Los Angeles February 2023 - 1: Frieze and Felix
This year, as Dastan, Tehran, were showing Mamali Shafahi alongside Iranian duo Peybak, and Mamali was also curating a group show of Iranian artists, I decided to use some of my soon-to-expire airmiles to fly to Los Angeles for the Frieze and Felix art fairs. Housed at Santa Monica airport, in a large 'tent' structure and an old hangar, Frieze turned out to be, to my mind, surprisingly bland and conventional. The few exceptions were mostly galleries I've bought from or have friends at - Dastan, Antenna Space, Gaga, Mendes Wood... which raises the issue of my objectivity: I don't know if I liked them because I know them, or the other way round. One I did like, however, without having any relationship with it, was Jeffrey Deitch, showing a fun exhibition of works by Peter Shire (see above), just next to Dastan. Here, The Art Newspaper includes Mamali Shafahi at Dastan among its photo picks from Frieze LA. And here , artnet.com features Mamali among its artists to watch f...