Change is afoot at Frieze Los Angeles, which is returning to Santa Monica Airport from February 29 to March 3, 2024. The fifth edition of the fair sees a notable new curator of the Focus section, Essence Harden, reimagined communal public spaces and a wealth of fresh galleries. Tickets are available now.
Frieze Los Angeles is once again directed by Christine Messineo, Frieze’s Director of Americas, and housed in its signature tent designed by Kulapat Yantrasast’s architectural studio WHY. The 2024 edition sees a new site plan across the airport campus that reimagines the outdoor space as a gathering point – what Mark Thomann (Director, Wilding X WHY) calls ‘a welcoming sanctuary centered on food, culture, and community’ – with installations and pop-ups from some renowned LA restaurants. The fair will again feature a program of site-specific artworks, public activations and sculpture across the Santa Monica Airport airfield.
Describing the new site plan, Yantrasat said: ‘Frieze Los Angeles has become an anchor for all creative minds. The layout for 2024 is streamlined with discoveries at every corner. Inside is a focused art experience with uplifting filtered natural light while the outside courtyard is full of art and cultural activities for friends to linger and connect.’
Widline Cadet, Nan Letènite (In Eternity), 2021. Archival inkjet print, 101.6 × 81.3 cm. Courtesy of the Artist and Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles
The 2024 fair brings together more than 95 galleries from 21 countries, with nearly 50 percent of them operating in the Greater Los Angeles area; 13 of them will be showing at Frieze Los Angeles for the first time.
Frieze Los Angeles continues to provide a platform for local non-profits and 2024 sees the latest installments of two longstanding initiatives: the Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award (in its fifth year) and the Frieze Impact Prize – a collaboration between Frieze and Endeavor Impact in partnership with the Center for Art & Advocacy and its fellowship program for formerly incarcerated artists, Right of Return.
Messineo said: ‘Frieze Los Angeles 2024 will be a destination for an international audience to celebrate the continued growth of the Los Angeles art scene. Both visitors and exhibitors will benefit from our expanded footprint, centralized layout and redesigned exterior spaces. We look forward to welcoming exhibitors from around the globe to provide an unparalleled snapshot of today’s most compelling artists and galleries.’
FOCUS
A significant appointment for Frieze Los Angeles 2024 is Essence Harden (Visual Arts Curator and Program Manager, California African American Museum) as curator of Focus. The section, for US galleries that have been operating for 12 years or less, is a platform for emerging and underrepresented voices. Supported by Stone Island, whose grants promote participation in Focus alongside Frieze subsidies, the section this year consists of 12 galleries and explores ideas of ecology.
Harden said: ‘I’m honored to curate the 2024 Focus section. I was deeply interested in the possibility of stretching the term “ecology” to include position, geography, material and theoretical concerns within art-making. The presentations chosen for this year’s section reflect that winding impulse, highlighting a series of dynamic emerging galleries and artists.’
Seven galleries are making their Frieze Los Angeles debut in Focus: Babst Gallery, Matthew Brown, Dominique Gallery, Quinn Harrelson, Lyles & King, Shulamit Nazarian, Micki Meng, and pt. 2 Gallery, alongside returning exhibitors Make Room, Ochi, Sow & Tailor, and Hannah Traore Gallery.
GALLERIES TAKING PART IN 2024
The fair’s roster of participating galleries for 2024 features a concentrated group of Los Angeles-based spaces including Blum, The Box, Château Shatto, François Ghebaly, David Kordansky Gallery, L.A. Louver, Night Gallery, Nonaka-Hill, Regen Projects, Parrasch Heijnen, Hannah Hoffman, Marc Selwyn Fine Art and Various Small Fires.
Parker Gallery and Anat Ebgi, both from LA, have previously participated in Focus, and this year graduate to the fair’s main section.
Major international exhibitors, many of which have spaces in LA, include 303 Gallery, Canada, Clearing, Pilar Corrias, Dastan Gallery, Gagosian, Gladstone, Hauser & Wirth, Galerie Max Hetzler, Xavier Hufkens, Gallery Hyundai, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Lisson Gallery, Mendes Wood DM, OMR, Ortuzar Projects, Pace Gallery, Maureen Paley, Proyectos Monclova, Sprüth Magers, Welancora Gallery, White Cube and David Zwirner.
See a full list of participating galleries.
MAJOR EXHIBITIONS DURING FRIEZE WEEK
In celebration of Frieze Week, the city’s preeminent museums including Getty, The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Broad, Hammer Museum, LACMA, ICA LA and Academy Museum of Motion Pictures are hosting special events and activations, offering local and international visitors the opportunity to discover Los Angeles’s world-class collections.
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