in Frieze Los Angeles | 30 JAN 25

Los Angeles: City of Artists

At this year’s fair, artists including Doug Aitken and Lenworth McIntosh look to LA’s past, present and future as a city led by community and creativity

in Frieze Los Angeles | 30 JAN 25

‘I don’t make work about Los Angeles’s ecology; I am a part of Los Angeles’s ecology,’ says artist Sterling Wells, based in Highland Park. At Frieze Los Angeles and exhibitions across the city, artists reflect on the personal and collective histories that weave the urban fabric of Los Angeles. LA-based artists also talk about how the recent fires have impacted their relationship to their city – and the importance of art-making to preserve, remember and cherish community and landscape. 

Henri Paul Broyard, TVCR4, 2024. Acrylic, spray paint, and flashe on canvas, 76 × 101 cm. Photo: Charlie White. Courtesy: the artist and Tyler Park Presents, Los Angeles
Henri Paul Broyard, TVCR4, 2024. Acrylic, spray paint, and flashe on canvas, 76 × 101 cm. Photo: Charlie White. Courtesy: the artist and Tyler Park Presents, Los Angeles

Henri Paul Broyard was raised in South Central Los Angeles by a family of builders, educators, craftswomen and artists. ‘They carried themselves with so much pride for their roots and community,’ he reflects, ‘it was inevitable that I would become an artist and make work referencing their rich histories.’ Broyard’s childhood memories are both the motivation and subject of his new paintings and sculptures. ‘The process of rendering different versions of these memories is the lens through which I view all aspects of art-making,’ he says. Drawing from a personal archive of images, books and family albums, alongside found photographs, Broyard excludes figures and paints intimate domestic spaces suffused with the subconscious lives of eveyday objects. 

In the wake of the Los Angeles fires, Broyard’s connection to his city has intensified. ‘The fires have shown me and other people who call Los Angeles home just how connected and supportive this city is,’ he says. ‘The amount of support and help that was enacted during the fire and the days following has been a beautiful thing to witness. It has only deepened my pride for all of Los Angeles.’

Henri Paul Broyard is presented by Tyler Park Presents (Los Angeles) in Focus at Frieze Los Angeles.

Doug Aitken, Woman's Profile with Desert Formations, 2024. Mixed fabrics, 143.2 × 208.3 × 5.4 cm. Courtesy: Regen Projects, Los Angeles © the artist
Doug Aitken, Woman’s Profile with Desert Formations, 2024. Mixed fabrics, 143.2 × 208.3 × 5.4 cm. Courtesy: Regen Projects, Los Angeles. © The artist

‘When I move I see things more clearly’ is a phrase that disintegrates and reforms on loop in Doug Aitken’s solo show ‘Psychic Debris Field’ at Regen Projects, Hollywood. Aitken’s new and timely work plots Southern California’s ecological timeline, from pre-human, through contemporary urban debris, towards ideas of post-human inhabitation. In the wake of the fires, the exhibition’s opening was a rallying moment for LA’s art communities.

Doug Aitken is presented by Regen Projects (Los Angeles) at Frieze Los Angeles. ‘Psychic Debris Field’ is at Regen Projects, Hollywood until 22 February 2025. ‘Doug Aitken, Lightscape’ is at Marciano Art Foundation until 15 March 2025. 

A sense of connection and care is a constant reference point in my art. Lenworth McIntosh

© Kelly Akashi. Courtesy: Lisson Gallery
© Kelly Akashi. Courtesy: Lisson Gallery

In the Los Angeles fires, Kelly Akashi lost her home and studio in Altadena, including her archive and many works intended for her upcoming Lisson Gallery show. Working in glass, earth, stone and bronze, Akashi’s latest sculptures explore patterns of regeneration found in nature: Akashi makes CT scans of seed pods before magnifying their forms in bronze. ‘With the support of my incredible community I am continuing to work on my exhibition,’ she says. The artist’s first solo show with Lisson is set to open in its Hollywood space during Frieze Week.

Kelly Akashi is presented by Lisson Gallery (London, Beijing, Los Angeles, New York, Shanghai) at Frieze Los Angeles. ‘Kelly Akashi’ is at Lisson Gallery, Hollywood, February – April 2025.

Lenworth McIntosh, YorkCastle, 2024. Oil on canvas, 1.5 × 1.5 m. Courtesy: the artist and Ochi, Los Angeles
Lenworth McIntosh, YorkCastle, 2024. Oil on canvas, 1.5 × 1.5 m. Courtesy: the artist and Ochi, Los Angeles

Lenworth McIntosh’s paintings often feature a young boy, gazing up at the adults around him, or out towards the viewer. McIntosh, too, often felt like an observer growing up, as he moved from Jamaica to Texas, to Florida and now to California. ‘I have a deep desire to preserve the feelings of my memories,’ he says. ‘I paint how those experiences felt to me: their mood and emotion rather than their technical accuracy.’ In his Los Angeles studio, these memories surface in paintings set at dawn and dusk; a duality that reflects McIntosh’s bifurcated sense of self, pulled between the Caribbean and the US. His canvases are cast in warm, low light and an earthy palette, ‘I grew up in a small community of farmers and makers who looked after each other,’ he says. ‘This sense of connection and care is a constant reference point in my art.’ 

A dysfunctional relationship with nature has been made devastatingly visible. Sterling Wells

‘Photography has become my medium for preserving moments,’ he adds, ‘and as I continue to experience the diverse communities across Los Angeles, the importance of preservation feels essential. These fires have been devastating, with families losing tangible memories and stories.’

Lenworth McIntosh is presented by Ochi (Los Angeles) in Focus at Frieze Los Angeles.

Fiona Connor, Closed Down Clubs, Greenblatt's Deli & Fine Wines, 2022. Wood frame door, glass, hardware, silk screen on coated aluminum foil and vinyl, tape, surface coatings, 210 × 95 × 13 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Château Shatto. Photo: Ed Mumford
Fiona Connor, Closed Down Clubs, Greenblatt's Deli & Fine Wines, 2022. Wood frame door, glass, hardware, silk screen on coated aluminum foil and vinyl, tape, surface coatings, 210 × 95 × 13 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Château Shatto. Photo: Ed Mumford

Château Shatto’s presentation is steeped in LA’s history. A new bronze sculpture by Aria Dean borrows its composition from the set of D.W. Griffith's film Intolerance (1916), which stood abandoned in East Hollywood after the film wrapped. John Divola also works in dialogue with the city’s film culture. Château Shatto debuts vintage silver gelatin prints from Divola’s ‘MGM backlot’ series, depicting the gradual demolition of MGM Studio’s simulacrum of Manhattan in Culver City – once the largest film set in California. Fiona Connor has developed her series ‘Closed Down Clubs’ for over seven years, looking at shuttered community venues across Los Angeles. Her latest sculpture simulates the door of a Hollywood deli, a favourite haunt for locals for over 90 years, before its recent closure. 

Fiona Connor, Aria Dean and John Divola are presented by Château Shatto (Los Angeles) at Frieze Los Angeles.

Widline Cadet, Sòti nan gran lanmou (From Such Great Love), 2023. Archival inkjet print, 101.6 × 81.3 cm, edition of 5 plus 2 APs. Courtesy: the artist and Nazarian / Curcio
Widline Cadet, Sòti nan gran lanmou (From Such Great Love), 2023. Archival inkjet print, 101.6 × 81.3 cm, edition of five plus two APs. Courtesy: the artist and Nazarian / Curcio

Widline Cadet (just announced as an artist for ‘Made in L.A 2025’) finds Haiti in the landscape and botany of Los Angeles. Using photography, video and sculpture, Cadet reflects on Black diasporic life in the city. Cadet derives inspiration from the island’s culture, folklore, family photographs and memories, peppering her works with motifs that reference her childhood, such as the bougainvillea around parents’ house in Haiti and her gingham school uniform.

Widline Cadet is presented by Nazarian / Curcio (Los Angeles) at Frieze Los Angeles. 

Sterling Wells, Mansions sliding into the DDT contaminated sea (Palos Verdes, CA), 2024. Watercolor on paper, 1.5 × 1 m. Courtesy: the artist and Night Gallery, Los Angeles
Sterling Wells, Mansions sliding into the DDT contaminated sea (Palos Verdes, CA), 2024. Watercolour on paper, 1.5 × 1 m. Courtesy: the artist and Night Gallery, Los Angeles

‘I don’t make work about Los Angeles’s ecology; I am a part of Los Angeles’s ecology.’ Sterling Wells works at the boundary of the urban and the natural, in spaces that are often abandoned and forgotten. ‘My interest is in water as a medium,’ he explains, ‘and the complexity of water systems in Los Angeles, from the history of the Zanja Madre, to the ecosystem of channelized urban waterways, to the tides.’ Working in watercolour, Wells’s technique incorporates water from each site. 

To make Mansions sliding into the DDT contaminated sea (Palos Verdes, CA) (2024), Wells waded into tide pools on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County. The site of the world’s largest deposit of DDT lies 200 feet underwater, Wells captures its blend of degradation and beauty. ‘In Los Angeles, the dynamic forces shaping the planet are visible in high relief.’ 

The support that was enacted during the fire and the days following has only deepened my pride for all of Los Angeles. Henri Paul Broyard

The past few weeks in Los Angeles have irreversibly changed Wells’s approach to art-making. ‘The fires will impact how I relate to Los Angeles through my practice for years to come,’ he says. ‘I am still grieving for what has been lost, trying to help friends. I am stressed about the continued harm that will be caused by going back to normal too soon before the contaminated debris is contained. Where will it go? I am grateful for the time I have spent at sites I have cherished, with a heightened awareness that they could disappear in an instant. Concern for the effects of climate change, ageing infrastructure and a dysfunctional relationship with nature have been made devastatingly visible.’

Sterling Wells is presented by Night Gallery (Los Angeles) at Frieze Los Angeles. 

Further Information

Frieze Los Angeles, 20 – 23 February 2025, Santa Monica Airport.

Frieze is proud to support the LA Arts Community Fire Fund, led by the J. Paul Getty Trust. In addition to Frieze’s contribution, 10% of the value of all newly purchased tickets is also being donated to the fund. 

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Frieze Los Angeles is supported by global lead partner Deutsche Bank, continuing its legacy of celebrating artistic excellence on an international scale.

Main Image: Doug Aitken, Woman’s Profile with Desert Formations, 2024. Mixed fabrics, 143.2 × 208.3 × 5.4 cm. Courtesy: Regen Projects, Los Angeles © the artist

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