When I found out that the 15th Annual Los Angeles Art Show is taking place at the LA Convention Center this year, I immediately flashed back to the last time I was there, about 5 years ago, getting sworn in as an American citizen. Instead of being surrounded by fellow foreigners awkwardly waving our tiny American flags as a video George Bush, wheat fields, and smiling children played on a large screen, this time I was surrounded by rich old people, hipsters, and hungry reporters.

Photos from the Forth Anniversary Party at G2 Gallery in Venice Beach

Following the puzzlingly successful Christie’s New York sale of postwar and contemporary art on November 13th, where Rothko’s “Untitled: Red, Blue, Orange” fetched a hefty $34.2 million alone, I was trying to reconcile the strained economic climate of the local art community in Los Angeles with the heavy hitters in New York. Although the last several years have been an economic nightmare for most Americans, at what point does the idea of a recession become bigger than the recession itself? What effect is the economic downturn having on the L.A. art scene, and is the success of the Christie’s auction a sign of recovery, or more of the same price inflation of modern art that we were seeing before the recession? I also thought about the old adage that creativity and poverty go together like peanut butter and jelly—well, maybe not in those exact words. To put it bluntly, is the recession good for art?

Suzanne Erickson is constantly surprised to find that she is just like her parents. “I used to get really freaked out when my dad would dig for junk. I’m exactly like my dad now,” she laughs. “I drive through the alleys of Beverly Hills looking for someone else’s garbage.” Suzanne and I are sharing a couch in her studio that might have been garbage itself, were it not for her magnificent reappropriation, inscribing the upholstery with a florid patchwork of paint and needlepoint. She tells me this sort of transformative creativity is inherited from her mother—a woman who would disassemble a bed and convert it into a wet bar in the scant free hours between ferrying Suzanne to and from day school.

If you enjoyed reading about the Cautionary Tales – Feral Structures exhibit in the January/February issue, check out the slideshow from the opening. The exhibit features not only Berenika Boberska’s amazing installation, but also the incredibly unique work of Louise Clarke, Zoe Hodgeson, Dominique Golden, Sarah Gillett, Ilaria Mazzoleni, and Neil Rollinson.