Martin Wittfooth for Roq La Rue
In its 19th year, the LA Art Show (LAAS) will open later this week on January 15 and will be exhibited through Sunday, January 19. The largest art fair on the West Coast, LAAS includes dozens of international galleries that specialize in different styles of contemporary art. “Littletopia” is the fair’s New Contemporary oasis. Organized by Red Truck Gallery, a New Orleans-based gallery that curates events all over the country, “Littletopia” includes galleries that will be familiar to our readers: Roq La Rue (Seattle), Thinkspace (Culver City), Varnish Fine Art (San Francisco), Spoke Art (San Francisco), La Luz de Jesus (LA), Last Rites Gallery (New York) and Breeze Block Gallery (Portland), as well as others.
Today we bring you a comprehensive preview of what the aforementioned galleries have in store for LAAS. Varnish Fine Art, who we have not heard from since they closed their brick-and-mortar gallery space and transitioned their business to a special event-oriented format, will present, among other things, a sculpture by Lucien Shapiro made of bags of cannabis. The sculpture is intended for a ritual scripted by the artist, who seems to be moving into a more experimental direction. An elaborately-painted panel by Femke Hiemstra is one of the highlights of Roq La Rue’s booth. The work is embellished with one Hiemstra’s allegorical animal scenes from both sides and has doors that allow for different viewpoints. Breeze Block Gallery will be bringing heavy metal-themed quilts by Ben Venom. Scott Hove’s assault weapon cake sculptures at Spoke Art’s booth share a similar juxtaposition of aggressive imagery and domestic craft. There are too many interesting works of art to list, so please take a look at these preview images from the different galleries showing at LAAS and stay tuned for more coverage of the event.
Femke Hiemstra for Roq La Rue
Peter Ferguson for Roq La Rue
John Brophy for Roq La Rue
Esao Andrews for Thinkspace
Henrik Aa. Uldalen for Thinkspace
Allison Sommers for Thinkspace
Ransom & Mitchell for Varnish Fine Art
Ransom & Mitchell for Varnish Fine Art
Nicomi Nix Turner for Varnish Fine Art
Lucien Shapiro for Varnish Fine Art
Nathan Ota for La Luz de Jesus
Annie Murphy-Robinson for La Luz de Jesus
Ben Venom for Breeze Block Gallery
Scott Listfield for Breeze Block Gallery
Scott Hove for Spoke Art
Nimit Malavia for Spoke Art
Jessica Hess for Spoke Art
David Stoupakis for Last Rites Gallery
Agostino Arrivabene for Last Rites Gallery
Paul Booth for Last Rites Gallery
Chris Mars for Last Rites Gallery
