in Frieze Week Magazine | 13 FEB 19

Frieze Week: Friday Preview

Frieze Los Angeles opens to the public: here’s your guide to some of the highlights

in Frieze Week Magazine | 13 FEB 19

Welcome to Friday at Frieze Los Angeles. The fair opens to preview ticket-holders today, and there’s much to explore around the fair and the Paramount Pictures Studios backlot. Start your day in the gallery tent, and spend some time browsing an eclectic mix of gallery booths. There’s something for everyone from solo presentations by emerging and established artists to curated programs and themed presentations.

For opening times and how to get to the fairs head over to the visitor information page for Frieze Los Angeles.

Young galleries from Los Angeles will present artists at the forefront of contemporary art making in the city. Commonwealth and Council will pay tribute to The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) with a collaborative exhibition by Beatriz Cortez and Rafa Esparza entitled ‘G.L.O.W (Greeting Land Outflowing Wormholes)’, while Park View/Paul Soto will present Mark A. Rodriguez, whose installation explores the mythical history of The Grateful Dead. At Anat Egbi, don’t miss influential feminist artist and Faith Wilding.

Doug Aitken, Flight Patterns (“I began to see the country itself as a projection on air, a kind of hologram, an invisible grid of image and opinion and electronic impulse” Joan Didion), 2017, chromogenic transparency on acrylic in aluminum lightbox with LEDs, 173 x 316 x 18 cm. Courtesy: the artist and 303 Gallery, New York and Los Angeles

Elsewhere in the tent, get into the LA spirit with Doug Aitken. 303 Gallery present a selection of the California-native’s new works. Aitken has lived and worked in the city for many years, and his works present a vision of Los Angeles. If you’re lucky enough to have a VIP pass, you can even attend a cocktail reception in 303 gallery’s Santa Monica Boulevard space.

Meanwhile at the Paramount backlot, there are a plethora of things to explore. Constructed to resemble a city, the New York Streets backlot has been used on countless film sets and even contains rows of Brownstones and a ‘financial’ district. At Frieze Los Angeles, the set plays host to immersive artist projects and films, pop-ups from creative enterprises and non-profits. Be sure to check out Acid-Free, an art book market organised by a collective of Los Angeles-based independent book publishers, as well as the Women’s Center for Creative Work, an organisation helping to cultivate L.A.’s feminist creative communities and practices.

A Feminist Organisation’s Handbook, 2018, book cover. Courtesy: Women’s Center for Creative Work

While you’re in the backlot, explore Frieze Projects, a section of the fair curated by Ali Subotnick. Though, unlike the main gallery section of the fair, the works on display are not necessarily for sale, Frieze Projects supports ambitious, experimental work –­ from a washing line of paintings to a Psychic Art Advisor ­­­– that otherwise would not be shown at an art fair. Be sure to check out Corazón del Sol’s revival of her mother Eugenia P. Butler’s seminal project The Kitchen Table (1993), with a new conversation over a meal which will be screened in the lobby of the Backlot’s financial district skyscraper.

In the evening, head over to the Paramount Theatre at 6.30pm for a special screening of Tom Sach’s Paradox Bullets (2018), presented by Gagosian Gallery. Starring Sachs and Ed Ruscha and narrated by Werner Herzog, the short film is about a man stranded in the Mojave Desert. Afterwards, join Herzog, film director Van Neistat and frieze magazine editorial director Jennifer Higgie for a discussion of the work.Main image: Tom Sachs, Paradox Bullets, 2019, film still. Courtesy: the artist

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