The art market may still be nervous but there’s still confidence out there among fair organizers, especially in LA where three different art fairs will take place in January. The LA Times’s Culture Monster blog previewed Photo l.a. late last week and looked forward to Art LA andthe Los Angeles Art Show:

“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.”

No one is predicting record sales, but the fairs are likely to attract thousands of visitors, if only because they are cultural events as well as one-stop shopping centers for the art crowd. Collectors, wannabes and the merely curious have an opportunity to meet and greet art folks, make the rounds of booths stocked by an international assortment of galleries, go to collecting seminars and hear lectures and panel discussions.

It’s a Fair Time for Art in LA (Culture Monster/Los Angeles Times)