Downtown: Los Angeles' newest shining star

While New York may be the center of the art world, Los Angeles is emerging as its less-harried--and less sales-driven alternative.

"L.A. has a more relaxed feel than [New York]," said Dan Bayles, an assistant curator with Cirrus Gallery, which has been located in downtown Los Angeles for the past 25 years. "In L.A., it's more about the work and less about sales, whereas [New York] is more oriented toward the business side."

While the burgeoning arts districts of nearby Pasadena and Santa Monica have long been making headlines, the newest shining star on Southern California's artistic map is Los Angeles' emerging downtown. Artists from both New York and San Francisco have taken notice and are moving downtown to take advantage of the area's cheaper rents and eclectic gallery scene.

Home to more than 40 of the areas most celebrated exhibition spaces, downtown Los Angeles is being reenergized thanks to the efforts of a handful of talented gallery owners and the proliferation of arts districts in former industrial and commercial areas.

Plenty of art can be found at the Brewery Arts Complex, an enormous artists colony located in the city's Lincoln Heights neighborhood and home to about 500 artists or art-related businesses. The complex itself is made up of more than 20 former industrial buildings, including a defunct Pabst brewery and Edison power plant.

Meanwhile, a gaggle of exotic, ramshackle galleries located near or on Chinatown's pedestrian-friendly Chung King Road continue to draw both art-loving hipsters and serious collectors. Black Drag on Society gallery, for example, which is located in an old kung fu studio, is a gallery run by four artists that features sporadic exhibits of abstract paintings, ceramics or photography.

To Live and Die in L.A.

Bayles said downtown has a unique charm and is fast becoming the epicenter of an adventurous scene, one that offers a romantic, underground feeling, largely inspired by the hidden charms of its semi-industrial landscape.

But downtown still has many obstacles in its path to becoming a primary arts destination. For example, in other arts districts around the city, Los Angelenos can park their cars and tour several galleries in a short amount of time. Downtown galleries, however, are more spread out. Still, while many downtown galleries are challenged by their isolation, they still manage to attract a healthy patronage.

Bill Lasarow, editor and publisher of the Los Angeles' monthly gallery guide Artscene, said downtown has benefited from being singled out by the press among a handful of the areas younger, more rough-edged arts districts that present alternatives to the main West Hollywood and Santa Monica districts.

While the downtown arts scene is quickly making a name for itself, the fact that the scene is so young makes it unclear whether it will have long-term staying power.

"For the most part, these are entry-level galleries," Lasarow said of the Chung King Road galleries. "Some of the dealers have high ambitions, some are testing the waters to determine their commitment, and some are alternative-type spaces that probably have a slim hope of lasting very long. The question will be whether the most talented among these can sustain a successful program while remaining in place, or if they find they must abandon the district for West Hollywood or Santa Monica in order to achieve the next level."

Despite these obstacles, Lasarow cited the recent development of a new gallery district very close to city's skid row area as an exciting development for the downtown gallery scene.

"There are some hopeful signs that both L.A. city and private developers and businesses are committing investments that will complement the emergence of the district;' he said. "The major factors affecting downtown's success or failure will be the ability of these galleries to attract and hold on to a growing potential audience of downtown residents, and the city/business/cultural coalition's ability to create a safe and attractive enough ambiance in the area to foster a street scene in which the galleries are a draw."

Max Presneill, director of Raid Projects in the Brewery Arts Complex, said the downtown galleries have become a significant force in the area's art scene, though they have not yet experienced the success of galleries located in more established districts such as those on Willshire Boulevard.

"Willshire has the best of the younger, more dynamic commercial galleries who have been around just long enough to be stable and represent a good stable of artists, but not so long that they have lost the edge" he said.

Genuine Support

Part of downtowns appeal is its cheap studio space. "The term is relative of course, but it has meant a large concentration of working artists for many years, which enables the galleries to have an audience," Presneill said. Because of this, he believes the downtown arts scene has some core differences compared to other cities such as New York and San Francisco.

"The social aspect of the scene here is more proactive in creating chances for your self and not waiting for galleries to 'discover' you," he said. "This leads to a much more informal set of relationships and often to genuine support amongst artists themselves, so it is not as cut-throat here."

Many artists in Los Angeles teach or curate shows, which leads to, "a fuller experience of the business of making art," Presneill said. Because of this, he said the pressure to conform to the sales needs of galleries are less pronounced and allow for more risk taking.

"Collectors do not abound in the kind of numbers seen ill New York, and certainly prices for work are lower here because of that," he said. "Expectations of sales by the artists are therefore lower, which allows them to take some risks that are more difficult to do in the hectic and intense competition found in New York City."

SOURCES

* Black Dragon Society, (213) 620-0030

* Brewery Arts Complex, (323) 342-0717

* Cirrus Gallery, (213) 680-3473

* Raid Projects, (323) 441-9593

COPYRIGHT 2004 Pfingsten Publishing, LLC
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group