In pictures: Frieze Los Angeles’s Focus section explores the notion of ‘ecologies’

From left: Muzae Sesay's Kamara Fountain (2024) and Diamond Dock (2024), pt.2 Gallery Eric Thayer
Essence Harden—an artist, curator and writer—is deeply rooted in the art scene of Los Angeles, where she lives and works as a visual arts curator at the California African American Museum. After taking on that role, she said that she looked forward to “highlighting the work of collectors and collectives, and cultivating scholarship, on Black visual culture and the West”. This year, Harden is the curator of the Focus section at Frieze Los Angeles, bringing together 12 galleries that have all opened in the past dozen years. Most of the artists in the section, organised around the theme of “ecology”, are represented by Californian galleries, and they all make work with which Harden says she has a “deep relationship”. Harden walked us through some of her highlights in the section.
Muzae Sesay, Kamara Fountain (2024), Diamond Dock (2024)
pt.2 Gallery (pictured at top of page)
Muzae Sesay, who was born in Long Beach and now lives in Oakland, presents a series of paintings that reference his Sierra Leonean heritage. His warm tones and idealised architectural forms create a dreamlike vision of a “non-colonised Sierra Leone”, Harden says, and the sense of an “equitable space”, adding, “I love his colour palette and the way he extracts geography.”
Widline Cadet, Sòti nan gran lanmou (2023), Nazarian / Curcio
Widline Cadet, Sòti nan gran lanmou (2023), at Nazarian / Curcio Eric Thayer
The photographer Widline Cadet, who was born in Haiti and is based in Los Angeles, presents a series of works that reinterpret her family’s archive. In this image, she depicts her mother’s wedding dress—the wearer turned away—highlighting a sense of “protection and care” from the gaze of the viewer. “The way that Los Angeles becomes blurred with Haiti in this work is really interesting when thinking about diaspora,” Harden says. “We don’t really think about the two places being connected, but here, Los Angeles looks like home and feels like home.”
Akea Brionne, Valley of Dreams (2024), Lyles & King
Akea Brionne, Valley of Dreams (2024), at Lyles & King Eric Thayer
To create her vibrant images, Akea Brionne feeds photographs from her family archive into a private server, adding artificial intelligence prompts to create new scenes that “reinvent the historical language around figuration and Blackness”, Harden says. The images reference the historical movement of Black communities between Louisiana and California—with the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico in between—while retaining a surreal, futuristic edge.
Harry Fonseca, Coyote Koshare with Melon (1994), Babst Gallery
Harry Fonseca, Coyote Koshare with Melon (1994), at Babst Gallery Eric Thayer
The Indigenous painter Harry Fonseca, who died almost 20 years ago, used the coyote as a “flexible queer” motif, Harden says, and a way of “assessing American history, as well as hierarchies, genres and boundaries”. Fonseca was under-appreciated during his lifetime, but here is brought into the “contemporary moment”. Indeed, the stand is part of a loose collaboration with the Autry Museum of the American West, which aims to document the location of Fonseca’s works and bring them to the fore at last.
Ser Serpas, Partly Obscura (2023), Untitled (2024) Quinn Harrelson
From left: Ser Serpas's Partly Obscura (2023) and Untitled (2024), at Quinn Harrelson Eric Thayer
“When I think of 21st-century assemblage, I think of her,” Harden says of Serpas, who grew up in Boyle Heights. The Quinn Harrelson stand as a whole features paintings and sculptural works intended to be understood in unison; one of the two paintings, for example, depicts a woman’s torso, while the other simply features brushstrokes, evoking the tool the artist used to make the figurative work. “I love her work, and assemblage in general, because it deals with the imbuing of energy and spirit within objects,” Harden says. “The works are always tethered together.”
Mustafa Ali Clayton, Tasha (2023-24), Dominique Gallery
Mustafa Ali Clayton, Tasha (2023-24), at Dominique Gallery Eric Thayer
Mustafa Ali Clayton’s large-scale ceramic busts are built by hand, without moulds, meaning that they are “imperfect” and visual embodiments of the creative act. Displayed on makeshift plinths that evoke their materiality, they are, nevertheless, sturdy—designed to be displayed either indoors or outside. Their strength is a reference to the idea of “Black women as a resilient and robust group”, Harden says, adding that they offer a way of “reimagining figuration” and the historical tradition of bust-making.
Yeni Mao, installation view, Make Room
Yeni Mao, installation view, at Make Room Eric Thayer
The Chinese American artist Yeni Mao’s sculptures are references to tunnels under the US-Mexico border at Mexicali, offering “abstractions” and “blueprints” of these spaces, Harden says. The mixed materials—including steel, volcanic rock, ceramics and leather—evoke a sense of geology but also the human-made nature of borders, she adds. Mao, who has a background in steel fabrication, also sought to explore the relationship between ornamentation and structure.

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