For a brief moment a couple of years ago, it seemed like Culver City was becoming a West Coast playground for New York dealers. Elizabeth Dee partnered with David Quadrini, of Angstrom Gallery in Dallas, to open the contemporary-art gallery Q.E.D., and Michele Maccarone and Christian Haye opened project space MCtogether. (Those partnerships have since dissolved, with Quadrini andHaye both now going it alone.) But today Culver City’s gallerydistrict, located halfway between downtown and the beach, has growninto something wholly its own.

The biggest news this season comes from L.A. mainstay Blum & Poe,pioneers on the neighborhood’s La Cienega Boulevard in 2003, when thestrip was still known as Tire Alley because of the auto supply shops.“We thought maybe one or two galleries would follow,” says Timothy Blum. “Sure enough, they started coming like dominoes.”

Recently, Blum & Poe announced its purchase of a 27,000-square-footbuilding across from its existing, rented one. “It was a manufacturingspace—they used to make weird light triggers for missiles,” says Blum.For the build-out the gallery has hired L.A. architectural firm Escher GuneWardena, which oversaw work on one of the city’s most famous homes: the Chemosphere, designed by John Lautner and now owned by German collector-publisher Benedikt Taschen.

While Blum & Poe waits for its new home to be ready, around 2009, Roberts & Tilton is preparing to move by May into a space next to Susanne Vielmetteron Washington Boulevard, which crosses La Cienega. Why the rush? Thedealer’s landlord at 6150 Wilshire—the complex across from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that has long housed 1301PE, ACME, Marc Foxx, Paul Kopeikin and other galleries—decided not to extend its lease. The reason given, says Julie Roberts, who owns Roberts & Tilton with her husband, Bennett, and New York dealer JackTilton,was that ACME is absorbing the space.  The latter confirmed that it istaking over the lease, with plans to expand this summer. Meanwhile,photo dealer Paul Kopeikin got the same news, as Marc Foxx also wantsto spread out. (Kopeikin is staying in the area, moving this spring to6030 Wilshire, just down the road.)

By all accounts, the mood in the complex, previously known for itscollegiality, has become ugly. “It was an uncomfortable situation forall of us,” says Julie Roberts. “But now we’re just happy we have founda wonderful space in a wonderful neighborhood.”

The new  venue, she notes, is twice the size of her previous location.To gut and rebuild it, the husband-and-wife dealers hired localhusband-and-wife architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, who just finished carving out a space for Honor Frasers gallery in Quadrini’s building.

The only thing that’s missing in the area, dealers say, is a goodrestaurant. Gallery-goers can get a sandwich at the local art bar Mandrake, run by artists Flora Wiegmann and her husband, Drew Heitzler, who will appear in this year’s Whitney Biennial with collaborator Amy Granat. And collector Susan Hancock, who famously let a New York Times reporter follow her around the Armory Show last year, just opened a gallery/shop/café called Royal/T, showcasing her holdings by the likes of Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara and Lisa Yuskavage.But her place is in the Culver City design district, a bit of a hikefrom gallery row, and it’s more concept than restaurant. So visitors toLa Cienega should be prepared to go hungry—though certainly not forart. 

"The Land Grab" originally appeared in the February 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's February 2008 Table of Contents.