The Insider’s LA
May 2007
Los Angeles is in a great moment right now in terms of contemporary art,” says local collector
Dean Valentine. “There are at least three major, strong institutions: the Museum of Contemporary Art [MOCA] downtown, the Hammer Museum in Westwood and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which has a new director and CEO, Michael Govan, who’s re-energizing that museum. I’m on the board of the Hammer, but I think they’re all doing an amazing job of showing younger, emerging artists from California. All of these places are worth visiting.”
Valentine, a television executive and media investor, and his wife, Amy Adelson, gave more than 40 contemporary artworks to the Hammer Museum in January, most of them sculpture and mixed-media pieces. “We had a very large collection of sculpture made by this younger generation of artists in Los Angeles,” says Valentine. “It’s unique because a lot of it is large and un-houseable. But I thought there was wonderful work being made here and at the time no one else was buying it. Now it’s acquired audiences and collectors. Because of that it’s become something of a historical collection. It was important to keep it together so the community could see it.”
Some other nonprofit, smaller spaces that Valentine advises visiting include Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition (LACE) and LAXART, which he says are doing some phenomenal things. “It’s a very vibrant scene right now,” he says, but notes this wasn’t true just a few years ago. “When I started collecting in 1995 MOCA was the only game in town. I’d go into a gallery and I’d be the only person there all day. There was nobody collecting. It was quiet, low-key. The art scene here has been gathering momentum in the last decade. Now it’s a global, crazy thing. In 1995 there were a few galleries on Nebraska in Santa Monica and Bergamot Station. Most of the rest didn’t exist. It’s blown up to epic proportions due to the globalization and the amount of capital that has come into it. That has radically changed things.”
Valentine and Adelson, who are aggressively adding to their collection, spend most of their time visiting gallery centers, such as the mid-Wilshire area of L.A. “There’s a confluence of galleries called ‘6150’ near Fairfax [at 6150 Wilshire]. There are around 11 in the complex, including ACME., Marc Foxx, Roberts & Tilton Gallery, Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Karyn Lovegrove Gallery. Many represent artists who have made global careers over the last few years, as well as a number of younger artists, some from Los Angeles. “I like the work of Sterling Ruby, seen at Marc Foxx, and Barry McGee, at Roberts & Tilton Gallery. These are highly regarded galleries, and it’s worth going to the complex because you get an overview of what’s happening in contemporary art right now,” Valentine says.
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Nathan Mabry, “A Touching Moment (Tooting My Own Horn),” 2005, |
Valentine, a television executive and media investor, and his wife, Amy Adelson, gave more than 40 contemporary artworks to the Hammer Museum in January, most of them sculpture and mixed-media pieces. “We had a very large collection of sculpture made by this younger generation of artists in Los Angeles,” says Valentine. “It’s unique because a lot of it is large and un-houseable. But I thought there was wonderful work being made here and at the time no one else was buying it. Now it’s acquired audiences and collectors. Because of that it’s become something of a historical collection. It was important to keep it together so the community could see it.”
Some other nonprofit, smaller spaces that Valentine advises visiting include Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition (LACE) and LAXART, which he says are doing some phenomenal things. “It’s a very vibrant scene right now,” he says, but notes this wasn’t true just a few years ago. “When I started collecting in 1995 MOCA was the only game in town. I’d go into a gallery and I’d be the only person there all day. There was nobody collecting. It was quiet, low-key. The art scene here has been gathering momentum in the last decade. Now it’s a global, crazy thing. In 1995 there were a few galleries on Nebraska in Santa Monica and Bergamot Station. Most of the rest didn’t exist. It’s blown up to epic proportions due to the globalization and the amount of capital that has come into it. That has radically changed things.”
Valentine and Adelson, who are aggressively adding to their collection, spend most of their time visiting gallery centers, such as the mid-Wilshire area of L.A. “There’s a confluence of galleries called ‘6150’ near Fairfax [at 6150 Wilshire]. There are around 11 in the complex, including ACME., Marc Foxx, Roberts & Tilton Gallery, Paul Kopeikin Gallery, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Karyn Lovegrove Gallery. Many represent artists who have made global careers over the last few years, as well as a number of younger artists, some from Los Angeles. “I like the work of Sterling Ruby, seen at Marc Foxx, and Barry McGee, at Roberts & Tilton Gallery. These are highly regarded galleries, and it’s worth going to the complex because you get an overview of what’s happening in contemporary art right now,” Valentine says.
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