Two themes dominated art world conversations in the run-up to this year’s Frieze Los Angeles. First came the question of whether the fair would proceed in the wake of wildfires across L.A. County, which devastated over 40,000 acres and destroyed more than 10,000 homes. Then, when the fair announced that it would go ahead, there was the matter of quite how things would shake up.
As Frieze Los Angeles 2025 held its VIP day on February 20th, the mood was one of vibrancy and communality. Major collectors, museum curators, and A-list celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Al Pacino, Kid Cudi, and Katie Couric swarmed the Santa Monica Airport to peruse works presented by some 101 exhibitors.
This year’s fair comes as the L.A. art scene has remained steadfast in its commitment to its arts community. Ahead of the fair, artists, galleries, and institutions have come together in a concerted effort to fundraise and provide relief. Frieze made the decision to proceed as planned with the fair after consultations with local stakeholders. Meanwhile, Felix Art Fair and the new Post-Fair, along with a slate of impressive exhibitions across the city this week, also chose to continue.
“What was crucial to the decision was…many conversations with the institutions here in Los Angeles, the galleries here in Los Angeles, and there was a real call to action that the community needed a galvanizing moment around the art world,” Christine Messineo, director of Frieze Americas, told Artsy. “And we were ready to show up.”
Since its debut in 2019, Frieze Los Angeles has become a linchpin for the city’s art scene, a fact that is all the more evident in the aftermath of the fires. “Community building has always, always been inherent in the DNA of Frieze Los Angeles,” said Messineo. “L.A. does not exist without our galleries, our institutions, our nonprofits, and our artists, and we want to be a space to welcome all of those into those organizations,” she added.
As well as the main galleries section, Frieze Los Angeles 2025 also features Focus, curated for the second time by the renowned Essence Harden. This segment showcases 12 solo exhibitions, several of which highlight remarkable work from Los Angeles artists. In addition to this section, Frieze has expanded its special projects initiatives with a program of fundraising and community-led projects, including Summaeverythang, AMBOS, and the Frieze Impact Prize.
The VIP day kicked off with a flurry of reported sales, led by a $2.8 million Elizabeth Peyton painting at David Zwirner’s booth. Read our roundup of day one sales from the fair here, and stay tuned for our comprehensive recap of reported sales on Monday.
Here, we present the 10 best booths from Frieze Los Angeles 2025.
Make Room
Booth F4
With works by Xin Liu
The centerpiece of Los Angeles tastemaker Make Room’s standout booth is Artsy Vanguard 2025 artist Xin Liu’s Theater of Metamorphosis (2024), a remarkable triptych featuring a bronze cast of the artist’s mouth mounted on a fleshlike canvas. Leveraging her background in engineering, Liu integrated a cooling mechanism into this piece, chilling the bronze to negative four degrees Celsius. Part of her “cryo body” series, this system draws moisture from the air to transform the appearance of the work over time, playing with themes of the body and self-preservation.
Another piece from the same series, Primula Flowers (2024), features an identical bronze mouth against a canvas of skin-like resin painted in soft blues and reds that are reminiscent of veins. Midway through the VIP day, the bronze was coated in ice, forming a protective layer over the raw bronze. For the artist and Make Room founder Emilia Yin, these works resonate with Los Angeles’s health-obsessed culture.
Primula Flowers, 2024
Xin Liu (b. 1991)
Make Room
Fortune Tellers: Agua Viva , 2025
Xin Liu (b. 1991)
Make Room
Theatre of Metamorphosis, 2024
Xin Liu (b. 1991)
Make Room
When I try to hold you, 2025
Xin Liu (b. 1991)
Make Room
“The decision of presenting this ‘cryo body’ work in that way had a lot to do with Los Angeles, the frontier of technology for life-preserving,” said Yin. “We have people who are so into every possible way to optimize life and health.”
Complementing these works is Fortune Tellers: Agua Viva (2025), featuring the artist’s DNA printed on rice paper, adorned with threads, and inscribed with poem-like texts. These technology-based works are priced between $20,000 and $50,000.
Gagosian
Booth D7
With works by Chris Burden
Fairgoers seeking a moment of respite from its packed aisles should not miss Gagosian’s booth. The mega-gallery has opted to present a dramatic installation by the late Californian artist Chris Burden, Nomadic Folly (2001), which was initially created for the seventh Istanbul Biennale. Tearing down the traditional fair booth walls, the gallery has erected a four-room structure adorned with colorful handmade carpets, embroidered wedding fabrics, plush pillows, braided ropes, and jewel-toned glass and metal lamps. These materials are set on a platform of Turkish cypress beneath large umbrellas, complemented by traditional music.
The genesis of the work is as compelling as its presentation. Burden traveled to Istanbul on September 9, 2001, just days before 9/11, and immersed himself in the local markets, selecting silk panels, carpets, and lanterns to construct the architectural installation. Senior director Deborah McLeod, calling the work an “homage to cultural relativism,” noted its heightened relevance to today’s global hardships.
“This work had healing powers at the time, and we thought this was a work that Chris felt was showcasing all the right things about humanity in a time of crisis,” said McLeod. “And here we are in a devastating moment in Los Angeles, so we thought, ‘What a beautiful gesture.’ Chris Burden is the ultimate L.A. artist, so we felt it made sense to bring it to Frieze L.A.” The entire installation is for sale for an undisclosed amount.
James Fuentes
Booth D3
With works by Pat Lipsky, Jim Jarmusch, and Kikuo Saito
At the booth of Los Angeles and New York gallery James Fuentes, a series of paintings by the 83-year-old Color Field painter Pat Lipsky are an instant highlight. Fuentes first met Lipsky when the painter visited the gallery’s Tribeca location for its solo show of works by the late artist Kikuo Saito, her old friend and colleague.
The booth features three of Lipsky’s large abstract Color Field paintings, heralding an exploration into the artist’s significant body of work. The standout piece is Chrysanthemum (1971), one of the earliest examples of the wave-like forms that would come to define her style, displaying a vibrant gradient of reds, greens, oranges, and blues on a tan canvas. This work is flanked by two more recent paintings from 2023: the sun-soaked orange Message and the moodier Winged Fantasia. These pieces are priced between $125,000 and $150,000, with Chrysanthemum selling on the VIP day. Coinciding with the fair, the gallery is also hosting its inaugural exhibition with Lipsky, titled “That Which We Are,” at its Los Angeles location.
Untitled, 2017
Jim Jarmusch
James Fuentes
Outside the booth, a 2011 painting by Saito, Vilgot, and an untitled print by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch are displayed, priced at $140,000 and $7,000, respectively. Reflecting on the fair’s significance, Fuentes commented on the strength of L.A. “It’s evidence of L.A.’s resilience and the trajectory of L.A. being a city that’s going to continue to thrive,” Fuentes said. “It’s been even more meaningful than any other Frieze than I can remember for that reason.”
Dreamsong
Booth F12
With works by Edgar Arceneaux
Los Angeles–based artist Edgar Arceneaux makes a habit out of smashing mirrors. He applies paint to canvas to the backs of mirrors containing silver nitrate. These are then broken, and the nitrate is transferred onto the face of the canvas, culminating in the works for his “Skinning the Mirror” series. Minneapolis gallery Dreamsong presents seven pieces from the series in a shattering display. Arceneaux created these works during a 2024 residency at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, where he became captivated by the seasonal changes of the region—a stark contrast to his native Southern California.
A notable piece from the series is Skinning The Mirror (Summer 1) (2025), which measures approximately 6.5 by 10 feet. This work features cracked mirrors interspersed with bursts of red and yellow paint seeping through the fractures. It was acquired during the fair’s VIP day by the Mohn Art Collective, in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, MOCA, and the Hammer Museum, through the MAC3 fund. Another striking piece, Skinning The Mirror (Winter 9) (2025), is a more subdued, tan monochrome abstraction. By the end of the VIP day, it had been acquired through the City of Santa Monica Art Bank Acquisition.
“Sales have been strong, and it’s been incredibly busy. I’m a bit overwhelmed at the moment,” gallery co-founder Gregory Smith told Artsy. “The energy is fantastic so far. Edgar is from South L.A. and has worked here for decades. It was really nice to bring work he made where we’re from to the place where he’s from and show it here because we all have sort of different connections to him.” Prices for the works in this series range from $16,000 to $100,000.
Richard Saltoun
Booth D4
With works by Greta Schödl
Austrian artist Greta Schödl is perhaps best known for her contributions to the poesia visiva (visual poetry) movement in Italy. At the age of 95, she continues to infuse her sculpture and works on paper with language, often simply symbolic and nonsensical. For instance, in her presentation at Richard Saltoun’s booth, Schödl presents six marble stones engraved with the Italian word for marble, marmo, each letter “o” meticulously filled with gold leaf. These works, made within the last five years, are priced at $10,000 apiece.
Her piece La Scala (Serie VIBRAZIONI) (ca. 2014) embodies her concepts of symbolism and design without utilizing the written word. This 10-foot-tall scroll features meticulously designed wave-like patterns created with Indian ink. The long paper is segmented by gold crochet, adding a textural dimension, and is anchored by a piece of wood at the base of the work. It is priced at $26,000.
Senza titolo [No title], 2020s
Greta Schödl
Richard Saltoun
Untitled (Serie Scritture), 2024
Greta Schödl
Richard Saltoun
Untitled, 2020 c.
Greta Schödl
Richard Saltoun
Animali Fantastici [Fantastic Animals], 1975
Greta Schödl
Richard Saltoun
Still, Richard Saltoun presents a wide selection of the artist’s experimental language-based works on paper. For instance, some untitled works from the 1980s feature painted papers filled with handwritten cursive phrases adorned with cut-out collaged sentences and gold leaf arranged in geometric patterns. These works are priced at $10,000, and works in the booth range from $3,000 to $50,000.
Roberts Projects
Booth E9
With works by Luke Agada, Amoako Boafo, Daniel Crews-Chubb, Lenz Geerk, Suchitra Mattai, Wendy RedStar, Betye Saar, Kehinde Wiley, and Brenna Youngblood
An immediate standout at Roberts Projects’s booth is an installation by Betye Saar that features two mixed-media assemblage works: the small rocking chair Critter Chair: The Seat of the Spirit (1990) and the windowpane sculpture Fragments of Fall (1989/1999). Originally featured in the “Sanctified Visions” exhibition at MOCA in 1990, the installation draws on the life of American writer Zora Neale Hurston. Here, the gallery reconstructs an evocative environment with moss and corrugated sheet metal, mimicking aspects of Hurston’s childhood surroundings. The purpose of mounting such a historically embedded exhibition, said the gallery’s founder Bennett Roberts, is to emphasize the vital history of the city.
“It’s all about memory and remembering,” Roberts told Artsy. “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.”
Lodge Pole, 2024
Wendy Red Star
Roberts Projects
Japonica Round Neck, 2023
Amoako Boafo
Roberts Projects
Fragments of Fall, 1989/1999
Betye Saar
Roberts Projects
Evening Star I, 2025
Wendy Red Star
Roberts Projects
under the same rain, 2025
Suchitra Mattai
Roberts Projects
The rest of the group presentation features highlights from the Los Angeles–based gallery’s program. This includes Wendy Red Star’s Evening Star #1 (2025), which features two mirrors positioned at a 90-degree angle, reflecting a star quilt pattern crafted from earth pigments in rich shades of blue and red, inspired by Apsáalooke (Indigenous Americans that primarily live in Montana) women’s rawhide paintings and quilting techniques. The price range for Red Star’s works starts at $9,000, extending to Amoako Boafo’s portrait Japonica Round Neck (2023), priced at $205,000.
Proyectos Monclova
Booth E13
With works by Víctor Hugo Pérez
Mexican artist Víctor Hugo Pérez’s portraits of his wife and pets, such as Mujer con gata (2018), are anything but ordinary. Here, his wife and cat are depicted with nightmarish features: eyes on the same side of their faces, wide toothy jaws, all set within ominous black frames adorned with gold leaf. These frames are hand-carved, featuring a menagerie of animals from birds to cats. Mexico City powerhouse Proyectos Monclova presents a series of these unsettling portraits for its exceptional Frieze Los Angeles presentation.
Pérez often focuses on unsettling and grotesque representations of mythical female figures (his wife stands in as the model for these portraits). These figures are inspired by pre-Hispanic mythology and biblical references, such as Lilith or Eve. For example, Lilith (2024) portrays Adam’s first wife surrounded by two birds and two demonic-looking dogs, imbuing the piece with a sense of mythic drama.
Lilith, 2024
Víctor Hugo Pérez
PROYECTOS MONCLOVA
La intocable rata, 2023
Víctor Hugo Pérez
PROYECTOS MONCLOVA
Central to the booth is a selection of ceramics crafted in Tonala, Jalisco, using a traditional black clay technique. Pérez imbues this traditional technique with his distinctive contemporary expressionist style, adorning these works with animal motifs and abstract forms. A standout piece, La intocable rata (2023), features a ceramic rat poised regally atop the vessel, priced at $6,000.
During the VIP day, the gallery saw robust sales, with almost half of the artworks sold at its midpoint. “We’ve had the best response,” said Alexandra Lovera, the gallery’s sales director. “We didn’t know what to expect when we came because of everything that happened with the fires, but the response has been unbelievable. The people have incredible energy. They’re buying, they’re excited, so we couldn’t be happier.”
Anthony Meier
Booth D5
With works by Saif Azzuz
The elaborate, 17-foot-wide salon-style assemblage by Libyan Yurok (an Indigenous people of California) artist Saif Azzuz, What Memories Hold (2024), attracted eager audiences to Anthony Meier’s booth throughout Frieze’s VIP day. This installation combines sculptural assemblages that feature Yurok patterns with wooden carvings of animals, while also introducing some metal flower reliefs, a newer medium for Azzuz. Sentimental details in the works also stand out. “He’s really family- and community-focused, and he always sneaks in a little drawing or artwork from each of his kids and his wife,” said director Kristin Delzell, noting the polaroids of the artist’s family, coffee mugs, and small paintings.
Elsewhere in the booth, the gallery is presenting a selection of Azzuz’s large-scale paintings, including the frenetic, swirling canvas The sunsets are more dramatic when the world is on fire (2024). Yet the piece that truly catches the eye is Free to sell your labor (2024–25), a similarly chaotic green painting that incorporates the artist’s assemblage practice. This work includes materials such as abalone shells, barbed wire, plastic figurines, steel, and various shells, marking the first time the artist has combined the two practices.
The booth also includes steel sculptures made from sheet pans, redwood oars, and a table full of carved wooden sculptures. Taken together, the booth offers a rich overview of the 38-year-old artist’s practice. “It’s just such a great snapshot of his work,” Delzell said. Prices for these varied works range from $6,000 to $56,000.
Marian Goodman Gallery
Booth D12
With works by Delcy Morelos
The human body is approximately 65% water: Blood, tears, sweat, urine, and reproductive fluids are vital expressions of our living bodies. This biological fact is the impetus for Colombian artist Delcy Morelos’s series “Organized Salt Water (Agua salada organizada).”
Six works from the series are presented by Marian Goodman Gallery, which has represented the artist since 2023. In the works on view, Morelos partially coats cotton strings with shiny, dark, earth-toned acrylic paints. The artist, known for her work with natural materials like soil and dirt, extends her exploration to water. Her evocative use of color and texture bridges the gap between the body and the earth, suggesting an intrinsic connection between the human body and nature.
Organized Salt Water (Agua salada organizada), 2014
Delcy Morelos
Marian Goodman Gallery
Organized Salt Water (Agua salada organizada), 2014
Delcy Morelos
Marian Goodman Gallery
Organized Salt Water (Agua salada organizada), 2014
Delcy Morelos
Marian Goodman Gallery
“Her practice seamlessly merges art historical references, Indigenous cosmology, and a poetic material presence, exploring the profound connection between land and body,” Philipp Kaiser, president of Marian Goodman Gallery, told Artsy. The price range for the works is between $90,000 to $125,000.
Vielmetter Los Angeles
Booth B17
With works by April Bey
Draped in a lush green velvet backdrop, Los Angeles–based April Bey’s massive textile work We Will Not Apologize for Being the Universe; Our Own Constellation. Don’t You Know Light Lives in Dark Places Too? (2025) stands as the centerpiece of the Vielmetter Los Angeles booth. Part of the artist’s ongoing “Atlantica” series, this tapestry portrays four fictional Black women who embody traits of care and cooperation, offering a fresh perspective on the concept of survival.
“In general, they are loving and soft, and they take care of animals very often; they take care of knowledge and of plants,” said founder Susanne Vielmetter of the figures in Bey’s works. “The idea is it’s the opposite of taking on survival of the fittest. They’re not competitive. They’re helping each other and taking care of things.” This large textile work is priced at $120,000.
THEY NOT LIKE US , 2025
April Bey
Vielmetter Los Angeles
When Nobody Cared You Cared for Me, They Say You’re a Conspiracy, 2025
April Bey
Vielmetter Los Angeles
The characters in Bey’s works populate a fictional, optimistic universe first conceived in a conversation between the artist and her father, who used science fiction to explain racial oppression. To create these figures, Bey begins these portraits with photoshoots, after which the images are altered using artificial intelligence and then meticulously translated into tapestries adorned with glitter, beads, and textiles. Notably, large sections of printed velvet are cut out and hand-stitched atop the base fabric. Accompanying the major textile piece are several smaller works, including a series of four printed canvases on crushed velvet and leather, marking Bey’s first use of vinyl leather, each priced at $20,000.
By choosing to focus on solo artist showcases, Vielmetter’s presentations aim for an in-depth exploration of an artist’s vision. “April is very capable of creating an immersive booth environment, and we are reducing the number of artists that we’re showing to either solo presentations or two-person presentations,” said Vielmetter. “It’s taking a little bit of a bigger risk because you’re only now showing one artist in your program, but because we’re here in L.A., we have three amazing shows up. We hope that people also come to the gallery. We thought we’d take that risk,” she added.
from Artsy News https://ift.tt/WiRI92w
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