Maximillian Gallery at the Sunset Marquis might at first blush seem like an anomaly — a gallery in an upscale boutique hotel showing Shepard Fairey, Destroy All Design, COPE2, CYRCLE, Gregory Siff and Desire Obtain Cherish instead of bejeweled eggs, bronze cheetahs and happy landscapes. But in reality, this model is the harbinger of the future wherein street art has been accepted into the mainstream, for better or worse, and thus serious art dealers begin the work of placing it in the lineage of art history, among certain strains of abstraction and text-based painting. And Maximillian Gallery's founder and director, the one-named impresario known as Caradoc, is just the man for the job, having grown up in Paris, New York and L.A. with artist parents and a grandmother (Esther Robles) whose La Cienega gallery represented the top artists of the 1950s and '60s. "You could say art is in my DNA and I've been inspired by it my entire life, especially from emerging artists." And right now, that means street artists. "I wanted to create a high-end, intimate, yet accessible gallery like the ones I remember visiting. One of the amazing things about being at the iconic Sunset Marquis is that the most interesting people from all over the world come here and discover these artists." 1200 Alta Loma Road, W. Hlywd. (310) 881-6025, maximilliangallery.com.

—Shana Nys Dambrot