Among the more difficult things to navigate when visiting Los Angeles is the traffic. The fact that Post-Fair is in Santa Monica, a (relatively) short car ride away from this week’s main event, Frieze Los Angeles, is an added bonus to what is a delightful and easily digestible nugget of a fair.
Billed as a “pilot edition of an alternative three-day art fair,” this inaugural edition of Post-Fair sprung the mind of LA-based dealer Chris Sharp. Last year Sharp ran a similar micro-fair in Paris called Place des Vosges. Named after its location, the event served as an amuse bouche for that French capital’s iteration of Art Basel. It had only eight galleries spread across two venues in a 17th-century delightful Parisian square.
Post-Fair is equally charming, albeit in a much more West Coast way. The fair is housed in a historic Art Deco post office that was built in 1938. The number of galleries had increased significantly since Paris while remaining manageable, another benefit for those who can get overwhelmed at larger fairs. Of the 29 exhibitors and project spaces, there is a large number of local and international talent, with a mix of plucky newcomers and top-tier galleries including P.P.O.W. and Sprüth Magers.
“I really wanted to create something that was more about the galleries, more collegial—a place where galleries can take a risk and bring challenging work without risking the future of the gallery if nothing sells,” Sharp told ARTnews. At larger, more commercial fairs, a few bad days can trigger existential dread and put a gallery’s financials in question. “The whole idea was to have a place to avoid the fear that a bad fair could take your gallery out.”
The building itself is elegant: red marble on the walls, magnificent exposed beam roof, an intricate wood floor, with soft globe lighting hanging from the tall ceiling. The booths aren’t booth at all but rather single gallery walls set up in the center of the room, with one gallery on either side, and dealers set up along the parameter.
For his booth, Sharp brought a solo presentation of works by the late Iraqi German sculptor Lin May Saeed. In Europe Saeed’s reputation has only grown since her death in 2023. But stateside, Sharp says, she’s still relatively unknown. That’s a shame since her sculptures and sculptural reliefs, which are made from discarded materials, like Styrofoam, show a depth of tenderness that betrays the stuff they are made from.
Sprüth Magers, which has locations in Berlin, London, LA, and New York also brought the works of a beloved artist who died young, Kaari Upson; on view here is one of the late LA-based artist’s last bodies of work. P.P.O.W’s presentation of intricate drawings and hand-carved wooden artist frames by Harry Gould Harvey IV is intricate and intriguing. The kind of work that, like a jigsaw puzzle, calls you to lean in and examine each small piece. Layered with iconography, wild scrawls, patterns, and xeroxed pictures, they feel almost like coded messages, compelling you to decipher them.
Angela Anh Nguyen, I’ve been reading a lot of theory lately, 2023.
ORIOL TARRIDAS
Another standout is Harlesden High Street’s booth of work by LA-based fiber artist Angela Anh Nguyen. The work, a cheeky take on America’s obsession with pop culture and internet discourse, brought an immediate smile to my face. Nguyen’s works are primarily gun-tufted textiles that depict nearly life sized punks and nerds covered to -nth degree in visual culture: books, coupon clippings, iPhones. “I’m an active doom scroller,” Nguyen said. “I consider it part of my practice.”
Toward the back of the room is Good Weather’s presentation of new works by Detroit-based Dylan Spaysky. Comprised of repurposed mirrors and frames, one-way mirror film, night lights, brackets, and bolts, the works take inspiration from the multiplane camera technique pioneered by Walt Disney and used in the animated films until the 1990s. People of a certain age will melt at the references to Snow White, 101 Dalmatians, and Little Mermaid.
As with everything in Los Angeles timing a visit around the traffic takes finesse and forethought, but Post-Fair was a welcome addition to the week and an excellent reason to stay in Santa Monica for another couple of hours.
