{"id":191333,"date":"2026-02-24T11:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/191333\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T11:46:10","slug":"frieze-projects-body-soul-stages-site-specific-work-across-l-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/191333\/","title":{"rendered":"Frieze Projects’ ‘Body & Soul’ stages site-specific work across L.A."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIf I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don\u2019t see.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Baldwin\u2019s quote about the artist\u2019s role in society is emblazoned on billboards across Los Angeles this winter. Created by artist Patrick Martinez, the purpose of the signage is two-fold: to promote Frieze Los Angeles and, in the case of neon signs at the art fair\u2019s entrance, to stand as a discrete work of art on its own.<\/p>\n

Martinez, an East Los Angeles-based artist, has long translated protest language into storefront-style neon, a strategy he now extends into a broader campaign tied to Frieze, which runs Feb. 26 through March 1 at the Santa Monica Airport and features more than 100 galleries.<\/p>\n

This year, however, some of the fair\u2019s most compelling work may be happening outside the tent. Frieze Projects\u2019 \u201cBody & Soul\u201d features eight installations staged across Santa Monica\u2019s Airport Park and beyond. The initiative is intended, organizers say, to broaden the fair\u2019s reach beyond its art world audience \u2014 positioning Frieze as a civic platform rather than a purely commercial event.<\/p>\n

In addition to Martinez\u2019s creations, \u201cBody & Soul\u201d brings together site-specific works including Amanda Ross-Ho\u2019s durational performance rolling a 16-foot inflatable Earth around the perimeter of a nearby soccer field; Cosmas & Damian Brown\u2019s interactive fountain installation incorporating ceramic heads, incense and water; and Shana Hoehn\u2019s first large-scale public sculpture, fabricated from a fallen tree sourced through Santa Monica\u2019s Urban Forest program. Off campus, Kelly Wall extends the program to a former Westwood Village newsstand, where glass \u201cmagazines\u201d will be displayed \u2014 136 in all, priced at $300, with 15 given away.<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s billboards bearing 2024\u2019s \u201cIf I Love You (James Baldwin)\u201d serve as the most highly visible part of the fair\u2019s public outreach. His neon installations respond to ICE raids and immigrant rights, placing protest at the literal threshold of one of Los Angeles\u2019 most visible art events.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

L.A. artist Patrick Martinez\u2019s work is featured on billboards around the city, as well as at the entrance to Frieze Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

(David Butow \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

The public art program acts as \u201ca way that we can bring in people who may not be just the ticket goers or the VIP,\u201d said Christine Messineo, Frieze\u2019s director of Americas.<\/p>\n

It also serves to amplify the city\u2019s cultural temperature.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to represent what\u2019s happening in our community,\u201d Messineo said, adding that immigration and social impact are not anomalies at the fair but part of its foundation.<\/p>\n

Some of Martinez\u2019s neon entrance signs \u2014 including \u201cAbolish ICE\u201d (2018), \u201cNo Body Is Illegal\u201d (2021) and \u201cThen They Came for Me 2\u201d (2025) \u2014 predate the current political moment. Instead, they emerge from years of observation and protest.<\/p>\n

The artist credits Messineo with approaching him last summer to utilize what he calls his \u201curgent warning signs\u201d as the face of the fair. Demonstrators also carried signs bearing Martinez\u2019s imagery last June during protests against ongoing federal immigration crackdowns in downtown Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Those events, Martinez says, are not experienced evenly across the city \u2014 particularly by the well-heeled audience that attends Frieze and spends $85 to $106 for weekend general admission tickets.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Patrick Martinez, \u201cIf I Love You (James Baldwin),\u201d 2024. <\/p>\n

(artwork Patrick Martinez \/ photo Paul Salveson)<\/p>\n

Martinez wants his signs to unsettle viewers who are insulated from the city\u2019s unrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Westside people aren\u2019t even going to see any of that, right? So it\u2019s bringing that kind of mindfulness to that space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt prescient then,\u201d Messineo said of engaging Martinez last year, \u201cand I think even more so now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frieze has integrated public art into its Los Angeles fair since its 2019 debut. But the works in \u201cBody & Soul,\u201d produced with the nonprofit Art Production Fund, lean into the particular conditions of public space.<\/p>\n

The exhibition brings together Los Angeles artists exploring ideas of memory, community and collective experience \u2014 often in quieter ways than Martinez\u2019s overt messaging.<\/p>\n

Additional participants include Dan John Anderson, Polly Borland and Kohshin Finley.<\/p>\n

Casey Fremont, Art Production Fund\u2019s executive director, said most of the works are newly commissioned.<\/p>\n

The program is designed to prioritize innovation over sales. \u201cIt isn\u2019t transactional. It\u2019s really just about experimenting and giving the public the opportunity to experience art like they\u2019ve never experienced before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Artists scale up \u2014 and slow down<\/p>\n

\u201cBody & Soul\u201d marks several participants\u2019 first ventures into public work, including Hollywood artist Finley, whose \u201cThe Piano Player\u201d will be installed near the corner of Airport Avenue and Donald Douglas Loop. Finley\u2019s piece arranges ceramic vessels inside shadow-box shelving that the artist describes as containers for memory \u2014 some \u201cyou love to take out and peek into,\u201d others that \u201cshould just stay shut forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Kohshin Finley\u2019s \u201cThe Piano Player\u201d arranges ceramic vessels inside shadow-box shelving that the artist describes as containers for memory.<\/p>\n

(Micaiah Carter)<\/p>\n

The title references the film \u201cCasablanca,\u201d and its piano player, Sam, whose music stirs up memories of the central love story.<\/p>\n

Finley said the public setting creates an unusually direct encounter as he, like many of his fellow artists, will be standing with his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people have never seen a living artist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ross-Ho takes visibility even further with her inflatable soccer ball Earth, which weighs 78 pounds. The familiar \u201cblue marble\u201d image will no doubt draw spectators at the Airport Park Soccer Field outside the Frieze tent.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Amanda Ross-Ho is creating a durational performance on a soccer field by Frieze Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

(Jennelle Fong for ILY2)<\/p>\n

Ross-Ho\u2019s performance, \u201cUntitled Orbit (MANUAL MODE),\u201d functions as an endurance test that is a response to what she calls \u201cthe temporal container of the art fair\u201d \u2014 and to the pressures of contemporary life.<\/p>\n

\u201cGesture and duration are the ways that I could achieve scale rather than something that was materially constrained like a giant sculpture,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Designing for gathering<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s installation, \u201cFountain: Sources of Light,\u201d invites guests to congregate. Positioned between the Airport Park playground and dog park, it combines running water, ceramic vessels, incense and sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted to make a fountain because I thought that [it\u2019s] something that \u2026 people tend to gravitate to,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The work will incorporate metal plates and bowls created by participants in the youth workshop Art Sundae, taking place Feb. 28 at Airport Park.<\/p>\n

Near Brown\u2019s fountain, Echo Park artist Hoehn will present \u201cDeadfall,\u201d a massive fallen fig tree embedded with carved cheerleader legs and skirts \u2014 imagery drawn from her Texas upbringing.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Shana Hoehn with one of her carved wooden sculptures.<\/p>\n

(Josh Cohen)<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working with cheerleading iconography for the past few years,\u201d she said, linking the imagery to what she calls an omnipresent football culture layered with \u201cAmerican patriotism and militaristic qualities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoehn acknowledged that the fair\u2019s four-day window and limited nearby parking may keep the audience closer to fair-goers than the broader public the program aims to reach.<\/p>\n

Beyond the airport fence<\/p>\n

A few miles away in Westwood Village, Mar Vista artist Wall will extend the program beyond the airport campus with \u201cEverything Must Go,\u201d installed at a defunct newsstand and on view from 5:48 p.m. (sunset) to 8 p.m. during the fair.<\/p>\n

Where magazines and newspapers once were, glass stand-ins bearing skyline imagery will occupy illuminated lightbox shelves. As the glass \u201cmagazines\u201d are removed, glowing silhouettes mark their absence.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Kelly Wall, \u2018Everything Must Go\u2019. <\/p>\n

(Kelly Wall)<\/p>\n

Wall\u2019s related project will appear on the Frieze campus with found newspaper boxes transformed into lightbox displays for her glass publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn things coming to an end, there is no real end \u2026 there\u2019s transformation,\u201d she said. \u201cHow you might see [the piece] may differ depending on different times \u2014 or where you\u2019re personally at in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIf I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don\u2019t see.\u201d James Baldwin\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[89749,2308,12837,2789,89747,21291,37573,9959,89748,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,2648,4576,89746,30380,1968],"class_list":{"0":"post-191333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-amanda-ross-ho","9":"tag-art","10":"tag-artist","11":"tag-body","12":"tag-christine-messineo","13":"tag-fair","14":"tag-frieze","15":"tag-installation","16":"tag-kohshin-finley","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-headlines","19":"tag-la-news","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","22":"tag-los-angeles-news","23":"tag-los-angeles-times","24":"tag-martinez","25":"tag-program","26":"tag-protest-language","27":"tag-soul","28":"tag-work"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}