A Firsthand Account of LA's Chinatown Art Scene in the Late 1990s
In a personal essay featured in Artillery Magazine, an anonymous artist reflects on their journey to Los Angeles from Canada in 1998, where they engaged with the Chinatown art community as a graduate student at UCLA. The artist encountered Frances Stark, Laura Owens, and Pae White, discussing the significance of art in Chinatown. Connections with established artists were fostered through Steve Hanson and Giovanni Intra at China Art Objects. Kevin Hanley indicated that the art scene began around 1994, while the artist identified it as starting in 1999. China Art Objects, established in 1999 by Intra, Hanson, Amy Yao, Peter Kim, and Mark Heffernan, became a platform where the artist sold $40 drawings, characterizing the environment as 'half professional half feral.' The era concluded with Giovanni Intra's heroin overdose in 2006.
Key facts
- The author arrived in Los Angeles from Canada in 1998 and attended graduate school at UCLA.
- At UCLA, the author met artists Frances Stark, Laura Owens, and Pae White, who spoke of Chinatown as the hot art scene.
- China Art Objects opened in 1999, founded by Giovanni Intra, Steve Hanson, Amy Yao, Peter Kim, and Mark Heffernan.
- Giovanni Intra was a Fulbright scholar from New Zealand.
- Roger Herman's Black Dragon Society gallery was already operating in Chinatown, where the author worked as a gallery sitter.
- The author sold drawings for $40 each from a Trader Joe's bag to collectors every Saturday in Chinatown.
- Eric Wesley's first show at Metro Pictures ended with him throwing a chair through the glass door of Passerby, Gavin Brown's bar, after a racial slur.
- Giovanni Intra died of a heroin overdose in New York the same weekend as Eric Wesley's Metro Pictures opening, after returning from Miami Basel.
- In 2006, Josh White invited the author to Jason Rhoades's 'Black Pussy' installation; Rhoades died a few weeks later.
- The essay references Brian Eno's concept of 'Scenius' and Emma Catacutan's curation of a show on the topic in San Diego.
Entities
Artists
- Frances Stark
- Laura Owens
- Pae White
- Giovanni Intra
- Steve Hanson
- Amy Yao
- Peter Kim
- Mark Heffernan
- Roger Herman
- Eric Wesley
- Jason Rhoades
- JP Munro
- Kevin Hanley
- Josh White
- Emma Catacutan
- Brian Eno
- Gavin Brown
Institutions
- UCLA
- China Art Objects
- Black Dragon Society
- Blum & Poe
- Metro Pictures
- Passerby
- Petzel
- Miami Basel
- Royal Art Lodge
- Artillery Magazine
- LA Weekly
- Madame Wong's
Locations
- Los Angeles
- United States
- Canada
- Winnipeg
- New Zealand
- New York
- San Diego
- Chinatown
- Miami