Frieze Week Los Angeles art fair celebrated locally and citywide

| February 28, 2019 | 0 Comments
LOBBY of the Marciano Art Foundation (the former Scottish Rite Cathedral designed by Millard Sheets) was the scene of the opening night reception for “Glenn Ligon: Selections from the Marciano Collection.

Last month saw the inaugural Frieze Los Angeles contemporary art fair headquartered right here in our part of town — at Paramount Pictures Studios. The first Frieze Art Fair took place in London in 2003, with Frieze New York taking place each May since 2012.

Jonathan Griffin, a contributing editor of the “frieze” magazine that was founded in England in 1991 to report on contemporary art and culture, writes of these art fairs: “Every Frieze fair aspires to create the best possible temporary environment for viewing art with curated projects, talks and music programs all contributing to the fair’s appeal to a wide audience.” Griffin quotes magazine co-founder Amanda Sharp: “It’s more than simply a trade fair; it’s a place where art gets made as well as sold.”

The temporary environment for the Los Angeles event at Paramount ran from Valentine’s Day through the Sunday of Presidents’ Day Weekend, and among the things for which the 2019 event will be remembered is rain! But guests and exhibitors coped, and the main gallery tent and other design features overseen by architect Kulapat Yantrasast, of wHY Architecture and Design, kept the visitors and exhibitors dry.

But the fair at Paramount was really just the culmination of a week of contemporary art events, and a couple of them were right in the neighborhood — one in Windsor Square, the other in Hancock Park. Both took place the Tuesday preceding the fair at Paramount.

Marciano Art Foundation

MAURICE MARCIANO and Nicole Frank stand in front of “Building ‘The Big White Whale,’ 2012” by Mark Bradford during the Marciano Art Foundation reception for artist Glenn Ligon’s new exhibition.

Maurice and Paul Marciano invited contemporary art lovers to an opening night reception for “Glenn Ligon: Selections from The Marciano Collection.” The exhibition continues through May 5.

The Marciano Art Foundation is housed in the former Scottish Rite Cathedral building designed by Millard Sheets and located on Wilshire Boulevard between Lucerne and Plymouth Boulevards. The building’s renovation that was completed in 2017 was overseen by Kulapat Yantrasast and wHY, creators of the temporary Frieze tent at Paramount.

Also on display in the large Ballroom Gallery on the top floor is “California Artists in the Marciano Collection” that presents many works not previously exhibited there. Welcoming visitors at the opening was the Foundation’s co-founder, Maurice Marciano, and his guest, Nicole Frank.

British Consul General

BRITISH CONSUL GENERAL Michael Howells’ Hancock Park residence front hall is the venue for Matthew Orr and Sybil Robson Orr to tell guests about a new, annual art commission. Deputy Consul General Collette Weston is at right.

Just as the Marciano Art Foundation was a welcoming venue for contemporary art aficionados in Windsor Square, the Hancock Park residence of the British Consul General in Los Angeles was the scene of another Frieze Week art event the same evening.

STILL LIFE with Artificial Flowers” by Hurvin Anderson is an intricate print that evokes a snapshot of the artist’s mother’s front room in Birmingham, England.

There, Sybil Robson Orr and Matthew Orr welcomed a full house of guests, British and not, to learn about the Robson Orr TenTen Award and to view “Still Life with Artificial Flowers” by Hurvin Anderson, the first recipient of the award.

At the reception, the Orrs explained that they were inspired to create the TenTen Commission by a U.S. program to provide works of American art for U.S. embassies around the world. Over the next ten years, ten British artists will be commissioned to create a print to be added to the Government Art Collection that was established in 1898 to display British art in government buildings around the world.

Fifteen of the prints by Anderson, the youngest of eight siblings and the only one not born in Jamaica, are being framed and displayed in British embassies and residences. The vase depicted in the print belongs to the artist’s mother, a prized possession that traveled with her from Jamaica to England. The print has 13 base colors built up from 15 stencils over 21 layers and incorporates warm, deep red, flocked wallpaper and intricate lace doilies.

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