Frieze Los Angeles 2020: Revealing Highlights of Second Edition, Including Solo Artist Presentations, Film, Talks and Special Events
Gallery solo presentations by Alvaro Barrington, Sayre Gomez, Gladys Nilsson, Rob Pruitt, Avery Singer, James Turrell and many others • Film & Talks program curated by Venus Lau; Frieze Projects co-curated by Rita Gonzalez and Pilar Tompkins Rivas; Frieze Music co-curated by Kevin McGarry and Hans Ulrich Obrist • Special events to include Ta-Nehisi Coates in conversation with Calida Garcia Rawles and a screening of Matthew Barney’s new film, Redoubt introduced by the artist • Artist Street Fair to provide a platform for local creative enterprises and artist initiatives across LA such as Artists for Democracy, A-Z West and Ooga Booga • Inaugural Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award for emerging LA-based filmmakers to be awarded at the fair
Mendes Wood DM, Frieze Los Angeles 2019. Photo by Mark Blower. Courtesy of Mark Blower/Frieze.
Frieze revealed highlights of the much-anticipated second edition of Frieze Los Angeles. Building on the success of the inaugural year, Frieze Los Angeles 2020 features the world’s leading galleries alongside ambitious anchor programs of projects, talks, film screenings and institutional collaborations. Frieze Los Angeles is led by Victoria Siddall (Global Director, Frieze Fairs) and Bettina Korek (Executive Director, Frieze Los Angeles) and takes place February 14 – 16 at Paramount Pictures Studios in Hollywood. Launched in 2019, Frieze Los Angeles brings together more than 70 galleries from around the world and is supported by global lead partner Deutsche Bank for the second consecutive year.
Bettina Korek says: ‘Last year the debut of Frieze Los Angeles riveted the city to art, and the art world to Los Angeles. This year we are again inviting Angelenos and visitors alike to enjoy a celebratory experience of art in LA – not only at the fair, but all around the city. We could not be more proud that the campaign for Frieze Week driving this activity is built around a public art project by the legendary Los Angeles artist Barbara Kruger. There is no other city like LA, which generates creativity for the entire world in so many modes.’
Victoria Siddall (Global Director, Frieze) adds: ‘We are excited to return to Paramount Pictures Studios in February for the second edition of Frieze LA. We will welcome major new galleries to the fair, from Brussels to Cape Town, Mexico City to New York, as well as a host of exceptional curators creating ground-breaking programming. The fair will be at the heart of Frieze Week, an exciting program of exhibitions and events that spans the whole city and celebrates LA’s extraordinary cultural scene.’
Gallery Presentations This year the fair features more than 70 leading galleries showing significant works by today’s most prominent emerging artists alongside major figures in contemporary art in a range of solo, dual, and thematic presentations.
Solo Presentations from Today’s Most Prominent and Exciting Artists:
• L.A. Louver will present LA artist Alison Saar, who uses sculpture and painting on found materials to give visibility to the work of women
• Pace Gallery and Kayne Griffin Corcoran will co-present an exhibition of work by iconic West Coast based artist James Turrell across both galleries’ booths, including an immersive LED ceiling installation, adjoining to a second booth of four works from Turrell’s Glass series
• Hauser & Wirth will show paintings by rising star Avery Singer
• Greene Naftali will bring work by pioneer of technology-based art, Cory Arcangel
• Massimo De Carlo will show a selection of ‘Suicide Paintings’ and heartshaped canvases by Rob Pruitt
• Victoria Miro will present new paintings sculptures and works on paper by Idris Khan
• Sadie Coles HQ will show a solo presentation of new work by Venezuelan artist Alvaro Barrington
• Galerie Eva Presenhuber will show Ugo Rondinone, widely known for his largescale works including Seven Magic Mountains installed outside Las Vegas
Further highlights include:
• A group presentation of Brazilian and Colombian artists exploring the sensuous, the tactile and intimate of sexual experience; including works by artist duo Dias & Riedweg, Edgard de Souza, Carlo Motta and Lia Chaia (Vermelho, Sao Paulo)
• A multimedia presentation of some of the most significant contemporary Korean artists, such as Quac Insik, Park Hyunki, Kim Tschang-Yeul, Shin Sung Hy, Chung Sang-Hwa and Minjung Kim (Gallery Hyundai, Seoul).
• A group show featuring Felipe Baeza coinciding with a solo exhibition opening at The Mistake Room, during Frieze Week LA (Maureen Paley, London)
• New works in painting and sculpture by five major female artists: Kim Gordon, Mary Heilmann, Alicja Kwade, Tala Madani, and Sue Williams (303 Gallery, New York)
• Paintings by Emily Sundblad, sculptures by Anna Uddenberg and historic works by Cosima von Bonin (Gaga, Mexico City)
• A group presentation featuring photographs by Shirin Neshat, coinciding with the artist’s current exhibition at The Broad (Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg)
FOCUS LA New for 2020, Focus LA is a feature section providing a platform for Los Angeles’ most-celebrated galleries aged 15 years or younger, with solo and curated artist projects advised by Rita Gonzalez (Terri and Michael Smooke Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art, LACMA). Standout highlights include:
• New paintings by Calida Rawles that address topics such as colorism, intersectionality and marginalization of Black women (Various Small Fires, Los Angeles)
• A dual presentation of Aria Dean and Helen Johnson, exploring histories and ideologies – of the body, language, blackness and the American South – through conceptual painting and sculpture (Château Shatto, Los Angeles)
• Hyperreal paintings by Sayre Gomez, reimagining LA’s urban cityscape (François Ghebaly, Los Angeles)
• Gladys Nilsson’s paintings examining themes of sexuality and gender often depicting characters performing domestic rituals or engaging in acts of voyeurism (Parker Gallery, Los Angeles)
• A solo presentation by Jaime Muñoz reflecting on identity and memories, whilst investigating the connections between Pre-Columbian iconography and symbols from the contemporary Californian Latino experience (The Pit, Los Angeles)
• A new body of work by Gabriella Sanchez, also featuring in Frieze Projects, exploring the threshold state of being between cultures (Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles)
Curated Programming Beyond the Gallery Booths: Artist Street Fair Accompanying Frieze Projects and presented on Paramount Studio’s iconic backlot set, the Artist Street Fair will give a snapshot of the many types of local creative enterprises found around LA. Visitors to the Street Fair can learn about the missions and programs of different artist-driven organizations and accessible ways to support them. Participants include: GYOPO, Poetic Research Bureau, Ooga Booga, Women’s Center for Creative Work (WCCW), Artists Events for Democracy, Re:la, grantLOVE, Queen of Angels, Arts for LA, Acid-Free, The Street and The Shop, Art Book, A-Z West, Pretend Plants & Flowers and Cactus Store, and ForYourArt, whose booth will present TELETHON ForYourArt, a live-streaming series of interviews with other Artist Street Fair participants, Angelenos, and visitors to Frieze L.A., hosted by Tierney Talks – the podcast of local writer and artist Tierney Finster.
Food & Drink The famous Paramount backlot will also play host to a selection of pop-ups from some of LA’s most beloved restaurants including Cha Cha Matcha, Craig’s Vegan, KronnerBurger, My 2 Cents LA, Roberta’s, Sqirl, Tacos 1986 and Umi.
Frieze Film & Talks Programs Curated by Venus Lau, the Frieze Film & Talks program will take place in the Paramount Theatre and focuses on themes of visibility and invisibility – and LA as the perfect meeting place for cultures. Featured films include Katsuhiro Otomo’s Cyberpunk classic Akira (1988), Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery of Splendour (2015), Cao Fei’s Haze and Fog and Asia One (2018), Jon Rafman’s works, Disasters under the Sun (2019) and Poor Magic (2017), item idem’s Cold Single (2019), Yang Fudong’s Backyard – Hey! Sun is rising (2001) and Yejiang/The Nightman Cometh, BCE (2019) by Sophia Al-Maria and Victoria Sin, Adrián Villar Rojas’ The Most Beautiful Moment of War (2017), Always I Trust (2014) by Cheng Ran, Wong Ping’s Stop Peeping (2014) and The Other Side (2015) and Tao Hui’s The Dusk of Tehran (2014). In addition to the screenings, Frieze Film participating artists will talk about their work including Yang Fudong from 2.00pm – 3.00pm on Friday February 14 and item idem from 1:30pm – 2:30pm on Saturday 15, in the Paramount Theatre.
Frieze Special Events and Partnerships: Matthew Barney’s Redoubt In addition to the Frieze Film program, Frieze Los Angeles and Regen Projects will host a special screening of Redoubt, the new film by acclaimed artist and director Matthew Barney, with comments by the artist. The screening will take place on Saturday 15 February.
Ta-Nehisi Coates in conversation with Calida Garcia Rawles Frieze Los Angeles & LACMA present a conversation between author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates and painter Calida Garcia Rawles about his new novel The Water Dancer, moderated by LACMA curator of contemporary art Christine Y. Kim. Taking place at the Paramount Theater at Paramount Pictures Studios on February 15, tickets include a copy of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book.
Conversations on Patronage This year’s summit is held on February 14 and 15 in the Sherry Lansing Theatre at Paramount Pictures Studios, with panel discussions that bring together various patrons, civic leaders, gallerists, and arts administrators to discuss perspectives on art patronage. Each conversation is co-presented by a different philanthropic partner active in Los Angeles and will explore themes of collecting, institutional fundraising, and direct support to artist projects, with special consideration for the context of an art fair.
Highlights include:
• Destination Crenshaw presents Katie McGrath in conversation with Marqueece Harris-Dawson
• Rhizome presents: Patrons and Platforms featuring Trevor McFedries, moderated by Aria Dean (Rhizome)
Deutsche Bank Frieze Film Award Another highlight of the fair’s program is the Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award, realised in partnership with the award-winning, non-profit film academy Ghetto Film School (GFS) which provides a platform to support the grassroots film community in Los Angeles. The entries will be judged by Doug Aitken, Shari Frilot, Jeremy Kagan, Sam Taylor-Johnson and Hamza Walker. The award ceremony will be held from 6-7pm in the Paramount Theatre on Thursday, February 13. To attend please email [email protected].
Frieze Week This year will also feature an expanded Frieze Week program of exhibitions and events across the city, including a public art commission by Barbara Kruger. Posing a series of questions such as ‘IS THERE LIFE WITHOUT PAIN?‘, Kruger’s project will be installed across Los Angeles.