Moments from Frieze Los Angeles That We Can’t Stop Thinking About

Despite the previous week’s reports of potential rain, Frieze Los Angeles previews opened on Thursday to bright blue skies, as well as the fair’s usual share of spectacles and celebrity sightings. On the path from the parking lot toward the tent, visitors were greeted by the sight of L.A. artist Amanda Ross-Ho rolling an enormous inflatable Earth around the perimeter of a grassy soccer field, a performance of labor and the passage of time titled Untitled Orbit (MANUAL MODE) that would continue for the next four days during the fair’s opening hours. A Frieze staff member invited visitors to join Ross-Ho on the field, but to “please make sure the artist can see you at all times.”

Inside the tent, various Hollywood stars could be seen roaming the aisles, including Heated Rivalry star Francois Arnaud, actors Emma Watson and James Franco, and Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus. Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis, dressed in a striped blazer, jeans, and casual sneakers, had a certain effect on New York gallerist Bridget Donahue, she says. “I broke out in a sweat.” 

Positioned as the “welcoming committee” at the entrance of the fair, Donahue and Hoffman Donahue co-founder Hannah Hoffman had a front-row seat to the VIP preview’s comings and goings. “It’s a kind of wonderful overwhelm, because my hometown friends and family are coming by,” Hoffman says. “I do feel as though Frieze more than any other thing or event brings out every single person interested in art in LA.” The duo, who joined their eponymous galleries to form their bicoastal partnership late last year, brought a cross-section of the newly combined roster, including works by Ann Craven, Lynn Hershman Leeson, and Ulrike Müller. A suspended punching bag by Puppies Puppies in the trans flag colors of pink, white and baby blue stood prominently at the front of their booth, and the day’s sales included all their works by L.A. painter Adam Alessi, priced from $35,000 to $50,000.

Only a little more than a year after wildfires destroyed homes of artists and collectors, many visitors wondered how the city’s art scene had been recovering. Bicoastal gallerist Sebastian Gladstone said that he was having the best Frieze L.A. he’s ever had. “We’ve made tons of new clients, the demand, like the engagement with the work, the energy at the parties, the artists that we’ve been meeting with, the community feeling about it—it just feels like the L.A. community is really showing up.” Plus, he had given Kiedis a tour of his booth that morning. Gladstone’s presentation included surrealist, doe-like sculptures by Nevine Mahmoud, priced from $12,000 to $40,000 and delicately hand-carved from Carrara marble. “I would describe them as Louise Bourgeois meets Brancusi; a techno sci-fi kind of feminine energy meets classical splendor.” 

Sculpture was a headlining feature of the fair this year, where 303 Gallery presented all-new works by Alicja Kwade, notably Heavy Heard (2026), a work of swirling blue marble and lacquered bronze resembling a planet stuffed into a patent leather tote bag. Deitch brought a suite of new ceramics by L.A.’s Sharif Farrag, who translates the graphic language of cartoons into wildly intricate sculpture; as an ode to Philip Guston, another cartoon enthusiast, his sculpture of a white Range Rover features a hand poking out of a slightly cracked window, cigarette held between middle and index fingers. With the sunny yellow walls, Superposition’s booth (with matching carpet), painter Greg Ito debuted new sculptural suitcases inspired by a trunk that his grandfather used to carry his family’s belongings during their internment during World War II. “Their time in the camps is very inspirational for me as an artist,” Ito said. “It taught me a lot about perseverance and transformation.”

Other notable booths included Pace’s ode to Southern California, featuring works on paper by the late Hollywood auteur David Lynch, a glossy urethane sculpture by Peter Alexander in a sunny shade of tangerine, and charcoal palm trees by Robert Longo. Headlining Sprüth Magers’s Baldessari presentation, a booth within their booth, was Camel (Albino) Contemplating Needle (Large) (2013), two large-scale sculptures of the titular objects. Fair director Christine Messineo was particularly excited about the Focus section presentations this year: “At Murmurs, be sure to check out Y. Malik Jalal’s work with salvaged car parts and hand-forged steel and bronze, recalling histories of inequality and uneven economic development in the U.S.,” she says. “Frieze continues to be a pivotal meeting point where local, out of town, and international galleries gather to share art with the Los Angeles creative community.”

As the sun went down, the tent began to empty, and the fair closed just as night fell. From the path back to the parking lot, Ross-Ho’s Earth could be seen slightly deflated in the corner of the soccer field, where it would remain until the artist’s work resumed the next day.