Frieze Los Angeles Art Fair Finally Returned After Two Long Years

On Thursday, February 17, artists around Los Angeles were thrilled to take part in the latest Frieze Los Angeles art fair, the first time the event had been up and running since April 2020. 

Last week, the event opened for previews and was relocated from Paramount Pictures Studios to a large tent beside the Beverly Hilton. Frieze is known to bring in some notable celebrity guests like Will Ferrell, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gwenyth Paltrow, Kendell Jenner, more. However, the only two names that got some attention this year were James Corden and Owen Wilson. 

Celebrities or not, Frieze was in full swing with an eager vibe to get back to the fair Los Angeles knows and loves after two long years. This time around, Los Angeles Times reports that galleries and artists from the east coast made their way out west to debut previews in an attempt to expand into the booming Los Angeles art market. 

Prior to the event, James Corden was seen at a VIP breakfast, where he explained being back at Frieze was “lovely, it’s fantastic, it’s wonderful,” notes Los Angeles Times. He added that “It’s just nice to be looking at people again. I hope the trajectory continues.”

The VIP breakfast was an elegant and classy experience from afar, but much more action was seen in the Frieze tent. The space was made up of three large tents combined into one and was designed by Kulapat Yantrasast from Why Architecture. 

This year’s tent was reported to be 40% bigger than Frieze spaces in the years prior. Inside the event were 100 exhibitors from 17 different countries. And the total number of guests it hosted was a generous 35,000. 

Some notable galleries that attracted attention were David Kordansky, Sprüth Magers, Blum & Poe, and Hauser & Wirth. However, guests were also sharing the love with new east coast galleries like Pace, the Hole, Karma, Albertz Benda, David Zwirner, Danziger, Sean Kelly, Lisson Gallery, and more. 

A former partner of Hauser & Wirth, Graham Steele, was also in attendance at the VIP breakfast. He said returning to the event with existing and new galleries is “incredibly exciting.” Furthermore, he was impressed with the unique mix in the “L.A. landscape among artists, collectors, and the museum infrastructure.” He concluded, “plus, the weather’s nice.”