Watch Now: Amanda Hunt Brings Together Risk-Takers and Storytellers for Focus LA
Artists including Rodrigo Valenzuela, Jay Lynn Gomez and Melvino Garretti re-imagine our relationships with nature, craft, community and labor
Artists including Rodrigo Valenzuela, Jay Lynn Gomez and Melvino Garretti re-imagine our relationships with nature, craft, community and labor
Focus LA features special projects by emerging artists and is curated for the first time by Amanda Hunt (Director of Public Programs & Creative Practice, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art).
The section will feature 11 young spaces from across Los Angeles, all bringing radical artists and collectives, whose work tell stories about labor, cultural identity and the environment; while experimenting with materials, from ceramics and design to performance and photography.
Labor and Performance
Highlights include artists looking at labor and industry, such Rodrigo Valenzuela’s new series of performative photographs. These uncanny images invoke early steel production, when workers were treated as engines, while imagining a new relationship between man and machine in a post-worker’s world (showing with Luis De Jesus Los Angeles).
Jay Lynn Gomez who is known for her painting, collage and sculptural works that center labor amidst the luxury of west side Los Angeles, is showing new work with Charlie James Gallery.
Indigenous Identity
Eric-Paul Riege (Stars) creates soft, woven sculptures and performances informed by his cultural and spiritual heritage. His work celebrates the process of togetherness and his queer Diné upbringing, including traditional stories, philosophies and dances.
Conceptual artist Sarah Rosalena Brady works with indigenous traditions of beading, textiles, and ceramics to reimagine digital visions of the cosmos, starting with NASA images that represent the early universe and Big Bang cosmology.
Conceptual Craft: Ceramics and Textiles
LA-based artist Melvino Garretti presents a selection of ceramics and fabric paintings, some being shown for the very first time. He was among the first residents of the Studio Watts workshop in the mid-1960s, a pioneering non-profit serving artists in South-Central LA, which fuelled a rich period of creativity and experimentation within the Black community.
Amia Yokoyama uses porcelain for its delicate finish and its imperial past, to create her own mythology of ethereal monsters for the post-internet age.
Artist Collectives
Ficus Interfaith (Ryan Bush and Raphael Cohen), whose research-based practice explores our relationship with nature, present new terrazzo works.
Conceptual art and design studio A History of Frogs – Chase Biado and Antonia Pinter – bring new wall-mounted metal sculptures to the fair (Marta).
And much more...
Limited tickets to Frieze Los Angeles 2022 are now on sale. Don't miss out and buy yours now.
Focus LA 2022: Galleries & Artists
Baert Gallery, Los Angeles
Iliodora Margellos, Paolo Colombo
Bel Ami, Los Angeles
Ben Sakoguchi
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Los Angeles
Rodrigo Valenzuela
Garden, Los Angeles
Sarah Rosalena Brady
Gattopardo, Los Angeles
Dirk Knibbe, Gabriel Madan
In Lieu, Los Angeles
Ficus Interfaith, Pauline Shaw
Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles
Patrick Martinez, Jay Lynn Gomez
Marta, Los Angeles
Minjae Kim, Chase Biado & Antonia Pinter
Parker Gallery, Los Angeles
Melvino Garretti, Troy Lamarr Chew II
Stanley's, Los Angeles
Timo Fahler, Amia Yokoyama
Stars, Los Angeles
Eric-Paul Riege
