Alto Beta, a gallery in the Southern California community of Altadena, opened a solo exhibition of new works by the Los Angeles-based artist Mary Anna Pomonis on Sunday (5 January). Just days later on Wednesday, the gallery’s owner Brad Eberhard posted a video on Instagram showing the strip mall on Fair Oaks Avenue where the gallery is located engulfed in flames from the Eaton fire. In the caption, he wrote that “the gallery is gone”, adding: “So sorry for the loss of Mary Anna’s show.”
Large swaths of Altadena and Pacific Palisades have been destroyed by the Eaton and Palisades fires, respectively, that have been burning out of control in the Los Angeles area since Tuesday (7 January) amid dry conditions and dangerously high winds. According to official estimates, the Eaton and Palisades fire have destroyed more than 5,000 structures each. Five deaths have been reported from the wildfires around the Los Angeles area, but officials expect that figure to increase.
The Zorthian Ranch, a community art centre and residency in Altadena founded by the Armenian American artist Jirayr Zorthian in (1911-2004), was almost completely destroyed by the Eaton fire. “We lost everything, 95% of the infrastructure of the ranch, all the artwork that Jirayr created, retaining walls made of wood burned down, the stage collapsed, the bridge is gone,” Julia Zorthian, an artist and manager of the ranch, wrote on a Gofundme page seeking support for its staff and rebuilding. “Please help us keep this place a community space for generations of artists who’ve come before, and who’ve yet to come.”
The Norton Simon Museum in neighbouring Pasadena “is safe and currently not in the evacuation zone for the Eton Fire”, according to a post on the museum’s Instagram page on Wednesday. However, it is closed Thursday and Friday “to ensure the safety of all our staff and visitors”.
Cultural spaces in Pacific Palisades—including the performing arts venue Theatre Palisades and early-20th-century entertainer Will Rogers’s historic home in the state park bearing his name—were largely or completely destroyed by the Palisades fire. Other art spaces in the area, including the Charles and Ray Eames’s Case Study House #8 and the Getty Villa, have been spared but remain at risk. (The Getty Villa and the Getty Center in Brentwood will remain closed until at least 13 January and 12 January, respectively.)
Two artist fellowship and residency venues in the neighbourhood operated by a German non-profit, the Thomas Mann House and Villa Aurora, are also still in danger. “There are first indications that parts of Villa Aurora were able to withstand the destructive fires. However, the building continues to be in the danger zone,” a statement on the non-profit’s website Thursday morning reads. “The Thomas Mann House is undamaged so far. This too is a momentary snapshot, as the situation can change any time.”
Institutions far from the wildfires opted to close on Thursday (9 January) in the interest of staff and visitors’ safety. The Museum of Contemporary Art announced that both its Grand Avenue and Geffen Contemporary locations would closed today “due to the current wind conditions and devastating fires affecting the Los Angeles area”. The Broad, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Los Angeles County Museum of Art are also closed Thursday (9 January).
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) cancelled undergraduate classes and moved graduate classes online for 9 and 10 January, though its campus remains open. Its marquee art institution, the Hammer Museum, is closed Thursday and Friday. UCLA’s Fowler Museum is closed on Thursday and postponed a preview event for its upcoming exhibition Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art, whose grimly timely subject is “the importance of traditional burning as a land management practice of California Indians”, according to a press statement about the postponement.
Commercial art spaces throughout the city have also opted to stay closed during the fire emergency. Regen Projects will remain closed until 14 January and has postponed the opening of a new Doug Aitken solo exhibition until 18 January “due to the unfolding wildfire crisis”, according to a statement on its website. Gagosian indefinitely postponed the opening of Alex Israel’s new solo show at its Beverly Hills location, which was originally scheduled for Thursday night. “We express heartfelt concern for everyone affected,” a statement on the gallery’s website reads.
Pace’s Los Angeles space will remain closed Thursday and Friday “out of an abundance of caution”, according to a statement the gallery’s website. Night Gallery is closed until further notice according to a statement on its website. Sean Kelly’s Los Angeles location “will be closed until further notice in solidarity with our colleagues, loved ones and all those affected”, according to a statement posted by the gallery on Instagram.
