BY TOM CHRISTIE

The fairs are moving on up: With the Los Angeles Art Show heading downtown to the L.A. Convention Center (Jan. 21-25), both PHOTO LA (Jan. 9-11) and ART LA (Jan. 23-25) are moving into the vacated Barker Hanger at Santa Monica Airport.  All three fairs show improvement, and will benefit from the additional space, though there was something nicely cluttered about the jam-packed Santa Monica Civic in years past.

Susan Meiselas'

“Between Shows, Freyburg, Maine”

PHOTO LA, also — and pointlessly — known as the 18th Annual International Los Angeles Photographic Art Exposition, is up first and has some fine additions this year, including such new galleries as the Charles Cowles Gallery, New York; Galerie Stephen Hoffman, Munich; Katherine Mulherin Gallery, Toronto; TZR Galerie, Düsseldorf; Witzenhausen Gallery, Amsterdam/New York; and L.A.'s own Sandroni Rey.  These in addition to such regulars as Aperture, D.A.P., M+B, Peter Fetterman, Ace Gallery, Czech Center of Photography and PHOTO L.A. founder Steven Cohen's gallery.  A highlight this year is the speakers series featuring photographer Joel-Peter Witkin; photographers/professors Catherine Opie, Jim Goldberg, and Jonathan Green; and curators Charlotte Cotton (LACMA) and Karen Sinsheimer (Santa Barbara Museum of Art), both of whom will lead collecting seminars.  Cotton will also lead conversations with Diane Keaton & Marvin Heiferman, Bruce Davidson, Susan Meiselas and David Maisel.  For information, visit www.artfairsinc.com/photola/2009.

The Los Angeles Art Show is the less edgy of the two art fairs, featuring such stalwarts as Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Louis Stern Fine Arts and the Manny Silverman Gallery, but this year it throws in a little spice, including lowbrowmeister Billy Shire's Culver City gallery, Billy Shire Fine Arts, along with that city's Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Silver Lake's Junc Gallery and downtown L.A.'s Bert Green Fine Art.  Info: www.laartshow.com.

Watch here for more on ART LA, including an interview with new director Tim Fleming; in the meantime go to www.artfairsinc.com/artla/2009. 

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