Los Angeles Frieze out: Brooklyn artists descend on Cali

By Vittoria Benzine

Watch out, West Coast. London-based Frieze Art Fair has officially landed where the grass is always greener, and Brooklyn artists are exhibiting in droves among the cottage industry of other art fairs and gallery openings accompanying Frieze Los Angeles’s fourth (and largest!) edition yet. Brooklyn magazine is in L.A. too to check out which homegrown artists are flying highest in the city of angels.

Felix Art Fair

The so-called “Chloe Sevigny of art fairs,” Felix opened at the historic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel for the press preview of its fifth-ever edition on Wednesday. Crowds rushed the elevators and enthusiasts lined up to see the booths nestled into tower suites on the hotel’s 11th and 12th floors — others headed straight for the lush cabana booths circling the hotel’s central pool.

Booth views (Courtesy of Reyes | Finn, Detroit. Photography by JW Pictures)

On the Hollywood Roosevelt’s 12th floor, Detroit-based gallery Reyes Finn presented a group show of eight artists from across America, including Brooklyn-based artists Rafael Delacruz and LaKela Brown. The Bushwick-based Brown, whose work hangs at far right, has made waves from Hollywood to Henry Street with her imprinted plaster canvases, sometimes compared to contemporary archaeology, where door knocker earrings and Egyptian gods emerge and sink into the scene.

‘The Edge’ by Lily Wong (Courtesy of the Artist and Lyles & King, New York)

Speaking of Henry Street, New York City-based gallery Lyles and King presented new works by Greenpoint-based Lily Wong at their booth, arranged around the room’s main area and en route to the bathroom, where other works were situated around the shower. Wong’s on a hot streak — she just had a solo show at trendy gallery Various Small Fires in L.A., and the RISD art museum has acquired her work. She’ll also have a show with Lyles and King this September.

‘Release’ by Caleb Hahne Quintana, 2023. Oil on linen (Image courtesy the artist and Anat Ebgi)

Colorado-born artist Caleb Hahne Quintana is a rising contemporary art darling — if you keep your eyes peeled around L.A. this week, his work is in several places, notably amongst L.A. gallery Anat Ebgi’s cabana booth. While Anat Ebgi is presenting a solo show of Jane Margarette’s sculpture at Frieze, their Felix booth includes technicolor paintings by 14 international artists. Quintana’s meditative exploration of light sources grace the bathroom.

‘Everything’ by Marc Dennis, 2022. Oil on linen (Courtesy of Gavlak)

Is it even an art fair if you don’t see Dumbo-based Marc Dennis there? The king of fair floors from Dallas to Miami presented this floral still life with Gavlak on the gallery’s 11th story booth, alongside a sunny landscape by fellow Brooklyn-based painter Deborah Brown. Dennis also has a hyperrealist cherry tart in a group show called “Ripe” at Harper’s L.A. through April 1.

Frieze Los Angeles

This big kahuna opened closer to the sea, at the Santa Monica airport, for its VIP preview on Thursday. Brad Pitt is a usual feature — this year, Owen Wilson and Gwyneth Paltrow sightings were confirmed. Brooklyn artists enjoyed their time in the limelight too, while fair attendees gawked at private planes taking off over the stretch between Frieze LA’s two exhibition halls.

Portraits by Phong Bui (Photo by Dawn Blackburn, courtesy of Craig Starr Gallery)

Well, it doesn’t get more Brooklyn than this. Upon entering the eastward Barker Hangar at Frieze, New York-based Craig Starr gallery offers this arrangement of hyperrealist portraits by Industry City-based artist Phong Bui — who is also the editor-in-chief of the ubiquitous, free borough-wide print magazine The Brooklyn Rail. A veritable crossover episode on this one.

‘Join Us’ by Susumu Kamijo, 2023. (Photo by Vittoria Benzine)

Also in the Barker Hangar, Venus Over Manhattan included two Brooklyn artists in their star-studded lineup — PioneerWorks founder and artist Dustin Yellin, and painter Susumu Kamijo both held their own amongst kindred greats like George Condo, Keith Haring, and Katherine Bernhardt.

Based on the border between Bed-Stuy and Crown Heights, Welancora Gallery made their Frieze debut at the fair’s western site (ostensibly the main hall) with a duo presentation from sculptor Helen Evans Ramsaran and painter Chris Watts. Both artists split their time between New York City and elsewhere. Ramsaran anchors the booth while Watts sets it alight with his translucent series “The spirits that lend strength are invisible” of stretched silk, saturated pigment, resin, and more.

And also over on the mainstage, Tina Kim Gallery included one Op Art piece by Greenpoint-based Davide Balliano amongst their booth’s group exhibition. We have it on good authority that Balliano’s work, often called “monastic,” “austere,” and “concrete,” was in high demand on the fair floor. If you stop by their booth all four days, you may see a different piece in the same spot each time. Enjoy.

‘Untitled’ by Davide Balliano, 2023 (Courtesy of Tina Kim Gallery)