黑料不打烊

This year’s Frieze LA, running from February 16-19, 2023, debuted in an unusual place: the Santa Monica Airport. The offbeat location made practical sense – last year’s Beverly Hills location, while 40 percent larger than the previous iterations in Hollywood, would not have been able to support this year’s fair. Frieze LA has quickly become the city’s leading art fair, attracting people globally, even for just the social currency of it all. The new location played into this rise in popularity, now catering not only to those interested in the art, but those interested in the experience. Food trucks and carts lined the path leading to the entrance and just beyond the initial check-in was an outdoor square with a small bookshop and places to eat, drink, and sit. At the Barker Hangar, a 10-15 minute walk away, was a 20^th century “Focus” space most frequented by buyers. While all this expanded the fair’s appeal, some logistical chaos ensued as collateral, even on Thursday, a slower day reserved for VIPs and invite-only guests before opening to all ticketholders on Friday.

VIP preview of Frieze Los Angeles on February 16, 2023. Photo by Maya Garabedian

Getting to the fair itself proved to be a bumpy ride, but not without a silver lining. Road closures and limited parking forced fairgoers to circle the airport in bumper-to-bumper traffic. What surprised many was that if you didn’t pay for parking at the time of purchase, or if you received a complimentary ticket, you were unable to park on property – a far cry from having your pick of nearby pay lots as in previous years. Those who drove spent a good half hour finding a place to park among residential streets, and then walked half a mile or more back to the venue. There was palpable upset in the streets and on the airport property, where there wasn’t any signage directing visitors to the fair. But as Frieze-goers joined the caravan of new arrivals, something beautiful happened. Complete strangers asked each other questions, vented over shared frustrations, and laughed together while weaving through the roads, parks, and food trucks that led to the entrance. While such a trek was almost certainly unintentional – almost, because it did have an air of interactive performance, like an involuntary Fluxus Happening – it did add an uncommon element to the typical fair experience. By forcing strangers to connect with one another, the eventual arrival became a space of shared celebration. It was a Frieze livelier than any other.

Chase Hall, County Lifeguards, 2022, acrylic and coffee on cotton canvas. Courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery and Frieze LA. Photo by Maya Garabedian

The outside energy carried into the tent, packed with loud chatter and smiling faces. Upon entry, viewers came face to face with a colorful abstract work by Aaron Garber-Maikovska, Green Passage Yellow Shed, 2022, hung on an outer wall of the space by Los Angeles gallery Blum & Poe. However, you could feel several pairs of eyes on you to the left, immediately drawing you towards the David Kordansky Gallery. The piece, County Lifeguards, 2022, by Chase Hall, radiates an inviting yet ominous energy, pairing warm faces with skeletal brushwork. Not only was it exciting to see people of color featured so prominently upon entering the space, but a piece of such magnitude, six feet tall and five feet wide, demands attention. Hall, a painter of mixed racial background himself, is an up-and-coming artist who has had similarly prominent success as of late. Last year, he was commissioned by the New York City’s Metropolitan Opera to produce a large-scale work. His diptych, Medea Act I & II is on view in the opera house through June of this year.

Ming Smith, Left: Womb, 1992, Right: Grace Jones, Cinandre, 1984, archival pigment prints. Courtesy of Nicola Vassell Gallery and Frieze LA. Photo by Maya Garabedian

While meandering through the spaces of different galleries and museums from around the world has its own charm, there was one room in particular that was a must-see. New York’s Nicola Vassell Gallery was showing “The Things She Knows,” a series of photographs from famed photographer Ming Smith, which had not been seen publicly before. Smith, who has one of the most talked about shows this year currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art, was the first Black woman photographer to become a part of the MoMA’s collection. The photos shown at Frieze span over the course of 50 years but can be seen as observations of femininity and the complexities of womanhood. Smith finds and frames the perfect moment of embodiment in a person and captures it in black and white photographs. Known for informal action shots, she manages to find a way to represent her subjects in a way that’s true to life.

Breguet guilloché machine, ca. 1920. Photo by Maya Garabedian

Breguet guilloché machine, ca. 1920. Photo by Maya Garabedian.

Nearby, in smaller private rooms, were two interesting conceptual spaces that had never been featured at Frieze LA before. Best described as meeting at the intersection of Installation Art, performance art, and everyday consumerism, both were immersive experiences. The corner room was designated to Breguet, the world-famous luxury watch brand and one of the oldest, that partnered with Frieze New York City over the summer. Breguet watches are nothing short of wearable art. Their watches defined the industry with incredible inventions: the tourbillon technology that increased watch accuracy, the world’s first self-winding watch, and the guilloché technique that adds precise hand-carved designs to watch surfaces. In the Breguet room, two watchmaking professionals were showing their technical advancements: a guilloché machine from the 1920s where one man carved designs into a watch face, magnified and projected on the screen behind him, and on an elevated surface, another man assembled tiny watch parts. The other room was a more unusual addition: the Dr. Barbara Sturm lounge. Visitors lounged around a carefully curated space getting Celluma LED light treatments and express facials in private rooms.

Left: Henry Taylor, Untitled, 2022, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Maya Garabedian. Right: Hilda Palafox, Aquí y ahora, 2022, oil on linen. Courtesy of Proyectos Monclova. Photo by Maya Garabedian

When thinking back at the standout pieces, they contained at least one of two elements: prevalence of Black and Brown artists and subjects, and powerful placement in space. Hilda Palafox had several breathtaking pieces including Aquí y ahora, 2022, Maryam Yousif’s small stoneware sculptures commanded an open space, and people constantly stopped in a high traffic area to look at Henry Taylor’s Untitled, 2022. In the Gladstone Gallery space, two pieces were paired together in a compelling way: Philippe Parreno’s Marquee M2290, 2022 with Jill Mulleady’s Unmade Bed, 2023, hung beneath it. While careful curation has always been a feature of Frieze, the increased diversity at the fair is a welcomed shift that hopefully carries into future years.

Top: Philippe Parreno, Marquee M2290, 2022, glass, metal, electrical wire, bulbs. Bottom: Jill Mulleady, Unmade Bed, 2023, oil on linen. Courtesy of Gladstone Gallery and Frieze LA. Photo by Maya Garabedian.

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