California Dreaming: David Kordansky At 20

David Kordansky, the LA gallerist, is celebrating his eponymous gallery’s 20th anniversary with new work by artists he has represented, some from the start of his first gallery in Chinatown.

Today, The David Kordansky gallery sits at the corner of La Brea and Edgemont with two spaces, each of which is configured into more than one gallery room. He has recently opened a space in New York City, and has affiliations with spaces in Paris, and, forthcoming, in Asia. At a time when NY and European galleries, including Pace, David Zwirner and Vito Schnabel are opening spaces in Los Angeles, Kordansky has grown from Los Angeles to the rest of the art-buying world. The explanation is that Kordansky features what these other galleries are trying to capture: California artists.

Once upon a time, in the beginning of the 20^th Century, Paris was the center of the art world, then in the second half of that century, New York became its center and remained so until recently. The thought was that artists who wanted to grow their career would move there, and collectors would travel to buy their work from New York galleries.

That is no longer true. Los Angeles has blossomed as a market where major art dealers want to have a presence because of a trinity of factors: Great art schools (CalArts, Art Center Pasadena, Otis, and SCI Arc, as well as UCLA and USC) where artists can teach and work, and which graduate artists; world class Los Angeles based artists (who are here for reasons of climate, lifestyle, studio availability and because it is not New York), and critically, there is now a solid base of serious Los Angeles based art collectors.

David Kordansky Gallery is celebrating with a group show called ’20’, featuring a diverse group of artists, some senior and celebrated such as Betty Woodman and Sam Gilliam, artists hitting their stride such as Jonas Wood and some young and up-and-coming such as Lucy Bull and Hilary Pecis.

Kordansky attended CalArts for Graduate School and was, at first, a conceptual and performance artist (in partnership with Jeff Kopp). He pivoted into being a gallerist – and what I found very interesting is that in one room of the 20 exhibition, deemed “a reading room” which collects catalogues and books about the artists he cares about, and also includes a collection of the gallery’s early invitations and exhibition posters, it is clear that from the beginning there was something performative and conceptual about his shows and the artist he has shown, beginning with William E. Jones, a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, photographer, and writer who is showcased with a new series of paintings. Also represented are mainstays of the gallery’s history including Aaron Curry, Lauren Halsey, Tom of Finland, Rashid Johnson, and Mary Weatherford.

In the exhibition, I was particularly struck by a sculpture by Guan Xiao, a Chinese born artist, who uses different materials to subvert and affirm traditional sculpture. There’s a beautiful Fred Eversley parabolic lens sculpture (Eversley is definitely having a moment); as well as Doyle Lane’s Weed Pot, wonderful small glazed ceramic objects. There is a gorgeous (but surprisingly tame) Tal Madani painting; and also a fantastic painting by Derek Fordjour, Anniversary (2023) which features the artist and Kordansky himself seated on a couch seemingly in conversation. The painting itself is animated by the mix of materials used including acrylic, charcoal, cardboard, oil pastel, and foil on newspaper mounted on canvas.

I was also struck by this feeling of California in the works and the featured artists. California is not a tangible constant, but if you live here there is a special quality of light, a long history of people coming here to reinvent themselves and to live by their creative toil, and the mix of styles evident on each block, and in the street and surf culture that informs fashion high and low, the diversity of greater LA, and even in the food made here. It infuses the work of artists here – a softness in the colors, an optimism, a willingness to experiment in different materials to construct a work.

California Art on occasion is Art that dares to be happy. Joel Mesler’s “Untitled (Mazel Tov)” reminded me of attending events at the Beverly Hills hotel and could easily be used for an “I love LA” campaign. LA allows artists to become themselves. (Could Frank Gehry have become Frank Gehry in New York? I doubt it). Los Angeles makes the artists, and increasingly artists make Los Angeles.

The David Kordansky Gallery has weathered two decades time and grown to prominence because it is of California. And that is worth celebrating.