A celebration of art in the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires
Walking across Bundy Drive from my secret parking spot in a nearby residential neighborhood, I felt slightly apprehensive. I could see the large white tent across the street, but I had some misgivings. Would this be business as usual for a notoriously aloof art scene in light of the devastating fires that hit two of Los Angeles’s well-known neighborhoods? And would both galleries and art lovers actually show up after rumors of the art fair’s cancellation?
My fears were mostly allayed as soon as I walked up the ramps to the entrance. Even though it was later in the afternoon of the final day, the crowds were barely manageable. Just trying to view some of the more popular artworks was difficult, and more than one time I feared damage would occur when an Instagram or TikTok would-be-influencer strayed too close to a ceramic or dangling bit of artistic flotsam. In one gallery’s booth, I chatted with a worker who had placed herself close to a precariously placed work, determined not to let it fall in the final hours of the fair. All joking aside, it was a good sign for the health of the LA art market to see so many visitors.
On the other hand, it was somewhat compressed compared to years past– just about 95 galleries were represented, down from well over 100 just a year or two ago. Forty percent of the galleries have an LA location, and some 20 countries were represented. Whereas previous years have leaned into one geographic region of the globe or another, this year’s Frieze was appropriately LA-focused, though not overly so. Add to this fact some galleries were donating their sale fees to the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund, the Getty-led initiative to which Frieze itself also donated generously. In the end, it was a celebration of Los Angeles artists and the Los Angeles art scene, not unlike what was recently displayed at the Grammys, SAG Awards, and the Oscars.
Through some friendly chatting with gallery workers it seemed that they were pleased with the turnout and sales for the weekend. A casual glance of online news sources tends to corroborate that perception.
What’s Old Is New Again
Two themes that permeated the art fair were the vibrancy of color and a focus on materiality. The tactility of many of the works tempted me more than once to reach out and touch them for myself, but a close-looking would have to suffice (unless I wished to test my credit card’s upper limits).
One such tactile work was by the Egyptian artist, Wael Shawky, who lives and works in Alexandria. Clearly inspired by medieval art and its particular use of perspective, the artist also integrates his own cultural and religious identity with references to the Christian Crusades in the Holy Land. His attention to detail and use of traditional patterns and designs was truly astounding.
In a similar vein, another recurring theme was the profound dialogue between contemporary art and past art. I’ve commented on this in the past, and it’s worth another examination. Every artist is influenced by another and pays tribute by overtly or subtly referencing another artist’s work. In that vein, contemporary art is deeply indebted to art history and understanding those connections can be key to a more complete appreciation of the modern artwork.
Kader Attia is a French-Algerian artist who was raised in both Paris and Algiers. His work often deals with post-colonialism in terms of violence and bodily trauma. Interestingly, he juxtaposes what looks like a Greco-Roman deity with a wooden African head. Both are visibly damaged, perhaps portraying colonial violence. But the African and Roman influences are part of Algeria’s cultural and historical fabric, and the work displays that very tension.
The African American artist Simone Leigh, represented by Matthew Marks Gallery, created a tour-de-force stoneware head that was hard to ignore. Placed on a high pedestal on its own, the artist used a trompe l’oeil effect to mimic a bronze sculpture via an expertly applied glaze. Each individual hair curl was rendered with exquisite care. I would let the artist herself explain her work in detail, but even I was struck by its similarity to the Benin bronze sculptures of Queen Idia, albeit with the eyes conspicuously omitted.
A painting by Glenn Brown, The Hoi Polloi, caught my eye at the Galerie Max Hetzler booth. A dramatic and vivid female head with blue skin and wild red hair is painted on a cherry wood panel. It’s almost as if Edvard Munch’s The Scream and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus had a baby, perhaps with Magritte’s Le Viol thrown in for good measure! It turns out the artist is often looking back to the old masters, imbuing a surrealist notion of spirituality to his works.
Local Los Angeles native artist Gajin Fujita combines an incredibly eclectic mix of styles in We Skyscrapin, which incorporates elements of his street-style roots. Hailing from Boyle Heights, Fujita incorporates gold leaf, graffiti art, Japanese prints, and what appears to be a Renaissance angel making contact with the dragon’s whisker. The artist’s gallery, L.A. Louver, was selling his prints for a reasonable price, making them tempting for even this impoverished writer to buy.
Get Transported by Your Senses
Another LA-based gallery, Vielmetter Los Angeles, presented a solo booth show of works by Bahamian-American artist April Bey. Taken from her ongoing Atlantica series of works, the green faux fur is a portal into an alternate sci-fi inspired universe, where queerness and racial oppression is conveyed through bedazzled photographic images. I won’t pretend to understand all the layers of meaning Bey is conveying, but it is a compelling work, softened by the sensuality of the green fur.
I’d like to conclude with two experiential/installation pieces (as though the entire art fair wasn’t experiential or a temporary installation). Chris Burden, who is well known in Los Angeles for his lamp posts at LACMA, Urban Light, took over the entire Gagosian ‘booth’ with his Nomadic Folly. This installation and experiential piece was first created in Istanbul in 2001 and was recreated for the first time in the US at Frieze LA.
The visitor takes off their shoes and is invited into a semi-private space with soft rugs and gauzy curtains. This “Oasis of Beauty” was meant to provide a measure of healing to the denizens of LA, weary from the fires and devastation. Whether the installation rose to that occasion or not, I’ll leave to the reader to decide. Either way, it certainly was something unexpected from one of the largest art galleries in the world.
Last but certainly not least, I end with Sanctified Visions, by the estimable Los Angeles artist, Betye Saar. It’s a recreation at the Roberts Projects booth of an installation work for an exhibition at MOCA in 1990 in honor of the writer Zora Neale Hurston. Constructed of corrugated sheet metal, moss, a window pane with visual elements, and a rocking chair that actually rocks in place, it is meant to be evocative of Hurston’s childhood upbringing in the rural south.
However, I couldn’t help but think that it had a more local flavor to it. The gallery’s founder said this to Artsy: “It’s all about memory and remembering. I think that’s the thing about L.A. is that we always go through these problems, but we always seem to come out stronger and better. So, we decided to use it after all of this happened and create it as an environment that’s about remembering.”
Betye Saar grew up on Pepper Street in Pasadena, only a few blocks from Altadena, the historically black neighborhood that got devastated by the Eaton Fire. Jackie Robinson grew up two blocks away. Sidney Potier rented a house there. Charles White moved to Altadena from New York. To say that it was, and to some extent still is, one of the most important districts of black arts and culture in the country is an understatement. It should be as well known as Harlem, as suggested by a recent New York Times article.
In the end, it’s a bittersweet Frieze for Los Angeles. Yes, much will be rebuilt, but so much was lost and some treasures simply can not be replaced. But young and old, local artists are still producing new works, and that’s something to celebrate.
