Los Angeles’ art world steps into a dangerous new age of climate risk

As Los Angeles takes stock of the devastating and deadly wildfires that have killed at least 29 people, destroyed more than 12,000 homes and businesses and consumed more than 40,000 acres of land, there is still faith within its many cultural communities that the city can recover. Much of the hope stems from the support that has come pouring in, from locals and from donors further afield, through channels ranging from individual GoFundMe pages to a multimillion-dollar relief fund.

“This is a staggering catastrophe but the response of the people and the community here has been beautiful,” says George Lacovara, LA-based director of art logistics company Gander & White. He and his family chose to evacuate their South Pasadena home, close to the rapidly spreading Eaton Fire, once air quality index levels hit 400 (300 is classified as hazardous). They were fortunate to be spared from its more destructive flames, he says.

For the city, help has come from countless cultural corners. Nearly $13mn had been raised at the end of January by the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund, spearheaded by the J Paul Getty Trust to support artists and other cultural workers. A spokesman for the trust says that it has received more than 475 donations online, including contributions from nine countries outside of the US, such as the UK, China and Australia. The funds’ eligible recipients — who “must be affected by the Eaton or Palisades fires in terms of loss, severe damage, or lack of access to one’s home, artmaking studio, or both” — are set to be notified by February 24.

Among the wide range of donors are several commercial galleries, and the organisers of the Frieze fair, whose decision to press ahead with its sixth edition in Los Angeles this week is seen by many in the city as a significant support to local livelihoods. 

“We dedicate a lot of resources to Frieze LA, it’s a big chunk of our first quarter budget,” Lacovara says. “And from a psychological perspective, it is important to return to some sort of normalcy as soon as possible.” 

Other fundraising initiatives include Grief and Hope, a GoFundMe campaign created by five arts professionals including directors at LA’s Various Small Fires and Vielmetter galleries, which had raised nearly $700,000 at the time of writing. “Many members of our personal communities, and our broader creative communities, have lost everything,” they write.

Artists and cultural workers have been more affected than galleries or museums, partly because the wildfire mainly struck residential zones, which have sprung up as LA’s housing crisis meant the city “expanded outwards into areas where the brush would have previously been allowed to burn,” says Robert Read, head of art and private clients at Hiscox. He notes too that, “where money is no object”, it has been possible to have sophisticated protection. The Getty Villa, in the thick of the Palisades fires, emerged unharmed, with its reinforced concrete walls and high-spec fire protection system — a level of state-of-the-art engineering described by some as the “James Bond” of museum construction. (In previous years, the Getty Villa has employed more unusual firefighting methods — such as using goats to help clear flammable vegetation beforehand.)

Many commercial galleries have been quick to respond. Jeffrey Deitch, who runs spaces in LA and New York and is a former director of LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art, says that a mid-January community meeting over Zoom had more than 150 arts professionals, “discussing how best to help artists who lost their homes and whether or not to restart gallery activities” — which most have.

Among the immediate efforts are sales of editioned posters by Alec Egan. He lost his family home in the Palisades fire, as well as years of work, including nearly all the paintings for a solo show at Anat Ebgi gallery planned for this month. His paintings normally sell for between $25,000 and $65,000 each. The gallery is giving Egan all the proceeds from one of his posters, produced for his ominously titled 2022 show Look Out — a rather gentle, theatrical image combining a pigeon in front of pink tulips and an interior scene of a fruit bowl. By early February, its 1,000 editions ($100 each) had sold out.

The gallery is among many hosting benefit shows. In The Wave, Ebgi fields 15 artists, including Egan, to support those affected by the fires and from which 10 per cent of proceeds will also go to the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund (until March 22). Egan’s New York gallery, Charles Moffett, is offering another print by the artist — this time his view of palm trees in a vibrant sunset through tulip-patterned curtains — and sold 100 editions at $500 each at January’s FOG art fair in San Francisco.

Hauser & Wirth gallery, whose impacted artists include the irreverent and influential sculptor Paul McCarthy and the in-demand painter Christina Quarles, is “providing resources as well as counsel” to its artists and staff directly affected by the fires, says president Marc Payot. The gallery’s Manuela restaurant in the downtown Arts District also provided free meals to first responders and displaced LA residents, Payot says. Pace Gallery, which opened a group show in its central LA space on February 1, cancelled its opening party and other related events, instead “diverting those resources into our relief efforts,” a spokesperson says. 

Meanwhile, museums, galleries and individual collectors across the US and elsewhere are acutely aware of protecting their wares from the hazards of natural disasters as extreme conditions are increasingly the norm. In Miami, the Pérez Art Museum’s hurricane-resistant building, designed by Herzog & De Meuron, includes windows with glass that can resist Category 5 winds (157mph or higher). Pace’s recently opened gallery in Tokyo’s Azabudai Hills has earthquake-resistant features such as high-strength steel and concrete components, vibration-control devices, and active mass damper devices that reduce swaying during strong winds. 

Wider initiatives to address climate change are also on the minds of some. Hauser & Wirth commits funds and resources, shared with its artists and collectors, to, for example, “recalibrate conservation measures, climate control conditions and storage considerations for art in light of these environmental events,” says its chief executive, Mirella Roma. Such efforts come as a scientific study by researchers at the World Weather Attribution found that climate change increased the likelihood of the hot, dry weather before LA’s wildfires by 35 per cent. “This is the new reality we are all living with,” Roma says.

For now, there is a sense that the show must go on. While Frieze LA’s debated decision to go ahead is proving galvanising for Angelenos, the fair’s organisers are conscious too of the commercial realities for its exhibiting galleries, particularly those travelling from outside of LA, in an already challenging art market. 

Prior to the fair, there were concerns about the ethics and logistics around landing in a devastated city to sell art. “Frieze is in a tricky position,” said one gallerist soon after the fires. “There are tens of thousands of displaced people and it’s hard to think about arriving there for an art fair and using a hotel room. And will anyone be in the mood to buy art? They are perhaps better off organising a benefit for the city.”

Christine Messineo, Frieze’s director of Americas, says that hotel rooms became available once the fires were contained and evacuation orders were reduced. “This has been top of mind for us,” she says, “but hotels say they would welcome the business, and no one will be displaced.”

Nonetheless, a handful of Frieze’s exhibitors have had to reassess their plans, for varied reasons, including some directly affected by the fires and other problems around shipping deadlines, Messineo says. At the end of January, about 95 were still on board (101 were announced in November).

Messineo and her team have worked hard to address the risks for exhibitors, she says, encouraging VIP visitors and active buying. As part of this process, they have secured several museums out of state to commit funds to spend at the fair, including the Guggenheim in New York, the Pérez Art Museum Miami and the Seattle Art Museum. Meanwhile, Victoria Miro has essentially donated its booth at the fair to other galleries who want to donate works to go towards the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund, and will bring two works of its own for the cause.

Messineo also points to the fair’s public programme, Frieze Projects, for which eight artists have been working on site-specific installations “for the past four or five months”. Seven of the artists are LA-based, she adds. “We need to show up.”

LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund, getty.edu; Grief and Hope, gofundme.com

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