Los Angeles Times, Feb 2020

LA Times

Frieze Week LA 2020: Your Guide to Talks, Screenings, Performances and Parties

by Deborah Vankin, February 6, 2020

Poet Danez Smith will perform at the California African American Museum as part of Frieze Week. (California African American Museum)

An art bonanza will unfurl across the city next week as Frieze Los Angeles and four other key fairs lure art makers, sellers, collectors and spectators from around the globe. The occasion also has sparked a slew of talks, screenings, performances and parties, turning “Frieze” into “Frieze Week.”

Here’s our primer on the biggest public events plus a day-by-day curated guide to some of the most promising happenings:

The big five, plus one Frieze Los Angeles: The weekend fair drew 30,000 visitors over four days to its premiere at Paramount Studios last year. Expect more than 70 galleries and a finer-point focus this year. The Frieze Projects series, site-specific artworks on the Paramount backlot, was curated by Rita Gonzalez and Pilar Tompkins Rivas and will center on issues of representation, identity and myth. Gonzalez also is organizing a section of the main exhibition tent called “Focus L.A.,” devoted to local galleries that opened within the last 15 years. Paramount Studios, 5515 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. Feb. 13-16. frieze.com(which lists entry gate directions.)

Start Up Art Fair: In its fifth year here, this event is devoted to emerging contemporary artists who aren’t represented by galleries. It will again take over the charming Kinney hotel in Venice, with more than 80 artists turning guest rooms into galleries. Artist Lili Bernard, who was one of Bill Cosby’s sexual-harassment accusers, will host a talk about art and the #MeToo movement at 2 p.m. Feb.16. 737 W. Washington Blvd., Venice. Feb. 14-16. startupartfair.com All of those Frieze Week events come on the heels of the L.A. Art Show, which celebrates its 25th anniversary a week earlier. L.A.’s longest-running art fair, it’s showing 127 international galleries and, for the first time, a European Pavilion with 12 galleries from France, Italy, Spain, Britain, Germany and Denmark. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Broad, the Japanese American National Museum, the Museum of Latin American Art and others have staged installations and are involved in the programming. Los Angeles Convention Center, South Hall, 1201 S. Figueroa St., downtown L.A. Feb. 5-9. laartshow.com