An art fair for the Pacific Design Center

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Does L.A. need another art fair? Ready or not, here comes Art Los Angeles Contemporary.

Directed by Tim Fleming, the new enterprise will be launched Jan. 28-31 at the Pacific Design Center. That’s the very next weekend after two other fairs make their annual appearances: the Los Angeles Art Show at the L.A. Convention Center and Art LA, which plans to move from Santa Monica’s Barker Center to a new location on South La Brea Avenue.

Making matters even more confusing, the first edition of Art Los Angeles Contemporary has an additional name: The International Contemporary Art Fair of L.A. Don’t be surprised if the art crowd gives it a shorter moniker, something like the PDC Art Fair.

Fleming, an art fair veteran who has directed Art LA, plans to sign up about 50 galleries that will offer a mix of work by emerging artists and established figures. “The recipe,” he says, “is a strong group of L.A. galleries and top internationals.’ Those on the roster so far include 1301PE, Peres Projects, David Kordansky and Blum & Poe of Los Angeles; Klosterfelde of Berlin; and Starkwhite of Auckland, New Zealand.

Participants will occupy booths in a labyrinth of showrooms on the enormous building’s second floor. “It’s an architectural challenge,’ Fleming says, ‘but one that we are excited about. I think people are ready for a different kind of fair in a great location.”

The PDC, often called the Blue Whale, was built as a showcase for interior designers, but contemporary art has a growing presence there. L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art has had a satellite at the center since 2001, and a new project, Design Loves Art, has provided temporary space for galleries, video screenings and installations organized by artists and curators.

-- Suzanne Muchnic