Frieze Los Angeles Celebrates the City's Strength and Solidarity

Spotlight / Photolog Frieze Los Angeles 2025: In Photos

Even before the fifth edition of Frieze Los Angeles opened its doors last Thursday, the city that only a few weeks prior had endured the most devastating fires in its history was palpably buoyant. Opening night celebrations for highly anticipated exhibitions were packed: Kelly Akashi at Lisson Gallery, Bruce Nauman at Marian Goodman Gallery, Lisa Yuskavage at David Zwirner, Daisy Sheff and Joe Minter at the newly inaugurated Parker Gallery on Melrose. A bevy of after-parties had to turn back crowds of invited guests. And yet, artists, gallerists, and collectors alike held their breath until they saw the serpentine line unfurling from wHY Architecture’s custom-designed white tents at Santa Monica airport on the morning of the VIP preview. The collective sigh of relief was quickly followed by a contagious optimism and genuine fellowship that continued for the remainder of the week.

Davida Nemeroff, owner of L.A. darling, Night Gallery, had a bustling booth highlighting local artists like Sterling Wells, with three of his sui generis watercolour landscapes selling for between 10,000 and 20,000 USD each, and Jesse Mockrin, two of whose virtuoso Baroque oil paintings went for between 100,000 and 120,000 USD on the first day.

‘It’s amazing to see the community’s resilience and the ongoing, outside support,’ said Nemeroff. ‘We’re excited to be with colleagues and collectors who have travelled from across Los Angeles and the rest of the world to be here.’

Nemeroff was joined by 95 other local and international exhibitors ranging from blue chip to newly established. Curator and writer Essence Harden selected galleries in the Focus section, including L.A. tastemakers Carlye Packer and Sow & Tailor Gallery, who championed hometown artists such as the figurative painter Brandon Landers and mixed-media photographer Shaniqwa Jarvis respectively.

Interspersed among the commercial booths, a series of Projects celebrated mission-driven artists and organisations, including Tanya Aguiñiga and her non-profit AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides), whose vibrant, joyous installation featured a frutas coquetas (sexy fruit) cart laden with erotic ceramics created by artists in a programme for refugees and asylum seekers.

Among the fair’s highest ticket items were a 1997 painting by Elizabeth Peyton, which sold for 2.8 million USD and a dreamy Noah Davis canvas for 2.5 million USD, both at David Zwirner; a Keith Haring painting on glass for 2 million USD at Gladstone Gallery; and a majestic large-scale piece by Tracey Emin for 1.2 million GBP (1.5 million USD) at Xavier Hufkens.

Meanwhile, the accolade of most photographed work at the fair was shared by Ariana Papademetropoulos’s Psychic Specific (2004), a surreal clamshell payphone at Massimo de Carlo; Chris Burden‘s sumptuous tented oasis, Nomadic Folly (2001), presented by Gagosian; and the reprise of legendary L.A. artist Betye Saar‘s Sanctified Visions (1990), an installation honoring the legacy of author Zora Neale Hurston comprising a swathe of sun-dried grass and a gently moving rocking chair at Roberts Projects.

Other memorable booths included Saif Azzuz‘s immersive installation featuring botanical paintings, wood carvings, and a 17-foot-long, mixed-media wall display at San Francisco-based gallery Anthony Meier; a career survey of Japanese Brazilian artist Megumi Yuasa‘s ethereal ceramic sculptures presented by Ortuzar Projects (New York) and Gomide & Co (São Paulo); and Tomokazu Matsuyama‘s dazzling presentation at Almine Rech, where I bumped into the equally mesmerised rapper, Kid Cudi. Other celebrity sightings included Gwyneth Paltrow, Al Pacino, and Katie Couric.

Sitting in traffic on my way home from the fair, I spotted one of Coco Fusco‘s many cerulean billboards scattered around the city—part of another Frieze initiative. They capture Fusco’s 2024 skywriting performance, in which the phrase ‘only in darkness can you see the stars’ was spelled out across Los Angeles’ famously sun-flushed sky. This year’s marquee fair, along with countless concurrent exhibitions, fire relief benefits, and community programmes, served as a powerful reminder to the world—and to Angelenos—that this city generates an indelible light, even when it’s hard to see through the sunshine. —[O]

Main image: Jackie Amézquita, 'Inside Out' by Art Production Fund. Frieze Los Angeles (20–23 February 2025). Courtesy Frieze and CKA. Photo: Casey Kelbaugh.