Open Doors At Los Angeles Art Week

Narrow stairs lead to the second floor of Keith Rivers' residence in an elegant hillside neighborhood of Beverly Hills. The first thing you see when you reach the plain is a large brick wall in various shades of gray. The blocks are drawn on two thick sheets of paper. They form a perfect order that rarely occurs in real partitions. The work is by Tony Lewis, an African-American artist from Los Angeles who lives in Chicago and uses themes of power, race and underclass labor in his creations. He began following up to stimulate the process when he felt like he had hit a conceptual wall. Placing one brick on top of another gave him serenity.

Rivers owns the drawing and found in it an echo of his former life. “I love this work because it is an exercise in repetition. Doing a process over and over again to accomplish something greater. And for me that was American football. Repeat a play over and over again with a goal,” says Rivers, 37, who played professionally for the Cincinnati Bengals, New York Giants and Buffalo Bills.

He is a rare collector. His first purchase in 2010 was one of the pink versions of Andy Warhol's Electric Chair. The former athlete admits that at the time he thought he needed a big name to start collecting art. However, over time he realized that this was not the case. He has developed his own taste and knowledge.

The table in the center of your library reflects much of this learning process. There are books on the influential body paintings of David Hammons, one on Brazilian portraiture, a monograph on Lucas Arruda, and another on the art of Californian John Baldessari, a major figure in American conceptual art. There is also a worn copy of a book by art historian Robert Farris Thompson on African American art and philosophy.

Rivers opened the doors to her home during Los Angeles Art Week. Artists, gallerists, cultural supporters and collectors were able to view the works under the roof of his home on Doheny Avenue. In his residence there are only a few allusions to his previous work, in which he devoted himself to brute force. However, the painting that dominates his room has a connection to sports. Artist Cyprien Gaillard placed the giant design of the Cleveland Indians baseball team, the caricature of Indian Chief Wahoo, on a parched, uninhabited landscape. In 2018, Cleveland withdrew from the Shield due to fan pressure and new sensitivities.

A graduate of the University of Southern California (USC), Rivers loaned his residency to rival think tank University of California San Diego (UCSD). There is one of the most important private collections of sculptural art in the United States. Twenty artists exhibit works spread across the university's 485-acre public campus in La Jolla to the delight of 43,000 students. Collection Director Jessica Berlanga was present at the event to announce that new artists will be commissioned to create new work this year.

Kilometers below the hills, in the heart of the city, another Los Angeles institution opened its doors to art lovers. The Hollywood Roosevelt, a hotel that has hosted the luminaries of the entertainment industry for almost a century, has been welcoming Felix since Wednesday. Created by collector Dean Valentine and gallerists Al and Mills Morán, the fair brings together galleries from around the world who have a tiny space on the hotel's ground floor to display their work.

The visitors' path runs between the hotel rooms. Hundreds of people came and went from the small rooms on Wednesday. Furniture was removed from these to make room for paintings and sculptures. The works could even be seen in the bathrooms, a space almost always reserved for less valuable work in homes. This rule does not apply here.

Felix's tour also takes in the iconic Tropicana Pool, a work of art in itself. Legend has it that Englishman David Hockney came to the hotel one day in 1988 to paint the pool floor. Using a broom handle with a brush at the end, he drew hundreds of navy blue strokes. The movement of the water creates a mesmerizing visual effect. Dozens of visitors used the body of water as a meeting point at a trade fair this week, where a more casual atmosphere prevails.

In his sixth year, Felix attempts to distance himself from Frieze, whose arrival in the city marks the calendar as the city's most important event of the year. The Felix organizers assure that this is not a sales-oriented event. Galleries coming to New York from Greece and Romania pay between $10,000 and $20,000 to be here. It's just a fraction of the nearly $80,000 Frieze estimates for an 80-square-foot space.

However, Frieze continues to demonstrate its appeal and economic relevance. On Thursday, a day dedicated only to collectors and VIP guests, the fair reported the sale of a drawing by Richard Serra for $2 million at the Gladstone Gallery. In addition to being cashed in a few hours after opening, the event was also attended by Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey Jr., who took time to admire some art in the midst of their Oscar campaign. They are a sign of the robust market in Los Angeles.

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Open doors at Los Angeles Art Week | Culture

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