LOS ANGELES, CA.- Art Los Angeles Contemporary, the International Contemporary Art fair of the West Coast returns for its sixth edition to the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica Thursday January 29-Sunday February 1, 2015, anchoring what has become one of the most established weeks for the art world to descend upon Los Angeles.

ALAC will host a roster of over 70 leading and emerging galleries from around the world who will present dynamic new works from their represented artists. The fair will feature a rigorous program of talks, curated video screenings and the release of the first edition of the Art Los Angeles Reader; a printed newspaper featuring art criticism, interviews, and work by esteemed curators, writers, and artists.

First Time Exhibitors
Alongside the fair’s returning exhibitors such as David Kordansky Gallery, 1301PE, Altman Siegel, and STANDARD (OSLO), ALAC is pleased to welcome a number of first time exhibitors: Johann König, Berlin, will show a selection of artists including Berlin-based Jeppe Hein, whose works are part of several institutional collections such as Tate Gallery, London, and Centre Pompidou, Paris. Carl Freedman Gallery, London, will be presenting new painted plaster and canvas sculptures of oversized edibles by Jessie Flood-Paddock, continuing her exploration of popular food culture, as well as new figurative paintings by Ivan Seal made in direct response to Flood-Paddock’s work. i8 Gallery, Reykjavik will bring a presentation of Icelandic and international conceptual contemporary artists including Ragnar Kjartansson, Olafur Eliasson, and Alicja Kwade. Michael Benevento, Los Angeles, will be showing a selection of artists including Michael E. Smith whose sculptures and paintings are created from grimy urban detritus, discarded everyday materials, and found objects. Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, will be presenting new abstract paintings by New York-based artists Sam Moyer and Joanne Greenbaum. Macaulay & Co. Fine Art, Vancouver, will present pieces by Nicholas Galanin and Canadian First Nations artist Kent Monkman. Galanin’s sculptures, installation, and video work conceptually address issues of representation and commoditization of native culture, and Monkman’s works examine Indigenous American and Canadian history as represented by 19th and 20th century artists.

Solo Artist Projects
Keeping in pace with ALAC’s tradition of introducing new artists to the Los Angeles marketplace, the fair’s sixth edition will host a variety of solo projects. David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, presents Zach Harris' latest work incorporating plein-air painting, visionary abstraction, text, and intricate woodcarving. Harris’s work is in the permanent collection of a number of museums including the Hammer, Los Angeles. team (gallery, inc.), New York, will present Stanley Whitney’s large paintings composed in the artist’s signature style of loosely gridded color squares. UNTITLED, New York, will show new paintings and UV Prints on Canvas by Haley Mellin. AND NOW, Dallas, will present large-scale film paintings by Jeff Zilm, that are composed of the liquid distilled from vintage black and white 16mm films applied to the canvas. Tif Sigfrids, Los Angeles, will be presenting new paintings by Joe Sola but in the place of the gallery’s staff, Sola’s work will be introduced by a series of car salesmen. Sola, who loves test-driving new vehicles and talking with sales people, is interested in the techniques used to sell a car and how those techniques transfer into the sale of his paintings in the high-pressure atmosphere of an art fair.

Art Los Angeles Reader: First Edition
ALAC will be releasing the first edition of the Art Los Angeles Reader. The Reader is a new print publication that contains features and interviews by five of Los Angeles’s top art writers whose combined credits include Artforum, Art in America, and the Hammer Biennial Catalog: Travis Diehl, Kate Wolf, Jen Hutton, Julie Neimi, the editor, Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal, as well as filmmaker Garrett Bradley. A highlight of the Reader is original imagetext works by Richard Hawkins. Hawkins work will also be on view at the fair alongside Dan Finsel presented by Richard Telles gallery, Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Focus
ALAC’s signature Los Angeles emphasis remains strong in the fair’s sixth edition. The extensive off-site VIP programming offers a variety of access points into the city’s cultural landscape. Participants will have the opportunity to tour several homes of local collectors and Los Angeles-based artist’s studios, including those of Ry Rocklen and Matthew Brandt. Both artists are showing with Praz-Delavallade, Paris, and Brandt is also doing a solo show with M+B, West Hollywood. Renowned architect Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY Design who recently designed the new David Kordansky Gallery space, the Speed Art Museum, and the Pomona College Studio Art Hall, will host an afternoon tour of galleries, shops and his home in Venice.

ALAC Theater: Screenings and Talks
London-based curator, Marc LeBlanc will organize a two-part video screening, Passages, which draws together artist's videos, music videos, visuals, and films made digital to describe the relationship between narrative and the moving image today. With the fair’s venue in the hangar and proximity to one of the world's largest international ports in mind, Passages refers to the nautical travel and shipping routes that for centuries defined colonial empires, shaped historical narratives and diasporas, and still impact the trajectories of globalization today. Works presented include that of Los Angeles-based artists J. Patrick Walsh and Aaron Garber-Maikovska, Steve Reinke, Jon Rafman, and Keren Cytter.

A rigorous program of talks and panel discussions will accompany the fair surrounding the theme of collecting in the 21st century. Los Angeles and Berlin-based artist organizer Warren Niedich has assembled two talks, The Taste Divide: Baby Boomers vs. The Millenial and The Collector as Curator. Participating international collectors include Eugenio Re Rebaudengo, Chantal Blatzheim, Pujan Gandhi, Amir Shariat, Frédéric de Goldschmidt, Alain Servais, Axel Haubrok. Los Angeles collectors include Suzanne Deal Booth and Deborah Irmas. Education Partner, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, will host a talk moderated by Jonathan T.D. Neil with top art attorneys and professionals.