Ari Emanuel‘s Frieze Los Angeles lands at the Santa Monica airport on Thursday, and the art world is keen to see how the superagent pilots the art fair after acquiring it from his former company, Endeavor.
“One thing I’m interested to know about is Ari: What is he going to do with the property, what is his plan?” mused a high-end art advisor to P6H.
Sources say that Frieze LA — one of seven fairs owned by Emanuel’s new company, Mari — has made a cultural impact, and is jammed with A-listers, but has yet to attract the sales levels of its rival Art Basel.
“The biggest money makers are the Art Basel fairs,” says a gallerist. “Frieze tends to be important, but doesn’t tend to be the real revenue generators with mega high-wattage prices. They’ve struggled to find their footing.” But, “There’s a lot of excitement heading into this round,” and top booths could “do really well.”
Says the insider: “Last year, we were coming off the fires and people were skeptical about going, but wanted to go to support. I don’t know how much business people were doing, but in LA there’s a lot of interest and a steady stream of people throughout… there’s a lot of engagement and interest.”
The fair’s VIP day has previously attracted Leo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr., Will Ferrell, Anthony Kiedis, Owen and Luke Wilson, Jane Fonda, Jessica Biel, John C. Reilly and more. This year, the fair, which runs through March 1, includes about 100 galleries.
“They’ve struggled calendar-wise to find the right slot,” said a source, citing that there was “some concern that the [inaugural Art Basel Qatar this month] would pull interest, but it really didn’t.” Frieze this year is surrounded by a number of satellite fairs, like cool kid magnet Felix in Hollywood, plus museum exhibitions like a Robert Therrien show at The Broad.
While film and TV pros have been fleeing LA as work has dried up after the pandemic and the guild strikes, “it’s where 90% of the artists now live,” says an art source.
“One thing I love about [Frieze] LA is that it still feels small and special,” says one cool art advisor — who nevertheless grouses, “the location is annoying and really hard to get to,” from the East Side of town. “It’s mega-annoying, but I like that Frieze LA is not bombarded by brands, so it doesn’t feel like [Art Basel Miami]. There is still room for activations and sponsorship where it doesn’t feel like a million things coming at you.”
Among the highlights during Frieze week, artist Barry McGee has taken over a shuttered 99 Cents store near LACMA and turned it into a 20,000-square-foot “art flea market” with Emanuel’s art advisor Jeffrey Deitch and LA gallery The Hole.
Deitch also has exhibitions going with Marco Perego (Zoe Saldana‘s husband) and Andy Warhol associate Paige Powell.
At Frieze, gallery Hauser & Wirth has a solo show by German artist Conny Maier and White Cube is showing works by British sculptor Antony Gormley, while David Zwirner’s booth is offering works by artists including Raymond Pettibon, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Lisa Yuskavage and more.
Gagosian is juxtaposing California masters and newer LA art. The booth will display pieces by Richard Diebenkorn, Frank Gehry, David Hockney, Ed Ruscha and Wayne Thiebaud with new and recent works by Urs Fischer, Mark Grotjahn, Alex Israel, Sterling Ruby, Jordan Wolfson and Jonas Wood, among others.
We hear that for the gallery’s annual upcoming high-powered Beverly Hills show coinciding with the Oscars, Gagosian will launch an exhibition of new tennis court paintings by Wood on March 12 — prior to the 98th Academy Awards ceremony on March 15, and also during the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
