The California African American Museum Acquires a New Work by Mustafa Ali Clayton

Mustafa Ali Clayton’s ceramic sculpture Natural (2024), presented at Frieze Los Angeles by Dominique Gallery (Booth F4), has been selected by the jury of the new California African American Museum Acquisition Fund. Frieze Los Angeles and the California African American Museum (CAAM) have partnered on this new initiative to acquire a work from the fair’s Focus section for the Museum’s collection.

The California African American Museum Acquisition Fund's selection panel comprises Taylor Renee Aldridge (Visual Arts Curator and Program Manager at the California African American Museum), Christine Messineo (Director of Americas, Frieze) and V. Joy Simmons (collector, philanthropist and CAAM board member). The acquisition was made possible thanks to the support of Terri Holoman, Todd Hawkins and V. Joy Simmons. This new acquisition prize has been established in honor of Essence Harden, curator of Focus at Frieze Los Angeles 2024. Harden is visual arts curator at the California African American Museum and was recently announced as co-curator of the 2025 Made in L.A. biennial.

Aldridge said: "We're thrilled to acquire Mustafa Ali Clayton's work for our collection at CAAM. Mustafa's use of natural materials to make sculpture is particularly exciting as we think about earth preservation in the wake of climate change. This acquisition, which encompasses earthenware and figuration, allows us to expand our holdings in contemporary ceramics and figuration, to be in conversation with CAAM collection artists like Doyle Lane and Richmond Barthe. We find it particularly serendipitous that we are acquiring this work as we prepare to mount the Simone Leigh exhibition in collaboration with LACMA this Spring. Ultimately, acquiring Mustafa's work into CAAM's collection provides a unique opportunity to engage with a robust lineage of ceramic-making and figurative sculpture within the African diaspora, while championing the work of a contemporary artist based in Los Angeles."

About Mustafa Ali Clayton

Clayton (b.1978) is a multidisciplinary artist focusing on ceramics, specifically hand built sculptures and portraiture. At the crux of Clayton’s practice is the inclination to use clay as a means to build objects and portraits of permanence and significance that may serve as reminders and relics of the many faces and feelings in our world today.

About Focus

Curated this year by Essence Harden (Visual Arts Curator and Program Manager, California African American Museum) Focus is a space for US galleries operating for 12 years or less, platforming emerging and underrepresented voices . Supported by Stone Island, whose grants promote participation in Focus alongside Frieze subsidies, the section this year consists of 12 galleries and explores ideas of ecology.

Further Information

Frieze Los Angeles returns to Santa Monica Airport, February 29–March 3, 2024.

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^{Main Image: Mustafa Ali Clayton, Natural, 2024. Earthenware, glaze, wood pedestal hand-built from found materials. 61 × 55.9 × 50.8 in. Courtesy the artist and Dominique Gallery}