IIn art history, the white cube gallery is a relatively recent construct—one developed in the 1950s by New York artist and dealer Betty Parsons. It’s also something that artists, curators, dealers, and critics have been trying to dismantle for decades.
Luckily, there’s always room for experimentation in Los Angeles. Whether it was William N. Copley (later known as the artist CPLY) who took over a Beverly Hills bungalow in 1948 to show artists like Joseph Cornell, René Magritte and Man Ray in the short-lived Copley Galleries, or Danny Bowman who his BOZOMAG opened shop in the converted garage of his Highland Park home, the lure of intimate – and sometimes whimsical – domestic spaces has always appealed to Angelenos. And in recent years, more and more gallery owners — like Sara Lee Hantman, whose Sea View gallery was featured in the February issue for creating a space in Jorge Pardo’s old studio in Mount Washington — have opted for rooms with a view.
At Twentieth, a photograph and rug (right) by Marilyn Minter, seating by Paolo Ferrari, a light sculpture by Sébastien Léon, a coffee table by John Eric Byers and a lamp by Established & Sons. (Photo: Marten Elder)
“The commercial retail market in LA is so strange; it’s too scattered – everything is a destination – and you don’t leave your house for toothpaste or coffee without it being an event,” says David Alhadeff, who had this in mind seven years ago when he wrote about the Searching for a location for the Casa made perfect concept of his design gallery, the Future Perfect. “Real estate agents took me to Robertson, La Cienega, Highland and all the buildings were pretty ugly. What is incredible about LA is the residential architecture.”
LA gallery owners have chosen rooms with a view.
Alhadeff settled for a time in a low-rise modernist house designed by Korean-American architect David Hyun in 1957. After five years of traversing two other architecturally significant sites—including the mid-century Trousdale Estates home that Elvis Presley shared with Priscilla and Lisa Marie—Alhadeff and his husband bought the 1916 Hollywood mansion that belonged to Arthur S Heineman built for Samuel Goldwyn at the base of Runyon Canyon. Since last August he has transformed the property, planted a sculpture garden and hosted acclaimed solo exhibitions for legendary Italian architect and designer Gaetano Pesce and polemical New York painter Peter McGough amid rooms full of collectible design objects.
In the Half Gallery, a painting by Paul Salveson. (Photo: Paul Salveson)
“As an experience, this doesn’t translate into a commercial space,” he says, “but I also think you can’t just take any house and implement this concept.”
Just west of the Marmount Lane outpost of New York’s Friedman Benda gallery, designer Una Malan opened Una Casa Privada, a by appointment expansion of her LA and San Francisco showrooms in a 1937 Hollywood Regency-style mansion above Sunset Plaza, which opened during the La Cienega Design Quarter’s annual LEGENDS week. Further up the hills, Twentieth, which operated on Beverly Boulevard for more than two decades, moved into an airy 5,000-square-foot glass, beam, and plaster Zen retreat (on an acre of hillside dotted with eucalyptus and Japanese maple). designed by Jeff Mills.
At Casa Perfect, a table from Collection Particulière, armchairs by Dimoremilano, a console by Ben Barber, a chandelier by Karl Zahn, ceramics by Eric Roinestad and wall coverings by Calico Wallpaper. (Photo: Rich Stapleton)
“I just get tired of the storefront with all the hassle of parking lots,” says Stefan Lawrence, who opened an exhibition during Los Angeles Art Week by combining rugs and art by Nan Goldin and Kim Gordon in rooms full of design by local artists like Vincent Pocsik and Mattia Biagi. “This is a very special, quiet part of LA and I just feel in heaven with all these trees. I’m out here with my trimmers all the time.”
Further east, not far from the Parker Gallery — the living and working space where Sam Parker showcases underrepresented artists from multiple generations in his 1924 Tudor-style home in Los Feliz — is New York gallery owner Bill Powers in a 3,600 square meter Greek Revival moved. Style mansion built three years before the Griffith Observatory was built.
“Look at that, how would you live in New York?
Also at Casa Perfect a chandelier by Chris Wolston. (Photo: Rich Stapleton)
It’s crazy,” says Powers, standing in a double-height living room with views of downtown from the observatory. In addition to showing artists from his roster at Half Gallery — Se Oh, Maud Madsen, and Andie Dinkin, for example — Powers throws parties where he has a piano player on his Steinway, lights the fireplace, and invites guests to take kumquat out the terraced gardens designed by Florence Yoch, the legendary landscape architect behind the gardens for Gone With the Wind and the Jack Warner estate.
When asked why he hasn’t joined the crowded field of new galleries taking over Western Avenue, which he can see from his window, he replies, “I know I’ll never be Hauser & Wirth, so as a medium – I thought, “How can you fight unconventionally in a very crowded field?” LA just has more nooks and crannies, we have big walls, great views, outdoor sculptures, and I’m in the city about half the time, so this is like the white house. I live upstairs and the business is down here.”
