Mills Morán Steps Back From Morán Morán to Focus on Felix Art Fair
Mills Morán is leaving the day-to-day running of Morán Morán, the Los Angeles gallery he built with his brother, Al Morán, and shifting his attention to Felix Art Fair, the February fixture that has become one of the city’s most closely watched fair-week stops.
In a statement shared with artists and colleagues on Monday, Morán described the move as “emotional and difficult” after nearly 20 years of building the gallery. He said the decision reflects a personal recalibration after years spent in the art world’s constant travel and social circuit, and added that he wants to make room for “new perspectives and continued growth.”
Felix Art Fair, which Morán co-founded in 2018 with Al Morán and collector Dean Valentine, runs alongside Frieze Los Angeles and has staged eight editions at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Morán said the fair offers a different kind of contribution to the art ecosystem, one centered on supporting the galleries that exhibit there at a time when many small and midsize dealers are under financial pressure.
Founded in 2008 as OHWOW and renamed Morán Morán in 2018, the gallery developed a reputation for an unusually fluid program. It paired emerging and mid-career artists with historical material and often extended beyond conventional exhibitions into performances, happenings, and curator-led projects. Over the years, it worked with artists including Ryan Trecartin, SoiL Thornton, Keltie Ferris, Eve Fowler, Jacolby Satterwhite, Cauleen Smith, and Michael Genovese, as well as the estates of Dash Snow and Robert Mapplethorpe.
Morán said he will remain connected to the gallery and “invested in its future,” while Al Morán continues to lead the business. The change marks a notable rebalancing for a figure who has helped shape both a gallery and a fair within Los Angeles’s contemporary art calendar — and who now appears intent on backing the broader infrastructure around them.
