SERPENTINE
On Wednesday night, Serpentine Americas Foundation celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a private party in West Hollywood, hosted by foundation members Sybil Robson Orr and Matthew Orr. Serpentine’s CEO and artistic director, Bettina Korek and Hans Ulrich Obrist, welcomed artists, curators, collectors, philanthropists, and patrons—including Lauren Halsey, Lana Del Rey, Antwaun Sargent, Tyler Mitchell, Refik Anadol, Maja Hoffmann, and more—to celebrate a decade of Serpentine and Frieze LA 2024, more broadly.
THE FUTURE PERFECT
The Future Perfect’s opening for "Inner Space," a new group show featuring art and design works across different mediums, was on Wednesday night at the iconic Goldwyn House in the Hollywood Hills. The exhibition includes lighting and furniture by Minjae Kim, jewelry by Alana Burns, and stone sculptures and furniture by Ian Collings, alongside rare historical works by American artist JB Blunk and one of his major influences, Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Two of Blunk’s wooden thrones are featured alongside his ceramics, jewelry, sculptures, and paintings, and an editioned galvanized steel table and set of chairs by Noguchi are included in the show as well.
Both Kim and Collings contributed to "100 Hooks," an exhibition and homage to Blunk’s practice that was on view last year at Blunk Space in Point Reyes Station, California. For The Future Perfect exhibit, Kim made a chandelier, sconces, console, and chair, while Collings brought stone furniture and sculptures. Burns, a Mexico City-based jewelry designer and wax painter rounded out The Future Perfect’s show with her silver and shell-gilded objects, including combs and candleholders. Immersive, practical, and symbolic, this gathering of works served as a conceptual anchor and beautiful backdrop for the evening’s festivities, and celebrated the power of creation across various materials and multiple generations.
DR. DRE & JIMMY IOVINE AUCTION
On Tuesday evening, Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre hosted a benefit auction in partnership with Sotheby's, David Kordansky, and Josh Abraham that raised nearly $2.5 million to benefit the Iovine and Young Center, which focuses on funding public education in Los Angeles. Eleven works by contemporary artists—including Reggie Burrows Hodges, Ann Craven, Noah Davis, Derek Fordjour, Sayre Gomez, Jennifer Guidi, Chase Hall, Rashid Johnson, Hilary Pecis, Ed Ruscha, and Austyn Weiner—were donated to the auction, which completely sold out. (Full proceeds from this sale are going toward Iovine and Young’s interdisciplinary curricular program.)
The evening, held at Iovine’s home, was hosted by James Corden, making it an entertaining auction experience during Frieze week for all involved. Katie Couric, Brian Grazer, Bob Geldof, Joel Madden, Rich Paul, and others were among the bidders, buyers, and guests in attendance, and Andra Day and Timbaland contributed musical performances.
HARMONIA ROSALES ART DINNER
Marketing executive, entrepreneur, and art collector Bozoma Saint John hosted an intimate dinner at her home in celebration of artist Harmonia Rosales’s work. The artist's paintings depict Black figures in sweeping, Renaissance-style scenes that aim to revitalize and center the stories and images that have been systematically lost to history. The painting on display Wednesday night, which Saint John is the proud “steward” of, depicts Eve and a range of orishas, the gods of the West African Yorùbá religion that were absorbed into Christian saints.
“When we did synchrotize and still believed in their stories, the [orishas] wore this mask that was more of a Christian, Catholic saint mask—and then we forgot who was behind the mask and their stories,” Rosales explained to the guests, which included Lena Waithe, Cynthia Erivo, Coodie Rock, Lyndon Barrois, and others. “But we didn't forget the Greek stories. Greek mythology was a religion and we don't practice it anymore, but their stories are still alive.” According to Rosales, her work is an effort to add perspective to history and culture (particularly with regard to religion), and the characters on her canvas are “fighting to not be absorbed into these stories.”
Saint John wore a dress by Fe Noel that depicts Rosales’s Birth of Oshun painting, and her acrylic nail manicure featured the artwork as well. As a Ghanaian woman, Saint John shared that West African representation is particularly meaningful to her, telling the guests: “The important part about going back to Africa … is that this history is so rich and has been so manipulated … it was beautiful to me to hear the intention behind Harmonia’s work and that she wants to resurrect what is essentially a form of art that is not just in the visual nature, but in oral storytelling.”
Rosales just wrapped her first solo museum exhibition “Master Narrative,” which traveled to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and The Spelman Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta.
SAM GILLIAM TALK AT KORDANSKY GALLERY
Ahead of the show’s closing on March 3, David Kordansky Gallery and Pace hosted a conversation in honor of “Sam Gilliam: The Last Five Years” on Saturday, featuring Thelma Golden, director and chief curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and Naima J. Keith, vice president of education and public programs at LACMA. The talk was moderated by Teresa Eggers, director of institutional relations at David Kordansky Gallery.
The exhibition, which focuses on the late artist’s color-washed creations between the years 2018 and 2022, inspired a range of topics among the panelists, including the African American arts scene in 1960s Los Angeles, the impact jazz music (John Coltrane, specifically) had on Gilliam’s improvisational and experimental practice, and the artist’s championing of children’s creativity. Golden and Keith spoke at length about Gilliam’s life and legacy, and also shared insights on previous shows they’ve curated at their respective institutions. Following the talk, during the question and answer portion of the afternoon, artist Chase Hall spoke to the audience about the importance of the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, particularly for African American artists in the 1930s.
VANS
Iconic California footwear mainstay Vans kicked off Frieze week with a skateboard ramp installation in downtown Los Angeles, revealed in tandem with American artist Sterling Ruby’s clothing and accessory collection for the brand. The one-night event from OTW by Vans and Ruby’s S.R. STUDIO. LA. CA. seamlessly blended art, design, and streetwear culture, and was attended by guests including Charles Melton, Kilo Kish, Sky Ferreira, Landon Barker, Delfin Finley, Deb Never, Bella Poarch, Tony Alva, and others.
To celebrate the communities that make the city sparkle with raw creativity, Vans tapped LA’s own alternative hip hop group Paris Texas for an electric live performance on a stage embedded in the skateable installation designed by PLAYLAB, INC. The musical offerings were rounded out by SALEM and a DJ set by Ty; the night also included a live skate exhibition by Vans athletes Curren Caples, Efron Danzig, Elijah Berle, Nick Michel, Roman Pabich, Rowan Zorilla, and Zion Wright.
RACE SERVICE AMG EVENT
On the rooftop of The Hollywood Roosevelt, it’s impossible to not be surrounded by stars. That’s why it was no surprise when Race Service and Mercedes-AMG Motorsport’s collaboration launch event welcomed the likes of rappers Gunna and IDK, with the charismatic DJ Pee Wee (musician Anderson .Paak’s alter ego) on the decks. “Materialism,” the brainchild of LA-based creative studio Race Service co-founder, driver, and artist James Kirkham, is a lifestyle motorsport program designed to celebrate racing design (specifically the C190 Mercedes-AMG GT3 sportscar) and the art, fashion, music, and luxury cultural communities that orbit around the sport.
The five-year partnership intends to honor racing’s origins and its status as an ever-evolving cultural phenomenon. A racing-inspired clothing and accessory capsule collection welcomed guests on the penthouse level, before a wall of mirrors led them up to a moody suite anchored by a vintage conversation pit, before guests walked outside to the open rooftop where a crane had lifted an AMG sportscar onto display across from the dance floor.
