Frieze Projects: Claire Chambless, ‘Player, Non-Player’
Claire Chambless, Player, Non-Player, 2025.
Resin cast of human sacral vertebrae, oyster shell, pewter, round cut natural ruby, natural fiber, and plastic golden egg.
Location: 5
About the Project
Claire Chambless adds a sense of anticipation to this year’s Frieze Projects with her interactive sculpture hunt. Golden eggs containing miniature sculptures will be hidden across the fair and its surroundings, inviting visitors to encounter art in unexpected ways. Playful yet thought-provoking, Chambless’s work challenges traditional modes of art acquisition, fostering communal exploration and using play to spark conversations about feminist, communal, and environmental themes, rather than reinforcing competition or scarcity.
About the Artist
Claire Chambless (b.1989, Houston, TX) is a Los Angeles based interdisciplinary artist working primarily in sculpture. Her artworks reconfigure or remix semiotic systems at multiple strata simultaneously using a limited visual language of culturally-loaded symbols: pearls, bones, Easter eggs, black latex, etc. At once deeply personal and universally resonant, her materially intricate works are both parafictional allegories and theatrical ’situations’ or ‘sets’ that invite the viewer to participate in rethinking various aspects of contemporary culture. Her most recent research centers on the ways haunting and cultural melancholia are sublimated into ecstatic experiences, ranging from the religious to the psychedelic.
Chambless received her BA at Davidson College and her MFA at the California Institute of the Arts. Recent exhibitions include: Davidson College (Charlotte, North Carolina); Fellows of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (FOCA); Sargents' Daughters (Los Angeles); MAK Center for Art & Architecture Mackey Apartments (Los Angeles); Oolong Gallery (San Diego); Office Space Gallery (Los Angeles); Wonzimer (Los Angeles); The End (Atlanta); Flux Factory (New York); La MaMa Gallery (New York); the New Wight Biennial at UCLA (Los Angeles) and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (Atlanta). She has been supported by the City of Atlanta, Fulton County Arts and Culture Council, Walthall Fellowship, the James G. Pepper Scholarship, and the Lillian Disney Scholarship, among others. Her work is included in the collections of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; LACMA, Los Angeles, CA; and the Bunker, Palm Beach. Her work has been featured in Artforum online, Artillery, Tzvetnik, LA Weekly, Burnaway and ArtsATL, among others.
Further Information
Frieze Los Angeles, 20 – 23 February 2025, Santa Monica Airport.
Frieze is proud to support the LA Arts Community Fire Fund, led by the J. Paul Getty Trust. In addition to Frieze’s contribution, 10% of the value of all newly purchased tickets is also being donated to the fund.
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Main Image: Claire Chambless, Player, Non-Player, 2025. Courtesy: the artist
