Back in 2020, Frieze Los Angeles staged its sophomore edition under the shadow of a looming pandemic, the star-studded crowds blissfully blasé about a virus was making its way around the world. The fair was forced to delay and then cancel its 2021 editon.
Now, at long last, it’s back.
Not all of the city’s fairs have emerged from pandemic-induced hibernation. Art Los Angeles Contemporary, which celebrated its 11th edition right before lockdown, still lists the 2020 fair dates on its dormant website. The stARTup Art Fair, a hotel fair for artists without gallery representation, is also off the calendar for 2022.
But there are still a healthy number of outfits competing for art lovers’ eyeballs—and dollars—this coming week. Here’s the rundown on what to expect.
Intersect Palm Springs
February 10–13, 2022
Intersect Palm Springs at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Photo courtesy of Intersect Palm Springs.
What to Expect: For those already based in the City of Angels—or for jet-setters who have started their West Coast trips early—it’s worth kicking things off with a trip inland to the desert for Intersect Palm Springs, just over two hours from downtown L.A.
The event formerly known as Art Palm Springs, along with SOFA Chicago and Art Aspen, is now under the Intersect Art and Design Fairs umbrella. There are booths from over 50 galleries, plus the “Focus on Form” sculpture garden with works by the likes of Robert Indiana, Cybele Rowe, and Alex Schweder. Other special exhibitions include “Zzyzx Redux,” inspired by the history of an area of the Mojave Desert that served as an Indigenous trade route and witnessed the Gold Rush and the railroads, before becoming a trendy health resort and, most recently, an environmental research station.
When: Thursday, 5 p.m.–9 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.
Where: Palm Springs Convention Center, 277 N Avenida Caballeros, Palm Springs
Cost: $25 and up
Frieze Los Angeles
February 17–20, 2022
The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Photo courtesy Felix.
What to Expect: Frieze returns not to the cinematic Paramount Studios, but to a tent erected by the Beverly Hilton Hotel. It will, however, spill out across the city with monumental installations for Frieze Projects, including Mel Bochner’s Street Sign (Seriously?), which you can spot while traveling northbound on Merv Griffin Way across from the fair.
Inside the tent, a number of galleries are opting for solo presentations from women artists, from Joan Semmel paintings at New York’s Alexander Gray Associates and new works by Camille Henrot at Hauser and Wirth, to manga-inspired canvases by self-taught Japanese artist Ayako Rokkaku at König Galerie from Berlin.
The first fair for new Frieze director Christine Messineo will feature 100 galleries, both local and international: 38 Los Angeles dealers will be joined by exhibitors from 17 countries. Newer additions to the L.A. scene such as Garden, Gattopardo, In Lieu, Stanley’s, and Bel Ami will take center stage in the Focus L.A. section curated by Amanda Hunt, director of public programs and creative practice at the city’s Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
When: Thursday, VIP preview, 10 a.m.–7 p.m.; Friday preview, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.
Where: 9900 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles
Cost: Friday preview, $227; daily general admission $75 ($95 for entrance before 2 p.m.); student, $35; child, $10
Felix Art Fair
February 17–20, 2022
Nikki Maloof, Dinner Is Served (2021). Courtesy of the New Art Dealers Alliance.
What to Expect: Launched in concert with Frieze L.A. by collector and television mogul Dean Valentine, Felix is the hipper, more intimate of the two main events of the week. At the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, it will feature 60 international galleries, exhibiting in the cabanas alongside the David Hockney-painted pool and in rooms on floors 10 and 11.
In true Hollywood fashion, the fair’s website is promoting the upcoming event with a delightfully strange script envisioning next week’s opening that loads line-by-line as you scroll down the page, starring Valentine and dealers and brothers Al and Mills Morán. “This is great, man! Feels like 2019. You guys are all boosted right?,” a guest name Eddy asks his friends at the hotel’s new Nancy Silverton restaurant. “Vaccinated, boosted, post-Delta, post-Omi, post-Deltacron!” they respond in unison.
When: Thursday, VIP preview, 11 a.m.– 7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m.–8 p.m.;Sunday, 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Where: The Hollywood Roosevelt, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles
Cost: Friday and Saturday, $45; Sunday, $40 or free with valid student I.D.; run of show $75
Spring Break Art Show Los Angeles
February 17–20, 2022
Assaf Shaham’s “Taste of the Wild,” curated by Seymour Polatin at Spring Break Art Show Los Angeles 2020. Photo by Sarah Cascone.
What to Expect: New York’s funnest art fair, the Spring Break Art Show, is known for its unconventional venues—abandoned schools, former embassies, industrial storage facilities—and wild, often immersive installations. For its third Los Angeles outing, the event will take over a 30,000-square-foot warehouse, presenting exhibitions from 50 curators, all working with the theme “Hearsay: Heresy.”
In addition to showing the emerging artists that are the fair’s bread and butter, this year’s show will also feature work by Maripol, the artist and fashion designer who photographed Jean-Michel Basquiat and Madonna, and a solo booth from Alia Shawkat, star of Search Party and Arrested Development, and also a dedicated artist.
When: Wednesday, collectors first look, 2 p.m.–5 p.m. and opening night 5 p.m.–8 p.m.; Thursday, VIP preview 11 a.m.– 7 p.m.; Friday–Sunday, 11 a.m.– 7 p.m.
Where: Skylight Culver City, 5880 Adams Blvd, Culver City Arts District, Los Angeles
Cost: Opening night, $50; Thursday, $40; Friday–Sunday, $30; run of show, $150