The appeal of Felix Art Fair, which debuted in 2019, was always the intimacy of its setting: Initially built in 1927 along Los Angeles’s Hollywood Boulevard, the Roosevelt Hotel is still outfitted with some of its vintage charm, despite multiple modernizations. Founded by collector Dean Valentine and dealers Al and Mills Morán in a bid to do something different from Art Los Angeles Contemporary, the L.A. Art Show, and Frieze L.A., Felix is now in its third iteration after being postponed due to COVID-19.
While the first edition was international in scope, the 2021 fair includes 29 local galleries (a few, like Tanya Leighton, have L.A. satellites but are primarily based elsewhere), and makes use of poolside cabanas rather than rooms, inviting a different kind of intimacy than its inaugural version did. And indeed, many galleries chose to feature work that rewards close, slow looking: Ben Sakoguchi’s detailed acrylic excoriations of American consumerism are so much better in close quarters, as are Fiona Connor’s bronzes of familiar objects—which tend to be easily taken for granted in larger settings—and Melvino Garretti’s idiosyncratically detailed ceramic masks. Here are nine standout artists whose works will be exhibited in Felix’s cabanas this weekend.
Ishi Glinsky at Chris Sharp
The Zuni people of New Mexico, long known as master jewelers, began using the inlay technique in the 1920s. This technique involves placing specially cut and shaped stones into pre-crafted silver or gold channels, and made it easier to create figurative jewelry. In the 1970s, a number of Zuni jewelers became known for making cartoon-inspired pendants, rings, brooches, and necklaces, also known as “Zunitoons.”
L.A.-based artist Ishi Glinsky, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation, often employs the careful study of First Nations’ craftwork as the basis for his paintings and sculptures. Recently, he has been making oversized sculptures informed by Zuni cartoon jewelry, using resin and aluminum rather than gold, silver, and gems. Glinsky’s Light Pink Jazz (2021), which will be on view at Felix, takes the form of an especially refined Pink Panther. The artist gives the cartoon character a multifaceted turquoise nose and especially smooth pink ears and tail. This sculpture, like Glinksy’s bolder work AKA Ricky the Rat (2020), captures the almost perplexingly perfect balance between exquisiteness and defiant kitsch that defined the Zunitoons trend.