L.A.’s Galleries and Fairs Push for a Return to Business—and More Art Industry News

Our weekly news roundup is an extension of Paint Drippings, which drops first in The Back Room, our lively recap funneling only the week’s must-know art industry intel into a nimble read you’ll actually enjoy. Artnet News Pro members get exclusive access—subscribe now to receive this in your inbox every Friday.

Art Fairs

– Frieze said on Friday that the Los Angeles edition of its fair at the Santa Monica Airport will move forward as originally scheduled, running from February 20 to February 23. The news comes after L.A. has endured devastating wildfires for almost two weeks that have decimated whole neighborhoods and killed at least 25. Meanwhile, Gallery Association Los Angeles (GALA) an organization comprised of around 100 galleries, has issued an open letter calling for a return to business in an effort to “prevent the wildfire devastation from compounding into broader instability.” (Artnet News, Facebook)

– Singapore Art Week returned for its 13th edition with over 130 events, marking the city-state’s growing role as Southeast Asia’s cultural hub. Coinciding with fairs like Art SG, SEA Focus, and Sotheby’s Singapore sales, the event reflects renewed commercial ambition and a burgeoning collector base, evidenced by the launch of new art foundations. Read Vivienne Chow’s report from the Lion City. (Artnet News)

– Art Dubai Group made two senior hires: Alexie Glass-Kantor to be executive director, curatorial, and Dunja Gottweis to be director of its Art Dubai fair. (Press release)

– TEFAF New York will bring 91 exhibitors from 13 countries to the Park Avenue Armory from May 9 to 13, including David Zwirner, Fergus McCaffrey, and Salon 94. (Press release)

Auction Houses

– There’s a flurry of movement among some of the top seats in the trade right now. While Christie’s and Phillips have tapped new CEOs, Sotheby’s has also been going through its fair share of restructuring in recent weeks. What’s behind this C-suite shuffle? Listen to this week’s Art Market Minute micro-podcast to find out. (Art Market Minute)

– Christie’s promoted Bonnie Brennan, its president of Americas, to  CEO, replacing Guillaume Cerutti, who held the job for eight years. (Artnet News)

– Works by René Magritte, Fernando Botero, and Refik Anadol will headline Sotheby’s debut sale in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The two-part, roughly 100-lot auction will be held on February 8 at Diriyah, and marks the first international auction in the kingdom’s history. (Artnet News)

– Phillips reported $843 million in global sales for 2024, a 14 percent decrease from 2023; $721 million of that came from auctions. (Artnews)

– Christie’s Hong Kong will mount its 20th- and 21st-century art auctions March 28 and 29 at the Henderson, during Art Basel Hong Kong. Highlights include works by Magritte and Liu Ye (estimated to sell between $2 million to$3 million and $1.6 million and $2.3 million, respectively). (Press release)

Galleries

– The West Chelsea Building, one of the oldest and largest art buildings in Manhattan, is listed for sale at $170 million. It has some 200 tenants, including prominent galleries and artists’ studios, like Greene Naftali, Berry Campbell, and Peter Halley. (Artnet News)

– Berlin-based gallery Kraupa–Tuskany Zeidler opened a new space in Munich at Türkenstraße 43. (Press release)

– Marc Bibiloni, the founder and former director of La Bibi gallery in Mallorca, will open an eponymous contemporary art gallery in Madrid in March. (Press release)

– Galerie Weiss Falk will close both of its locations, in Basel and Zurich, at the end of January, after nine years in business. (Instagram)

Museums and Institutions

– A coalition of local and international cultural institutions, led by the J. Paul Getty Trust, has created a $12 million emergency relief fund for members of the Los Angeles arts community affected by the wildfires that have devastated the city since January 7. (Artnet News)

– Intuit, the Chicago museum devoted to so-called outsider art, will reopen as the Intuit Art Museum on April 25, after a $10 million makeover. (Press release)

– Soyoung Lee, chief curator of the Harvard Art Museums, was named director and CEO of San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum. She starts in April. (Press release)

– Art historian and curator Martina Droth, who has served in a series of prominent roles at the Yale Center for British Art over 16 years, is the museum’s new director. (Press release)

– The Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, hired Nathalie Bonjour as head of performing arts. (Press release)

– The Courtauld said that Dorothy Price will become its museum’s executive dean and deputy director in August, and that Steve Edwards will become the inaugural director of its new Manton Centre in April. (Press release)

Tech and Legal News

– The Des Moines Art Center in Iowa reached a settlement with Land artist Mary Miss more than nine months after she filed a lawsuit to stop it from demolishing an installation she created that it said had become too costly to repair. (Artnet News)

– Douglas Chrismas, the Los Angeles art dealer who owned and operated Ace Gallery from 1961 to 2016, was sentenced to two years in federal prison. Chrismas was convicted in May of three counts of embezzlement. (Artnet News)

– Munich‘s Galerie Thomas, which declared bankruptcy last year, is facing a criminal investigation into allegations of delaying insolvency, fraud, and breach of trust. Some consignors have claimed that they were not paid for works sold by the gallery. (Artnet News)

People

– David Lynch, the artist, filmmaker, and musician who mined the strange and the surreal, has died at age 78. (Artnet News)

– Julie Mehretu was awarded the rank of Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. (Press release)

– Meanwhile, Marjane Satrapi, the artist behind the hit comic Persepolis, refused to be knighted into France’s Legion of Honor because of what she termed the country’s “hypocritical attitude towards Iran.” (Le Monde)

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