The organisers of the Frieze artwork honest mentioned on Friday (17 January) that they are going to proceed with the 2025 version of their Los Angeles honest (20-23 February), set to happen at Santa Monica Airport six weeks after lethal wildfires swept by way of the town.
“Our hearts are with everybody affected by the devastating fires in Los Angeles,” a Frieze spokesperson mentioned. “Because the honest’s founding six years in the past, Frieze has been proud to assist and be a part of this vibrant neighborhood. The challenges the town is presently dealing with solely strengthen our dedication to work alongside the neighborhood to rebuild and get well collectively.”
Along with the spokesperson’s feedback, Frieze circulated a group of statements by artists, sellers, curators and humanities directors based mostly in or with ties to Los Angeles. Amongst them is the artist Kelly Akashi, whose residence and studio within the Altadena neighbourhood have been utterly destroyed by the Eaton fireplace.
“I don’t need the financial impression of this to unfold additional and have an effect on different artists,” Akashi mentioned. “I’m right here to have fun different artists’ accomplishments and am personally not insulted by the promotion of their work. I need my neighborhood to be wholesome, and want them to be supported in order that they’ll prolong that care to me and different individuals impacted by the fires.”
The curator Essence Harden—who’s co-curating this 12 months’s version of the Hammer Museum’s Made in LA biennial and returning to organise Frieze Los Angeles’s Focus sector for rising galleries—added in an announcement: “I really like Los Angeles; it’s my residence, and my life has been made potential due to the generosity, care and folks of this metropolis. Frieze is an ecosystem of contractors, fabricators, artists, gallerists, collectors, establishments, non-profits, artwork handlers, small companies and a world of people that discover monetary and social assist inside it. There’s a want and can right here for artwork to nonetheless occur, for risk to emerge amongst immense loss and grief.”
Frieze is likely one of the founding contributors to a $12m reduction fund launched earlier this week by native, nationwide and international organisations, galleries and museums. The honest’s spokesperson added: “Along with our members and companions, we’re creating initiatives to assist restoration efforts and can share extra particulars quickly.”
The organisers of the LA Artwork Present, which is marking its thirtieth anniversary this 12 months, additionally confirmed on Friday that they are going to transfer forward with their 2025 version. The lineup of taking part galleries continues to be being finalised in gentle of the wildfires, and organisers are working to establish a disaster-relief charity to assist by way of a donation. They add that “we’ve had vital suggestions from the neighborhood, galleries and artists that they really feel it’s essential to maneuver ahead with that sense of ‘neighborhood’ being extra essential than ever”.
Frieze Los Angeles and the LA Artwork Present’s openings will come lower than two months after a string of lethal wildfires swept by way of components of Los Angeles. The fires’ toll continues to be coming into full view, however they destroyed greater than 7,500 buildings and killed at the very least 27 individuals whereas burning greater than 28,000 acres—an space bigger than the island of Manhattan or your complete metropolis of San Francisco. The neighbourhoods most severely affected embrace Altadena, a traditionally Black space that’s residence to many artists and humanities employees, in addition to Pacific Palisades, a rich space the place many collectors and celebrities lived.
Many artists’ houses and studios, in addition to artwork areas, have been both broken or utterly destroyed within the wildfires. Native, nationwide and worldwide organisations have launched funds and fundraising campaigns to supply reduction for native artists, arts employees and organisations.
This 12 months’s version of Frieze Los Angeles was beforehand as a consequence of function 101 exhibitors, together with a lot of the world’s largest business galleries—Gagosian, Gladstone, Marian Goodman Gallery, Hauser & Wirth, Tempo Gallery, White Dice and David Zwirner—and a big contingent of galleries from Southern California. When the honest’s unique slate of exhibitors was revealed in November, practically half of the taking part galleries had areas in Los Angeles.
This would be the first version of a Frieze honest to be staged for the reason that British occasion and media agency’s dad or mum firm, Endeavor—the Beverly Hills-headquartered sports activities and leisure conglomerate—revealed final autumn that it’s exploring the potential sale of Frieze in addition to two tennis tournaments it owns. Endeavor has been the bulk proprietor of Frieze since 2016 and went public on the New York Inventory Alternate in 2021. Beforehand, Frieze’s co-founders Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp had retained a 30% stake, however now the corporate is absolutely owned by Endeavor.
Frieze Los Angeles was the primary new honest launched beneath the Frieze banner after Endeavor’s 2016 acquisition, adopted by Frieze Seoul’s debut in 2022. In 2023, Frieze acquired festivals within the US’s two different largest cities: The Armory Present in New York and Expo Chicago.
This 12 months, along with the long-running satellite tv for pc festivals Felix and Spring Break, Frieze Los Angeles will probably be joined by Santa Monica Publish Workplace. The brand new boutique honest, based by the Los Angeles-based supplier Chris Sharp, will function 26 business galleries and non-profit areas exhibiting in an Artwork Deco former submit workplace in downtown Santa Monica, a brief drive from Frieze.
- Frieze Los Angeles, 20-23 February 2025, Santa Monica Airport
