On a recent sun-kissed afternoon in midtown Los Angeles, around 100 art-lovers gathered for a guided walkthrough of the new Diane Arbus retrospective at blue chip dealer David Zwirner’s flagship 30,000 sq ft gallery. When the event was over, they spilled out in every direction into the heart of one of the most exciting and fast-developing art districts anywhere in the world. In just a handful of years, the radical transformation of the blocks around the intersection of Melrose and Western Avenues has proved an old adage wrong. It used to be said that nobody walks in LA. These days, there are few better places to spend a day wandering around than amid the galleries and restaurants of Melrose Hill. ‘You can come here, park, have a nice lunch and go see seven different art shows,’ says Fernberger gallery owner Emma Fernberger. ‘That’s amazing.’
The area’s rapid reinvention didn’t happen by accident. Historically home to rows of furniture warehouses, the neighbourhood was hit hard when online retailers devoured much of the market and those traditional businesses moved out. Actor and developer Zach Lasry, the son of billionaire businessman and former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry, noticed the untapped potential whenever he visited his then-girlfriend, now-wife Arianna, who lived on nearby Wilton Place. Beginning in 2019, he and his family bought 18 buildings within a three-block radius.
‘The architectural rhythm reminded me of the Bowery in New York, where you have all these old buildings lined up,’ says Lasry. ‘The Bowery was all restaurant supply stores, so it was a single-use street for a certain industry. This was similar because it was furniture row. It seemed like it had the right mix of location and building stock that it could become something really, really fun.’
Kevin EG Perry: Collected Works 