In January, Suzanne and Ashley travelled to the West Coast to visit the Art Los Angeles Contemporary art fair. The event was an opportunity to speak in person with dealers from Los Angeles and those from out of town visiting for the fair, and to scout new offerings for clients. It also allowed Suzanne and Ashley a chance to view current exhibitions at many of the Los Angeles galleries of interest to the firm.

A busy three-day schedule began at Culver City, where Ashley and Suzanne visited Blum and Poe, Cherry and Martin and David Kordansky Gallery’s two spaces. Also on the itinerary for the day was a visit to Mara McCarthy’s gallery The Box, and a trip to see the large exhibition of 12 paintings by Laura Owens which was presented in collaboration with Ooga Booga, the clothing, art and book store.

The following day began at Manny Silverman Gallery, where Ashley and Suzanne took time to look at beautiful works that were available on the secondary market. At Matthew Marks Gallery an exhibition of sculptures, works on paper and wallpaper by Robert Gober affirmed his stature as an extremely important contemporary artist. At Gagosian, two large sculptures by Jeff Koons and an installation of lights by Frank Gehry were on display. Enrico David’s work was on exhibition at the Hammer Museum, a visit that thankfully included a short break at the museum’s courtyard café.

That afternoon, Art Los Angeles Contemporary had a large selection of international dealers, including the highly regarded Pilar Corrias Gallery from London and Standard (Oslo) from Norway. Many of the top Los Angeles galleries participated, as well as interesting regional American galleries including San Francisco-based dealer Altman Siegel and Milwaukee-based The Green Gallery, who presented an installation by Michelle Grabner. While the quality of the fair was uneven, a number of choice artworks did exist, and made the fair a worthwhile stop on the art world’s busy calendar.

A final day of galleries included visits to Regen Projects, Redling Fine Art, the Getty Museum, LACMA, REDCAT, Mark Foxx and Brian Butler’s space 1301PE. Ashley and Suzanne’s time spent in Los Angeles soaking up the Pacific sensibility provided an excellent start to their 2013 travel schedules, and whet their appetites for more frequent L.A excursions.