The Palm Springs Fine Art Fair will open its fifth edition on February 12, 2016. As in previous years PSFAF coincides with Modernism Week, making the Coachella Valley a hot ticket for the holiday weekend. More than 14,000 visitors are expected for the West Coast’s best art fair, which continues through February 14.

Some 60 exhibitors represent a mix of new and returning galleries specializing in post-war and contemporary art. Art Vitam (Miami and Paris) is a favorite, returning for a third year at PSFAF with photographs and works on paper by Jadikan, Muriel Moreau, and Didier Hamey.

Other booths not to miss include Etherton Gallery (Tucson) with works by Ralph Gibson, Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery (London and New York) with works by Laurence Jones, and Throckmorton Fine Art (New York) with works by Christian Cravo.

Beyond the convention center, Palm Desert’s El Paseo provides the greatest concentration of established galleries. Dawson Cole Fine Art has incredibly refined hyperrealist paintings by Tom Betts, including recent works that show the evolution of his surfaces and subjects to great effect. Nearby, Heather James Fine Art has simultaneous exhibitions of works by Picasso and Calder.

Back in Palm Springs, PSAM has a thoughtful exhibition on water that we’ve admired since the fall, and its A+D Center has just opened an exhibition on Bauhaus architecture.

The Palm Springs Fine Art Fair opens on Thursday evening, February 11, for VIP and Black Card holders, and is open to the public Friday through Sunday. A special section titled Oculus Clamantis in Desierto highlights works by artists focusing on the desert landscape.

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We gave an overview of Paris Photo Los Angeles last week in anticipation of its third edition this weekend. The weather was characteristically perfect and the satellite edition of the Paris fair now seems established in LA. The feeds were full of Paris Photo Los Angeles for an entire week before early Instagrams began to appear from the Venice Biennale.

The four-day event began on Thursday evening with a private preview, and was open to the public on Friday through Sunday. More than 16,000 visitors were reported by Saturday evening, surpassing last year’s total with Sunday still ahead. Final figures may exceed 22,000, which is impressive growth for a young fair on a crowded schedule.

VIP guests entered Paramount Pictures Studios through the gate on Melrose. It is classic Hollywood. The New York backlot hosted about two dozen galleries and art book dealers in brownstone facades. The remaining two-thirds, many of the best galleries, set up in three vast soundstage buildings.

From the 70 galleries representing 265 artists, these were our favorites:

In Stage 14, Breese Little (London) had an archive of historic NASA photographs. The installation seemed modest, but consider that these were among the first images ever seen of Earth and the moon from space.

In Stage 32, Galerie Nikolaus Ruzicska (Salzburg) installed a series of works by Axel Hütte. The fantastic images provided a sense of depth, and even a lenticular effect, due to a unique process of inket print on glass backed by polished stainless steel.

Etherton Gallery (Tucson) had a series of nudes by Ralph Gibson. The best two among them, even without color, projected a very luxurious feeling of the warm sun on bronzed skin.

In Stage 31, Flowers Gallery (London and New York) selected works from Nadav Kander’s Dust series, which explores incredibly aesthetic Cold War architectural ruins.

Also at Flowers, Boomoon’s beautifully printed Naksan seascape seemed temporal and almost abstracted.

Back in Stage 32, Hamiltons (London) had a sublime photograph by Murray Fredericks. Large format sunsets can be both trite and sublime.

The camera maker Leica was a sponsor of Paris Photo LA. Leica’s booth included artists’ models of cameras in various materials, and an installation of François Fontaine’s Silenzio! The blurry film stills were especially fitting in the movie studio venue.

The fair’s official partner is BMW, which provided valet and car service. Ruinart provided champagne and hosted the VIP Lounge. Other sponsors included amanasalto, JP Morgan, United Talent Agency, Barneys, and Zadig & Voltaire.

The 19th edition of Paris Photo will take place from November 12 to 15 at the Grand Palais. Save the date for Paris Photo Los Angeles in 2016; the 4th edition is already confirmed at Paramount again.

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