Hammer, LACMA, MOCA Acquire Edgar Arceneaux and Shaniqwa Jarvis at Frieze Los Angeles
The new $75,000 fund from the MAC3 collective bought the two works for the three LA institutions’ joint collection
The new $75,000 fund from the MAC3 collective bought the two works for the three LA institutions’ joint collection
For the first time, the MAC3 collective of Los Angeles institutions has purchased two new works by LA-based artists at Frieze Los Angeles 2025: Skinning the Mirror (Summer 1) by Edgar Arceneaux (presented by Dreamsong) and Slowly, Surely by Shaniqwa Jarvis (presented by Sow & Tailor).
Newly instituted at Frieze Los Angeles 2025, the MAC3 acquisition fund follows in the wake of collector Jarl Mohn’s landmark 2024 donation of more than 350 artworks – most them from his personal collection – to three Los Angeles institutions: the Hammer Museum, LACMA and MOCA. The partnership celebrates the collaboration between three of the city’s leading museums and highlights their ongoing investment in fostering local LA talent and amplifying their voices on an international stage.
With a dedicated fund of $75,000 donated by Jarl and Pamela Mohn and Frieze, the MAC3 institutions jointly acquire work(s) that reflect Los Angeles’s creative energy and dynamism, ensuring these pieces become part of the city’s cultural legacy.
Edgar Arceneaux, Skinning the Mirror (Summer 1)
Los Angeles-based artist Edgar Arceneaux paints, shatters and strips mirrors, transferring their reflective silver nitrate on to canvas. As his paintings’ surfaces oxidize, they absorb elements of the atmosphere, altering their colours until sealed. Skinning the Mirror (Summer 1) is one of two monumental works Arceneaux completed during a stay at the Walker Art Center in Minnesota. Deeply personal and rich with metaphoric meaning, Arceneaux’s paintings materially reflect the fragmentary nature of self-understanding and the fissures within socio-historical narratives.
Shaniqwa Jarvis, Slowly, Surely
LA’s Shaniqwa Jarvis is known for mixed-media works and photography that invoke themes of memory, heritage and interconnectedness. Her work often explores reflection – examining identity, legacy, and perception through an intergenerational lens. Using fabrics, C-prints (often double-exposures) and deconstructed archival images, Jarvis constructs layered compositions that mirror the tension between visibility and introspection, public and private selves.
Further Information
Frieze Los Angeles, 20 – 23 February 2025, Santa Monica Airport.
Limited full-price tickets available; 10 percent of the value of all newly purchased tickets is being donated to the fire relief efforts.
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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: Edgar Arceneaux, Skinning the Mirror (Summer 1), 2025. Acrylic paint, silver nitrate, glass on canvas, 203.2 x 304.8 x 7.62 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Dreamsong
