DESERT X BEGINS
The second installment of Desert X presents more than artists and their site-specific works in the Coachella Valley, California. The inaugural biennial in 2017 included the work of Claudia Comte, Jeffery Gibson, and Phillip K. Smith III, who addressed the social, political, and environmental narratives of the surrounding landscape. Desert X is on view from February 9 to April 21, 2019.
BEST COAST
LONDON’S FRIEZE ART FAIR GOES TO LA
By RYAN STEADMAN
WITH SUCCESSFUL FAIRS in London in October and New York in early May, the Frieze Art Fair is heading further west with its latest venture: Frieze Los Angeles, which will make its inaugural run February 14–17, 2019.
The original, London-based fair opened in 2003, the brainchild of art writers Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover of the art and culture magazine of the same name, and in 2012, they launched their New York fair, held on Randall’s Island, and a second London fair, Frieze Masters. Since then, the Frieze family of art fairs has made an indelible mark during a booming era of art sales. In 2016, they continued their innovative approach to the art market by forging a revolutionary partnership with the Hollywood talent agency William Morris |
IMG (now Endeavor).
And now for their next trick: bringing seventy galleries—and a full program of talks, music, and commissioned artist projects—to La La Land for their fourth, full-fledged art fair. Frieze Los Angeles will take place in a specially designed structure at the historic Paramount Pictures Studios in Hollywood, featuring some of the world’s best art galleries, including Sadie Coles HQ, Matthew Marks Gallery, and Gagosian.
Yet with all the hope and promise behind the new Frieze fair, there is some trepidation, as the city has a complicated history with art fairs. Many fairs had planned to thrive in Los Angeles, a city that has a stellar list of art patrons but also fights against urban sprawl, terrible traffic, and the long shadow of high-profile movie events.
Aside from these issues, Frieze is also looking at a spate of competition from other art fairs this year, including ALAC (Art Los Angeles Contemporary), the LA Art Show, and another newcomer, the hotel art fair Felix LA, all of which will set up shop in Los Angeles within the same time frame. Frieze, however, has the advantage of being a worldwide brand, and it is confident that it can turn LA into a long-term art fair destination. “Los Angeles is already on the map, but it is long overdue to have its spot on the international art world calendar,” says Bettina Korek, the art fair’s new executive director and founder of ForYourArt, an LA-based platform that produces and distributes artworks.
It does seem as if years of planning and the stars aligning could grant Frieze success in a city where other fairs have failed, but in an art world that has sobered up after a robust decade of sales, nothing will be taken for granted.
HEAVY METAL
STERLING RUBY DOES DALLAS
By Allison Meier
FEW ARTISTS WORK in such a variety of mediums as Los Angeles artist Sterling Ruby. Whether soft sculptures with human-like shapes that sprawl across the floor, or fragmented ceramic pieces that seem to have burst from a kiln, or, still yet, abstract paintings with bristling color layers reminiscent of street art, each is a distinct engagement with our ideas of what is beautiful and what has worth. The Nasher Sculpture Center is staging the first museum exhibition of his sculptures, with thirty pieces on view. “From the common detritus of our daily lives to monumental sculpture, Ruby’s work delves deeply into the transcendent life of objects and offers new ways to think about the nature of sculpture today,” says Jed Morse, chief curator at the Nasher.
Sterling Ruby: Sculpture will be on display at the Nasher Sculpture Center from February 2, 2019, through April 21, 2019.