Girl power: Gavlak gallery celebrates ten years of championing female artists
Gavlak gallery is celebrating. In a perennially unstable art world, ten years in the business is certainly something. The gallery’s locations in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Hollywood, LA, are surveying the trajectory of its decade of work: an aesthetically and conceptually distinctive mix of sculpture, painting and photography that inculcates a dialogue with contemporary textile, ceramics, and feminist theory.
Founded by dealer Sarah Gavlak, Gavlak gallery has carved a place for leading female and LGBT artists, a commitment that Gavlak asserts. 'I’ve always gravitated to and supported women artists – that hasn’t changed in 10 years, and won’t change in 10 more years.'
In her bi-coastal spaces, this translates to representing artists including the late Bunny Yeager (whose photographs are included in the LA edition of the anniversary show), Betty Tompkins (known for her Sex Works and large-scale Pussy Paintings, also on view) and giving early shows to renowned artists such as Sheila Hicks, Marilyn Minter and Aleksandra Mir. A female figurehead in the art world herself, Sarah Gavlak’s attentive eye and singular curatorial approach has introduced many new names to the art market since 2005 – and has created a credible commercial platform for high quality art in Florida, where art audiences are known to fluctuate with the seasons.
So what have been Gavlak’s personal highlights over the years? 'There are so many exhibitions that I’m proud of! In Palm Beach in 2008 I did a show with T.J. Wilcox, Pae White, and Sheila Hicks. The show unfortunately did not get as much recognition as I would have liked, due to the market crash that same year. I also did a show with Marilyn Minter in Palm Beach in 2006.'
Having established herself on the balmy shores of the east coast, Gavlak opened her Hollywood outpost in 2014, just a stone’s throw from other pioneering female contemporary gallerists, including Hannah Hoffman and Shaun Regen, of Regen Projects. As well as joining a fleet of gallerists flooding to the West coast city from the East, being in Los Angeles has given Gavlak a chance to work with Californian artists, in a 10,000 ft space, and to enjoy the growing local culture and economy converging there.
'I’m particularly excited about the new artists I’m working with in Los Angeles. I'm working with many mid-career artists, such as Judie Bamber, Amy Bessone, Francesca Gabbiani, and Marnie Weber, which are all very important artists that I’m hoping to help gain international recognition. I’m also in love with the Rob Wynne works in both exhibitions,' she says.
INFORMATION
Gavlak’s 10 year Anniversary show runs in Los Angeles until 23 December and in Palm Beach until 19 December. For more information, visit the Gavlak website
Photography: courtesy of the artists and Gavlak Gallery
ADDRESS
Gavlak Los Angeles
1034 N Highland Avenue
Los Angeles, California
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Charlotte Jansen is a journalist and the author of two books on photography, Girl on Girl (2017) and Photography Now (2021). She is commissioning editor at Elephant magazine and has written on contemporary art and culture for The Guardian, the Financial Times, ELLE, the British Journal of Photography, Frieze and Artsy. Jansen is also presenter of Dior Talks podcast series, The Female Gaze.
-
Infinite Machine’s P1 electric scooter blends performance, practicality and cyberpunk style
The P1 electric scooter from New York-based start-up Infinite Machine is a visually striking urban ride with zero emissions and practical features
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Roe, a new Canary Wharf restaurant, tempts with coral-like interiors and culinary innovation
Roe in London’s Canary Wharf features a vertical foraging garden, 3D-printed interiors and an open kitchen championing zero waste
By Sofia de la Cruz Published
-
New Vondom outdoor furniture is ahead of the curve
‘Luna’, a new Vondom outdoor furniture collection by Ramón Esteve, nods to midcentury design greats to deliver thoroughly contemporary elegance, functionality and comfort
By Simon Mills Published
-
Calling NYC grads! Sarabande Foundation invites you to an industry masterclass to pave way into the creative world
‘What Now?’ by Sarabande Foundation is a post-college guide to support graduates in making their next steps, with advice from the likes of Burberry, Thom Browne, and more
By Tianna Williams Published
-
An avant-garde Korean art movement resurfaces in LA
LA's Hammer Museum gets its teeth into avant-garde Korean art with ‘Only the Young: Experimental Art in Korea, 1960s–1970s’
By Anne Soward Published
-
The New York art exhibitions to see now
From MoMA to the smaller spaces, here are the best New York art exhibitions to catch in May 2024
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Surreal, uncanny, seductive: step into Graham Little’s world
Scottish artist Graham Little presents his first US retrospective at The FLAG Art Foundation in New York
By Hannah Silver Published
-
The cosmos meets art history in Vivian Greven’s New York exhibition
Vivian Greven’s ‘When the Sun Hits the Moon’, at Perrotin in New York City, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the USA
By Emily McDermott Published
-
The Met’s ‘The Real Thing: Unpacking Product Photography’ dissects the avant-garde in early advertising
A new exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York explores the role of product photography and advertising in shaping the visual language of modernism
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
Detroit Institute of Arts celebrates Black cinema
‘Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971’ at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) brings lost or forgotten films, filmmakers and performers to a contemporary audience
By Anne Soward Published
-
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s LA-made work goes on show at Gagosian
‘Made on Market Street’ at Gagosian in Beverly Hills is the first show to present works made by the young artist between 1982 and 1984
By Hunter Drohojowska-Philp Published