The Show Must Go On

Nearly two months after the Santa Ana winds caused wildfires to burn about 40,000 acres in the Los Angeles area, the city continues to rebuild. Frieze Los Angeles returned to the Santa Monica Airport for its sixth edition, featuring more than 95 local and international galleries.

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An important part of the city’s economy, Frieze Los Angeles is contributing to the rebuilding efforts through the LA Arts Community Fire Relief Fund, which it has aided since it started, by donating 10 percent of all ticket sales. Additionally, Victoria Miro opened Galleries Together with a selection of works from galleries participating in the fair to sell works for the fund. Pieces in the stand include Made in Cambodia, 2024, a painting evoking memory and nostalgia by Tidawhitney Lek from Victoria Miro; Salmon River Gold, 2023, depicting a person emerging from water by Rebecca Campbel from L.A. Louver; and Devin Troy Strother’s painting, Scanners, 2024, which shows figures holding up a canvas, from The Pit. 

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Hope filled the tent at the Santa Monica Airport as fairgoers looked for inspiration and moments of beauty and respite, with New Yorkers thankful they left subzero temperatures for the Los Angeles sunshine. "We felt a deep sense of pride seeing so many patrons and collectors show up—not just for the fair, but for Los Angeles itself,” says Paul de Froment, managing partner at Almine Rech. “In uncertain times, there was a quiet question of whether this was the right moment, but the city’s resilience and the energy in the air made it clear: there may be no better time.” From meaningful sculptures to symbols of hope, here are some of the things that caught Family Style's attention.

Delcy Morelos at Marian Goodman Gallery

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The Colombian artist first made waves in 2023 with her moving exhibition at DIA Chelsea. At Frieze LA, Marian Goodman shows a minimal, beautifully hung display of her works that are solemn and layered. Delcy Morelos’ strands of jute coated with soil and acrylic reference blood, skin color, and adversity.

Sadie Barnette at Jessica Silverman

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One question dominates the Oakland-based artist’s mixed-media solo stand at San Francisco-based gallery Jessica Silverman: What does the phrase “good people”  mean today? “I'm thinking about this messy human business of trying to be ‘good,’ without being rigid or judgmental, this inherent paradox of trying to believe in something and also not becoming dogmatic,” Sadie Barnette tells Family Style. “I do not go through life feeling self-satisfied that I'm a ‘good person’... I am constantly questioning myself."

Keka Enriquez at Silverlens

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Keka Enriquez was a well-known painter in the Philippines before she pivoted shortly after moving to San Francisco in the ‘90s. Poised for a comeback, the artist returned to painting in 2023 with her moving, soul-filled works that incorporate nods to abstraction, like in the 2024 painting Swell, on view with Silverlens which shows blurred surfers catching waves.

‍‍Tomokazu Matsuyama at Almine Rech

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Japanese artist Tomokazu “Matsu” Matsuyama is known for remixing Eastern and Western aesthetics and blending the past with the present. His selection of large-scale works at his Almine Rech solo booth show figures dressed in mixed prints, both at home and in dreamy whimsical gardens. These scenes provide a moment of joy within the hectic fair.

‍‍Donna Huanca, Janaina Tschäpe, and Brian Rochefort at Sean Kelly

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Exuberant splashes of color and vigorous gestural strokes make for a three-way dialogue without any words at Sean Kelly’s booth,featuring works by Brazilian artist Janaina Tschäpe, Bolivian-American artist Donna Huanca, and Los Angeles-based Brian Rochefort. Tschäpe’s and Huanca’s wildly energetic canvases play well with Rochefort’s ceramic forms that resemble  organic, fauna-like coral or lichen growing on rock.

Maia Cruz Palileo at David Kordansky

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A teaser to their solo exhibition debut at David Kordansky Los Angeles in mid-March, the New York-based Filipino-American artist presents a series of paintings and sculptures that look back on their family’s migration from the Philippines to the United States, as well as their recent journey back home last year. 

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Frieze Los Angeles runs until February 23 at the Santa Monica Airport at 2H83+WMP, Santa Monica, CA 90405.