Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/315051
The truth is, you can do what you want in Los An- geles. Gallerist Sarah Gavlak learned that in her first dalliance with the city, when she attended Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, and studied under Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, Stephen Prina, Semiotext(e) founder Sylvère Lotringer and Mike Kelley. "This place is completely exotic and wild," she remembers think- ing. "Having this opportunity to be around these brilliant people and do projects, that is how I formed the way I look at art." Gavlak, who has run a seasonal gallery in Palm Beach since 2004, will return to L.A. to open an outpost in June. She says, "It's like, 'Here I am again—now I have a gallery!'" A group exhibition featuring gallery artists including Scott Reeder, T. J. Wilcox and Betty Tompkins will inaugurate the space on June 26. The fact that the roving Gavlak (she also maintains a home in New York) is opening her 5,000-foot-space in the mid- dle of a Hollywood gallery district—where there weren't any galleries three years ago—is a testament to the evergreen wilderness that is the L.A. art world. But what's most amazing is that Gavlak's stable is made up of top-notch artists like Rob Wynne, David Haxton and Lisa Anne Auerbach—none of whom, inexplicably, are represented by galleries in L.A. Auerbach, for instance, is an Angeleno artist whose wool-knit sweaters and tapestries have popped up in the 2014 Whitney Biennial and the collection of Charles Saatchi. "She's one of those artists that everyone knows— she's been in the Hammer Museum and she's very visible be- cause of her community-based social practice—but she doesn't have a gallery in L.A.," says Gavlak. A solo show of her work will be mounted in September. 86 CULTURED Clockwise from top left: Lecia Dole-Recio's Unti- tled; Lisa Anne Auer- bach's Let the Dream Write Itself and Judith Eisler's Liz 2, will be in- cluded in Sarah Gavlak's inaugural show at her new Los Angeles gallery on June 26, where the dealer is pictured above. Palms Away Palm Beach gallerist Sarah Gavlak returns to Los Angeles to open a new location of her eponymous gallery. BY MAXWELL WILLIAMS PORTRAIT BY JEFF MCLANE; IMAGES COURTESY OF GAVLAK GALLERY