This week, tens of thousands of creative connoisseurs, collectors, and art enthusiasts descended on Los Angeles for fairs, gallery dinners, and other Art Week events. It’s a true art-for-the-art-scene festival, anchored by Frieze LA and Felix Art Fair.
In recent years, lower-cost fairs like The Other Art Fair and Post-Fair, launched in 2025, have offered galleries and consumers new ways to get involved in the action. This year, new fairs like the photography-focused Show LA, Butter Fine Art Fair and Enzo are joining the mix, expanding further across the city. As the week grows, and more brands get involved, can it stay that way?
The demographic is more art focused and high value than other art events, which are increasingly faced with an oversaturation of brand activations and parties, experts say. In LA, brands can get in front of the right people. “It’s very much an art crowd [in LA],” says Casey Lesser, chief curator and editorial director at online art marketplace Artsy. Other art fairs like Art Basel Miami and Frieze London have grown well beyond their initial intent and purpose: to sell art. This has brought with it crowds from outside the art world, complicating what the events are all about for those who have long been on the ground. “LA has this cool factor.”
The sales this year are indicative of this dynamic. At Frieze, there were multiple seven-figure transactions and ambitious mid-market placements, the fair reported on Sunday. Gallerists reported strong sales, and many noted the strength of enthusiasm of collectors in the LA art community, with the fair having welcomed over 32,000 visitors throughout the weekend.
In Frieze’s case, chief commercial officer Emily Glazebrook notes that a large portion of their ticket-buying audience are culturally curious above all. They may have never collected a piece of art before, but they’re eager to learn about it. “They’re interested in culture, and there is a very strong crossover between that audience and the audience that fashion brands are looking to speak to,” she says. “It gives our partners the opportunity to reach quite a wide ranging audience, in age, in wealth, in interests.”
As LA Art Week continues to grow, it’s one worth watching. But brands must tread carefully; hosting dinners and parties won’t cut it. How can they best tap in?
Keeping the art at the center
Stone Island offers a blueprint. Now in its third year as an official Frieze LA partner, the Italian brand is a supporter of Focus, a section of the fair dedicated to showcasing LA’s emerging art scene. The collaboration is more than a logo badging exercise, CEO Robert Triefus says. “In a way, we take a little bit of a backstage presence, because really it’s the galleries themselves and the artists in the galleries that are front and center,” he says.
Still, the brand is making a splash at the fair the way it knows best: via fashion. The most ubiquitous part of Stone Island’s partnership are the T-shirts worn by Frieze’s staff. This year, for the first time, they’re available for purchase; the brand collaborated with artist Jamal Cyrus, presented by Chicago gallery Patron in the Focus section, on the design. The clothing item is for sale “principally because everyone loves [them]”, says Triefus.
It’s far from the only artist collaboration happening this week. On Wednesday, Staud, another official partner of Frieze, kicked off art week with a cocktail event at Chateau Marmont celebrating the brand’s limited-edition Tommy Bag, created in partnership with Merikokeb Berhanu, an artist represented by James Cohan and featured in the gallery’s presentation at this year’s fair. “We wanted the event to feel like a genuine celebration of the creative community around Frieze, with Staud present in a way that felt thoughtful and additive,” co-founder Sarah Staudinger says.
In Glazebrook’s opinion, artist collaborations are one of the best ways to get involved — provided they’re done well. “By working with an artist, our audience and visitors are intrigued,” she says. “They want to find out more. It garners their respect, because they see that these brands are supporting and making possible projects for artists that they otherwise would not be able to do.”
While impactful, art fair collaborations aren’t the only path. A number of companies are activating not as official Frieze or Felix partners, but alongside them with art-forward experiences as the week becomes synonymous with an influx of high-value creatives. LA Art Week is key for Dover Street Market to capitalize off of the “creative energy”, head of merchandising Sara Chenoweth says, even though the retailer is not directly affiliated (the brand last partnered with Felix in 2024). This year, the LA store will feature an exhibition, “Andy WarhoLA”, through March 12.
Rocky’s Matcha also used the week to its benefit, debuting its first-ever spatial experience: an installation by artist Oscar Tuazon, titled “Circle House”, in partnership with Morán Morán (whose owners are co-founders of Felix). While the tea brand has been a partner of Felix since 2023 (drinks are available for purchase at the fair), the in-person exhibit allows them to continue to “dimensionalize tea for the communities that we’ve always been passionate about”, explains founder Rocky Xu. “It’s always been part of our DNA as a brand to interface with the artistic community.”
Xu, who also acts as Beats by Dr. Dre’s global head of brand relationships, was in attendance at Stone Island’s dinner Thursday night. Dedicated to celebrating Frieze Focus, the brand brought together a curated collection of gallerists, artists (including those featured in the section), executives, and industry insiders and tastemakers for an intimate evening to recognize those at the core of the fair.
Don’t confuse intimate with insignificant. With this crowd, the cozier, the better: “There’s this great community where a lot of things travel by word of mouth,” says Lesser on LA’s artistically inclined. “Even if you’re only throwing a dinner for a finite number of people, if you get the right group of people, the whole art world is going to see it on Instagram.”
Keeping its cool
Maintaining that balance of intimacy and brand opportunity will be key for LA Art Week moving forward. “We’re not going to do hundreds and hundreds of events,” says Glazebrook. “There’s a finite group of people that we want to invite to come to things. But I think us being able to bring the Frieze experience to broader audiences through various events and activations throughout the city is probably what you will see more of.” What you won’t see, she adds, are events that aren’t relevant or interesting to an art audience.
While Frieze remains the heavyweight in terms of brand partnerships as the week continues to grow (some even dub Los Angeles Art Week simply “Frieze week”), brands shouldn’t count out more accessible newcomers. Instead, they should look to them as another way of capturing a valuable, growing audience: the next generation. “Art is super interesting to young people,” says Lesser. “In the context of this world where AI is taking over, art is that antidote. Being able to connect with physical objects and projects that are being made by humans who have a lot of interesting ideas and are thoughtful and super talented. That’s also resonating now.”
Brands will need to be specific and strategic about involvement in these fairs, however. Post-Fair has been approached by brands, says founder Chris Sharp, although they don’t currently have much space to accommodate them (the fair, located at the Santa Monica Post Office building, has just over 30 participating galleries, compared to 57 for Felix and more than 100 for Frieze). On the prospect of future brand involvement, Sharp isn’t opposed to it. “But it would have to be in a way that was really integrated,” he says.
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