Frieze Los Angeles opened its fifth edition to VIPs on Thursday at the Santa Monica Airport. While the fair was slightly smaller than usual—going from 120 exhibitors to about 95—it was full of action on VIP day and its first day open to the public on Friday.
There were plenty of major figures in attendance from celebrities to collectors to dealers, and there was strong artwork on display in the booths and healthy sales to boot.
“Today has been our most successful first day at Frieze LA since the first year of the fair,” Hauser & Wirth president Marc Payot said in a statement emailed to ARTnews.
We spent some time going around the fair, camera in tow, to get a feel for the scene and the energy at LA’s most important fair.