Frieze returned to Los Angeles this month after two years off, making up for lost time with a myriad of events, pop-ups, launches and celebrations in addition to the usual standout fairs and gallery exhibitions. With so much going on, we asked Veronica Speck, founder of VHS Ventures, to share her top LA art week happenings. Read on for the highlights.
Frieze Los Angeles returned after a two-year hiatus with an expanded exhibitor list, which included 100 galleries from 17 countries, a new location adjacent to the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and a new director, Christine Messineo. “There has always been a lot of excitement around Los Angeles and many demands to participate, and we are now able to accommodate that. I think people are really ready to come to a physical fair... and there is this sense of community-building that can happen at a fair,” shares Messineo, as told to The Hollywood Reporter.
Satellite art fairs, such as Felix, popped up at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, with artworks surrounding the iconic swimming pool painted by David Hockney.
The Thursday, February 17th VIP vernissage saw the likes of Leonardo Dicaprio, Pierce Brosnan, Kendall Jenner, and Will Farrell viewing art, including a painting by Chloe Wise at Almine Rech Gallery and pausing inside Chris Burden’s US debut of “Dreamer’s Folly”-- a gazebo-like installation presented by Gagosian Gallery, made of 19th-century cast-iron, mimicking an idyllic English garden, a welcome respite from the surrounding hustle and bustle of the fair.
Ruinart provided the champagne from within their lounge, which displayed specially commissioned works by San Francisco-based artist and eco-activist Suzanne Husky who presented an installation centering on themes of ecology and the environmental crisis, echoing Maison Ruinart’s own efforts within the champagne region to secure and develop biodiversity. Frédéric Dufour, President of Maison Ruinart, elaborated “Given Ruinart’s full commitment to sustainability and biodiversity in every aspect of our process, we opt for artists with a strong environmental message. We believe in the power of art to enlighten and transform our vision of the link between humans and wildlife. We wish to merge art in nature in one common consciousness for the planet.”
Photo credit: Da Ping Luo
Similar to Art Basel, private events were abundant throughout the week. Highlights included French shoe designer Marie Laffont’s new collection debut and cocktail reception at the Sunset Strip bungalow of artist Hilde Lynn Helphenstein (better known as her Instagram moniker Jerry Gogosian). The limited-edition, handmade, and even hand-painted shoes, were presented amongst Helphensteins’ paintings and sculptures, blurring the lines between art and fashion.
Hilde Lynn Helphenstein, Marie Laffont | Photo credit: Kaitlin Saragusa/BFA
The Future Perfect gallery welcomed guests at Casa Perfect, nestled within the Trousdale Estates, for a private poolside soirée. A group exhibition titled “Momentary Pause” featured collectible designs by the likes of Bradley Bowers, John Hogan, Cody Hoyt, Eric Roinestad, Reinaldo Sanguino, Rachel Shillander, Chen Chen & Kai Williams, Floris Wubben, and Karl Zahn. Guests wandered throughout the exquisitely decorated and curated home-turned-gallery before heading outside to the Piet Hein Eek-designed ping-pong table for impromptu matches.
Photo credit: Elizabeth Carababas
Cool Hunting and NeueHouse presented Swedish designers at the new Volvo Studio DTLA for the first installment of the Maker Series. The inaugural event spotlighted the best of Swedish modernist design, minimalism, and creativity in sustainability— exemplified by new fully electric Volvo vehicles—the Brancusi-inspired C40 Recharge and the XC40 Recharge SUV. The event was presented by US Head of Volvo Design, Eric Beak, and award-winning chocolatier, Håkan Mårtensson, along with Cool Hunting editor David Graver.
Viso Project and artist Zaida Sabatés celebrated a special Frieze collaboration with a cocktail party at The Webster, a boutique designed by architect David Adjaye.
Hedges Projects presented an exhibition in the lobby of the Hotel Bel-Air featuring Andy Warhol polaroids of his muses including Mick Jagger, Farrah Fawcett, Debbie Harry, Grace Jones, Madonna, Keith Haring, and Halston. Warhol’s photographs “showcase a furious, poetic eye who knew that a camera could celebrate the famous and also preserve the simple, silent corners of the world where a real interaction could be made,” says Jim Hedges, whose private collection is one of the largest in the world, and includes countless images taken by Warhol from the late 1950s until the time of his death in 1987.
Photo credit: Veronica Speck
Cultured Magazine and the Art Production Fund celebrated Frieze at Michelin-Starred Chef John Fraser’s Ardor restaurant at the West Hollywood Edition. Guests included Cultured EIC Sarah Harrelson, Gagosian’s Sarah Hoover, Gagosian, and Dr. Barbara Sturm.
Casey Fremont, Sarah Harrelson, Belén Hormaeche | Photo credit: Jojo Korsh/BFA
Almine Rech gallery artist Chloe Wise celebrates the launch of “Second Nature” at the Michelin-Starred Chef John Fraser’s Ardor at the West Hollywood Edition Hotel. Chloe Wise’s practice spans diverse media, including painting, sculpture, video, and installation. An interest in the history of portraiture has led Wise to pay particular attention to the interweaving of consumption and image-making, exploring the shared projected desires built around food and the female body. Second Nature explores contemporary consumption, desire, and politics.
Chloe Wise | Photo credit: Jacob Messex
Sized Studio presented Vessels, a collaborative exhibition with a site-specific Ikebana installation and over 200 vessels by artists, designers, and architects– dedicated to the vessel as a form of poetic function. With contributions ranging from vases and planters to furniture and abstract sculptures, SIZED creative director Alexander May examines the vessel as an object in which matter is held, and creates a survey of works that fit this most basic definition of containers that hold not only floral, but also people and space.
Photo credit: Elizabeth Carababas
We consider the fact that National Margarita Day is February 22 something of a gift from the cocktail gods. It may be the dead of winter, but this is a fun way to warm up and get crafty in your kitchen. For those planning to observe, we compiled a roundup of interesting recipes, from traditional tequila cocktails to some unexpected concoctions with various spirits.
2oz 818 Tequila Reposado
0.5oz Premium Orange Liqueur
0.75oz Fresh Lime Juice
0.5oz Agave Syrup (50% Agave Nectar, 50% Water)
Half Tajin Salt Rim
Shake with ice. Strain and serve over fresh ice. Garnish with half orange slice.
1oz Grey Goose L'Orange Vodka
1oz Patron Silver
1oz Agave
1oz Fresh Lime Juice
Orange Wheel
Pour Grey Goose L' Orange Vodka, Patron Silver, agave and lime juice into a cocktail shaker. Shake and strain over ice into a rocks glass.
37oz. Hibiscus syrup (1/2 deli hibiscus flowers, 24oz. simple syrup)
24oz. Lemon Juice
4oz. Raspberry Puree
Add simple syrup to the deli cup ½ full with hibiscus flower, let sit overnight. Strain the next day. Add all ingredients to a Cambro, mix thoroughly.
2 parts Sipsmith London Dry Gin
1 part Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur or Cointreau Triple Sec Liqueur
1 part fresh lime juice Blood orange
Ground cumin
Sea salt
Wipe a lime around the rim of a coupe glass and dip it in a 50/50 mixture of cumin and sea salt to create the salt rim. Shake the remaining ingredients (excluding garnish) in a cocktail shaker with ice and double strain into the glass. Garnish with a wheel of blood orange floated on top.
1.25oz Casa Dragones Blanco infused with vanilla bean
.75oz Giffard Triple Sec
.75oz Fresh rhubarb juice
.25oz Lime juice
Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker. Shake with ice, strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with rhubarb.
3 oz tequila
1 oz orange liqueur
Juice of 2 limes
2 teaspoons dark brown sugar
3 cups ice
¼ cup sugar
½ cup sea salt
Zest of 1 lime
1 teaspoon espelette (crushed red pepper)
Add all margarita ingredients to the Vitamix and blend. Combine rim ingredients in a small bowl and massage by hand to combine. Transfer to a shallow bowl. Cut one lime into quarters and use quarters to moisten the edge of margarita glasses and press into the sugar-salt mixture. Pour the margarita into glasses; serve immediately.
¾ oz Lime Juice
¾ oz Simple Syrup
¾ oz Pineapple Juice
1 ½ oz Tequila
2-3 Sage leaves
3 Dashes Bitters
Contents shaken and strained over fresh ice, with a salt and black pepper rim. Garnish with a pineapple wedge and a sage leaf.
1.5 oz. Curamia Tequila Blanco
0.75 oz. Fresh Lime Juice
0.5 oz. Agave Nectar
Sliced Cucumber
Pinch of Salt
Seltzer
Muddle cucumber slices with salt in a shaking tin. Add tequila, lime and agave. Shake and double strain into a highball glass. Add ice and top with soda water. Garnish with a mandolin slice of cucumber.
2oz El Sativo Tequila
1/2 Fresh Lemon (juiced)
1/2 Fresh Lime (juiced)
1/2 oz Local Honey
1/2 oz Triple Sec
1 oz Fresh Squeeze Margarita Mix
1 oz Fresh Orange Juice
Ice, shake, pull into rocks glass. Honey on rim of glass. Slice of Grapefruit and Honeycomb to Garnish.
1.5 oz Patrón Reposado
.5 oz Patrón Citrónge Lime
1 oz Fresh lime juice
.5 oz Fresh mango puree
.5 oz Spicy rose syrup (Mix .5 oz simple syrup, a jalapeño coin and a dash of rose water)
Green chili-salt rim (Fresh green chiles, cilantro and a bit of garlic)
Dehydrated lime wheel for garnish
Mint sprig for garnish
Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake with ice to chill. Strain into a chilled cocktail coupe with a chili-salt rim. Garnish with a dehydrated lime wheel and mint sprig.
