Frieze Los Angeles, Felix Art Fair and more: L.A. arts and culture this weekend
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Frieze Los Angeles is upon us, and with it a wealth of opportunities to see, buy and engage with art. But where to start?
Former Times staff writer Steven Vargas rounded up an excellent guide to key Frieze offerings, along with the other arts events exploding on the calendar this weekend including the L.A. Art Show, Felix Art Fair and the Other Art Fair. Whatever you’re hoping to see — or if you just want to expand your visual arts horizons — there is something for you.
South L.A. artist Lauren Halsey, who unveiled her work on a monumental sculpture park scheduled to open in South Central L.A. next year, is front and center at Frieze, and is doing a pop-up with the community center Summaeverythang. The Times’ Image section made a zine with Halsey, calling it a “Love letter to South Central” and including Halsey’s vision for the neighborhood, a story about the community of people who helped the artist set the vision for her Frieze pop-up. Another must-read: a profile of the Hood Historian, who chronicles Southern California’s history on Instagram through the lens of “a Black dude from the hood.”
We’re Times staff writers Ashley Lee and Jessica Gelt, with more of your Essential Arts:
Best bets: On our radar this week
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Parker Gallery’s inaugural exhibitions
Sam Parker’s namesake gallery, famously housed in a five-bedroom Storybook home in Los Feliz, has a new location in a renovated 1947 building on Melrose Avenue. Its inaugural offerings: Joe Minter’s first solo exhibition on the West Coast, featuring large-scale sculptures and recent paintings examining the reverberations of slavery in Black contemporary society; and Daisy Sheff’s whimsical and nearly-absurd paintings and sculptures, made across two studios in Northern and Southern California. Both exhibitions, which opened Wednesday, are on view Tuesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., through March 29. Parker Gallery, 6700 Melrose Ave, L.A. parkergallery.com
‘The Camp: An Opera in Two Acts’
“Eighty years ago, the Japanese and Japanese Americans — men, women, kids, two, three generations of families who had been locked up in wartime incarceration camps like Manzanar — were allowed to start leaving their confinement,” wrote Times columnist Patt Morrison last month. That anniversary is also invoked by new contemporary opera from librettist Lionelle Hamanaka and composer Daniel Kessner that ecounts the era of wrongful imprisonment via one Southern California family. Diana Wyenn directs the world-premiere production, featuring an ensemble of eleven singers and a twenty-two-member orchestra conducted by Steve F. Hofer. Performances are Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, as well as on March 1 and 2. Aratani Theatre, 244 S. San Pedro St, Little Tokyo. jaccc.org
‘The Importance of Being Earnest’
National Theatre Live is presenting stateside screenings of its staging of Oscar Wilde’s 1895 comedy, which “lands the verbal invention and wit of [the] classic while incorporating contemporary music, the occasional swear word and a decidedly queer sensibility,” according to the New York Times’ review. Directed by Max Webster, the high-camp revival of false identities and romantic pursuits stars Ncuti Gatwa, Sharon D. Clarke and Hugh Skinner. The filmed production is playing locally at Laemmle theaters from Saturday through Monday. theimportanceofbeingearnest.ntlive.com
— Ashley Lee
The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY
iLe The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter from Puerto Rico blends traditional Latin rhythms and cutting-edge electronic sounds.
7:30 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills. TheWallis.org
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats Soulful rockers are joined by guests Waxahatchee and Iron & Wine on their South of Here tour.
7 p.m. Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. thekiaforum.com
Trupa Trupa The Polish post-punk band with a sound once described as “The Beatles play Joy Division” visits Southern California.
8 p.m. Friday. The Sardine, 1101 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro. 7 p.m. Saturday. Gold–Diggers, 5632 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. trupatrupa.com
SATURDAY
JJJJJerome Ellis: Aster of Ceremonies The Grenadian Jamaican American multidisciplinary artist and musician performs live.
8 p.m. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu
Los Tucanes De Tijuana Last December’s Besame Mucho fest may have been canceled, but you can still catch these norteño superstars.
8 p.m. Intuit Dome, 3930 W. Century Blvd., Inglewood. intuitdome.com
SUNDAY
Bereishit Dance Company The Seoul troupe makes its L.A. debut with two pieces: “Balance & Imbalance,” featuring five dancers accompanied by traditional Korean drummers, and “Judo,” an exploration of sports as a way to control humanity’s violent urges.
6 p.m. USC, Bovard Auditorium, 3551 Trousdale Parkway. visionsandvoices.usc.edu
Exhibitionism The works in this inaugural show of a new Hollywood gallery space “demonstrate how artists negotiate the boundary between public and private.”
Through March 30. Rajiv Menon Contemporary, 1311 N. Highland Ave. rmcontemporary.com
Regina Spektor The singer-songwriter is touring after recently releasing a remastered edition of her 2002 indie album “Songs.”
7 p.m. The Belasco, 1050 S. Hill St., downtown L.A. thebelasco.com
Topanga Canyon Soil Landslide Columns This new site-specific permanent public artwork by Lauren Bon and Metabolic Studio, in collaboration with California State Parks, contemplates relationships between urban development, water systems and ecological restoration.
Ongoing. 18th Street Arts Center, 1639 18th St., Santa Monica. 18thstreet.org
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Legendary — although sometimes overlooked — choreographer Twyla Tharp is 83. She rose to fame in the 1960s using Beach Boys music in a ballet for Robert Joffrey. Tharp was raised in Rialto by a pianist mother and lots of Beethoven. Many of her dances have been created to that composer as well as to Brahms, Mozart, Bach, Bob Dylan and Frank Sinatra. Now, Tharp is celebrating her diamond jubilee and Times classical music critic Mark Swed was there to watch her remount a major Beethoven work, “Diabelli,” from 1998, and to see a new Philip Glass dance, “Slacktide,” which UC Santa Barbara co-commissioned. “Ballet loves variation, short episodes featuring one fancy bit of choreography after another. Tharp can’t stop herself either. She is full of humor and whimsy, creating every imaginable kind of playful and play-acting partnering. There is little rest and lots of exhausting joy,” writes Swed. The tour’s last Southern California stop is Saturday and Sunday at the Soraya on the campus of Cal State Northridge.
“Our love of Stephen Sondheim is approaching the ‘Beatlemania’ phase,” notes Times theater critic Charles McNulty at the top of a review of “Stephen Sondheim’s Old Friends,” which opened last week at the Ahmanson Theatre in advance of a move to Broadway in the spring. Despite the hype, McNulty found the musical revue, starring Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga, “a true embarrassment of riches.” Read all about why, here.
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The Hollywood Bowl has announced its beloved summer season, and the big news is that Cynthia Erivo will star as Jesus in a production of “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Also noteworthy: This marks music director Gustavo Dudamel’s penultimate season at the venue, so the schedule is packed with shows featuring him and a who’s-who of popular musicians including pianist Yuja Wang, Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang and trumpeter Pacho Flores.
In other Erivo news, it was announced earlier this week that the Grammy, Tony and Emmy-award winning actor and singer will host the 78th Annual Tony Awards, which honor work done during the 2024-2025 Broadway season. This year’s ceremony will take place June 8 at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
— Jessica Gelt
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