• Ambitious solo and curated presentations showcase the best in contemporary art from around the world
• Return of the Santa Monica Art Bank Acquisition Fund • Frieze Music at the Hammer featuring a live performance by Sudan Archives • Pop-ups from a selection of Los Angeles-based restaurants curated by acclaimed non-profit Regarding Her (RE:Her)

Los Angeles, CA (February 15, 2024) – Today, Frieze unveiled highlights of the fifth edition of Frieze Los Angeles, once again steered by Christine Messineo (Director of Americas, Frieze). Running February 29 – March 3 at Santa Monica Airport, the fair brings together over 95 of the world’s leading galleries under one roof, showcasing a cross-section of today’s most exciting and influential contemporary art from across the globe. Continuing Frieze’s commitment to supporting the wider Los Angeles arts ecosystem, this year sees the return of the Santa Monica Art Bank Acquisition Fund.

In addition to the galleries’ presentations, the fair’s new public exhibition curated by Art Production Fund titled ‘Set Seen’ sees site-specific artworks by Sharif Farrag, Ryan Flores, Derek Fordjour, Pippa Garner, Matt Johnson and Cynthia Talmadge situated throughout the Santa Monica Airport grounds.
Frieze Los Angeles is supported by global lead partner Deutsche Bank, continuing over two decades of a shared commitment to artistic excellence.
Christine Messineo, Director of Americas, Frieze said: ‘With Frieze Los Angeles upon us, we are excited to reveal leading international exhibitors and established Los Angeles galleries that form the highlights of this year’s edition. We are also eager to welcome back the Santa Monica Art Bank Acquisition Fund, an initiative that proudly supports the city’s residents.’

AMBITIOUS SOLO AND THEMED PRESENTATIONS
Frieze Los Angeles features a strong line-up of world class galleries exhibiting ambitious solo and curated stands. Highlights include:
• In celebration of the gallery’s thirtieth anniversary, Blum honors the past and looks to the future with a presentation including Sam Durant, Oliver Lee Jackson, Tony Lewis, Eddie Martinez, Yoshitomo Nara, Asuka Anastacia Ogawa, and Sebastian Silva (Blum)
• New work by Claudio Parmiggiani from his ongoing ‘Delocazione’ series, composed of panels marked with the traces of fire, reflecting the artist’s singular position in post-war Italian art history in line with the tenets of Arte Povera (Bortolami)
• A solo presentation by Geoffrey Holder focusing on a distinct series of works in which the artist painted night-time dance hall scenes (James Fuentes)
• ‘Social Abstraction,’ an exploration of abstraction and contemporary social realities curated by Antwaun Sargent and featuring an intergenerational group of Black artists: Derrick Adams, Theaster Gates, Cy Gavin, Lauren Halsey and Rick Lowe (Gagosian)
• A solo show of paintings by Kim Sung Yoon employing classical technique and stylism in an era dominated by digital images (Gallery Hyundai)
• Blessing Ngobeni’s first solo presentation in LA, comprised of paintings confronting issues of power and abuse in South Africa’s socio-political system (Jenkins Johnson Gallery) • A solo booth of new still-life and portrait oil paintings by MacArthur Fellow Jordan Casteel, informed by the artist’s pastoral surroundings in Upstate New York (Casey Kaplan)
• A solo booth by vanessa german, featuring a new series of sculptures in rose quartz (Kasmin) • New paintings by Sam McKinniss, known for his irreverent portraiture of American celebrity culture (David Kordansky Gallery)
• A survey of artist and musician Terry Allen’s work over six decades, timed to the artist’s two concerts with his Panhandle Mystery Band during Frieze Week at the Masonic Lodge in Hollywood Forever Cemetery (L.A. Louver)
• A solo presentation of new paintings by Hernan Bas (Victoria Miro)
• Paintings and installations by Cosima von Bonin, including a nautical sculpture from the artist’s series WHAT IF THEY BARK?, previously exhibited on the High Line in New York and the 2022 Venice Biennale (Petzel)
• A solo booth by Allison Schulnik including new oil on linen works and ceramic objects revealing the artist’s internal reflections after relocating to the Mojave Desert (The Pit)
• A solo presentation of paintings by Sojourner Truth Parsons, who incorporates flora and fauna, bodies and the city around her into canvases that refer to personal yet fictional moments (Esther Schipper)
• A dual presentation of Filipino-American artists: Jenifer K. Wofford’s paintings capturing the opulent camp of California’s Madonna Inn, shown alongside Stephanie Syjuco’s recontextualization of archival images from the now defunct Manila Chronicle (Silverlens)
• A new site-specific work by Barbara Kruger, alongside women artists who have long explored the power of media, text and consumerism—and often female roles within them—including Sylvie Fleury, Jenny Holzer, Louise Lawler and Rosemarie Trockel (Sprüth Magers)
• New paintings and monotypes by Brazilian artist Luiz Zerbini conveying the immersive and seductive quality of Brazil’s natural environment (Stephen Friedman Gallery)
• New works by Debra Cartwright, whose practice explores the relationship between the black female body and American medical history, mining Cartwright’s own position as the daughter of a gynaecologist (Welancora Gallery)
• The debut of new paintings by Joe Bradley, shown alongside works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Noah Davis, Dana Schutz and more (David Zwirner)
FOCUS, A PLATFORM FOR YOUNG GALLERIES
Led for the first-time by Essence Harden (Visual Arts Curator and Program Manager, California African American Museum), Focus comprises 12 young US-based galleries showing solo stands by emerging or overlooked talent. In response to a brief set by Harden, the featured presentations explore the intimate, environmental and urban dimensions of ecologies. With the majority of participating spaces based in LA, Focus is a celebration of the city’s vibrant and evolving art community. Focus is sponsored by Stone Island. Highlights include:
• A solo presentation of work by the late Nisenan Native American artist Harry Fonseca. Fonseca’s Coyote series sees the artist employ the traditional Coyote figure as an avatar to explore the intricacies of his personal and Indigenous identity (Babst Gallery)
• The debut of a series of ebony glazed ceramic portraits by LA based sculptor, Mustafa Ali Clayton, shown alongside a new terracotta series drawing on the artist’s interest in legacy, iconography, and commemoration (Dominique Gallery)
• On show for the first time, textile works by Akea Brionne. Working from her archive of family photographs, Brionne uses a digital loom to weave diaristic tapestries that chart her ancestral history, everyday experience and Black identity (Lyles & King)
• ‘Freemartins,’ a new body of work by sculptor Yeni Mao comprising five steel sculptures incorporating ceramic, animal skin and volcanic rock, exhibited atop soil. The presentation builds on the artist’s exploration of the tunnels underneath Mexicali, once inhabited by Chinese and Chinese-Mexican populations at the beginning of the 20th century, during the time of the Mexican Revolution (Make Room)
• Photographs and video work by Los Angeles-based Haitian artist Widline Cadet that draw from the artist’s personal history to examine race, memory, immigration and Haitian cultural identity within the US. The presentation, a precursor to her 2024 exhibition at the gallery, builds on her 2021 Artist-in-Residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem and subsequent solo show at MoMA PS1 (Shulamit Nazarian)
• A new body of work by painter and sculptor Javier Ramirez, whose practice explores the gardening practices of Japanese and Latino workers who have shaped Los Angeles’s cityscape and suburban sprawl. Ramirez monumentalizes these undervalued labor communities by positioning his sculptures on pedestals that recall bonsai display, while his box-like presentations are modelled on Catholic shrines in Latinx households (Sow & Tailor)
SANTA MONICA ART BANK ACQUISITION FUND
This year sees the return of the fair’s partnership with the City of Santa Monica to acquire a work for the Art Bank collection, which in 2024 celebrates 40 years of bringing art into Santa Monica’s public spaces. As in 2023, the initiative will select a work from the Focus section, made by an artist based in Southern
California and shedding light on the diverse lived experiences of artists from the region. The selection committee comprised of Christine Messineo (Director of Americas, Frieze), Amanda Sroka (Senior Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles) and Laurie Yehia (City of Santa Monica Arts Commissioner), will reveal the chosen work at Frieze Los Angeles on Thursday, February 29.
FRIEZE MUSIC IN COLLABORATION WITH BMW AND HAMMER MUSEUM Frieze Music returns to Los Angeles with a live performance from Sudan Archives at the Hammer Museum on Thursday, February 29, from 7:30-10pm. With previous iterations in London, Los Angeles and Seoul, the longstanding collaboration between Frieze and BMW celebrates the intersection of contemporary art and music, staging special performances by acclaimed musicians to coincide with Frieze’s fairs.
As Sudan Archives, Brittney Parks has combined left-field strains of R&B, hip-hop, and experimental electronic music with hypnotic string loops and the fiddling style of West Africa, as heard on her critically acclaimed album Natural Brown Prom Queen (2022).
POP-UPS FROM WOMEN OWNED LOS ANGELES RESTAURANTS, CURATED BY RE:HER Frieze Los Angeles will host pop-ups from a selection of Los Angeles-based restaurants curated by acclaimed non-profit Regarding Her (RE:Her). Participants include 1010 Wine, Botanica, Clementine, Kismet Rotisserie, Milkfarm, Otus Thai Kitchen, SOCALO, Sushi by Scratch Restaurants and more. The official catering partner for this year’s fair, RE:Her is a national non-profit dedicated to accelerating the growth of women entrepreneurs and leaders in food and beverage. Regarding Her provides up-to-the minute education, community, and transformative financial resources with a vision for women to create the type of industry in which they and future generations can thrive.
PARTNER INITIATIVES
Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award The fifth iteration of the award, widely recognized within the industry as an incubator for next-generation talent, returns in partnership with Ghetto Film School and FIFTH SEASON. Leading arts and entertainment figures will select the winner from fellows Octavia Anderson, Jonathan Estrada-Salazar, Celine Eva, Jeanine Fiser, Kaylen Ng, Miguel Ramirez, Kat Torres and Britt Williams, who each created short films addressing this year’s chosen subject: ‘technological transformations.’ The winner of the Film Award will be recognized with a $10,000 prize, while the accompanying Audience Award will see $2,500 for the most popular short film as chosen by the public. To view the films online and vote in the Audience Award, visit frieze.com/DB-Frieze-LA-Film-Award