The City of Angels’ status as an international art capital is on full display this February, with art fairs new and old running concurrently or closely this week, attracting galleries and collectors from around the globe. While you can never be sure what you’ll come across during the flurry of shows, you can expect to find works by CalArtians, including those we’ve already spotted in the exhibition lineups.
Frieze Los Angeles
Thursday, Feb. 16–Sunday, Feb. 19
Santa Monica Airport
Frieze LA 2023 boasts a bevy of CalArtian works, including several with the international gallery Hauser & Wirth. The gallery exhibits an “array of new and historical works by its LA-based artists,” including CalArts alums Larry Bell (Chouinard 59), Mark Bradford (Art MFA 97), faculty emeritus Charles Gaines, Gary Simmons (Art MFA 90), Henry Taylor (Art BFA 97), and Mike Kelley (Art MFA 78).
Work by Los Angeles-based multidisciplinary artist Roksana Pirouzmand (Art BFA 17) will also appear in Focus LA, Frieze’s section dedicated to emerging artists. Pirouzmand’s series I was praying at home while you were dying on the streets explores the psychology of the immigrant artist in response to the “trauma and civil unrest” occurring in her birth country of Iran, particularly in the wake of the Mahsa Amini protests.
SPRING/BREAK Art Show
Wednesday, Feb. 15–Sunday, Feb. 19
Skylight Culver City
Running concurrently to Frieze is SPRING/BREAK, which returns for its fourth Los Angeles edition with the 2023 theme “NAKED LUNCH.” The curator-driven art fair includes 59 booths, several representing CalArtian talent:
Head over to Booth 7 to see ceramic sculptures and paintings by Emily Marchand (Art MFA 07), curated by Michael Slenske.
Booth 15 is an intimate exploration of “creative coupledom and influence among friends and partners in life and in the studio,” per curator and CalArts alum Casey Baden (Art MFA 20) via a recent Instagram post. The display includes works by Baden and fellow CalArtian Anais Franco (Art BFA 19), as well as Nicholas Kennedy and Antoine Midant.
New York-based 532 Gallery presents a selection of paintings at Booth 18, including a recent acrylic work titled Unexpected Visitor (2023) by CalArts alum Jean-Guerly Petion (Art-IM MFA 93).
Felix Art Fair
Wednesday, Feb. 15–Sunday, Feb. 19
Hollywood Roosevelt
The historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel lodges 62 international galleries for the Felix Art Fair. Now in its fifth year, the contemporary art fair was organized with a goal to “foster intimate experiences that prioritize conversation, collaboration, and community.”
In Room 1126, works by Karla Ekatherine Canseco (Art BFA 19) and Shizu Saldamando (Art MFA 05) join a presentation of artists from Charlie James Gallery.
And CalArts alums and faculty aren’t the only ones exhibiting works during this season’s fairs. At the Poolside Cabana, artist, curator, and director of the Patty Disney Center for Life and Work Jen Hitchings’ painting Mirage (Mt. San Jacinto) (2022) joins works by various artists through Anat Egbi.
LA Art Show
Wednesday, Feb. 15–Sunday, Feb. 19
LA Convention Center, West Hall
Billed as the largest and most comprehensive international contemporary art show in the US, the LA Art Show offers innovative work, programming, and experiences within its 180,000 square-foot exhibition space. The fair enters its 28th year with works representing myriad galleries from the US and abroad, including San Francisco-based Jessica Silverman Gallery.
The boutique gallery presents a series of oil paintings on linen by CalArtian Dashiell Manley (Art BFA 07):
Dashiell Manley’s lush paintings memorialize life and the passing of time. Their dense and tactile surfaces are made with just two kinds of brushstrokes: a short, rhythmic, repetitive stroke, which relates to a mindful focus on the process of painting itself, and occasional drifting transgressive lines, which signal—and attempt to correct—moments of distraction.
The gallery also includes fellow alum Sadie Barnette’s (Art BFA 06) Mirror Bar (2022), a multimedia work incorporating her signature elements like neon and glitter plexiglass.
Photo Forward LA
Saturday, Feb. 18–Sunday, Feb. 19
Danziger Gallery — Suite B1
Bergamot Station Arts Center
New to the seasonal art circuit is Photo Forward LA, the inaugural photography fair of the nonprofit Photographic Arts Council Los Angeles. Among this year’s 12 exhibitors is Joseph Bellows Gallery, which will include work by photographer and graphic designer Gary Krueger (Chouinard 67). Admission to the fair is free.
