by Anne Gabriel
As Los Angeles readies itself for Art Week 2026 several changes have taken place between last year’s and this year’s art week, the most important being:
Far fewer established galleries. Many LA galleries have closed and shuttered their doors and moved to online models, if they’ve elected to stay in business at all. Meanwhile, East Coast galleries are increasingly less-invested in the LA market—major collectors have often already picked over the work in New York and Miami before it has a chance to be shown here.
Far more tiny spaces and alternative exhibition spaces, meaning more galleries in places where people actually live. Because, well, LA’s rents, although nothing like New York’s, are pricing the creative community out of town.
More art fairs. This last is the most interesting. In 2025, we saw Post-Fair, run by Chris Sharp Gallery, take over an old Santa Monica post office, a stone’s-throw away from Frieze at the Santa Monica Airport.
Felix Fair, the other best known art fair during LA Art Week, is situated in Hollywood and therefore an hour or more from Frieze and the vast majority of events/parties/gallery openings (which are decidedly not on the West side either). Participants have finally decided to capitalize on this in-between space by placing two new art fairs in the no-man’s land between.
LA Art Week 2026 will see the emergence of Butter and ENZO, two more art fair options for Angelenos. Butter Fine Art Fair, headed by Nakeyta Moore, a Los Angeles based curator and art advisor, boasts a “no-censorship” and “no-commission” model and will set its debut at Hollywood Park, near SoFi stadium. Exhibiting artists will include notables such as April Bey and Fulton Leroy Washington, better known as MR. WASH.
ENZO, situated in Mid-City, is a boutique fair that will host nine galleries from New York’s Chinatown and Lower East Side. In addition to being conveniently-located right between Frieze and Hollywood, the fair is free for all visitors as well as the participating galleries.
So what does all of this mean? Well the art world is either collapsing, diversifying, or both. Only one thing is for sure: it definitely means more driving.
Image: Courtesy of Enzo