With a nod to Modernism Week, the fifth edition of the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair — unfolding at the Palm Springs Convention Center from Feb. 11 to Feb. 14 — celebrates the intersection of art and architecture.
Light and Space art pioneer Larry Bell, whom the fair honors with its Lifetime Achievement Award, joins architect Frederick Fisher — who designed the visitor center at Sunnylands Center & Gardens and the Resnick Pavilion at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art — in Light, Space and Architecture. The program is a moderated conversation with art critic Peter Frank (Feb. 13).
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The fair also honors Bell with an exhibition covering 40 years of work, curated by the Frank Lloyd Gallery. Although the survey sweeps through historical works in a variety of media, the gallery’s booth highlights Bell’s new large-scale collages on paper mounted to canvas. The artist’s minimal works — most notably his glass shadow boxes — appeared in The Responsive Eye, the seminal 1965 MoMA exhibition, A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958-1968, the renowned 2004 MOCA L.A. exhibition, Los Angeles 1955-1985: Birth of an Artistic Capital, the 2006 Pompidou Centre offering, and the historic 2011-2012 Pacific Standard Time exhibitions produced by The Getty.
But a mere program listing can’t describe the bounty of aesthetic displays throughout the fair; thousands of paintings, sculpture, photographs, video, and installation art from about 60 galleries around the country (and a few from Greater Palm Springs, including the Hohmann, Jorge Mendez , and J. Willott galleries) populate the venue.
In a special installation, Palm Springs Art Museum and KCET’s Artbound present Desert In-Site: Christopher Cichocki, a multisensory performance inspired by the desert and its underwater origins. A documentary about Cichocki’s New Earth Art airs on KCET on Feb. 16.
Visit www.palmspringsfineartfair.com for information and tickets.
5 Must-See Artists
photo courtesy of madison gallery
Dina Goldstein, Breakfast, Madison Gallery: The pop surrealist photographer from Tel Aviv, Israel, questions Ken and Barbie’s perfect world in prints from her In the Dollhouse series.
photo courtesy of frank lloyd gallery
Craig Kauffman, Bayabas, Frank Lloyd Gallery: The late L.A. Finish Fetish artist let there be light by working with translucent and transparent materials.
photo courtesy of peter marcelle project
Marc Sijan, Fetal, Peter Marcelle Project: You are forgiven for attempting conversation with the hyper-realist’s life-size human figures.
photo courtesy of william turner gallery
Ed Moses, Reverse Grid, William Turner Gallery: Look for the L.A. Cool School prophet’s large-scale, 2014 Reverse Grid painting.
photo courtesy of yares art project
Gene Davis, Scarlet Letter, Yares Art Projects: The gallery showcases one of the late American painter’s colorful vertical striped works.