Frieze and The Other Art fair: David and Goliath by Nancy Kay Turner
The inimitable Frieze Art Fair is now 22 years old having begun in London in 2003 before crossing the pond to New York in 2012, and finally arriving in Los Angeles in 2019. While the venue has shifted from Paramount Studios in mid-city to the Westside, the fair remains mostly the same with a venue of over 100 galleries from all over the world. It is an intriguing mix of museum quality blue chip work alongside up and coming newly minted MFA’s, sprinkled among seasoned mid-career artists.
Perhaps it was the result of the politically charged environment and the recent apocalyptic wildfires that destroyed so many artists homes and studios, but this fair seemed a bit more somber. However, one of the first booths I saw was April Bey’s dazzling solo show at Los Angeles’ Vielmetter Gallery, highlighting her large -scale mixed media works that are a combination of politically charged imagery accentuated with neon colors. With this heady mixture of high and low brow textiles Bey interrogates the nature of identity, feminism, colonialism and taste with both flair and humor.
Just around the corner, New York’s Tilton Gallery had a stunning show devoted to the subtle collages, assemblages and low relief sculptures by Noah Purifoy that elegantly use found materials, such as charred remains of fires (from the Watts uprising), wires and rusted metal. Weathered and worn, each of these objects tells a political and personal story with exceptional grace.
Next, I saw a group exhibit at UK’s Maureen Gallery where Los Angeles native Esther Pearl Watson’s tiny paintings startled me.– especially the one with scrawled text that read “LA Fires Jan 7, 2025 evacuated the fires I had to dodge trucks that blew over. What next?” She paints a hellish landscape filled with fire and mayhem with a flying saucer looming. Stylistically akin to outsider artists, her work, though simplified and child -like, captivates.
Narrative paintings were abundant in this Frieze especially among younger artists. Lenworth McIntosh’s dreamy narrative paintings, painted with all shades of browns and ochres, are memory pieces celebrating his Jamaican roots filled with food, music, religion and community. Henri Paul Broyard, another young artist, shows spray and acrylic paintings at Tyler Park Presents, one of the LA galleries in the Focus section of the fair curated by Essence Harden. Broyard paints slightly worn intimate interiors filled with familiar but sometimes oddly strange objects culled from photos and memories.
Almine Rech’s gorgeous multi-hued “more is more” installation of Tomokazu Matsuyama’s is delightful. The intricate anime inspired paintings combine Eastern and Western aesthetics remind me of Masami Teraoka’s humorous versions of Ukiyo Japanese prints. David Zwirner’s booth has a swell group show of paintings by John Currin, Lisa Yuskavage, Luc Tuymans and my favorite, a large Dana Schutz from 2008.
The best part of this fair is discovering an artist like Greta Schodl, exhibited at the Richard Saltoun Gallery. Schodl, now 95 and still working, has text -based work that she calls visual poetry. Schodl writes on ironing boards, rice paper, old book pages and marble with immaculate repeating script until the words become both more and less than words. They become a design. They cleave to the object that they name. Elegant, delicate, her works are compelling and unforgettable objects once seen.
Another artist, the incomparable Betye Saar, soon to be 100 years old and yes, still robustly creating works, is represented here by a kinetic installation honoring Zora Neale Hurston. Saar’s work is evocative of time, memory, and place. Always beautifully crafted and refined, Saar’s impeccable craftsmanship elevates the worn and fragmented materials.
The Michael Rosenfield Gallery has a fabulous colorful Betye Saar from 1966 composed on tin that is nailed perfectly with tiny brads. Also at the Rosenfield gallery are several beautiful Romare Beardon mixed media collages from 1977-8 that look fresh and relevant and very 2025.
Although It’s almost impossible to see everything, and I always rue the booths I missed – it is always a worthwhile experience to be surrounded by new and unfamiliar artists, galleries, collectors and the artist community itself -who I must add, feel that the fair is too expensive for many to attend.
Contrasting with Frieze, The Other Art Fair was founded in London in 2011 by Ryan Stanier and now is held in New York, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles London, Melbourne, Sydney, and Toronto and is focused on promoting emerging artists in a smaller more intimate setting. Artist-centric, with all the participants present to talk about their work, this fair is more accessible if the work itself is uneven.
This year’s fair moved from the westside to the eastside which made it easier to park. It is well organized and set up to help artists sell their work with wrapping booths and cashiers to facilitate the sales. Featured right at the entrance were two of my favorite “booths” featuring Josh Cabello and Kim Garcia, in a two person show that was quite extensive, curated by Feia. Kim Garcia’s works range from small mixed media flat wall pieces with bits and pieces of family photographs embedded in the resin, to floor sculptures, and a stunning large-scale portal that all fairgoers had to walk through.
The portal is a monumental structure made of resin, transparent photographs, volcanic sand, glass, cement and steel that speaks to memory, identity, history and is an homage to her immigrant family.
Josh Cabello’s large self -portraits celebrate the queer body in a mystical and magical landscape that shimmers and glows.
Nearby is Judy Baca’s all-new segment of the epic and ongoing The Great Wall of Los Angeles. This epic historic mural segment highlights the historic 1968 student protest walk outs.
Most of the artists were from California, especially the Bay Area and Central Coast, including Katie Murken, who had a large solo show of her mixed media works on found wooden pallets. Her imagery evoked John Steinbeck and the 1930s era, with weathered broken pallets and faded fabric transfers that suggest intimate long-gone interiors, abandoned houses, and forgotten stories shrouded in mystery.
The artists here were all available to share their stories, and their can do spirit was infectious along with their obvious resilience, determination, and joy of sharing the act of creating.
- Nancy Kay Turner; photos by Nancy Kay Turner, additional Frieze photos by Genie Davis