The Hole is joining the wave of New York galleries expanding to Los Angeles, inaugurating its new 8,000-sq.-ft space on North La Brea Boulevard with New Construction, a group show opening on 15 February, just in time for the return of Frieze Los Angeles. The Manhattan-based gallery, which branched out from its original Bowery location to a Tribeca satelite space less than a year ago, is the latest in a growing group of New York and European galleries planning Angeleno outposts this year including Sean Kelly, David Zwirner, Pace (in a merger with Kayne Griffin), and recently announced Lisson Gallery, Sargent’s Daughters and Shrine.
“This has always been part of my ten-year plan,” The Hole founder Kathy Grayson tells The Art Newspaper by phone shortly after arriving in Los Angeles to oversee the finishing touches on the new space. “Every year, for the past decade, it has gotten more important to be here. The Los Angeles artists we represent have always wanted to see more of us, and over the years we’ve sold more and more to people on the West Coast. Through Los Angeles collectors, we’ve created links with Los Angeles institutions.”
The gallery is located in Hollywood’s gallery cluster, just up La Brea from Moskowitz Bayse, Matthew Brown and Shulamit Nazarian, and two blocks from the gallery of Grayson's mentor and former boss, Jeffrey Deitch.
Adam Parker Smith, Narcissist (Gray Purple), 2021 Courtesy of the artist and The Hole
The opening exhibition New Construction will introduce audiences to 20 artists The Hole represents or has worked with including Alex Gardner, Caitlin Cherry, FriendsWithYou, Joe Reihsen, Morgan Blair, Pedro Pedro and Rosson Crow. It will also offer a taste of the performative flair the gallery has become known for, with the installation of the show taking place during the opening reception. Visitors who arrive at 6pm on 15 February will find an empty gallery and can witness the show being installed throughout the evening. In this sense, it playfully echoes the show that opened the gallery in 2010, Not Quite Open For Business, which featured half-finished works.
New Construction will be followed by solo shows of Jonathan Chapline’s digital rainbow fantasies and large marble sculptures by Adam Parker Smith. Measuring two meters across, Smith’s marble works would not have fit into either of The Hole’s New York locations, says Grayson, highlighting another appealing aspect that drew her out West.
“I was always jealous of the beautiful spaces here that aren't possible in New York, like an 8,000-sq.-ft bow-truss warehouse with beautiful light, where you can present different types of exhibitions,” Grayson says. “Artists are inspired by the space too. One thing I learned from Jeffrey is that as a curator/dealer, you have to be as ambitious as the artists.”