Felix LA, the avant-garde art fair known for its intimate hotel format, and Dover Street Market, the leading multi-brand global retailer have announced a partnership for the sixth edition of Felix LA, taking place February 28th–March 3rd, 2024 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Together, Felix LA and Dover Street Market have commissioned artist and sculptor Oscar Tuazon to design and build a site-specific structure that will play host to the DSM store inside the hotel’s ballroom.
Known for a practice which occupies the liminal space between architecture and activism, Oscar Tuazon works with natural and industrial materials to create installations that can be occupied by or engaged with. Throughout the duration of the fair, visitors will have the opportunity to shop the fully-realized Dover Street Market store on-site, complete with the shop’s iconic labels. This inaugural partnership fuses art, fashion, and design at an unprecedented scale—redefining the traditional art fair experience to seamlessly merge these dynamic industries.
“To truly give a work of art the status of living thing, it’s necessary to do away with the idea that the object has a static form. There is something radical about this proposition when it comes to sculpture, if you accept the idea that each time the work is remade it will change, it will appear differently. I try to let go of thinking of the artwork as a thing—it’s a process, a sequence of events that can never be repeated. This is what is so exciting about creating a space for Dover Street Market at Felix, to make sculpture a place where other things can happen,”
Oscar Tuazon
Established in 2019, Felix LA was founded as an atypical experience, inspired by the hotel art fair format popularized in the 1990s when art fairs were experimental and relaxed. Now embarking on its sixth iteration, Felix LA broadens the size of its scope and community through Dover Street Market, underscoring both organizations’ dedication to creating an authentic experience that prioritizes collaboration and community building.
“I have been thinking for some time about doing an off-site event in LA but could never quite figure out how to do it without it looking contrived. Then serendipitously—like many of the best things in life—an email from Al Morán arrived in my inbox, and I knew immediately this was it. Felix LA embraces discovery and spontaneity—both of which are key to the “Beautiful Chaos” ethos of Dover Street Market,”
said James Gilchrist, Vice President of Comme des Garçons and Dover Street Market USA.
“Felix co-founders Al, Mills, and Dean have taken a completely new and innovative approach to the traditional art fair experience which is incredibly exciting and felt natural for DSM to be involved. We’re also honored to work with Oscar Tuazon, an artist we have admired for a long time, to transform DSM and incorporate the shop into his own work.”
Over 70 emerging and heritage brands nurtured and championed by Dover Street Market will be stocked at Felix. DSM will craft an in-store experience that reflects its mission to provide a place for creators from various fields to gather, encounter, and collide with each other. For Felix LA, DSM will develop and present new brand and artist collaborations, product offerings, and an elevated retail experience for visitors.
“I have a deep appreciation for Dover Street Market’s unwavering commitment towards innovation. The company is constantly on the cutting-edge of fresh ideation surrounding the retail experience,”
said Felix co-founder Al Morán.
“DSM is also intimately involved with the arts, collaborating with many talented artists over their now 20-year history. Since founding Felix, we knew that we wanted to redefine the art fair experience and not be boxed in—literally and figuratively—by what the space has traditionally offered the public. Partnering with DSM allows us to put this concept into practice by putting forth a new model for cultural engagement.”
About
Felix LA is a cornerstone of Los Angeles’s cultural landscape, annually bringing emerging and established galleries from across the globe to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel since 2019. Inspired by the hotel art fair format popularized in the mid-90s, Felix LA emerged as a distinctive event, intentionally designed to avoid the typical trade show atmosphere with its relaxed and experimental feel. The fair’s mission is to cultivate an intimate experience that prioritizes connoisseurship, collaboration, and community, while providing galleries with an efficient exhibition platform and granting visitors an elevated experience. felixfair.com/ & @felixartfair
Conceived by Rei Kawakubo and Adrian Joffe, Dover Street Market is a place for creators from various fields to gather, encounter and collide with each other in a burgeoning atmosphere of beautiful chaos. It is a home for individuals who share a strong voice and personal sense of vision. A space where the synergistic coming together of these kindred spirits amounts to a new and symbiotic community.
The original Dover Street Market first opened in London, Mayfair in September 2004. There are now a total of eight Dover Street Market stores internationally including Ginza (Tokyo), New York, Singapore, Beijing, Los Angeles, Dover Street Parfums Market (Paris) and Dover Street Little Market (Paris).
In 2019, Dover Street Market Paris SAS company (DSMP) was established. DSMP oversees business activities such as Brand Development, Retail Stores and most recently 3537.org. A Dover Street Market Paris retail space is scheduled to open Spring 2024. @doverstreetmarketlosangeles doverstreetmarket.com
Oscar Tuazon (b. 1975, Seattle, WA) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, and Oil City, WA. Recent institutional solo exhibitions include Oscar Tuazon: Fire Worship at the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO (2020); Oscar Tuazon: Collaborator at Bellevue Arts Museum, Bellevue, WA (2019); Oscar Tuazon: Water School at MSU Broad Museum, East Lansing, MI (2019); Oscar Tuazon: Hammer Projects at the Hammer Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA (2016); Studio at Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2015); and Sensory Spaces 1, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2013). He has been commissioned for numerous public art works including Growth Rings for Central Wharf Park in Boston, MA (2019); a large-scale installation Une colonne d’eau in the Place Vendôme, Paris, France (2017); and Un pont sans fin for Nouveaux Commanditaires, Belfort, France (2016). Tuazon’s work has been exhibited in numerous institutional group exhibitions around the world, among them the 34th Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago, IL (2019); Skulptur Projekte, Münster, Germany (2017); Documenta 14, Athens, Greece (2017); Triennale d’art contemporain de Beaufort, Ostend, Belgium (2015); Whitney Biennial, New York, NY (2012); and the Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2011). The artist is represented by Morán Morán in Los Angeles.
