> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Overheard and Observed at the LA Art Fairs - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/comic-los-angeles-frieze-week/ - Published: 2020-02-16T19:32:42.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T15:43:19.000Z - Description: Your comics dispatch from Frieze Week. - Author: Susan Coyne - Tags: Comics, Art Fairs, California, Frieze Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Spring/Break Art Show, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:41 (2019, 2020, part 2) # Frieze Press Preview Day Arriving at the Frieze press desk, I tell the attendant that her lipstick is wonderful. “Sephora lip stain #01\. RED!” she tells me. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/02/high_af.jpg) I walk into my first gallery. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/02/katz.jpg) I ask some gallery employees why they choose to not include information about mediums in their captions. “It is a long-standing conscious choice of ours not to include things like dimensions and medium, because that information is absolutely SUPERFLUOUS,” a gallery employee sniffs at me. I agree, vaguely, having spent too much time over the years in museums squinting at the information about mediums rather than engaging with the pieces. A minute later a man asks about the medium for a piece and they have to look it up. A minute after that, another man asks about the dimensions of another piece on the wall and someone has to take out a tape measure. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/02/genevieve_gaignard_i.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/02/genevieve_ii.jpg) Gallery employees are very often women in their thirties who are very fancy, very cold, and very busy, leaning over their laptops in a primal sort of panic. “Is that for public consumption?” I ask, pointing to the bottle of champagne on the table. “Not yet,” a gallery owner tells me in heavily French-accented English, with a wink. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/02/alison_saar.jpg) Stranger: “Walking around this fair for millions of hours gets tiring.” Her companion: “Tomorrow I’ll wear sneakers.” First woman: “You can!” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/02/white_cube.jpg) “Well, we DID do 500 million in sales last year,” one gallerist says languidly to her coworker. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/02/frieze_after-party.jpg) # Spring/Break Art Show I walk into the wrong entrance at the large industrial building hosting the Spring/Break Art Show. “Sorry!” a young cheery Englishwoman at a desk tells me. “This is a *dumpling-associates* popup!” I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more beautiful sentence. I emerge from the elevator on the correct floor this time, and am greeted by a stack of 200 Amazon boxes. I have no idea if this is part of an art installation. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/02/hale-bopp.jpg) I see a little moon-man, drawn in graphite, in the corner of a booth. Next to it the artist has written, in cursive: “hale-bopp.” It sounds vaguely familiar, like an old poem. The artist, Amy Silver, tells me it was the name of a god the Heaven’s Gate cult leader, Marshall Applewhite, told his followers would save them. “Oh, THAT was it,” I say. (I look it up: Applewhite had said there was a spaceship hidden in the 1997 Hale-Bopp comet. I remember seeing the pristine Nike sneakers of his followers on national television the next day). ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/02/new_crate_and_barrel_line.jpg) The Jonathan Paul wall (curated by Che’ Morales) includes a set of towels embroidered with “denial,” “shame,” “guilt,” and “self pity.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/02/band_practice.jpg) I talk to Clara Claus and Melissa Godoy Nieto, the two members of the duo Band Practice, which involves hours of on-site drawing in which they respond to each other’s work. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/02/portrait_of_the_artist.jpg) After a certain number of hours at any art fair, your vision starts to blur and all the art melds together. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2020/02/women_in_gas_masks.jpg) I realize it’s time to leave, and on the way out I see four women posing enthusiastically in gas masks. It’s beyond my energy to ask questions anymore. [*Frieze Los Angeles*](https://frieze.com/fairs/frieze-los-angeles?ref=hyperallergic.com) *continues at the Paramount Pictures Studios (5515 Melrose Ave, Hollywood, Los Angeles) through Sunday, February 16\.* [*The Spring/Break Art Show*](http://www.springbreakartshow.com/sb-los-angeles/?ref=hyperallergic.com) *continues at Skylight ROW DTLA (757 South Alameda Street, Downtown, Los Angeles) through Sunday, February 16.*