Art fairs photo.l.a., Art LA and the Los Angeles Art Show head to Southern California

Three Southern California art fairs in January, two of them in one weekend? In this economy?

It may defy logic, but business is business.

As conceived when the financial outlook was rosier, photo.l.a., an annual marketplace for a kaleidoscopic range of photography, is winding up today at Santa Monica Airport's Barker Hangar. Art LA, a showcase and sales venue for edgy new work, is gearing up for its Jan. 23 to 25 gig, also at Barker Hangar. And the Los Angeles Art Show, offering an eclectic survey of art from the last two centuries, is sticking with its plan to leave Barker for the much larger L.A. Convention Center, where it will appear Jan. 22 to 25.

"We have confidence that art is still a good buy," says L.A. photography dealer Stephen Cohen, who founded photo l.a. in 1992 and launched Art LA in 2005. "It's a buyer's market. We expect a big turnout, but it might be that a lot of people are looking, holding on to their money or getting an idea of what to buy when they have some to spend."

How the sagging economy will affect the fairs is "the biggest question out there," says Kim Martindale, who manages the Los Angeles Art Show, a 14-year-old enterprise of the Fine Art Dealers Assn. "Some galleries that have done the fair for years just can't do it this time. Other galleries are saying, 'We can't afford not to.' It's a glass-half-full, glass-half-empty situation. Do you reach out and try to make something happen or do you retrench?"

Louis Stern, an L.A. dealer who has participated in the Los Angeles Art Show since 1998, has decided to forge ahead in a 24-by-30-foot booth at the Convention Center. "Human beings are naturally optimistic," he says. "The financial crisis is at least 50% psychological and people are tired of being in the doldrums. The presidential inauguration on Jan. 20 will be a day of catharsis. Our fair opens the next day with a gala preview."

To his way of thinking, fear of investing in the stock market and real estate may help the art market. "It's a good time to look at collectibles, whether it's stamps, coins, antiques or art," he says. "You have dominion over art and you don't have to maintain it. You don't have to feed it, water it, change its tires or put a new roof over it."