Art Contemporary Los Angeles (ALAC) Features Work by CalArtians

The new visual identity for Art Contemporary Los Angeles was created by CalArts alum Brian Roettinger.

Among the many high-profile Los Angeles art fairs on the horizon, Art Los Angeles Contemporary (ALAC) opens first, with a preview tonight (Wednesday, Feb. 13), at The Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary edition, ALAC partnered with famed graphic designer and CalArts alum Brian Roettinger (Art BFA 04) to create a new visual branding identity partly inspired by the airport venue.

In The Hollywood Reporter Roettinger explains, “The new bold black-and-white identity is a modular typographic system. It allows for a strict but playful mix, which is part airport way-finding and part motor transportation. The look focuses on the fair’s better-known name ‘ALAC,’ instead of its official full name, which the team felt was a natural decision after 10 years of existence.”

Roettinger is a Grammy-award winning designer whose clients include No Age, Mark Ronson, Florence + the Machine, Drake and Jay-Z.

Also new this year is the curated section “Moveable Types,” which features 24 independent presses and book shops from around the world, highlighting the significance of printed materials and publishing as a field of contemporary art. For the first time, ALAC fairgoers will have access to a diverse range of unique and rare editions, artist books and projects, art catalogues, monographs, photography books and zines from international and local L.A. publishers, including X-Artists Books.

Established in 2017, X-Artists Books was founded by Graphic Designer and CalArts alum Jessica Fleischmann (Art MFA 01), Keanu Reeves and Alexandra Grant. Thus far, they have published four artist books including their latest release The Artists’ Prison written by Grant and designed by Fleischmann.

Of the 80 top established and emerging galleries included in ALAC, several represent CalArtians such as Roberts Projects with work by Daniel Joseph Martinez (Art BFA 79), Luis De Jesus Los Angeles with work by Zachary Drucker (Art MFA 07), Mixografia with work by John Baldessari (Chouinard Fine Art 59) and Ed Ruscha (Chouinard 60) and Praz-Delavallade with work by CalArts School of Art faculty Sam Durant (Art MFA 91) and Jim Shaw (Art MFA 78), to name a few.

View the complete list of exhibitors on ALAC’s website.