The pool area at the Hollywood Roosevelt has a different feel this week as people buzz around with excitement to view art installed in over 60 cabanas and rooms.
Day one was upbeat and lively as collectors with drinks in hand considered which artworks they might want to save a wall for in their home. Visitors contemplated taking a dip in the glimmering pool afterwards. People were eager to see new work by their favorite artists, get to know unfamiliar artists, and meet gallerists new to the fair. Gallerists got creative installing art in the unique cabana and room setups.
These are the top 5 rooms at Felix Art Fair to definitely check out this year.
1 Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, New York, Bucharest, featuring works by Rae Klein, Nicole Duennebier, Emily Ferguson, Isabelle Albuquerque, Stanley Edmondson, Larry Madrigal, Jeanine Brito, Ian Davis, Tomas Harker, Devin B. Johnson, Agnieszka Nienartowicz, and Maureen St. Vincent
Nicodim Gallery was founded by Mihai Nicodim in 2006 in Chinatown in Los Angeles. Since then, the gallery has moved to a larger space in Los Angeles and opened two more galleries in the same building. The gallery has also opened spaces in New York and Bucharest.
Rae Klein’s painting, “Dog with Blue Eyes,” is a visual mastery. Her paintings are alluring and mysterious and move us into a dream-like reflective state of mind. Isabelle Albuquerque’s sculpture is enthralling. Her sculptures examine female sensuality and yearning and its expression in physical form.
2 Ginny on Frederick, London, featuring works by Charlotte Edey, Gal Schindler, and Alex Margo Arden
Ginny on Frederick opened in 2020 in the Smithfield Market in a converted sandwich shop equipped with original tiling. The gallery is named after owner Freddie Powell’s mother. Freddie loved surrounding himself with other artists when he studied printmaking, which inspired him to later open a gallery.
Charlotte Edey’s sculpture, “Punctuated,” shows her unique style of utilizing found frames that draw us into different inner worlds from what is known. Her background in drawing comes through in the detailed and delicate style that she employs with her interior works. Charlotte’s work questions the multifaceted and moving aspects of identity.
3 Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, featuring works by Devan Shimoyama, Miya Ando, Alfred Conteh, James Little, and Willie Cole
Kavi Gupta Gallery is a proponent for showcasing and making space for diverse visionaries that think big. The gallery focuses on equity, social justice and inclusivity in the arts. Cultural dialogues take place to illuminate works by previously marginalized artists.
Devan Shimoyama’s painting “Jas, Doubled” (left) captures a stuttered portrait from when he was in Paris, where he painted while having a detached retina that resulted in a migraine. The figure is an archetype of the reconstruction of beauty inspired by a friend who is fair-skinned, Black, trans, fem.
4 Mrs. Maspeth featuring works by Sarah Bedford, Megan Bogonovich, Emily Mullin, Rose Nestler, and Sarah Palmer
Mrs. opened in 2016, far down the road from the New York City art hub, to focus on underrepresented early and mid-career artists. The gallery takes pride in engaging with their local community.
Rose Nestler’s sculptures illicit viewers to pause and reflect on the stories of common objects and the corresponding societal expectation of those objects. She plays with gendered stereotypes to flip upside down a patriarchal power symbol and re-appropriate it into a matriarchal symbol. Her sculptures call us to question what has been and the potential shift away from manufactured gendered structures.
5 Harper’s, Los Angeles, New York, and East Hampton, featuring works by Noel W Anderson, Marc Dennis, Genieve Figgis, Shara Mays, Wendi Men, Demetrius Wilson, and Allison Zuckerman
Harper’s has interweaved print media with fine art for nearly three decades. The original location in East Hampton has since been joined by a bookstore in Chelsea with two neighboring galleries, and an Uptown apartment gallery. In 2021, Harper’s became bi-coastal and opened a gallery in Los Angeles on Melrose.
Allison Zuckerman’s painting pops with vibrancy, brightness, and loudness with diverse symbols and motifs. She relies on collaged elements from prior artworks to encapsulate stories with fantastical cartoon-like symbols that shake up the viewer’s perspective on how women are depicted in society.
Felix Art Fair, February 29th – March 3rd at Hollywood Roosevelt, felixfair.com
