ForYourArt

ForYourArt ForYourArt is a Los Angeles–based contemporary art presenter and program organizer founded in 2005. It produces exhibitions, pop-up projects, public programs, and critical writing that intersect with institutions, galleries, museums, and cultural festivals. The organization operates within networks that include artists, curators, collectors, and civic entities across Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, and Mexico City.

History

ForYourArt was launched amid Los Angeles’s early-21st-century cultural expansion alongside institutions such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Getty Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hammer Museum, and The Broad. Its founder drew on local histories connected to venues like MOCA Los Angeles, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and neighborhoods including Downtown Los Angeles, Echo Park, Silver Lake, and Venice Beach. Early collaborations placed the organization in dialogue with programming at LACMA, The Getty Research Institute, UCLA Hammer Museum, and festivals such as LA Art Show, Maker Faire, and LA Pride. Over time ForYourArt engaged with international platforms such as Frieze London, Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel, Documenta, and Venice Biennale, situating its projects alongside galleries like Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, and White Cube. The organization’s trajectory intersected with cultural figures and institutions including Jeff Koons, Ai Weiwei, Marina Abramović, Damien Hirst, Yayoi Kusama, Tracey Emin, Banksy, Cindy Sherman, Gerhard Richter, Anish Kapoor, Takashi Murakami, Kara Walker, Jenny Holzer, Bruce Nauman, Jeffrey Deitch, Theaster Gates, JR, Klaus Biesenbach, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Thelma Golden, Nancy Spector, Katie Siegel, Elaine Wynn.

Programs and Projects

ForYourArt runs exhibition series, artist talks, performance programs, and publications that operate alongside civic projects and commercial galleries. Its programming has involved partnerships with museums and cultural centers such as New Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern, British Museum, Centre Pompidou, and Stedelijk Museum. Projects have featured dialogues with artists and cultural producers including Marina Abramović, Hans Haacke, Olafur Eliasson, Shirin Neshat, El Anatsui, Kiki Smith, Richard Serra, Ai Weiwei, Jeff Koons, Cindy Sherman, Sherrie Levine, Wolfgang Tillmans, Isa Genzken, Louise Bourgeois, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Barbara Kruger, Ed Ruscha, David Hockney, Donald Judd, Frank Stella, Brice Marden, Roni Horn, Brenda Goodman. Educational and public-facing projects incorporated collaborators from institutions such as California Institute of the Arts, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Southern California, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Rhode Island School of Design, Yale School of Art, Harvard University, Columbia University, New York University, and professional groups like Americans for the Arts, Creative Time, and WolfBrown.

Notable Exhibitions and Events

ForYourArt’s events often took place in alternative spaces, pop-up sites, and biennial contexts that connected to large-scale exhibitions at Venice Biennale, Skulptur Projekte Münster, Whitney Biennial, Sao Paulo Art Biennial, Istanbul Biennial, Shanghai Biennale, Sydney Biennale, Liverpool Biennial, Sharjah Biennial, and city festivals such as Frieze Los Angeles. Notable moments aligned the organization with landmark shows and personalities including curators and critics from Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Serpentine Galleries, Kunstmuseum Basel, National Gallery of Art, Tate Britain, Victoria and Albert Museum, Royal Academy of Arts, Guggenheim Bilbao, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Museo Tamayo, Museo Jumex, and civic entities like Los Angeles County, City of Los Angeles, California Arts Council.

Collaborations and Partnerships

The organization maintained collaborations spanning commercial galleries, nonprofit institutions, and media organizations. Partnerships included gallery names and institutional actors such as Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Sprüth Magers, Lisson Gallery, Lehmann Maupin, Perrotin, Maximillian William, Sadie Coles HQ, Victoria Miro, Whitechapel Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, Institute of Contemporary Arts, American Contemporary Art Museum, and media partners like Artforum, ARTnews, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, VICE Media, HuffPost, The Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, ARTnews, Frieze Magazine, Cultured Magazine, Artnet News, Hyperallergic, Apollo Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail.

Impact and Reception

ForYourArt’s projects contributed to dialogues about contemporary practice across markets and publics, resonating with collectors, critics, curators, and community organizers connected to institutions such as Sotheby's, Christie's, Phillips (auction house), Kunsthalle, Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, National Gallery, London, Royal Ontario Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery, and municipal cultural programs like Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority initiatives. Critical reception appeared in periodicals and platforms including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine, Slate (magazine), Salon (website), Rolling Stone, Vulture (website), and provoked discourse among curators and cultural policymakers such as Thelma Golden, Khan Academy founders and other notable commentators.

Category:Arts organizations based in California