WeHo Voices

The Art Dealer

Margo Leavin Gallery opened in 1970 on Robertson Boulevard and still operates at the same address. Alternating shows between established and up-’n’-coming artists, the gallery has shown and represented an impressive stable that includes John Baldessari, Tony Oursler, Roy Dowell, Alexis Smith, Cindy Bernard and Mungo Thomson. Wendy Brandow came to the gallery as an employee in 1976 and became a business partner in 1989.

Over the years, Brandow has watched the gallery map shift, converge and split: "When I first moved to Los Angeles, there were more galleries on North La Cienega and they all pretty much closed or moved. Patricia Faure and Rosamund Felsen were here, and Dan Weinberg was on Almont, which was taken over by Regen Projects in the ‘80s. There’s a whole new group of galleries on Melrose where there hadn’t been galleries before. A lot of people wanted to move downtown when MOCA opened, and another big move was to Santa Monica, which sorted out to Bergamot Station. The neighborhood keeps changing, but there have always been good galleries in West Hollywood. Now there’s the lower La Cienega group of younger galleries. I think practical economics have a lot to do with this. When galleries move in and improve areas, rents tend to go up and then you’re competing with restaurants and retail stores."

"There was a lot of effort made to bring focus and attract business into the city. That was successful to a large degree, with the opening of lots of clothing shops, restaurants and coffee houses. But the City of West Hollywood just about did everyone in with the two-year rebuilding of Santa Monica Boulevard. They placed all the utilities underground, but then they installed vertical city banners everywhere. They also fixed all the traffic lights so the traffic is always snarled, but it is more attractive. I miss Shatzky and Shapiro, one of the great old five and dimes, which was on the south side of Santa Monica Boulevard — an Internet café is there now. The tenor of the neighborhood has changed, now it’s all about eating and drinking."

The Margo Leavin Gallery, rather than being squeezed out by the changes, already owned most of the block, between Robertson and Hilldale, north of Santa Monica Boulevard. On the exterior of what was an extension of the main gallery for years, is one of Southern California’s most monumental public art pieces, a Claes Oldenburg sculpture, being choked off by jacaranda trees.

"After we substantially remodeled the galleries, the first show was a Claes Oldenburg, Coosje van Bruggen, Germano Celant and Frank Gehry collaboration in the Hilldale Gallery. It was props and models from The Course of the Knife performance in Venice, Italy. The show included a large knife slicing through a wall. We thought, wouldn’t this be great outdoors? It was commissioned and became a whole new work [Knife Slicing Through Wall, 1986]. That building, at one time a post office, was built, the story goes, by Merle Oberon. If you stand north on Hilldale and stare down, the knife lines up with the cut corners of green Pacific Design Center building. It’s an interesting juxtaposition."

812 N. Robertson Blvd., (310) 273-0603.