ART NOTES : Holiday Lull Ends With a Bang

Next weekend promises to be a marathon for the local art crowd. Following the holiday lull, no less than two art fairs, two-dozen exhibition openings and the premiere of a contemporary art showcase are scheduled.

“Photo LA,” an international photography exposition organized by Los Angeles dealer Stephen Cohen, is making its fourth annual appearance at Butterfield & Butterfield Galleries, 7601 Sunset Blvd., Thursday night through next Sunday. Cohen has enlisted 37 exhibitors from 19 cities to show and sell photographic prints from the 19th Century to the present.

Photography collecting seminars are also planned with Diana C. du Pont, curator of 20th-Century art at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Friday, 2 p.m.); Dale W. Stulz, a consultant and appraiser (Saturday, 10 a.m.), and Gordon Baldwin, associate curator of photography at the J. Paul Getty Museum (Sunday, 10 a.m.).

“For those who take advantage of the three days of public viewing and the collecting seminars, it’s the equivalent of a semester’s education--for a lot less money unless one buys something,” Cohen says.

The event will begin on Thursday, 6-9 p.m., with a $40-a-ticket benefit for L.A. Shanti, a nonprofit organization that supports people affected by HIV, AIDS and other life-threatening diseases. Tickets can be ordered from Jim Blevins at L.A. Shanti: (213) 962-8197, Ext. 555.

“Photo LA” also will be open on Friday, 4-9 p.m.; Saturday, noon-8 p.m., and Sunday, noon-6 p.m. Admission is $10 a day or $15 for a three-day pass. Each seminar costs $45 including a three-day pass and refreshments. Information: (213) 937-5482.

At the second fair, “Works on Paper/LA ‘95,” 75 dealers will offer prints, drawings, photographs, watercolors and posters at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Friday night through next Sunday. A $25-a-ticket preview reception, including wine, beer and hors d’oeuvres, is planned for Friday, 6-9 p.m.

The show also will be open on Saturday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., with a $10 admission fee. Special features include a showcase of Chicano art presented by Self-Help Graphics, the East Los Angeles art center, and a lecture by Joanne Moser, senior curator of prints and drawings at the National Museum of American Art in Washington, next Sunday at 10 a.m. Information: (310) 455-2886.

The West Hollywood gallery scene offers a batch of Saturday openings. The Margo Leavin Gallery will launch “Gilded Carriages and the Donkey’s Way,” a collaborative installation by New York-based artist Rita McBride and Santa Monica-based architect Hsin-Ming Fung, featuring a scaffold stairway to the gallery’s skylight. An additional show, “La Concierge,” will present new works by McBride.

Also on Saturday, 5-8 p.m., a cluster of galleries on Melrose Avenue, Almont Drive and Robertson Boulevard will hold a joint opening. You can park your car once and easily walk to six shows: “Eloquent Lines: Important Modern and Contemporary Drawings and Paintings,” curated by Josine Ianco-Starrels, at Louis Stern Fine Arts; “Alfred Leslie: Selected Works, 1950-1962,” at the Manny Silverman Gallery; “Dan Flavin: Untitled (for Lucie Rie, Master Printer)” and “Richard Pettibone: Objects,” at the Kohn Turner Gallery; “Uncommon Prints I,” at the Herbert Palmer Gallery; and “100 Years of California Art,” at George Stern Fine Arts.

A bit farther east are “Raymondo Sesma: Paintings,” at the Chac-Mool Gallery; “John Valadez: 6 New Prints,” at the Daniel Saxon Gallery; “Jean Dubuffet: Paintings and Drawings,” at the Kantor Gallery; and “Penelope Krebs: Paintings,” at the Kiyo Higashi Gallery.

Meanwhile, in Venice, L.A. Louver Gallery is opening an 8,000-square-foot facility designed by Frederick Fisher Architects, at 45 N. Venice Blvd. Eight years in the making, the new showcase will consolidate L.A. Louver’s exhibition spaces, offices and storage facilities, which have been scattered around the seaside community. The inaugural show, “Not yet beautiful,” opening Friday and continuing through Feb. 11, consists of seven new large-scale sculptures by British artist Richard Deacon.

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WHITNEY LINEUP: The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York has released a list of artists in its “1995 Biennial Exhibition,” a perpetually controversial survey of the most significant developments in American art, film and video during the last two years.

Exhibition curator Klaus Kertess has selected 54 artists, including seven based in Los Angeles: Toba Khedoori, Catherine Opie, Lari Pittman, Charles Ray, Jason Rhoades, Nancy Rubins and Diana Thater. John G. Hanhardt, who is organizing the film and video portion of the show, has chosen 32 individuals and teams; Los Angeles will be represented by Harry Gamboa Jr. and a joint project by Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy, and San Diego by Thomas Allen Harris.

This year’s version of the “Biennial” will appear at the Whitney from March 23 to June 4, then travel to Prague in the fall.