Frieze Opens in LA & Wales Loses A Banksy
Frieze LA proves that the city is an international arts hub, and a Welsh town's struggle to keep its Banksy
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🗞 STORIES OF THE DAY
Frieze Los Angeles opens, cementing LA’s status as an international art hub
Frieze Los Angeles opened this week for its first post-pandemic iteration, defying skeptics who said four years ago that the city wouldn’t be able to sustain an international art market.
LA is known as a city where art is made but rarely sold — for decades, galleries have struggled to grow their collector base in the city.
Until recently, most galleries centered themselves in New York, but that’s changed as West Coast art enthusiasts warmed up to collecting; over the past few months, New York-based galleries have opened outposts in LA at a rapid pace.
Our Take: Frieze is succeeding in LA because it gives the city’s decentralized arts scene a reason to come together.
Frieze didn’t create the boom, but art insiders say the fair has helped the city’s nascent art collecting scene reach new heights. Art institutions in LA are spread out across the city and collectors there are known for their trend-loving tastes — there’s a reason NFTs are so popular in the city. Frieze recognizes that and has spread its fair across the city and chose community projects that reflect the desires of the city’s collectors. If galleries flocking to the city want to succeed, they’ll need to take a similar approach.
The struggles of caring for a Banksy in a small town
A Banksy mural in a small Welsh town is being moved to another location, angering local residents and revealing the difficulties of caring for valuable graffiti works.
In 2018, Bansky created “Season’s Greetings” on the side of a garage in Port Talbot. The work was sold to an art dealer and moved to the city center so the public could view it.
The agreement with the town expired and the dealer said he planned to move the work to the University of Suffolk (~300 miles away) due to concerns about vandalism. However, one of the vandals tried to destroy the work because he was angry about it being moved.
Our Take: When a Banksy goes up for auction or takes its place in the museum, it’s been removed from its original location. That can lead to some sticky situations.
Banksy’s works are site-specific, meaning that they were made to be displayed in a certain place. When those works are removed, they lose part of their meaning. The community that’s left behind also struggles — for small towns, a Banksy can be a major tourist draw. That’s not to say they shouldn’t be sold, but it’s always good to remember where these works came from.
✨ AROUND THE INTERNET
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An incredibly rare signed MJ/Kobe Bryant card from Upper Deck's Series 2 is going on the auction block. Only 10 were ever minted and the last one that sold went for half a million dollars.
Christie’s is selling a dog house that was struck by a meteor shower. It’s not an art piece, it’s just the former home of Roky, a German Shepard from Costa Rica.
