Clara Kim’s Top Picks from Frieze Viewing Room
The MOCA chief curator’s choices from the Frieze Los Angeles preview include works by Hadi Falapishi, Alison Saar and Megumi Yuasa
The MOCA chief curator’s choices from the Frieze Los Angeles preview include works by Hadi Falapishi, Alison Saar and Megumi Yuasa
Hélio Melo, Untitled, 1989
Indian ink and leaf extract on fabric, 141.5 cm × 144.5 cm. Presented by Almeida & Dale. $POA
A polymath and self-taught artist, Hélio Melo made work inspired by everyday life in the Amazonian state of Acre where he was born. His quiet, detailed scenes in subdued palettes depict the rituals of rubber tapping and its extraction by communities in the forests. They are a record of place and time, as well as an evocation of the Amazonian imaginary.
Hadi Falapishi, Professional Painter in a Tree on the Sixteenth of September, 2024
Oil on canvas in walnut artist’s frame, 66 × 54.6 × 5.1 cm. Presented by Blum. $20k – $50k
Hadi Falapishi’s playful, clever, photorealistic painting is a self-portrait which fashions himself into a René Magritte landscape.
Michael Alvarez, Look at This Photograph 3, 2022
Oil, spray paint, pencil, 3D-printed sculpture, collage on paper, canvas and wood on panel, 76.2 × 101.6 cm. Presented by Jeffrey Deitch. $15,000
Michael Alvarez’s charming paintings recreate pages from old-fashioned photo albums that are as much about portraiture and memories as they are about the rituals of how we preserve them. His art has a way of resonating with the deeply nostalgic, especially for anyone who grew up in Los Angeles in the 1980s and ’90s, depicting notable family and childhood events, the yearly custom of taking school pictures in the pre-digital era. His painterly style hovers between representation and impressionistic, utilizing blurring techniques and doubled images as well as collage and spray paint.
Megumi Yuasa, Espássaro, 1995
Glazed ceramics, iron, steel and aluminium 219 × 55 × 17 cm. Presented by Gomide & Co. / Ortuzar. $100k – $250k
It’s revelatory to get to know the work of Japanese-Brazilian sculptor and ceramicist Megumi Yuasa, who has been working as an artist since the mid-1960s. Thanks to the joint presentation of Gomide & Co. and Ortuzar, Los Angeles audiences have the opportunity to see the work close up. Yuasa’s imagined landscapes – made of ceramic, metal and oxides, and referencing trees, clouds and so-called espássaros – take Brazilian sculpture into new dimensions.
Lee ShinJa, Conversation between Circles IV, 1973
Cotton, linen thread, tapestry, 177 × 112 cm. Presented by Tina Kim Gallery. $100k – $250k
It has been exhilarating getting a glimpse into the work of the pioneering first-generation Korean fibre artist Lee ShinJa who Tina Kim Gallery has been representing of late. Demonstrating the global reach of fibre art, Lee’s work is a window into the little-known context of its developments in Korea, and more generally in East Asia. Lee’s Conversation between Circles series of the 1970s is tied to a very personal and spiritual journey for the artist bringing the transcendental into the act of making.
Alison Saar, Mutiny of the Sable Venus, 2024
Woodcut on vintage seed sacks, 160 x 99.1 cm. Presented by L.A. Louver. $12,000
Alison Saar’s version of the Sable Venus, transforming the 18th century pro-slavery propaganda imagery into a figure of defiance and resilience. Mutiny of the Sable Venus is a tribute to slave revolts and channels the spirit of Yemaya, a water deity from the African diaspora.
About Clara Kim
Clara Kim is chief curator and director of curatorial affairs at the Museum of Contemporary Art, LA, a position she has held since September 2022. Prior to MOCA, Kim was Daskalopoulos senior curator of international art at Tate Modern in London. Recent curatorial projects include ‘Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom’ (MOCA 2024; Guggenheim Bilbao 2024–25; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago 2025), ‘Steve McQueen’ (Tate Modern 2020; Hangar Bicocca, Milan 2022); 2019 Hyundai Commission ‘Kara Walker: Fons Americanus’ (Tate Modern 2019–21). She sits on the Board of CIMAM and served as the chair of the 2024 Annual CIMAM Conference in Los Angeles titled ‘Sustainable Futures: How? When? For Whom?’.
About Frieze Viewing Room
Open to all from 13 – 28 February 2025, Frieze Viewing Room is the online catalogue for Frieze Los Angeles, giving global audiences access to gallery presentations at the fair. Visitors can search artworks by artist, price, date and medium, save favourite artworks and presentations, chat with galleries and much more.
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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Main image: Michael Alvarez, Look at This Photograph 3, 2022. Oil, spray paint, pencil, 3D-printed sculpture, collage on paper, canvas and wood on panel, 76.2 × 101.6 cm. Courtesy: Deitch
