Every February, Los Angeles highlights contemporary art with a week-long celebration of artists. Frieze Los Angeles 2025 stands at the forefront of this cultural gathering, offering a platform for artistic expression and community resilience, especially poignant following recent wildfires in Altadena, Malibu, and Pacific Palisades.
“It’s not about recovery, it’s about reinvention.”
This guide highlights the week’s essential events, focusing on exhibitions where blue pigment symbolizes grief, resilience, and renewal. Even though the SPRING/BREAK Art Show LA is canceled this year, the satellite fairs will be strong with the Felix Art Fair in Hollywood and the new Post-Fair in Santa Monica.
1. Frieze Los Angeles: The Main Event
Dates: February 20–23, 2025 Location: Santa Monica Airport’s Airport Park Soccer Field Address: 3027 Airport Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90405
Set against the backdrop of Santa Monica Airport, Frieze Los Angeles serves as the heart of the city’s art fair circuit. This year’s edition features approximately 100 galleries showcasing diverse international and local artworks that reflect Los Angeles’s dynamic art scene. The fair not only provides a space for artistic exchange but also stands as a testament to the resilience of LA’s creative community in the face of recent challenges.
In a recent conversation, Director Christine Messineo and ‘Focus’ curator Essence Harden discussed how LA’s diverse neighborhoods and urban edges fuel fresh ideas and artistic journeys. During their routine drives, complete with a casual stop at In-N-Out Burger, they delved into the local nuances that drive innovation in the art scene. A clip from their conversation is available in the Instagram reel above. Read the full feature in Frieze Week Magazine Los Angeles 2025 for more insights.
2. Lita Albuquerque: ‘Turbulence’
Los Angeles icon Lita Albuquerque will show Turbulence (2025) as part of Frieze Projects, curated by the Art Production Fund. She is known for her masterful use of ultramarine blue pigment. For Turbulence, she will place a boulder coated in ultramarine blue atop a bed of decomposed granite, highlighting the fleeting nature of our connection to the environment.
After the devastating fires that have touched parts of Altadena, Malibu, and Pacific Palisades, her work, steeped in the color blue, symbolizes both the depth of human emotion and the capacity for rebirth. She recalls, “I used to close my eyes and see entire planets in this ultramarine blue pigment,” a reminder that beauty and strength endure even in hardship.
You can learn more about Albuquerque’s work in the book Lita Albuquerque, the first monograph dedicated to the acclaimed environmental artist known for her groundbreaking work in Land Art.
Lita Albuquerque Stellar Axis Lita Albuquerque (Text by (Art/Photo Books)), William L. Fox (Text by (Art/Photo Books)), Ann M. Wolfe (Text by (Art/Photo Books)), et al.
Lita Albuquerque: Stellar Axis
Albuquerque takes us across extreme landscapes in this beautifully designed survey, including Antarctica, the Arctic, Death Valley, the Mojave Desert, and South Dakota’s Badlands. She also documents her pioneering expedition to the South Pole, where she began her Stellar Axis project. The included essays situate her ephemeral installations within the evolving dialogue of environmental art and science.
Claudia Parducci Blue at Ochi Los Angeles
3. Claudia Parducci: ‘Blue’
Dates: February 18 – March 29, 2025 Location: Ochi, Los Angeles Address: 3301 W Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019
At OCHI, Claudia Parducci’s solo exhibition ‘Blue’ delves into the transformative power of color in the face of loss. Parducci employs a limited palette of soft blue pastels and materials left behind by her late partner, Peter Alexander, a founding member of the Space and Light Movement in Los Angeles. The work documents her grief, with remnants of the used pastel caught on a second canvas beneath the original monochrome canvas.
World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project / California African American Museum | by L.A. Art Documents
4. World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project
Dates: September 18, 2024 – March 2, 2025 Location: California African American Museum Address: 600 State Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90037
Curated by Cameron Shaw and Yael Lipschutz, this exhibition reinterprets the legacy of George Washington Carver through contemporary art. Carver, a pioneer in sustainable agriculture and plant-based engineering, was also an artist who used sustainable materials, including his own designed blue pigments, in his artworks.
The exhibition includes Carver’s rarely seen paintings, drawings, laboratory equipment, and notebooks, alongside contemporary artworks by thirty artists and collectives. The show draws parallels between Carver’s innovative work and today’s environmental challenges. In a city rebuilding after wildfires, this project underscores art’s role in inspiring environmental stewardship and resilience.
5. Felix Art Fair: Hollywood’s Contemporary Showcase
Dates: February 19–23, 2025 Location: The Hollywood Roosevelt Address: 7000 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028
In Hollywood, Felix Art Fair offers an intimate counterpoint to Frieze LA. Housed in the historic Hollywood Roosevelt, this fair spotlights emerging talent and established contemporary artists alike.
Expect interesting work from artists like Bari Ziperstein with Charles Moffett, Chason Matthams with Magenta, and Jasmine Little with Nina Johnson. Felix Art Fair provides a closer look at the creative pulse of LA while you linger near the pool for a bit too long.
Dates: February 20–22, 2025 Location: Santa Monica Post Office Address: 1248 5th St, Santa Monica, CA 90406
Post-Fair is a pilot alternative art fair offering a simplified, low-cost experience for galleries and visitors. Hosted in a Downtown Santa Monica disused art deco post office built in 1938, this three-day event focuses on solo presentations in an open-plan format.
Featuring local, national, and international galleries, including artists Amy Sarkisian with Alto Beta, Harry Gould Harvey IV with PPOW, and Kaari Upson with Sprueth Magers, Post-Fair challenges the traditional art fair model while delivering fresh, unfiltered creativity.
Tickets are available for $10 on Eventbrite or at the door.
Maximize your experience using the interactive map in my Los Angeles City Guide and my more logistical-focused post from last year, Your Ultimate Guide to Frieze Los Angeles and Beyond. Both are available on my blog and will help you organize your itinerary across the city to ensure you hit every key gallery and hidden gem.
From the expansive outdoor installations at Frieze and the deeply personal, blue-themed works by Lita Albuquerque and Claudia Parducci to the innovative reexamination of Carver Blue and the uniquely LA showcase at Felix Art Fair, each of these events offers a different perspective on contemporary art and resilience.
Art continues to push forward in a city still healing, transforming loss into reinvention.
