ART/LA91 Goes Out With a Whimper, $600,000 Deficit : Marketing: The future of L.A.’s international contemporary art fair is in question. Next year may see a restructured event.

“The essence of a trade fair is that the show goes on,” art patron Peter Norton said Tuesday night at the opening of ART/LA91. Los Angeles’ sixth international contemporary art fair did indeed go on in this recessionary year, but as the five-day event closed on Sunday night its future was in question.

With the number of exhibitors reduced from about 160 to 100 and attendance down about 19% from a peak of 30,000, fair organizer Andry Montgomery California Inc. will lose in excess of $600,000 on ART/LA91, director Brian Angel said. The company, which spends about $1.5 million a year to produce the event, rarely turns a profit on the fair but this year’s loss is “a dramatic increase in the deficit of last year,” he said.

ART/LA92 is already scheduled for Dec. 2-6, 1992, at the Convention Center. Andry Montgomery is committed to trying again, Angel said, but not before the fair undergoes an extensive examination.

“Clearly the fair as it exists is not a viable proposition if the recession continues,” Angel said. “We may have to restructure or reframe it.

“One of the more interesting suggestions,” he said, is to change the focus of the fair to applied art and design. Another option is to secure private sponsorship of nonprofit exhibits and programs. The only year that the fair turned a profit was 1988, when British Airways contributed $150,000, he said.

Many dealers have bailed out of the fair because of the economy or dissatisfaction with past experiences. The most frequent complaint is the high cost, which runs about $14,000 for a 500-square-foot booth and much more for a spacious display space. Out-of-town dealers have the added expense of transportation, shipping and lodging.

Indeed the fair has such a troubled history that some dealers privately say it should be discontinued, but supporters of ART/LA insist that it should be saved.

“Economic conditions are so bad and they have lasted so long that you have to create your own energy. We are doing that by being at the fair,” said Neal Ovsey of Ovsey Gallery. He and his wife, Alice, did not participate last year because of the recession, but they returned with renewed vigor.

“The arts are critical to the city--to the economy and the quality of life--and the fair is a very important part of the overall picture,” said City Councilman Joel Wachs, who chaired the advisory board of ART/LA91. “We need some form of an art fair--not just for sales but as a vehicle for contacts, networking, the ideas that float around.”

But the fair’s difficulties have divided the local art community. A group of Santa Monica dealers, for example, explored the possibility of organizing a smaller, less expensive fair on the Westside this year but did not develop a workable plan. At present, the situation seems to boil down to a sort of Catch-22 dilemma: The fair is unlikely to get better without strong support at home, but many local dealers don’t want to be affiliated with a fair that doesn’t meet with their approval.

Signs of distress were evident this year. A large section that was filled with exhibitions is previous years stood empty, while several exhibits received free space in exchange for broadening the show’s perspective.

Brainstorming sessions to save the fair are already scheduled. “I just hope we can spend the time it takes to improve and expand the fair, rather than let it die. It’s really important,” Wachs said.