Famous faces hit the right note at Frieze
Star quality: Jada Pinkett Smith was among the celebrities spotted at Frieze this week
Photo: Eric Thayer
Celebrities continued to visit Frieze on Friday, the fair’s first public day—including two renowned flautists, albeit without their silver instruments in tow. André 3000 was seen entering the fair before getting lost in the crowd, but we overheard Lizzo at the David Kordansky stand asking to borrow a copy of this very newspaper—had us feeling good as hell! The singer Willow Smith and her film-star mum, Jada Pinkett Smith, took a leisurely stroll through the fair together; the actors Julia Fox (who was at Felix on Wednesday) and Julie Bowen also stopped by Frieze.
South Central swapsies
Barter buzz: Ozzie Juarez re-created the swap meets of his childhood
Photo: Eric Thayer
The multidisciplinary artist Ozzie Juarez, who is showing graffiti-inspired paintings with Charlie James Gallery inside the fair, has brought a little slice of South Central swap-meet culture to Santa Monica with his Frieze project—a pop-up titled Pásale! Pásale! Todo Barato!, which loosely translates to: “Come in! Come in! Everything’s cheap!” Named after the clarion call of the Mexican American vendors at the swap meets of his youth, the outdoor installation draws on South Central’s vernacular architecture. “Swap meets are so dear to my heart and introduced me to the idea of collecting objects as a little kid,” Juarez says. “There’s a juxtaposition between this project and the fair, and this seems to be bringing a lot of joy to people.” Visitors can take tiny, packaged toys away: “I sourced these objects over the course of a year from five different swap meets,” Juarez says.
Finders, keepers
Golden opportunity: visitors to Frieze had an eggciting time uncovering Claire Chambless’s bespoke sculptures
Photo: Carlie Porterfield
In a whimsical turn, the artist Claire Chambless has brought an Easter egg hunt to Frieze, with a delicious artistic twist: inside each oversized golden egg is a bespoke, handmade sculpture and accompanying QR code for ease of registry. Chambless hid golden eggs throughout the grounds of the fair, inviting visitors to interact with art in unexpected ways and engage critically with preconceived concepts of acquisition. An eagle-eyed The Art Newspaper editor discovered a gleaming Chambless egg nestled in the bushes just outside the fair’s entrance, revealing a strange and wonderful table-top sculpture in the shape of a bone fragment. The fragment is attached by string to a glazed shell and silver metallic amulet. The little sculpture, Player, Non-Player (2025), is part of an edition of 100—gotta catch ’em all!
Adult humour
Just another day in the office: Madison Ivy, Brazzers’s first female contract star
Courtesy of the artist
The London-based photographer Rosie Marks shadowed workers in the pornography industry for her new book Raw Talent, which is being released this week at the Felix Art Fair. Produced in collaboration with the adult-entertainment company Brazzers, Marks’s book features candid portraits of pornstars at work. “I was surprised how sterile and at times sexless the sets felt,” Marks says. “It felt like being on any other type of shoot, except there would be an hour of loud sex in the afternoon. I wanted to explore the humour of the industry, both on and off camera; porn can be really funny.”
Roving residency
On the road: Dominique Moody’s NOMAD project was inspired by her father’s efforts to protect his family
Photo: Eric Thayer
The artist Dominique Moody’s NOMAD project (2015-present), an art truck and trailer residing in the Airport Park directly next to Frieze, is a contemplative oasis amid the fast-paced art fair. Constructed from found and salvaged objects a decade ago, the dwelling has provided a space of creative refuge and self-determination for Moody and her community since its inception. Inspired by her father’s purchase of a trailer to protect his family and avoid segregationist persecution in the South in the 1950s, Moody’s project has served as both her home and a residency for those in need of “a nurturing space before entering the studio”, she says. A dreamy interior replete with personal history, the trailer is emblazoned with QR codes for fundraisers for Altadena-based artists and organisations affected by the wildfires. “As an assemblage artist, you take something ordinary and make it something extraordinary,” Moody says. Her father’s old globe is embedded above the trailer’s entrance, carefully painted with the words: “I wanted my children to be at home in the world.”
