At the LA Art Show, Galleries Push Past Familiar Boundaries

Los Angeles is diverse, LA Art Show director Kassandra Voyagis tells Observer. “You have to have multiple different voices, different things, you have to have young galleries, young artists. You have to push the envelope with exhibits of things that haven’t been seen before,” she explains. “The beauty of the LA Art Show is that galleries can take risks; that’s what makes L.A. stand apart.”

Starting today, more than 90 galleries, museums and arts organizations from around the world have converged on L.A.’s Convention Center for the 31st edition of the LA Art Show, which this year has no shortage of diverse voices. Featured exhibitions include “Elegant Freedom: Nature, Tradition, and the Human Spirit,” works by artist Jinny Suh that explore hanji, traditional Korean handmade paper from which the artist conjures chickens, birds and butterflies, symbols that explore themes of freedom and human connection. With “Including You And Me,” artist Moon Min deploys metal, resin and mixed media to reflect on modern humanity in relation to technology. Bright, abstract paintings and vessels by Dr. Esther Mahlangu, cultural ambassador of the Ndebele nation, will be presented by Art of Contemporary Africa. And Israeli artist Yigal Ozeri offers a selection of photorealist portraits of women.

With the fair situated just a stone’s throw from Hollywood, visitors can expect to see celebrity buyers as well as practitioners. “There are a lot of people in the entertainment world who have become artists,” Voyagis says. “It’s an avenue, it’s a creative outlet from acting to painting or drawing, so I get approached by a lot of celebrity artists and their galleries.”

Sylvester Stallone, for instance, has been painting since 1966, back when the future actor was a lad of 20. “The gallery walked me through the history and told me he started painting when he was a kid, before he started acting. And this was an escape for him from his household and where he grew up,” Voyagis says, pointing out a diptych of his signature character, Rocky, entitled Male Pattern Badness, priced at $2 million.

“I started selling these in June, and I’ve sold 27 pieces in the last six months,” Provident Fine Art gallerist Shawn David says of Stallone’s artwork. Another piece, Hercules O’Clock, priced at $1.2 million, references a pivotal moment in the actor’s youth when in viewing a Steve Reeves Hercules film, he discovered a male role model that would influence him for the rest of his life.

“Art collectors in their forties and up, Sly fans and buyers from all over the world,” is how David describes collectors of the actor’s work. “We had somebody purchase a fairly large piece, sight unseen, as most of them have been, from French Polynesia. So, literally from all over the world.”

Not to be outdone, Paul Simonon, former bassist of The Clash, will also be showing at the fair with London-based John Martin Gallery. “The moment I was old enough to ride a motorcycle, I got a Triumph, and a friend of mine, he had a Triumph. And we used to ride around a lot together in London, and this was during the Clash period,” Simonon tells Observer, noting the inspiration behind the five works shown here, featuring leather jackets, gloves, motorcycles, cigarettes and helmets. All are drawn from his 2014 show at London’s Institute of Contemporary Art, “Wot No Bike.”

“I got to know Lucien Freud quite well,” he recalls while discussing influences. The two met over cocktails in a bar one night and wound up talking about movies centered on artists, including one called Odd Man Out, featuring an artist played by Robert Newton whose father, Algernon Newton, was often called the Canaletto of London. “Newton turns out to be Lucien’s friend. And he took me to his house, and on the table was a Rodin bronze.”

Artist, sculptor, musician, Simonon also happens to be on the cover of The Clash’s London Calling album, an iconic black and white image featuring him smashing his guitar on the stage at New York’s Palladium in 1979.

“I remember it very well.” He smiles, recalling the moment. “To be honest, I just lost my temper. And when I lose my temper, I tend to destroy my own things. I don’t take it out on people. It was a sporadic moment. It was Strummer and Mick Jones who said it’s got to be on the cover.”

DIVERSEartLA, the fair’s noncommercial platform curated by Marisa Caichiolo, returns with “The Biennials, Art Institutions and Museums in the Contemporary Art Ecosystem,” exploring how art evolves through biennials and museums, and how they serve as engines of creative innovation and cultural dialogue. Caichiolo, who will be co-curating Chile’s pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, also curates the fair’s new Latin American Pavilion, centered on themes of memory, migration and identity.

For the art market, 2025 was a year of uncertainty, though auction houses like Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips closed out the year with strong results. Sotheby’s finished with a $2.3 billion November week, including the $527.5 million sale of the Lauder Collection, featuring Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, which sold for $236.4 million.

“The summer was difficult,” Voyagis laments. “I think the market is still cautious, but it’s much better. The collector base here is under 40, which is really quite young. I think there’s finally that market and excitement around the art world and collecting in L.A. The LA Art Show, this will be our 31st year. I think we survived through all of it because we represent L.A., and I appreciate that the Angelenos come out and support us every year. I want the show to be open to everybody.”

More in art fairs, biennials and triennials

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• Observer’s January Art Fair Calendar

• The 2026 Whitney Biennial Aims to Map a New Geography of American Art in ‘a Moment of Profound Transition’

• Young Fair Art Antwerp Leans Into the City’s Centuries-Old Collecting Culture

• What Zero 10 Can Tell Us About the Art World’s Next Chapter

• Curator Irene Gelfman On Pinta Miami’s Evolution into a Hub for Ibero-American Art