Your Guide to Fairs and Shows This LA Frieze Week
In true Angeleno fashion, a slew of local exhibitions and art events act as a counterbalance to this year’s eight fairs — or more, depending on how you define them.
Once upon a time, Los Angeles hosted just two main art fairs to contend with (RIP ALAC). But this year, there are eight fairs to navigate — or more, depending on how you define them. These range from the behemoth Frieze LA at the Santa Monica Airport to the suite-hopping hotel fair Felix in Hollywood and the more collegial atmosphere of Post-Fair. Add to these the artist-centered fairs Butter, dedicated to showcasing Black artists, and the Other Art Fair; Enzo, bringing nine galleries from New York; the new photo fair Show LA; and the Dark Arts Fair, which adds a touch of Renaissance Faire theatricality, and there’s truly something for everyone. There are a slew of other art happenings and exhibitions in tandem with the fairs as well, a few of which we’ve listed below, adding more facets to the glittering gem that is LA’s cultural landscape.
Art Fairs
Frieze Los Angeles
Santa Monica Airport, 3027 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica, California
February 26–March 1
Frieze Los Angeles lands at the Santa Monica Airport again this week, hosting over 100 galleries from 24 countries, including Lisson with LA-based sculptor Kelly Akashi, Ochi Projects showing Africanus Okokon’s multimedia paintings incorporating silkscreen and coconut milk, and Ortuzar Gallery showing works on paper from Linda Stark’s tarot card series. Not to be missed are the Frieze Projects, seven site-specific works by LA-based artists that are all free and open to the public. Highlights include Kelly Wall’s offsite installation “Everything Must Go” (2026), which transforms a defunct Westwood Village newsstand into an elegiac spectacle with her painted glass “magazines”; Cosmas & Damian Brown’s “Fountain: Sources of Light” (2026), which visitors can interact with by changing the flow of water and accompanying acoustics; and Amanda Ross-Ho’s durational performance “Untitled Orbit (MANUAL MODE)” (2026), during which the artist will roll a 16-foot (~1.8-meter) inflatable Earth counterclockwise around the Airport Park Soccer Field.
Felix Art Fair
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles
February 25–March 1
The Felix Art Fair premiered in 2019, inspired by the exuberant hotel art fairs of the past held in intimate suites. Taking place again at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, this year’s eighth edition features 56 exhibitors, including 20 first-timers, split between upstairs rooms and ground-floor cabanas surrounding the David Hockney-painted pool. Participating galleries include LA’s Timothy Hawkinson Gallery, Paris’s Brigitte Mulholland, New York’s Harkawik and Yossi Milo, Oakland’s Johansson Projects, and Chicago’s Andrew Rafacz Gallery.
Post-Fair
Santa Monica Post Office, 1248 5th Street, Santa Monica, California
February 26–28
Last year, gallerist Chris Sharp launched Post-Fair as a “more collegial” art fair focused on community and affordability. Sharp saw the need for an alternative to the big-tent, big-money fairs that can prove financially challenging for middle-market and emerging galleries. This year, the fair returns to the Art Deco-style Santa Monica Post Office with 31 galleries from the US and abroad, including LA’s Bel Ami, Toronto’s Cooper Cole, Parallel Oaxaca, Tokyo’s Kayokoyuki, and London’s Harlesden High Street. Tickets are affordable at $12, with children under 12 admitted for free.
Enzo
1634 West Temple Street, Echo Park and Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles
February 25–28
As the new fair on the block, Enzo brings a slice of New York’s diverse art scene to a 1920s warehouse on the border between Echo Park and Historic Filipinotown. The fair features nine emerging galleries from New York’s Chinatown and Lower East Side: Alyssa Davis, Bank, ILY2, Laurel Gitlen, Lubov, Magenta Plains, Margot Samel, Sara’s Worldwide, Silke Lindner, and Wschód, alongside a selection of independent publishers. Notably, the fair is free for both exhibitors and visitors, with RSVP.
Butter
The Shops at Hollywood Park, 1209 District Drive, Inglewood, California
February 26–March 1
Butter Fine Art Fair, which began in Indianapolis in 2021, makes its LA debut this year at the Hollywood Park complex in Inglewood. The fair is dedicated to showcasing work by artists representing the African diaspora, with 100% of sales going directly to artists. This edition features over 40 artists — half from California, one quarter from Indiana — including April Bey, Autumn Breon, Fulton Leroy Washington (Mr. Wash), Samuel Levi Jones, and Kyng Rhodes.
The Other Art Fair
3Labs, 8461 Warner Drive, Culver City, California
February 26–March 1
The Other Art Fair puts the focus directly on artists, who present their work here without gallery representation. This year’s LA edition features 155 artists, 65% of whom are showing at the fair for the first time. In keeping with its more casual vibe, it will also feature artist-designed ping pong paddles and tables from the design studio Art of Ping Pong.
Show LA
The Reef, 1933 South Broadway, 4th floor, Downtown, Los Angeles
February 26–March 1
Show LA is a new photography fair featuring more than 40 galleries and publishers from around the world, including Nonaka-Hill, the Fulcrum Press, La Chancleta Voladora, and Lars Müller Publishers. Organized by LA’s Nazraeli Press, London’s Setanta Books, and Milan’s Micamera, it will include a series of talks, book signings, workshops, and an auction. The fair also encompasses the exhibition Our Landscapes Within, curated by Claudia Pretelin, which brings together the work of four photographers who primarily focus on the African diaspora in Mexico: Koral Carballo, Carolina Fuentes, Judith Romero, and Vanessa Quintero Castañeda.
Dark Ages Fair
1210 Palms Boulevard, Venice, California
February 28, 12pm–4pm
In 2013, artists Pentti Monkkonen and Liz Craft organized the Paramount Ranch art fair at a Wild West film set in the Santa Monica Mountains. This year, they’re back to disrupt the blue-chip art fair model with Dark Ages Fair, drawing on the faux pomp and ritual of the Renaissance Faire, which serendipitously emerged in LA in the 1960s. While art fairs are essentially commercial endeavours with a social component, Monkkonen told Hyperallergic that “the Renaissance Faire model is primarily a party or festival, a participatory theatrical experience, with the financial transactions being secondary or not necessary at all.” This single-afternoon event embodies that spirit, featuring two dozen artists and exhibitors including Kate Costello, Eric Wesley, Alex Becerra, Amy Yao, Charles Irvin, and others.
Art Exhibitions
Eugenia P. Butler Archives
The Barn, 10300 Santa Monica Boulevard, Century City, Los Angeles
February 26–March 1
Late artist Eugenia P. Butler’s mercurial practice ranged from conceptual text-based works to tangible material inquiries, in which she explored artistic community, dream imagery, alchemy, and other themes. Arguably her best-known works are “The Kitchen Table” (1993), a series of recorded conversations with 26 artists, and "The Book of Lies” (1991–2004), a print portfolio with contributions from over 80 artists. Last year, Metabolic Studio began collaborating with Butler’s daughter, Corazon del Sol, to archive her work, including over 1,300 paintings, drawings, journals, and other ephemera — many of which have never been seen by the public. This week, visitors will be able to visit the A. Quincy Jones-designed barn that has served as the archival project’s base (and with limited hours on Wednesdays and Thursdays through April 29) to see these materials firsthand. On Sunday, March 1, del Sol will be discussing her mother’s legacy — as well as that of her grandmother, pioneering LA gallerist Eugenia Butler — with author Catherine Wagley. RSVP required.
One Hundred Year Old Water: David Ireland and Anais Franco
1911 7th Avenue, Arlington Heights, Los Angeles
February 26–March 1
The late artist David Ireland found wonder in the everyday with sculptural assemblages and installations, created using common and found materials such as dirt, concrete, bricks, and wood. Among these is his longtime home in San Francisco, an environmental sculpture that now houses a foundation dedicated to his legacy. One Hundred Year Old Water brings a selection of his works to another hybrid, domestic-artistic space: David Horvitz’s Garden. Among the works included in the exhibition are Ireland’s signature “dumbballs,” or concrete balls made by hand through a meditative process. Alongside Ireland’s works, the garden will feature pink ceramic sculptures by Anais Franco that recall the painted rocks that Japanese-immigrant farmers who grew 90% of all California strawberries before World War II would scatter in their fields to prevent birds from eating strawberries, now a common practice.
Rita McBride: wunderkammer
Blue Heights Arts & Culture, Hollywood Hills, address provided with RSVP
Through March 8
Rita McBride’s work sits at the intersection of architecture, art, and urbanism, exploring the promises and follies of modernism with insight and humor. Presented by Del Vaz Projects and Okey Dokey Konrad Fischer, Wunderkammer brings a selection of her artwork to the 1934 gallery-home designed by Richard Neutra for German-Jewish artist, art collector, and dealer Galka Scheyer, which was recently reborn as Blue Heights Arts & Culture residency. Brightly colored newspaper boxes, monumental calipers, architectural models, and a mobile with delicate glass leaves dot the house’s interior and grounds, blurring the line between the domestic and the institutional. From February 26 to 28, the house will be further activated by a series of performances by dancer and choreographer Lavinia Findikoglu.
Away From Desk
Wilshire Online, 6135 Wilshire Boulevard, Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles
Through March 15
As the announcement for this show declares, “This is not an alternative art fair; rather, it is more accurately an alternative to art fairs.” Away From Desk brings together five LA-based alternative art spaces: Five Churches, the Fulcrum, Leroy’s, O-Town House, and Gene’s Dispensary (whose programmer, Keith J. Varadi, organized the event). Given the economic and political pressures that many artists are facing, Away From Desk aims to provide a sense of community and dialogue for those who are operating outside the mainstream and exploring new models. Additional programming includes a screening of works by Constantinos Hadzinikolaou and Stanya Kahn, organized by JOAN, and a reading presented by Poetic Research Bureau with Ali Eyal, Zoey Greenwald, Joseph Mosconi, and Zara Schuster.
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Matt Stromberg
