Frieze Los Angeles 2022 Wrapped:
Artists to Watch

Issy Wood at Carlos/Ishikawa

Issy Wood has gone from strength to strength with Carlos/Ishikawa. At Frieze Los Angeles, the gallery exhibited four of Wood's oil paintings alongside paintings and sculptural works by Evelyn Taocheng Wang.

Rendered in her ethereal painting style, Wood's snapshots of contemporary wares and modest luxuries were dynamically placed in a beautifully curated booth.

Following a stream of auction successes last year, with the majority of her works going for over double their high estimates, we look forward to following her market.

Yuli Yamagata at Anton Kern

Yuli Yamagata's freestanding anthropomorphic sculpture was an eye-catching inclusion at Anton Kern's booth.

Composed of bone-like forms made up of resin, velvet, elastane, and silicone fibre, the sculpture exudes a tactile physicality, combining beauty with the grotesque.

We had the pleasure of chatting with Yamagata last year ahead of her solo exhibition at the São Paulo-based gallery Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel, and have been following her practice ever since.

Troy Lamarr Chew II at Parker Gallery

Growing up in Hawthorne in Los Angeles County's South Bay, Troy Lamarr Chew II became familiar with West Coast rap culture of the early 2000s.

Listening to the likes of Digital Underground and MC Hammer, Chew's artistic direction has been shaped by Black experience, specifically the way in which Black history—and the evolution of hip-hop—has shaped American culture.

Three of Chew's works from his ongoing 'Out the Mud' series were on view with Parker Gallery. Having just graduated from San Francisco's California College of the Arts in 2019, followed by a residency at San Francisco's Headland Center for the Arts in 2020, Parker is one to watch.

Joseph Yaeger at Project Native Informant and Chapter NY

Joseph Yaeger's evocative close-ups have been a favourite of the Advisory team over the past year, having first come across his work at Project Native Informant during London Gallery Weekend last year.

The gallery's joint presentation with Chapter NY in Los Angeles proved to be no exception, with three large-scale figurative works by the artist on view at the fair. His attention to detail is exquisite, while a lightness of touch creates an almost translucent quality across his canvases.

Maja Ruznic at Karma

Born in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1983, Ruznic fled the country with her mother at the start of the Bosnian War, immigrating to the U.S. in 1995. Ruznic went on to attend the University of California, Berkeley in 2005, before receiving an MFA from California College of the Arts in 2009.

The artist's hazy apparitions are conjured through a loose painting technique made up of multiple layers. Ethereal figures populate her canvases, evoking memories of a diasporic childhood and the forms and figures still etched in her memory.

Showing at their 188 & 172 East 2nd Street locations, Ruznic's inaugural solo show with Karma comes to an end on Friday.

Ben Sakoguchi at Bel Ami

Eighty-three-year-old artist Ben Sagokuchi's paintings have garnered attention since the artist's solo show at Bel Ami in Los Angeles last year.

Their solo booth of the artist's work in the Focus section was a stand-out at the fair, with Sakoguchi's use of saturated colours and lavish fonts referencing advertising imagery from the 1950s.

Weaving in witty references to Covid-19, past U.S. Presidents, Scarlett Johanssen, and the artist Chris Burden, other paintings offer a poignant reminder of the forced internment and dislocation of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War.