LA Art Show: It's a Wrap and a Tribute to Recovery

 This weekend, The LA Art Show wrapped its second live event in just 6 months, establishing a return to normal and reuniting the Los Angeles art community under the LA Convention Center roof. Galleries, art dealers, curators, collectors, and art lovers came together to safely explore themes of environmental impact and new technologies, engaging in masked discussions. While the attendees were socially distanced, the community felt closer than ever. 

Returning director Kassandra Voyagis was able to create an intimate experience despite the large space. With 20% higher attendance than the summer show, bringing the total attendees to roughly 45,000 people, the show was a great success for visitors and galleries alike.

The event kicked off with an amazing VIP opening night. The celebration was hosted by model and actress Kaia Gerber in conjunction with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® for a celebration of art and charitable components. From the red carpet to the pink walls of the VIP area and plenty in between, the night was vibrant, leading into a wonderful weekend of enthusiasm and sales.

Among the highest selling galleries, Mizuma Gallery, Melissa Morgan, J&J Art, Pigment Gallery, Arcadia Contemporary, Beatriz Esquerra Arte, and Simard Bilodeau Contemporary all had incredible sales. In fact, for Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery and Abend Gallery this was a truly record-breaking year, marking the best year yet for the longtime participants.

As the first live show to join the NFT craze, introducing attendees to the incredible trend in digital art, the LA Art Show has established a reputation for leading the pack. This year was no exception. The LA Art Show continues to be on trend with NFTs, making sure the contemporary art conversation is comprehensive. This year included a preview of Little Beasts by artist Johnny ‘KMNDZ” Rodriguez, presented by Merry Karnowsky of KP Projects, in partnership with LGND, the return of Vellum LA, Los Angeles’s premier art gallery for NFT-backed digital art, with their latest show Elsewhere is a Negative Mirror which simultaneously debuted as an in-person NFT exhibition at the LA Art Show and at Vellum LA gallery, and specially displayed NFTs from Fabrik Projects.

With the NFT conversation comes a conversation about environmental conservation, the other focus of the show. Unifying the show’s themes of environmentally-driven discussions and new technologies, Arts Help presented Conscious Crypto Creator: ICEBERGS. The Conscious Crypto Creator, aka CCC, is a global movement developed by Arts Help to empower artists to use their art in the fight for transparency and sustainable crypto-validation practices. ICEBERGS highlighted the impact of our daily decisions on the melting of polar ice caps.

Environmental conversations percolated throughout the show with DIVERSEartLA’s ecological lens. Curated by Marisa Caichiolo, this year’s edition examined not just how the environment is represented in art, but how humanity’s place in the world is depicted.