The Surface Primer On L.A. Art Week

Currently underway in Los Angeles, a week of art and design fairs and activations align with marquee exhibitions at L.A.’s own galleries and institutions. On the fair circuit, the 2025 edition of Frieze Los Angeles at the Santa Monica Airport is dedicated to a celebration of creative resilience. It joins the seventh edition of the Felix Art Fair at The Hollywood Roosevelt, as well as the inaugural edition of Post-Fair—formerly known as the Santa Monica Post Office—and the 140 exhibiting artists of The Other Art Fair in Atwater Village. This is all in addition to the LA Art Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Alongside major museum shows like “Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st-Century Art and Poetics” at LACMA, “Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal” at the Hammer Museum, and “Joseph Beuys: In Defense of Nature” at The Broad, many L.A. galleries are hosting meaningful exhibitions by leading artists—including Nina Chanel Abney at Deitch, Alex Israel at Gagosian in Beverly Hills, Bruce Nauman at Marian Goodman Gallery, Kour Pour at Nazarian / Curcio, Jon Rafman at Sprüth Magers, Kelly Akashi at Lisson Gallery, Charlie Engelman’s “Pith” at Château Shatto, and Doug Aitken’s “Psychic Debris Field” at Regen Projects. Further, The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation is hosting a Frieze Weekend celebration for Casper’s Brindle’s solo exhibition “Numina” at William Turner Gallery.

Over at the Goldwyn House, The Future Perfect’s enchanting L.A. location, a new exhibition centers artists affected by the recent wildfires. Bill Willet, who lost his family home, will debut a new furniture collection through his eponymous studio, Willet, and Thomas Renaud and Noel Hennessy’s LGS Studio will present a ceramic collection. They are joined by contributions from Amir Nikravan, Bari Ziperstein, and Natalia Triantafylli, a site-specific installation created by Dan John Anderson, and an immersive dining room experience curated by Nicole Hollis. With the addition of an auction, The Future Perfect restructure the exhibition to raise funds for Grief and Hope, which supports artists and art workers who lost homes and studios in the recent fires, as well as the local firehouse Station 41. 

Highlights are set to abound at Frieze, Felix, Post-Fair, and The Other Art Fair, with the latter introducing a new mural by L.A. artist Judy Baca. Among the 95 international and local galleries at Frieze, Almine Rech will present a solo booth of paintings by Brooklyn-based Tomokazu “Matsu” Matsuyama and Gagosian will exhibit Chris Burden’s ethereal, large-scale Nomadic Folly. Xavier Hufkens’ booth will introduce new paintings by Tracey Emin alongside sculptures by Louise Bourgeois. Southern Guild will make their Frieze Los Angeles debut with new work by five women artists. Finally, displayed across a series of public billboards and digital screens throughout Los Angeles, artist Coco Fusco’s Only in Darkness broaches race, gender, and colonialism through skywriting. It’s a city-wide collaboration with Mendes Wood DM and Orange Barrel Media.

For its distinct balance of wonder and eccentricity, Felix, the more intimate, experimental L.A. art week option, is once again a stage for discovery. Megan Mulrooney dedicates Room 1110 to Nick Taggart paintings. Ryan Mosley, Sam Messer, Sula Bermudez-Silverman, and Timothy Lai are featured by Josh Lilley. One Trick Pony presents Meegan Barnes in Room #119⁠, and M+B presents Thiago Molon in Room 103. In the Cabana Hallway East⁠, A Hug From The Art World presents SOCKO. These are but some of the 60 international exhibitors—30 of which are new to the contemporary art fair. An exclamation point to Felix, La Ayuda Network’s Foundations: A Fire Relief Benefit is selling hundreds of artist-made stone works—for between $125 to $500—with all proceeds going to underresourced communities.