After months of speculation that the blue-chip New York gallery L&M Arts was going to set up a satellite shop in Los Angeles, proprietors Dominique Lévy and Robert Mnuchin have put the gossip to rest: They have purchased 660 Venice Boulevard near Venice’s main dining and shopping strip, Abbott Kinney, and tapped the ever-energetic Sarah Watson as director. “It’s a very exciting city for art,” Mnuchin says, explaining their choice of Los Angeles. “The art scene is less crowded in some ways than, say, London.”As for Watson, formerly a director of Gagosian Gallery, in Beverly Hills, he calls hiring her a no-brainer. In her new role, Watson says she is looking forward to “weaving together” very current shows with “the museum-quality historical shows that L&M is known for.”

Until the new location opens, in September 2009, Watson will be overseeing construction. L&M has hired the architect Kulapat Yantrasat,of Why Architecture, in L.A., to renovate the old one-story brick print house and to design an adjoining contemporary structure with a sculpture garden. Watson applauds L&M’s decision to settle off the beaten path rather than join the gallery throng in Culver City. “It has an artist-rich tradition, and there’s foot traffic near where we are, which you can’t find many places in L.A.,”she observes. “I’ve always thought that if I had my own gallery—and this is as close as I’m going to get—I would have it in Venice.”

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