Frieze Los Angeles 2026: Global Art and Market Power

Feature image: Frieze LA. Photograph by Erhan Us.

The 2026 edition of Frieze Los Angeles, held once again at Santa Monica Airport from February 26 to March 1, brought together more than 100 local and international galleries from 24 countries, while hosting 17 first-time participants. The brand encompasses Frieze fairs in London, LA, New York, and Seoul, as well as Expo Chicago and The Armory Show.

The backbone of the program consists of solo, dual, and group presentations. This structure aims to establish an exhibition language that reflects Los Angeles’ multi–generational creative ecosystem, spanning early modern positions to contemporary practices, from rediscovered figures to emerging voices. The curatorial approach frames the city not merely as a site of production, but as a living organism operating through networks of continuity and collective memory.

Entering its third year, the Focus section concentrates on young and ambitious artistic practices. Curated by Essence Harden, the selection features 15 U.S.-based emerging galleries presenting solo projects. Focus seeks to foreground new voices while offering a critical cross–section of current directions in contemporary art. It can be considered one of the most dynamic sections of the fair, particularly in tracing risk–taking practices and evolving narrative forms.

Among the most striking booth designs were Fort Gansevoort (New York), presenting Yvonne Wells’ textile works [06:39]; Chicago–based moniquemeloche, with works installed against purple wall coverings [03:15], and Sprüth Magers, transforming its space with powerful John Baldessari works [15:32]. Baldessari’s practice continues to inspire artists across multiple conceptual layers, as always. In several booths, I noticed labels marked 'Do Not Touch' [01:39]. While refraining from touching artworks is not yet a universally internalized habit, it is certainly more embedded in Western contexts. One only wishes that the recurring issue of visitors blocking already narrow fair walkways could be resolved with similar efficiency. At the VSF section [02:37], Jessie Homer French’s paintings featured her clearly legible signature at the lower right [unlike many indecipherable signatures] and the artwork title placed at the lower left, offering a thoughtful gesture in an era where explanatory texts are increasingly absent.

Presented by François Ghebaly Gallery, Christine Sun Kim’s practice [09:05] focuses on rendering the social and political functioning of sound visible. In a world where hearing is treated as normative, she interrogates who produces sound, who has access to it, and how it accrues value. Musical notation, written language, infographics, and American Sign Language (ASL) function not merely as tools but as structural components revealing questions of power, access, and representation. Through drawing, performance, video, and large–scale murals, Kim renegotiates hierarchies between auditory and visual languages.

The Small Mind Touch series derives from the ASL sign for “obsession/obsess”. The sign combines “MIND” (index finger touching the temple) and “TOUCH” (dominant middle finger touching the back of the other hand), with a circular motion indicating repetition and continuity. Kim translates this gesture into graphic notations, transforming obsession into visual rhythm. Lines, recurring circular forms, and condensed compositions spatialize mental fixation and cycles of attention.

In the series, obsession is addressed not merely as an individual psychological state but as a structural tempo of contemporary life. Within constant notifications, uninterrupted data flow, and the attention economy, the mind becomes trapped in a repetitive contact: it touches, returns, touches again. Kim’s drawings register this loop on both abstract and corporeal levels, converting the kinesthetic structure of sign language into vibrating, circulating, and intensifying energy on paper.

Chantal Penalosa’s camera, directed toward the sky [17:47], appears at the Proyectos Monclova booth, recording the most invisible yet encompassing plane of the border: a shared atmosphere. Her photographic backdrops document almost imperceptible changes in cloud formations during the time it takes to cross the U.S.–Mexico border, juxtaposing the temporal regime of political geography with meteorological flow. Here, the border is not defined by fences or patrol vehicles, but by the atmosphere; above the divided lands stretches an indivisible sky.

The difference between shots is not merely the shifting of clouds. It reveals the tension between bureaucratic waiting times [identity checks and transit permissions] and the rhythm of nature. The time spent crossing corresponds to nearly indifferent transformations in the sky. In doing so, the artist implies the cosmic insignificance of human–made divisions, without suspending their concrete impact on daily life.

Penalosa’s approach prioritizes redirection over representation: the camera targets vertical openness rather than horizontal demarcation, shifting perception from architectures of control toward uncertainty, transience, and commonality. The sky becomes not a romantic landscape but a conceptual field for rethinking temporality, circulation, and belonging. The slow drift of clouds establishes a soft yet persistent counter–rhythm to the rigidity of the border.

These works offer a quiet critique of divided land through a shared atmosphere; neither denying the material reality of the border nor dissolving it, but relocating it to another scale. By foregrounding a sky that recognizes neither passports nor checkpoints, the work invites viewers to imagine shared time and space within political geography.

Frieze LA also aims to center a “community–first” approach within its programming. The Frieze Library, launched for the first time in Los Angeles, will donate artist publications contributed by galleries to the Pacific Palisades Library, which reopened following the 2025 Palisades fire. This initiative situates artistic production within the frameworks of public access and cultural repair, strengthening the fair’s relationship with the local community.

Alicja Kwade’s Fruit of Labor exhibition [12:44] brings together a body of work the artist has developed and refined over many years, continuing her ironic inquiry into capitalism, optimization, and the circulation of commodities, time, and value. Familiar objects, fruits, and global symbols are transformed in terms of weight, function, or meaning, questioning how value is produced, transported, and perceived; not only within the global economy but also within the art market’s own circulation regime.

A lightweight, stackable monobloc chair and a perfectly spherical stone globe support one another. First produced in the early 1970s and often described as “the world’s most ubiquitous plastic chair”, the object functions as a symbolic marker of capitalism. Frequently encountered in developing countries, it provides practical support while metaphorically bearing the weight of the world. Kwade’s Mono Monde, complete with a damaged leg, represents the multidimensional relationship between consumption and globalization. The gesture situates an ordinary object within both material and metaphorical tension, exposing the fragile infrastructures of global circulation networks.

LA–based artist Narsiso Martinez, presented by Charlie James Gallery [19:31], centers his direct experience as a farmworker within his artistic practice. His multi–figure drawings and mixed–media installations foreground the invisible laborers of the U.S. food production chain. Aiming to make visible the bodily labor behind supermarket shelves and restaurant kitchens, Martinez often paints portraits on discarded fruit and vegetable boxes collected from markets. Drawing from the 1930s Social Realism tradition, his use of found materials generates both a historical and contemporary representation of labor. By problematizing even the phrase “American farmworker”, he underscores the ideological fragility of a term that obscures the sector’s reliance on immigrant labor.

Martinez immigrated to the U.S. at age 20. His work, Asparagus Picker, immediately stands out in the booth. Transforming temporary and discarded materials into art is a valuable gesture, rooted more in conceptual and experimental terrain. Whether presenting such work at Frieze with a $45,000 price tag satisfies the artist’s original intentions remains open to speculation. At times, works that begin as criticism eventually become the very subject they once critiqued.

It is also worth noting the stark contrast between gallery representatives’ attitudes during VIP previews and regular fair days. Prioritizing collector attendance over artists at preview events aligns with a broader pattern that, intentionally or not, renders artists secondary. While some galleries offered spacious, coherent booth experiences, others seemed to press every available key, displaying works in disparate visual languages, as though decorating a shop window.

When wall labels were absent beside artworks, either not provided at all or condensed onto a single sheet placed on a table, the works became effectively anonymized. Rapid viewing habits replace the act of picking up, reading, and carrying such information sheets. The same applies to oversized postcards and catalogs. The most practical print format for a fair [targeting general audience] remains the business card. A note to gallery representatives: you can't run out of business cards.

From an organizational standpoint, the event manages crowd flow through timed ticket entry. Tickets clearly warn that late entry is not permitted, reiterated in follow–up parking emails. The cooling system is remarkably efficient and airy compared to simultaneous events. Outdoor installations [00:06] are impeccably planned, clearly marked in the brand’s signature pink, and the walking route is unambiguous. Although Frieze may feel somewhat restrained in its corporate polish compared to other fairs, it offers a satisfying experience akin to Untitled Miami and NADA. The requirement to scan tickets upon exit [possibly implemented to track visitor duration], unfortunately, created an unnecessary departure queue.

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