What is an art museum? Artificial intelligence is causing us to question what is art and who (or what) is an artist. If E. H. Gombrich’s famous 1950 opening of The Story of Art is correct, “There really is no such thing as Art. There are only artists,” what does that say about the art museum of today? We are trying to find out by inviting the region’s most interesting artists to show us what the art museum might be. 

The art world’s reaction to new media, NFTs, artificial intelligence, and more has reminded us that the lines that keep fine art in its bubble are constructed by both of us inside and outside the traditional art world. Santa Monica Art Museum is here to embrace the social blur in a time of deep cultural divisions.

Santa Monica Art Museum was created to rhyme with other art museums in the Los Angeles area. By this, we mean that we embrace and celebrate many aspects of the classic art institutional model while using those forms and expectations to expand its potential.

- Gretchen Andrew

Approaching the museum as an interactive and innovative practice that can evolve from its traditional model, museum founder and director Christoph Rahofer invited fine artist Gretchen Andrew to create the Santa Monica Art Museum (SMAM) as a “blank space” inviting artists and creative partners to define the modern art museum and its future potential. After discovering and collecting Gretchen’s work himself, Rahofer’s choice to reach out to an artist marked SMAM’s formative intention to be an “artist” museum. Gretchen’s conceptualization for the origins of SMAM were pivotal in bringing together creative partnerships with SMAM’s current Co-Director and Curator Aubrie Wienholt, contemporary artists, and other leaders in the industry.

What is an art museum? It is both a question and an exhibition. SMAM opened its doors as a “blank space,” inviting artists to begin using the space immediately. Over the course of SMAM’s first month, exciting regional artists helped define what the museum should be and shape the future of art in California by using the 7,000 square foot space to exhibit work and hold conversations. Instead of Rahofer and Gretchen defining SMAM as founding members, they wanted to give some of the best artists working around Los Angeles the opportunity exhibit and do whatever they would like to help form what SMAM should be, how it can better serve artists, and form a new art ecosystem.

This adaptable and artist-driven approach has led to more creative partnerships, more exhibiting artists, and SMAM’s press-making debut during Frieze Los Angeles with its museum programming and inaugural exhibition Looking West.