Frieze Los Angeles opened its seventh edition at the Santa Monica Airport on Thursday (Feb. 26) with a preview day that doubled as the city’s biggest art-world party. By the end of it, dealers were already reporting a “frenzy” of sales, per ARTnews, and the tent was full of musicians as well as collectors. The fair runs through March 1.
The stakes were local as much as commercial. Galerie noted that the preview came a little more than a year after wildfires destroyed the homes of artists and collectors, and that many visitors wondered how the city’s art scene was recovering. More than 100 exhibitors set up in the Barker Hangar and a temporary tent, Surface reports, from Gagosian and Hauser & Wirth to Los Angeles galleries.
The music crowd
Frieze’s own list of notable attendees runs from André 3000 and John Legend and Chrissy Teigen to Anthony Kiedis, Mark Hoppus and the songwriter Diane Warren, alongside Jodie Foster, Rami Malek, Chris Rock and Tim Cook. Galerie spotted Hoppus, Emma Watson and James Franco on preview day, and Kiedis in a striped blazer, jeans and sneakers. Gallerist Sebastian Gladstone gave Kiedis a tour of his booth that morning, and Bridget Donahue of Hoffman Donahue says the rocker had a certain effect on her:
I broke out in a sweat.
Bridget Donahue, Hoffman Donahue, Galerie
What was on the walls
Surface singled out a larger-than-life white camel from the late conceptual artist John Baldessari at Sprüth Magers, and Galerie called out Pace’s ode to Southern California, which included works on paper by the late filmmaker David Lynch (see our January guide for his Berlin show). Gagosian’s California-themed stand carried works by Ed Ruscha, Frank Gehry and Alex Israel, and Hauser & Wirth sold out a presentation of new paintings by Conny Maier on opening day, Frieze says.
Outside, Amanda Ross-Ho rolled an enormous inflatable Earth around the perimeter of a soccer field in a performance titled Untitled Orbit (MANUAL MODE), and Galerie says it would continue through the fair’s opening hours each day. Frieze Projects, curated by Art Production Fund, added other commissions around the campus.
Why it matters
A fair preview is the quickest read on collector confidence, and day one pointed up. Gladstone, who said he was having the best Frieze L.A. he’s ever had, put the mood plainly to Galerie: “it just feels like the L.A. community is really showing up.” Hoffman Donahue’s Hannah Hoffman said the fair brings out “every single person interested in art in LA.”
The fair also lands in the middle of a crowded week, with satellite fairs including Felix and the new Butter Fine Art Fair, which spotlights local Black artists, running alongside it. Frieze’s next stop is New York, where Frieze New York opens in May.
- Dates
- Feb. 26 to March 1, 2026
- Where
- Santa Monica Airport, Los Angeles
- Edition
- Seventh
- Exhibitors
- More than 100
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
