Show and Sell : Art: With gallery space shrinking, emerging artists are creating their own exhibition spaces.

Just as art is constantly being redefined, so too is the vehicle by which artists traditionally get their work seen--The Gallery.

As the recession continues to take its toll, younger artists and those producing less-marketable work are increasingly left out of the picture as commercial galleries turn to more proven talents to keep their businesses alive.

The past year has seen the closure of more than a dozen respected galleries, many of which--such as Richard/Bennett, Bess Cutler, Parker/Zanic and, most recently, Parker/Mark--focused on newer artists trying to gain some notoriety. And although a handful of galleries are now opening small “project rooms” for such work, the number of new artists being introduced has dwindled substantially.

“Young, emerging artists are becoming increasingly aware that there isn’t much out there for them,” said Rory Devine, 26, one of a growing number of artists who are creating opportunities for their peers.

Devine operates TRI, a 6-month-old exhibition space that thus far has shown about a dozen L.A. artists, including Carter Potter, Laura Howe, Dani Tull and Jody Zellen. The space, which takes over much of Devine’s home in the upper half of a duplex at 1140 S. Hayworth, is one of several alternative, artist-run spaces popping up in recent months as a direct response to the recession.

“There’s no doubt about it--this is a restructuring of the art world,” said Devine, who, backed by his experience working at Burnett Miller Gallery, has put together a program respected enough to attract established artists such as Fred Fehlau, who was in TRI’s August exhibition, and Sabina Ott, who has signed on for an upcoming show.

“This is an opportunity for the artists to take things in their own hands again and create a community,” says Devine, who picks the artists for each show, but allows them to select their own works.

“What I’m really interested in is distributing ideas, and this space allows (artists) to try out new ideas,” said Devine, who hasn’t completely abandoned the traditional route--his own work is currently on view at Earl McGrath Gallery. “Maybe (artists) will decide to show something different, something they’re not known for. . . . I like the risk.”

Running a different sort of alternative program is artist Charles LaBelle, whose “Nomadic Sites” is a yearlong project with 12 different shows in as many different spaces, ranging from artists’ studios to vacant storefronts, curated by local artists including Adam Ross, Keith Boadwee, Lauren Lesko, and Pae White and Jorge Pardo.

“I wanted to open an alternative space myself, but I didn’t have a space or the resources to run one,” said LaBelle, 27, who received his inspiration from the Guest Room, a venture run by artists Russell Crotty and Laura Greunther. The Guest Room, cited as a forerunner to the current movement by several others involved, presented a yearlong series that consisted mainly of site-specific installations by L.A. artists in a spare bedroom in the couple’s L.A. home.

“I knew there were others who were interested in doing these kind of exhibitions too, but also couldn’t make that commitment,” LaBelle said.

“But I figured we could each manage to put together one show and find a space and the resources for that one show.

“I wanted to provoke some kind of discussion about how art is presented and how shows come about (and) to prove that art can be shown outside of the gallery system and still be taken seriously,” LaBelle continued. “With the galleries closing, there are a lot of ways to alter the way the work enters the culture. I want to participate in that course of change.”

Rosamund Felsen, a prominent L.A. dealer who represents mostly well-known artists including Mike Kelley and Lari Pittman, and whose gallery is seen by several in the alternative movement as closed to new artists, nonetheless praised the development as a “terribly important” contribution to the vitality of L.A.’s art scene.

“Any kind of activity . . . generates energy that is really needed,” she said, adding that the alternative spaces “are helping to weather out this difficult time. Whenever you have younger artists, you have new ideas, which keeps up the dialogue between artists, and between the viewer and spectator. Without new ideas, it just becomes stagnant.”

Felsen disagreed, however, with the assessment that dealers were shying away from newer artists because of the recession. Instead, she maintained, many simply have a full house and cannot take on additional artists without shortchanging those to whom they have already committed.

But at least one former gallery owner who has entered into the alternative movement maintains that the recession has indeed limited venues for younger artists.

“My thing has always been young work, and now that I don’t have any overhead except preparing the walls and invitations, I can (present such work), even though I couldn’t afford to do it as Krygier/Landau,” said Susan Landau, whose Santa Monica gallery was an early recession victims. She now operates 1529 Wellesley in her spacious West L.A. home.

Landau opened in June with a show of “Wallworks” by artists ranging from newcomer Keith Lachowicz to more established names including Keith Sonnier and Jill Giegerich. Her current show, “Cruciforms,” features works by mainly younger and less established artists, including Mario Donna, Debra Vigna and Linda Stark.

“When I first decided to open up a gallery in my home, I didn’t know if the public would take it seriously. So for my first show I brought in some New York artists because I thought I would need to do that to establish myself as a professional space,” she said.

Landau admitted that large segments of the art-going public “haven’t come to these underground places, because they don’t understand that this is a new way to look at art.” But, she said, “I think these alternative venues are going to become more prevalent, because . . . the traditional gallery is not working, and the artists need venues. And ultimately, these places will be recognized, simply because there’s good work being shown in them.”

Buzz Spector, a well-established L.A. artist who curated the current “Nomadic Sites” show, “Fluid Measure” (at the Hollywood branch of the L.A. Public Library through Oct. 10), also predicted increased recognition for the alternative sites.

“The purpose of places like these was almost eliminated by the commercial art scene in the ‘80s, but there’s a real purpose for them in the ‘90s,” said Spector, who was part of a similar movement in the 1970s. “I think what we’re going to continue to have is a real limited art world, even when the recession is over, because of the attack on vanguard culture from the fundamentalist right.”

Spector added that he sees work produced through the new spaces as “much more politically engaged . . . work about feeling and being. (Because) it’s not about profit or social status, but about social concern.”

While the style of presentation varies from site to site, the majority of alternative spaces are run on shoestring budgets funded out of the pockets of the artists involved. And while a few of the proprietors have obtained the necessary business permits to sell artworks outright, others, because of a lack of funds for the permits, must rely on voluntary donations from the artists when their work is sold.

“I’m prepared to take a loss--I never expected to make money doing this,” said TRI’s Devine, who receives 50% of any sales. But the works he exhibits are priced so modestly ($200 each for Zellen’s photo-and-text panels, for instance), that recouping the $350-$400 needed to mount each show is difficult.

But, said Devine, “the galleries tried to do things to make money and obviously that criteria has failed, since there are less places to show the work. This has nothing to do with dealing work--it just gives exposure.”

Photographer Randall Scott, who also operates within the alternative scene by virtue of his roving Randall Scott/TBA Gallery, agreed that the movement may be the wave of the future.

“I think this may lead to the new turnover of art dealers in Los Angeles,” said Scott, 29, who operates out of donated spaces. “With so many galleries closing, it falls on us to find the alternative spaces, because the bottom line is, you’ve got to get the art shown.”

Another alternative program is Brian Butler’s 5-month-old 1301, run out of his Santa Monica apartment at 1301 Franklin St. Butler operates in a manner similar to a commercial gallery in that he represents a few artists exclusively--his current roster includes Meg Cranston and Thaddeus Strode--and also has a separate business producing multiples by artists including Paul McCarthy and Kate Ericson and Mel Ziegler.

“James Corcoran and L.A. Louver (galleries) have their generation, and Margo (Leavin) and Rosamund (Felsen galleries) have a different generation,” noted Butler, 31, who is showing Cranston’s works through Oct. 31. “So this is a space for the next generation . . . I feel it’s almost a duty to do this.”

Also attracting attention is Kenneth Riddle’s Bliss, which operates more as a cooperative. Each month Riddle turns his Pasadena home at 825 N. Michigan over to a different group of artists, who curate, fund, publicize and produce catalogues for their exhibitions. Bliss’ current group show, “The Underthings,” runs through September.

“I’m willing to do this for as long as it’s needed,” said Riddle, a 28-year-old artist who shows his own work at Santa Monica’s Dorothy Goldeen Gallery. “I’d always been intrigued by the stories about Gertrude Stein inviting artists to her home to discuss their works, and this is a place to do that.”

Also aiming to create a dialogue among artists is Food House, a collaborative project between artists Leonard Bravo, 27, and Robert Gunderman and Stephen Hartzog, both 29. The fourth exhibition in the Santa Monica warehouse-type space at 2220 Colorado Ave., an installation by Stephen Wong, runs through Saturday.

“We got together originally just out of respect for each other’s work,” said Gunderman. “But this is really in reaction to our dissatisfaction of what was happening in the galleries. We want to create a place for dialogue to happen, to focus more on young artists that aren’t receiving recognition elsewhere, and to really get things away from the typical wall-bound space. It’s just needed.”