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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Following up on our coverage of the 21st annual LA Art Show, posted yesterday, today we bring you an extensive look at another annual highlight- the Littletopia section of local West Coast galleries and artists. This year, Littletopia continued its foray into featuring Pop Surrealsim works of every shape, size, and imaginable medium from the following galleries: Antler Gallery, Artists Republic 4 Tomorrow, Coagula Curatorial, Copro Gallery, Daniel Rolnik Gallery, Gauntlet Gallery, Gregorio Escalante Gallery, Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Red Truck Gallery, Thinkspace and Think Tank. Together with LA Art Show, they presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Robert Williams, featured in Hi-Fructose Vol. 26, who is arguably lauded as the 'godfather of Lowbrow art and culture'.
Los Angeles welcomed LA Art Show in its 21st installment over the weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Between January 27th through the 31st, attendees showed up to the fair in record numbers, some reporting over 65,000 visitors, with opening night proceeds benefiting the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. For the 21st annual edition of the show, covered here in previous years, there was a strong mix of international exhibitors alongside local galleries throughout the halls and "Littletopia" section, including annual players Thinkspace, Copro Gallery, Gregorio Escalante Gallery, who had pieces on display throughout the fair, including Robert Xavier Burden's pricey $200,000 "20th Century Space Opera" painting inspired by Star Wars figurines, and La Luz de Jesus Gallery, with an interactive preview of Scott Hove's new and upcoming Cakeland experience.
Looking at the paintings of Korean artist Egene Koo is like piecing together a puzzle. Her dramatic red portraits of anthropomorphic characters are meant to be allegorical. Just as the tortoise and the hare taught us the rewards of patience and focus, there's a mysterious moral to Koo's images. From what we can gather from her titles, her work addresses lessons about change and sin, such as narcissism and greed. At LA Art Show, Koo's gallery Keumsan also pointed to her themes of environmentalism and our relationship with wildlife, represented by the variety of animals she paints.
LA Art Show's 20th anniversary edition continues through this weekend, January 18th, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Not just a special anniversary, this year is also dedicated to expanding the fair's Japanese gallery selection. These include Mizoe Art Gallery, Gallery Kitai, Niche Gallery, Kinoshu Kikau, Watanabe Fine Art and Tachibana Gallery, which offer fresh perspectives of New Contemporary art alongside their Western counterparts in Littletopia; Roq La Rue, Thinkspace, Spoke Art, La Luz de Jesus, Varnish Fine Art and more.
Photos by Birdman Wednesday night marked the 20th anniversary of LA Art Show, and West Coast artists from all over came to celebrate their largest art fair. The event was co-hosted by Amy Adams, fresh off her Golden Globe win for Best Actress in Big Eyes, where she plays Margaret Keane (Vol 34 cover artist). Margaret Keane is one of hundreds of artists whose art is on display here. Many of them call the 'Littletopia' section their "home". It's entrance is decorated with a special frosted cake archway by Scott Hove (Hi-Fructose Collected 3), with 'Littletopia' written in icing. Their collected styles are colorful, intriguing, playful and provocative, and sometimes cynical- misfits in the world of art welcomed by galleries Sloan Fine Art, Breeze Block, La Luz de Jesus, Last Rites Gallery, Roq La Rue, Spoke Art, Thinkspace Gallery, Varnish Fine Art, and Corey Helford.