The Exhibitions to See During Frieze Los Angeles 2026

The highly anticipated return of Frieze Los Angeles has the city buzzing with excitement and activity that feels especially unique. Recurring themes this year include epic artist-led group shows, activations of abandoned buildings (including the shell of a liquidated retail chain and a decaying century-old theater), the resurgence of the moving image, and powerful sculptures.

Below, discover highlights to look out for at this year’s edition.

“99CENT” | The Abandoned 99 Cents Only Store, 6121 Wilshire Boulevard

The local artistic community, led by Barry McGee, The Hole, and Jeffrey Deitch, assembled this exhibition at seemingly a moment’s notice, transforming a liquidated former 99 Cents Only store into the week’s most highly anticipated, chaotic, and gargantuan exhibition. The preceding week’s installation was an incredible spectacle to behold, as an estimated 120 artists—including McGee, Sayre Gomez, and FriendsWithYou—left their marks on the interiors of the abandoned 19,000-square-foot building. Art now hangs from the ceiling and is mounted on original shelves, with evening programming that includes live bands, screenings, and a Sunday zine fair.

Elsewhere: Ehrlich Steinberg presents Nature Morte, a nod to the short-lived but influential East Village gallery of the same name, with works by Gretchen Bender, Louise Lawler, and other Pictures Generation artists who showed early work there. Downtown, Hauser & Wirth’s “Destiny is a Rose: The Eileen Harris Norton Collection” features more than 80 works acquired by a longtime champion of women and artists of color, including Felix Gonzalez-Torres, David Hammons, and Adrian Piper. Perrotin’s off-site group show, Paging Dr. Feelgood, features two-dozen participants, and Rob Pruitt is bringing his artist flea market to James Fuentes.

“What a Wonderful World: An Audiovisual Poem” | Julia Stoscheck Foundation

Curated by Udo Kittelman, this selection of more than 30 works of cinema and video art is excellent: The installation spans six floors of a maze-like, century-old abandoned vaudeville theater in Downtown Los Angeles, where videos of different eras cross paths in surprising visual and sonic collisions. In the balcony above the big main theater, the flaming silhouette of Ana Mendieta’s Silueta de Cohetes (Firework Piece) (1976), takes on a dramatically different mood depending on what’s playing below, as the racing techno of Arthur Jafa’s APEX (2013) alternates with the woozy sounds of Jon Rafman’s Mainsqueeze (2016) on the big screen. For the exhibition’s six-week run, the lobby is serving warm, complimentary popcorn, and every evening ends with footage of Miley Cyrus performing live at Chateau Marmont. 

Elsewhere: For “Bruce Conner: Recording Angel,” the Marciano Art Foundation is presenting eight works by the “father of the music video” in its cavernous theater space, with volume on full blast. LACMA is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s iconic Amores Perros (2000) with an immersive film installation by the acclaimed director. At Marian Goodman, Tacita Dean’s “Trial of the Finger” includes a new 16mm film, Sidney Felsen decorates an Envelope (2026). And at Giovanni’s Room, Ali Cherri’s The Watchman (2023) examines the tensions of nationalism through the eyes of a Turkish-Cypriot soldier standing guard at the border of an unrecognized land.

“Roksana Pirouzmand: everything was once something else” | OXY ARTS and JOAN

A standout of The Hammer Museum’s 2023 “Made in L.A.” biennial, Pirouzmand has an extraordinary way of bringing clay to life, casting various parts of her body and animating them with motorized elements like intermittent vibrations or continuous trickles of water. Split between OXY Arts in Eagle Rock and JOAN downtown, physical engagement with works in one space will activate counterparts in the other, a meditation on long-distance cause and effect. In addition to sculpture, Pirouzmand’s work includes surrealist drawings etched in clay, where the surfaces of the body meld into haunting landscapes.

Elsewhere: At Michael Benevento, Bjorn Copeland’s “Boiled Alive” mixes video works with beguiling assemblage, some made from bits of refuse, and one featuring a mannequin head peering out of an open suitcase. Hoffman Donahue in Beverly Hills is surveying the six decades of Lynn Hershman Leeson’s critical engagement with technology and culture in “Deep Fake.” At Commonwealth & Council, “Secret Asian Man presents: Knock, knock! (Posthumorous)” is an ode to the late and witty Pippa Garner, whose use of the word “posthumorous” in life described exactly how her searingly comedic works would eventually outlive her. At The Brick, as part of the larger Monuments show downtown at MOCA Geffen, Kara Walker’s Unmanned Drone (2023) exquisitely dismantles and reassembles a proud Confederate monument into a more appropriately grotesque figure. 

Takashi Murakami, “Hark Back to Ukiyo-e: Tracing Superflat to Japonisme’s Genesis” | Perrotin

In a suite of 24 new paintings, Murakami homes his ongoing exploration of Japan’s influence on the global art scene of the late 19th century, this time looking specifically at how bijinga, or pictures of beautiful women, inspired the compositions of French Impressionists. The artist takes on different approaches throughout the show: in addition to depictions of traditional Edo fashions, Murakami presents his own acrylic reproduction of Claude Monet’s painting, Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son (1875), as well as a series of his Happy Flower icons remixed onto Impressionist landscapes.

Elsewhere: At Deitch, “Judith F. Baca: Great Wall of Los Angeles: The 1970s- A Decade of Defiance and Dreams” presents the latest segment of an iconic L.A. mural, 50 years after its initial production. David Zwirner presents “Raymond Saunders: Notes From L.A.,” showcasing the late artist’s didactic, multimedia approach to painting.