Los Angeles Convention Center Annex, South Hall entrance. Photo Courtesy of WikiCommons

The Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC) announced yesterday that it has delayed its Los Angeles satellite fair until 2016. Originally announced this past April, FIAC planned to launch its inaugural American edition on March 27-29, 2015 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. FIAC had previously stated that the LA fair was intended “to establish a new paradigm for the international art fair, set against the backdrop of one of America’s fastest growing neighborhoods.”

Of the delay, FIAC parent company, Reed Expositions, released a statement yesterday, November 11, 2014, stating that “In order to satisfy the requirement level of the galleries, FIAC has listened to the recommendations of its participants to modify the launch of its Los Angeles endeavor to provide both organizers and galleries sufficient time for optimal preparation. The first edition of FIAC LA will now take place at the beginning of 2016.”

Jean-Daniel Compain, senior vice president of Reed Expositions, and FIAC LA director Aurelia Chabrillat issued a joint statement, noting, “The inaugural FIAC LA will be staged at the level of quality and preparation our exhibitors have come to expect,” adding, “To this end, we have listened to the feedback of our constituencies: galleries, collectors, and institutions in coming to this decision. 

FIAC Paris at The Grand Palais. Photo Courtesy of Art Observed

Some have suggested that the fair’s organizers may have cancelled the LA edition all together due to not being able to fill the exhibitor list, a theory supported by the announcement following FIAC LA’s application deadline of September 30th. Others posit that the fair’s cancellation may have been the result of oversaturation. Artnews.com’s Dan Duray reported, “With more and more art fairs cropping up over the years, it might be safe to assume that participation levels probably weren’t what they should be.” Tim Blum, of LA-based contemporary art gallery Blum and Poe (who had not planned to participate in FIAC LA) echoed this sentiment, saying, “It’s a simple thing, we’ve got four spaces to program and forty artists […] all over the world and art fairs in between. Unless you can do a great presentation every time, it’s sort of meaningless to put pressure on artists to do more fairs.”

Another theory opines that the fair was doomed from the start, due to it’s proposed location not being conducive to art fairs in general. Mr. Blum elaborates, “I think it’s just really logistically complicated to schedule an art fair in LA, it’s a vast city. What are [FIAC] going to do, put [the fair] in a downtown convention center? Sounds awful to me. I wouldn’t want to go there as a visitor, let alone as an exhibitor.”

The FIAC Los Angeles has yet to establish a makeup date, though its sibling fairs, FIAC in Paris and (OFF)icielle Contemporary Art Fair, have recently announced dates for next year’s events, October 22-25, 2015.