L.A. Art Week Crush: What’s On at the Frieze, Felix and Spring/Break Fairs

“L.A. has come of age — I’ve heard that so many times in the past decade. It has always sounded provincial and defensive,” says Dean Valentine, co-founder of the Felix Art Fair. “We’re one of the four or five global capitals of contemporary art. We always had the artists. But now we have the museums, the galleries, the collectors and, obviously, the art fairs.”

And art fair season in L.A. is back with a bang. This year, the gold standard, the Frieze Los Angeles art fair, is at the Santa Monica Airport for the second straight year. Frieze kicks off with an invitation-only preview Thursday, Feb. 29 and is open to the general public March 1-3.

Steered by Frieze director of the Americas Christine Messineo, the fair will feature booths from more than 95 galleries from around the world. Highlights include new paintings by Sam McKinniss, known for his irreverent portraiture of American celebrity culture, at David Kordansky Gallery, and Jenifer K. Wofford’s paintings that capture the camp of the infamous Madonna Inn at Silverlens. At LA Louver’s booth, a survey of artist and musician Terry Allen’s work will be timed to his concerts during L.A. Art Week at the Masonic Lodge in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Frieze will also present an outdoor art exhibit, free and open to the public, outside its mega-tent at the airport; titled Frieze Projects and curated by Art Production Fund, it will include Derek Fordjour’s artworks depicting athletes, Pippa Garner’s backwards-driving pick-up truck; and Matt Johnson’s work “Giant Shell Swan.”

Across town at the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel, Felix Art Fair (Feb. 28 to March 3) will offer intimate exhibits throughout the famed Hollywood haunt, with works on display everywhere from the lobby to individual hotel rooms in the tower and around the pool. More than 65 galleries will be represented, including Los Angeles’ One Trick Pony, Wilding Cran, M+B, Fernberger Gallery, Bel Ami, Nicodim and Tierra del Sol, which shows works by artists who face developmental challenges. (The latter’s booth will include works by artist Vicente Siso, whose show at the gallery’s location in West Hollywood runs through March 3).

Says Valentine of Felix 2024, “We’re particularly excited this year because we’ve tried to combine the creative ferment of the local scene — a gallery like Residency, for example, which is based in south L.A. — with a new generation of galleries from abroad, like Ginny on Fredrick from London.”

For new and emerging arts, there is no better bet than Spring/Break Art Show, featuring 40 exhibitors from across the U.S. Located at 5880 Adams Blvd. in the Culver City Arts District, the show runs Feb. 27 to March 3 and includes new works by Kellesimone Waits (daughter of Tom Waits); an interactive artwork by multimedia artist Z Behl; video work curated by film producer Sam Pressman and a data-motivated AI tarot performance by Hicham Oudghiri.

Three prominent actors will also be represented at Spring/Break Art Show: Vicky Krieps (Corsage) is curating an installation featuring original songs inspired by past characters she has portrayed, and she’ll perform on opening night, Feb. 27, while KJ Apa (Riverdale) and Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragoon Tattoo) will each be showing artworks.

 “The art culture in Los Angeles is a more eclectic art culture than, say, New York; less proscribed and a bit more casual and surprising and anarchic,” says Andrew Gori, co-founder of Spring/Break. “Its practitioners, as with much of the aura of the industry some call ‘Hollywood,’ toil more secretly, behind layers of other talents and alternate veneers. Finding them like a gold nugget in the sand is somehow a little more rewarding for the two of us- the art world(s) of L.A. is less of a rat race than a cat rodeo, which never quite starts or ends, but is always a beautiful animal, contented to find a warm spot of light.”

A version of this story first appeared in the Feb. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.