larger L.A. Convention Center, where it will appear Jan. 22-25. "We have confidence that art is still a good buy," says L.A. photography dealer Stephen Cohen, who founded Photo LA in 1992 and launched Art LA in 2005. "It's a buyer's market. We expect a big turnout, but it might be that a lot of people are looking, holding on to their money or getting an idea of what to buy when they have some to spend."

Read the rest of the story at Culture Monster, The Times' arts blog.

-- Suzanne Muchnic

Photo: "General Patton" by Melanie Pullen. Credit: Ace Gallery

Comments

[Daniel Jackson]

Since when is child pornography excepted as "Art". Isn't there laws against photographing children naked and then blowing it up to enormous proportions and posting it in the public eye. Innocent pictures of children swimming or running through the hose is one thing. These pictures had little girls posing in front of the camera exposing themselves comlpletly right next to adult women who were also naked. This crosses the line and in order to protect children from being exploited should be illegal! Just because you call it art does not change the fact that it is child pornography! Who checks up on these things?