LOS ANGELES, CA--The second edition of the LA Art Book Fair is currently underway and continues through tomorrow. The book fair unexpectantly took LA by storm last year with its inaugural edition and drew 15,000 people through its doors. Around 5,000 were originally expected based on MOCA predictions, said L.A. Art Book Fair curator Shannon Michael Cane, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The LA Art Fair is presented by Printed Matter, who also produces the NY ART BOOK FAIR, held every fall in New York City. In 2013, around 27,000 people attended the NY Art Book Fair, according to Printed Matter.
This year's fair in LA opened with high hopes of returning crowds. Harper's Books of East Hampton, NY is exhibiting art and books at this year's fair. The art includes works by Elizabeth Huey and Doug Rickard. Huey's work is also the subject of a solo show presented at Harper's Books in East Hampton, NY.
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Harper's Books at LA Art Book Fair. Photo by Jess Frost.
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The 2014 A Book Fair is presenting artists’ books, art catalogs, monographs, periodicals, and zines published by over 250 international presses, booksellers, antiquarians, artists, and independent publishers. The fair includes special projects, talks, lectures, curated screenings, panels and performances.
Programs on Sunday include "Anyone Telling Anything is Telling That Thing" by Eve Fowler" from 2 to 3 p.m. Fowler has invited fellow artists and friends to read Gertrude Stein's "Many Many Women", which is 40,000 words strong. Readers include Math Bass, Mel Shimkowitz, Dylan Mira, Litia Perta, Lauren Fisher and others. The event is presetned by the Contemporary Artists' Books Conference.
Those in the Hamptons may be familiar with Fowler's work. She exhibited a series of photographs made with Bass at the Fireplace Project in 2011 in the exhibition named for their series The Gloria Hole.
The Gloria Hole was the first installment to greet viewers who walked in the front door of the East Hampton gallery. The works were a pairing of evocative photographs conjuring narratives of queer desire, complicated by disconnection in an illicit and anonymous environment.
Also on tap for Sunday is "Artists Read Baldessari" from 1 to 3 p.m.
Artists and special guests will read from More Than You Wanted to Know About John Baldessari (eds. Meg Cranston and Hans Ulrich Obrist, JRP|Ringier), two new volumes from the publisher’s complete Baldessari writings project.
The new volumes feature previously unpublished texts, notes to students, course handouts, texts on other artists and portions of Baldessari's notebooks. The volumes are an experiment in how a literary genre might encompass artists’ writings, having them stand alone in a book without images, according to the publisher.
For the event (and volume launch), a marathon reading of passages from Baldessari's writings will take place. The recital is a nod to the artist’s playful 1972 performance in which he sang Sol LeWitt's Thirty-Five Statements on Conceptual Art to the tune of popular songs.
In his introduction to this seminal performance, Baldessari said that his goal was to help these sentences “escape,” and reach “a much wider audience”, according to the volume publishers
Expected to turn out and read are Scoli Acosta, Jacinto Astiazarán, Walead Beshty, Andrea Bowers, John Burtle, Brian Butler, Fiona Connor, Kate Costello, Meg Cranston, Travis Diehl, Sam Falls, Ed Fornieles, Simone Forti, Brendan Fowler, Michael Govan, Mark Hagen, Amy Von Harrington, James Hayward, Alex Israel, Vishal Jugdeo, Dawn Kasper, Alice Könitz and others.
The event is presented by ForYourArt on the occasion of the Contemporary Artists' Books Conference at Printed Matter's LA Art Book Fair.
For the full schedule of programming and events at the LA Art Book Fair, visit www.laartbookfair.net.
The LA Art Book Fair is a companion fair to the NY Art Book Fair, held every fall in New York City. Information has not yet been released for the 2014 NYC fair.
BASIC FACTS: LA Art Book Fair is presenting its second edition from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2, 2014 at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, 152 North Central Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012. For details and programming, visit www.laartbookfair.net.
RELATED: "Print Party: An Introduction to the LA Art Book Fair" by Robert Dewhurt for LA Review of Books. Published Jan. 30, 2014.
"The Second Annual LA Art Book Fair is Back This Weekend" by Deborah Vankin for Los Angeles Times. Published Jan. 31, 2014.
HAMPTONS INSIDER: A solo by Elizabeth Huey is current on view through Feb. 18 at Harper’s Books in East Hampton, NY. The show is curated by Jess Frost. To read the review by Gabrielle Selz, click "Elizabeth Huey: The Infinite Container of the Imagination”.
Artist Barbara Kruger created a new line of designs to help raise funds through ForYourArt. The sunglasses line premiered at a popup space sponsored by ForYourArt as part of the Hammer Museum’s urban renewal project “Arts ReSTORE LA: Westwood”. Kruger has a home in the Hamptons. Her work was the subject of a solo show at Guild Hall Museum in 1999.
To check out Kruger-designed shades, visit "Wearable Barbara Kruger" by Sandra Hale Schulman for HamptonsArtHub.com. Published Oct 3, 2013.
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