La La Landers

The sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles has recently become one of the epicenters of the US contemporary art world. with its varied landscape of institutions, art centers and commercial galleries – alongside a brand new art fair, Frieze Los Angeles, launching its first edition this month – the southern Californian city is a major pole of attraction for artists and collectors. Los Angeles-born artist Alex Israel and Bettina Korek, executive director of Frieze Los Angeles discuss the city’s attractions and thriving art scene. A selection of shots by photographer Trevor Hernandez captures an alternative picture of LA packed with urban details and industrial ready-mades

- Alex Israel & Bettina Korek

BETTINA KOREK: Describe the LA art world in a few words.

ALEX ISRAEL: Bold and beautiful. And blurry. What would you say? How would you answer that question? Friendly and elusive.

You see a ton of art in Los Angeles, maybe more than anywhere else I know. How does LA differ from other cultural centers? Are there any new or novel ways that artists are entering the mainstream in Southern California that have caught your attention?

People like to talk about LA as a place where cultural disciplines come together: music, art, fashion, film and so on. While this isn’t singular to LA, it seems to have roots in this city. I went to Coachella for the first time this year and was struck by the way visual art projects anchor the festival. Obviously this isn’t new, but it was fascinating to see that palpable crossover between the art and music worlds. This model has spread beyond LA. The next chapter might be when people stop identifying these disciplines within such stark black and white labels.

There used to be a stigma that LA was a place for artists who couldn’t make it in New York. There’s also a misconception that LA has a kind of unified aesthetic or sensibility that’s all folksy and crafty. The work being made in LA is so diverse, and certainly without a single common denominator beyond the landscape itself. The old myth of LA provincialism has certainly been dismantled.

A lot of people who come to LA to visit are driven by the desire to see art and artists.

Yes, there’s a constant stream of people from all over the world coming to visit the city, and many want to come to the studio and to visit other artists. I hear some people say that LA is now a real artists’ town, and a real museum town, but not yet a gallery town. What do you think?