by Anne Gabriel
In an age where good paintings go up on a gallery wall and then are removed to make space for another new crop of paintings to go up on a gallery only to be removed in an endless cycle of zero sales happening in the current art market—what options do gallerists have to drive what few collector-eyeball are available to their spaces?
La Loma Gallery on the Eastside might have solved the problem. In an industry propped up on smoke, mirrors and the latest buzz La Loma Projects has decidedly cast their lot in with “spectacle” as a way to drive interest in their programming – and I cannot say that this is a bad decision.
Spectacle has its place in both marketing to the public (the Superbowl halftime show has 133.5 million viewers) and fine art (as most recently seen at the LA Coliseum where Cai Guo-Qiang rained debris down on spectators as part of Getty’s PST art initiative). Rarely, however, is spectacle done in such a light hearted—and dare I say “fun” manner in a gallery as the one which La Loma projects created on behalf of artist Joe Sola and his exhibition titled Officer McGinty Writes a Ticket and Other Works. Apart from ephemeral watercolors on paper lining the walls, the floor was covered in a 3-foot-thick layer of decomposable foam peanuts whose off-gassing created both a mist in the air and a strong sense of popcorn.
To jump, dive, and run through the peanuts was an exhibition onto itself and one which did not detract but added to the work on the walls casting the entire space in a soft yellow white mist of light and scent—in a brilliant stroke of selfie-inducing social media posting marketing hype that other gallerists should be, if they’re smart, be considering as a way to invite participation, eyeballs, and collectors into a space.
In the current climate, regular exhibitions of ok paintings just won’t draw in visitors. Instead gallerists may just need to be carnival barkers and fully lean into the circus that is the fine art market and maybe just maybe those choices will keep their doors stay open long enough to weather this current art market drought. At least if collectors are any fun.
Image: Courtesy of La Loma Projects
