Enzo, a Small Art Fair, Could Have a Big Impact on the LA Market

Editor’s note: the story is newsmakeran ARTnews series featuring conversations with people who shape how the art world is changing today.

This year saw the launch of two new major fairs: Art Basel Qatar earlier this month and Frieze Abu Dhabi in November. These businesses will almost certainly have a significant impact on the Gulf region and global markets. But this week in Los Angeles, one collector is thinking about how smaller fairs can have a big impact.

The Enzo Art Fair, founded by collector R Parmar, opened on Wednesday afternoon in Echo Park. It joins Frieze Los Angeles (at the Santa Monica Airport) and Felix LA (at the iconic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel), now in its seventh year, while Post-Fair is also held in Santa Monica and launched last year.

Enzo’s exhibition will be held at Alabaster Projects, a warehouse-sized space in Parma that will feature nine galleries from New York. Enzo will be held February 26-28 from 2pm-8pm, with a VIP preview on February 25th from 2pm-8pm at 1634 West Temple Street, Los Angeles. Galleries include Margot Samel, Magenta Plains, ILY2, Bank, Laurel Gitlen and Silke Linder.

To find out more about what drives Enzo and what visitors can expect, art news Had a phone call with R Parmar last week.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and brevity.

ARTnews: What was the impetus for a new art fair during Frieze Week Los Angeles?

R Parma: Last summer, I was in New York and popped into some galleries in Chinatown and the Lower East Side. There seems to be a contraction in the art world, and in conversations with gallerists and artist friends, I hear how tough the past few years have been. So, dialogue [for a new fair] Working with some of the gallerists was very natural. I said, “Hey, I have this idea. Would you be interested in an art fair in East Los Angeles?” Margot Sammer is a friend of mine and I love what she’s doing with the Esther Art Fair [during Frieze Week in New York]. I told her, “You should do this in Los Angeles. This fair is incredible.” And that’s how it started.

The East End hasn’t really had an art fair. I have a pseudo-exhibition space called Alabaster Projects, which is the warehouse where Enzo will be hosting. I was like, “What if we did something different and made it more of a collaborative, collaborative project?” The idea was to bring together some of the galleries in downtown New York and try to do as much as possible from the financial side of an art fair. Therefore, I propose that the fair be free to attendees and gallerists. Since many of the participating galleries were friends, I asked them if they would combine shipping costs. I was a little nervous about trying to start something new. Although it is small, it is more experimental. But after talking to several gallerists, everyone is excited about something new and hopefully fun. I don’t want to say it’s “disruptive” in any way, but maybe just a different model, more like the European approach.

Can you tell us more about the European approach? What would it be like to walk around Enzo?

I’ve been attending art fairs for the past 13 or 14 years – mostly American art fairs, but also some international art fairs. I remember, whether it was Basel Social Club or Liste, or any other satellite show I attended in Europe, how cool, free and a little edgy these shows were. It’s more casual and seems more social than Basel or Frieze. I hope people can have a little more of a slow experience, a leisurely experience through Enzo. There are only nine galleries with approximately 5,000 square feet of floor space. We usually have a dividing wall between the two gallery spaces, but we have [taken that wall down] Bring them together to create a large public exhibition space. I just wish the pace could be slower [than other fairs]. I love all the galleries that attend art fairs, so I hope this is an alternative to the chaos that comes with other art fairs.

Does each gallery have a traditional booth?

Won’t. The building is relatively long and linear, with two units side by side. My thinking is leaning towards the idea of ​​downtown New York being very close to each other. There are no booths or dividing walls between galleries, making it more free-flowing. There will be clear boundaries and separations between the different gallery spaces, so people can clearly tell whether this is a new gallery, or this is another “booth”. But the idea is to make it as harmonious and organic as possible. Not that this is a big exhibition or presentation, but I hope it feels good, open and airy.

Going back to what you were saying earlier, why do you think it’s important to have an art fair in the Eastside of Los Angeles?

The East Side doesn’t really host fairs, but the East Side is home to a lot of artists, creative people, and cool young people who might not want to drive an hour to Santa Monica and pay parking to go to Frieze. Therefore, holding an exhibition in the southern area of ​​Echo Park will be convenient for many people. We are close to Echo Park Lake. There are tennis courts and cafes on the street. February in New York and London is cold, so having Europeans and New Yorkers coming to Los Angeles for the show will probably be more of a laid-back experience, where they might grab a cup of coffee and walk around the Echo Park lake after visiting the show.

Do you think that’s one of the reasons you hope to attract people to Enzo?

I hope the idea of ​​it being hot and just needing a reply attracts people. I also think the caliber of our onboard galleries should appeal to people. I hate to say it, but maybe sometimes [Angelenos] Just lazy. I live in the East End and sometimes I think, do I really want to go back to Frieze and drive 1 hour and 20 minutes in traffic and then another hour and 10 minutes on the way back? Also out of convenience. What’s going on here is pretty cool. One should definitely go to Frieze, Felix and Post-Fair – they are great fairs. It’s just a little more accessible and laid-back, I’m not saying the work is less serious or the gallery is less serious.

Why do you think it’s important for galleries not to charge participation fees? Do you see this as a new collector-funded fair model?

I’m not sure if it will be a future model, but maybe. We’ll see how that goes over the next few weeks. But it’s still fun to experiment a little more. I think I’m lucky that these wonderful galleries are willing to take a risk and say, “Hey, we’re going to be a part of this new fair.” I’ll be happy to answer your questions in three weeks. It would be nice if there were more exhibitions. But I’m keen to explore some of the smaller shows like Chart in Copenhagen or Untitled in Houston, which is a really cool show. If I asked you five to ten years ago, do you think Houston would ever have a contemporary art fair? You might say, I don’t know. There are some great museums there. We’ll just have to wait and see if this is successful, but hopefully there will be more experimental expos internationally.

The art fair calendar has become so crowded. It’s interesting to hear you want more shows.

It does feel like there’s a new art fair every month. It seems like a lot. Assuming you are a new collector just stepping into this world, you may not know how hard these galleries work to attend these fairs: logistics, shipping, hotels, show fees, transportation, dinners, lights. a lot of. Over the past six or seven years, I’ve become more aware of all these parts of art fairs that most people don’t talk about. So, my idea was, hey, what can I do to simplify things, both from a financial standpoint and make it easy for gallerists. Even though we try to make things easy in some ways, for the gallery everyone still needs to find accommodation, book flights, and figure out transportation. However, I am very grateful that the gallery was even willing to take this risk.

if i had more time [to plan it]there are a lot of things we want to do, like work with hotels, get good rates for galleries, and maybe throw a cool party there. I’d love to give a talk, maybe about the art market or the art fair circuit, or even just cool artist talks. I thought about having a shuttle service that could take people from Enzo to the west side, or even from Enzo to Felix, but financially we can’t do that. I hope we can do bigger things next year.

What was Enzo’s connection to the Alabaster Project?

Alabaster came about because of an exhibition I did a few years ago. That was the first exhibition I curated. I don’t have an art history background, but it was a great experience. Since then I have done several more exhibitions and I also started working with guest curators. Recently, we had a group show curated by an artist friend of mine, Joachim Castaneda. Sorry, our last exhibition was co-curated by me and Hiroko Maruyama, a Japanese curator who is a friend of mine and has a small gallery [Soot Tokyo] It’s about four or five blocks away. The goal of Alabaster Projects by 2026 and in the coming years is to turn it into a curatorial project space where I can be completely hands-off and young curators can come in and organize exhibitions. The aim is to target emerging and promising curators, including those from abroad, and give them carte blanche to show what they want to show. Right now, my focus is on the show, and once it’s over, I’ll probably take a break and go back.