THIS WEEK'S HOT TOPIC
Historic storms may have blanketed some states in snow last week, but you wouldn’t have known it inside the Santa Monica Airport, where Frieze LA took place across four 80-degree days. There, the vibes were as sunny as the forecast.
In typical LA fashion, the VIPs were on view as much as the art. Harry Potter actress Emma Watson was an early guest; rumor had it that Lady Gaga was too, albeit disguised beneath a brunette wig. Some of the other spotted celebrities included actors François Arnaud (Heated Rivalry), Timothy Olyphant (Justified), Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve), and Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds); musicians Mark Hoppus (Blink 182) and Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers); and former NFL quarterback Joe Montana.
As for the art, this was a fair of hits, not discoveries. Most of the standouts came courtesy of well-known names, including a gorgeous black-and-white portrait by Alex Katz (Jamian 7, 2026) at Gladstone Gallery, a strip-mall pylon-sign sculpture by Lauren Halsey (LODA PLAZA III, 2026) at David Kordansky Gallery, and an installation of powder-coated aluminum skillets embossed with tribal masks by Hugh Hayden (The Blughs, 2026) at Lisson Gallery.
One exception was the young Los Angeles-based artist Andrew J. Park (b. 1996), whose AI-assisted airbrushed paintings (presented by Anthony Gallery) mimic the late-night, analogue fuzz of vintage TVs and VHS tapes. The Gen-X aesthetic may tempt us to assume the artist is indulging in nostalgia for a time he didn’t experience, but the works have a hollowness that haunts, as if they are exploring the emptiness of nostalgia itself. In a fair that was not afraid to recall the past, Park’s paintings hit a nerve.
Of course, LA Art Week comprised more than just Frieze—and last week’s fairgoers have the Uber receipts to show it. The second edition of Post-Fair also lived in Santa Monica, but Felix Art Fair, which hosted 50-some galleries across various rooms at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and Enzo, which debuted its inaugural edition in an Echo Park warehouse, took place many traffic-plagued miles across town.
These fairs diverged in size, presentation, and brand value, but they shared some themes, too. The most notable among them was a hunger for traditional still lifes not seen since the Dutch Golden Age. Some examples, like the sun-drenched, domestic tableaus of Hilary Pecis (David Kordansky Gallery, Timothy Taylor), Clare Woods (Night Gallery), and Sophie Treppendahl (Philip Martin Gallery), felt as fresh as the flowers and fruit they depicted; others looked more like they were made for millennial hotel decorators.
3…THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ART AND OTHER COLLECTIBLES
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In most collectibles markets, access is largely determined by price: if you have the money and avoid being the underbidder, the object is yours. The art market operates differently. Here, access is often relational, dictating who is offered what. Relationships with artists, galleries, and advisors can play a meaningful role in whether you’re given the opportunity to acquire a particular work. Even at auction, having a relationship with a house doesn’t hurt. While every collectibles market has its own ecosystem or community, barriers to entry tend to be far lower. If you want a rare toy, a bottle of wine, or an old baseball card, the path to purchase is usually straightforward.
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Rarity also functions differently across these markets. In fine art, particularly in historical contexts, rarity is often tied to uniqueness—there are only so many works by an Old Master circulating at any given time. In the contemporary art market, uniqueness is more fluid. While a painting by an established artist may be one of a kind, editions, multiples, and serial production complicate the picture. In collectibles, rarity is everything. Game-worn jerseys or original film props derive their value from specific histories and the fact that no true equivalents exist. Many high-value collectibles began as mass-produced objects that, through circumstance, became singular.
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Finally, while the art and collectibles markets differ significantly in size and structure, reputation matters in both. Each has its own codes of conduct, norms, and unspoken rules, and how you engage with a community can shape what you’re able to access over time. Certain collectibles markets (sports memorabilia and trading cards, in particular) are projected to grow substantially in the coming years—in some cases rivaling or surpassing fine art sales. The art market isn’t set to expand in the same way as collectibles. Wherever your interests lie, how you collect and conduct yourself will influence not just what you buy, but what becomes available to you.
A NUMBER TO KNOW
25,000
The number of square feet that make up Dataland, Refik Anadol’s private institution dedicated to art made with AI. This gives the project, which is set to open in Downtown Los Angeles this spring, around the same footprint as the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut or Gagosian’s gallery at 555 West 24th Street in New York.
It’s not delusional to think that Dataland might immediately become one of the best-attended cultural attractions in LA. Unsupervised, Anadol’s 2022-23 lobby commission at MoMA, brought in close to three million viewers in less than a year, per Related Properties, the developer behind the Frank Gehry-designed complex to which Dataland will belong. For comparison, the Getty became the top draw among art museums in the City of Angels by welcoming 1.3 million visitors in 2024, according to the most recent annual survey of institutional attendance by The Art Newspaper.
If the public decides Dataland is as must-see as Anadol’s most popular temporary installations, the institution won’t just become a new gravitational force in LA’s cultural cosmos. It will also help AI’s cause amid the intensifying mainstream rift over the technology’s effects on culture, work, and life in general. Like it or not, that prospect makes Dataland’s opening one of the most consequential museum milestones in the world, both this year and in the years to come.
—Tim Schneider / The Gray Market
ASK: ACCESS SOPHISTICATED KNOWLEDGE
We ASKed: Do you expect the recent geopolitical developments to affect the art market?
Josh Baer for NoReserve: Logically, you would think yes, but if history has told us anything, it's that the answer is probably no. Buyers from the Middle East may be otherwise occupied (the royal families, for instance), but art often functions in counterintuitive ways. A flight to beauty often soothes tensions and, for some, is a reminder that life is not all bad. The first indicator will be the auctions in London later this week—it will be interesting to see how many collectors withdraw works from the sales.
Have your own question for the NoReserve team? Reply to this email or reach out to us on Instagram, @no.reserve. Readers whose submissions we choose get a special prize—six free months of The Baer Faxt.
2 MINUTES WITH…
We’re all in for LA this week, so let’s turn back the clock to 2024, when Josh Baer sat down with Troy Carter, a longtime collector and the Founder and CEO of Venice Music, at Christie’s Los Angeles. The two talked about all things art and music, as well as LA’s creative landscape and celebrity culture. To watch the full conversation, head ➡️ here.
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A brand new episode of The Baer Faxt Podcast is out now! Host Josh Baer was joined by the preeminent contemporary Saudi Arabian artist Ahmed Mater in Doha during the inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar to discuss artistic and cultural expression in the region, Mater’s return to painting, and some exciting new projects. To the Stars with Ahmed Mater is out now on all good podcast platforms, or at thebaerfaxtpodcast.com. This episode is sponsored by Ursula—A Magazine of Contemporary Culture by Hauser & Wirth.
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