The devastation of the wildfires in Los Angeles continues to grow, impacting galleries, artists, and art professionals across the city. Hurricane-speed winds and several months without much rain have contributed to the fires, which have damaged thousands of homes and killed at least 24 people.
So far, parts of the grounds of the Getty Villa have burned, and many artists, gallerists, and other art professionals have evacuated the city. The blazes have consumed homes, studios, and even museums. Several fundraisers have been started to help with recovery efforts.
On January 11, the footprint of the Palisades fire grew to the point that the location of the Getty Center was also part of a mandatory evacuation zone. But a day later, with the mandatory zone altered, the museum reported that it was “safe and stable.”
Artist Kathryn Andrews, who lost her home in the Pacific Palisades, has been continuing to collect names of other artists and art professionals whose homes were also destroyed as a result of the fires. They include artist Alec Egan, who lost his home, studio, and two years of nearly completed works for his forthcoming solo show at Anat Ebgi gallery. The show was set to open at the end of the month, but the gallery said all the works in it were burned in the fire.
“We are so grateful Alec and his family are safe and mourn with all who are now facing tragic losses and uncertainty,” the gallery posted on Instagram, noting that it was selling posters from Egan’s 2022 solo show online, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to the artist.
The Eaton fire was particular devastating for artists in the community of Altadena, causing the destruction of the Eliot Arts Magnet Middle School and the Zorthian Ranch artist colony, which was founded decades ago by the late sculptor and craftsman Jirayr Zorthian. Two handymen told the Los Angeles Times that they and about a dozen artists escaped the fire; dozens of animals ran into the woods. A GoFundMe said the damage to the ranch included artwork by Zorthian, retaining walls, a collapsed stage, and a bridge.
The New York Times also reported the Altadena home of artist Diana Thater and conceptual artist T. Kelly Mason, as well as thousands of dollars in camera equipment belonging to them and an archive held in a temperature-controlled garage, were also completely destroyed. The Altadena homes, studios, and archives of Camilla Taylor, Kelly Akashi, Paul McCarthy, and Ross Simonini were also lost due to the Eaton fire.
Like Egan, many of the artists had been busy preparing for new shows: Taylor was preparing for three exhibitions this year; McCarthy had to postpone his upcoming show at Hauser & Wirth in London, and Akashi was scheduled to have her inaugural exhibition at Lisson Gallery in Los Angeles later this month. Prior to the fires, Akashi had considered naming one of her recent works “Monument to Loss.” That one was also burned.
The fire also burned down a work-in-progress that Thater had been commissioned to make for the reopening of the expanded Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2026.
The losses also included the library and archive of art and culture critic Gary Indiana, which was moved to Altadena on January 7, the day before the fires. After Indiana died in his East Village apartment in New York last October, the plan was for his books to become a core library for an artist retreat. “If they – the signed editions, the rare art books, the weird books, the books Gary treasured – had come a day later, there would have been no address to deliver them to, so they would have been saved. But on that Tuesday, unfortunately, there still was an address,” Colm Tóibín wrote as part of an essay on fleeing the Los Angeles fires himself for the London Review of Books.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), whose scientists worked with artists for the PST Art presentation “Blended Worlds: Experiments in Interplanetary Imagination,” remains closed except for essential personnel due to the Eaton fire. The center for robotic planetary exploration and home of some of NASA’s most famous spacecraft evacuated an estimated 1000 JPL employees, and more than 150 lost their homes to fire, according to a post on X from JPL director Laurie Leshin. A fundraiser for a Caltech and JPL Disaster Relief Fund has been created.
The Los Angeles Times also reported the Zane Grey Estate in Altadena was one of several notable homes that were destroyed due to the fires. The estate was built by architects Myron Hunt and Elmer Grey in 1907 for Chicago business machine manufacturer Arthur Herbert Woodward. The large home was built of reinforced concrete; featured original cast-iron sconces, iron handrails and chandeliers; and was included on the National Register of Historic Places.
A range of galleries, from Marian Goodman to David Zwirner, are currently closed and will remain that way for the time being. But there is good news: some spaces are beginning to reopen. Pace and Perrotin, for example, reopened on January 11, and Hauser & Wirth will follow tomorrow.
