Culture
Los Angeles’ Melrose Hill is the new, hip art locale
David Zwirner’s Los Angeles gallery on Western Avenue. This is the gallery’s fifth U.S. location, and first one outside of New York City.
Image courtesy of: David Zwirner, photographed by: Elon Schoenholz
Ten years ago, no one would have thought that Melrose Hill, an enclave near the intersection of Melrose Avenue and Western Avenue in Los Angeles, would become the country’s newest encampment of Blue Chip art galleries. This development is thanks to Zach Lasry, a thirty-ish entrepreneur who has been watching the neighborhood since 2019. For Lasry, the beauty was in the fact that the neighborhood was within walking distance of both Echo Park artists AND Beverly Hills collectors.
Luckily, Lasry had the funds to get involved in building real estate, despite his lack of experience in real estate development. The son of Marc Lasry, a private-equity billionaire, together with his father and aunt, Sonia Gardner, the trio bought more than twenty area buildings. Now four years later… it is clear that they made a good decision!
A screenshot, by Matt Stromberg from Google Maps, of the red dotted border around Melrose Hill.
Image courtesy of: Hyperallergic
At the heart of the idea was to create a “walkable gallery hub” in Los Angeles! In addition to the beautiful Art Deco buildings that have remained untouched since the 1920’s, this area had a lot to offer… this made Lasry realize that he was onto something.
So in 2019 when one building went up for sale, Lasry said (courtesy of a Vanity Fair article by Nate Freeman) “I think we should buy one of these buildings. It’s really cute. I think this neighborhood has a lot of potential.” He continued, “And then three other buildings went for sale the next week, and it was just like, ‘Hey, seems like these are really good prices. Why don’t we just dip our toe in? And it snowballed from there.”
The unimpressive site on Melrose Avenue where a future art gallery will open.
Image courtesy of: Planetizen
Unfortunately, then the pandemic struck. The time allowed Lasry to focus on wooing some of New York City’s most established galleries to California… kind-of like following the Gold Rush out west. Galleries tend to coagulate in locations where other galleries are located. For Melrose Hill, David Zwirner’s Los Angeles presence in the middle of the neighborhood helped prompt Sargent’s Daughters, Morán Morán and the not-for-profit art space- LAXART, to follow suit.
Courtesy of an article in Los Angeles Times by Deborah Vankin, Marian Goodman Gallery President and partner, Philipp Kaiser noted “Just being New York-centric is not enough anymore.” For Zwirner, he has seen evidence of a much increased collector base throughout California, especially in Los Angeles. In addition to more and more collectors in the West Coast, he says that his clients in the Far East much prefer to meet in Los Angeles.
For the inaugural exhibition, the gallery presented works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby. “Njideka Akunyili Crosby: Coming Back to See Through, Again” is the Los Angeles-based artist’s first solo exhibition with David Zwirner; following Los Angeles, the exhibition will travel to the gallery’s New York City outpost.
Image courtesy of: David Zwirner
David Zwirner is the biggest Blue Chip gallery that opened a space in Melrose Hill. Actually, the gallery opened with three gallery spaces: two spaces occupy buildings from the 1930’s on Western Avenue, and the third space will be the gallery’s flagship location in Los Angeles. The chief location is in a newly constructed space that was designed by Annabelle Selldorf.
Selldorf Architects also renovated the two existing buildings… a new skylight provides much needed natural light. In addition, there is a bookshop that sells solely David Zwirner books. The new three-story building provides 15,000-square-feet of exhibition space. Selldorf made sure to highlight the gallery’s view… the terrace faces north, toward the iconic Hollywood Sign. In addition, the staircase that links the first and second floors was influenced by the stairs at Zwirner’s 20th Street gallery in New York City.
Stan Douglas was also part of the inaugural exhibition at David Zwirner’s Los Angeles gallery; the show, “Stan Douglas” debuted this spring.
Image courtesy of: David Zwirner, photograph courtesy of Stan Douglas and David Zwirner
Lasry is not yet done… he plans to open a hotel in the last empty plot in this newly-changed area of Los Angeles. He says (courtesy of Vanity Fair), “You’re like, Wow, I can stay there and use my legs to get to interesting things? I don’t have to become a bionic person in my car.” No… you don’t. And now we all have one more place in which to view art.
