I arrived in Los Angeles last Friday afternoon, expecting that the showers that drenched my hometown last week might have dampened spirits ahead of Frieze Los Angeles. That proved not to be the case—temperatures here have been steadily increasing into the mid-70s over the past few days—but it turns out that weather across the country, on the East Coast, had been the true problem for some attendees, who were left scrambling after a nor’easter blanked New York City in nearly two feet of snow.
Jonas Albro, an associate director at Magenta Plains, which is participating in the new Enzo fair opening Wednesday afternoon, was slated to take a direct flight from New York to LA on Tuesday morning, but after it was canceled, he was rebooked three times. Speaking to ARTnews while en route to LaGuardia Airport, which doesn’t have direct flights to LA, he said he was flying to Pittsburgh, then taking another flight to Salt Lake City, and then another to LA. His expected arrival time is 10 p.m. PST, about eight hours later than he had initially planned.
“It’s a little bit of a journey,” Albro said, wryly. He wasn’t concerned about the gallery’s participation in fair, as the other eight participants in Enzo are all downtown New York dealers who are friends. “I’ve been able to lean on the people who are already there for help with install, photography, and whatnot. It seems like everything’s going to be okay as long as I get there in time. But it’s been a bit of a mess, for sure.”
Another exhibitor in Enzo, Alyssa Davis, founder of her eponymous gallery, also had her flight canceled, and she was initially rebooked to fly out Wednesday. She called her airline to switch her flight today, which also had her flying out of LaGuardia, then connecting in Fort Lauderdale before landing in LA. She’s expected to land at 8 p.m., and she’ll head straight to the fair to hang some work so her booth can be ready for the opening.
“Everyone’s been very supportive in terms of backing each other up—all the galleries are very much aligned,” Davis told ARTnews, having already cleared security at LGA.
Felix LA also opens tomorrow, beginning at 10 a.m. At least one exhibitor of that fair, Rachel Uffner, founder of Uffner & Liu, had also experienced travel delays, as did the gallery’s associate director Tania Fer. Uffner planned to fly out Monday, then Tuesday; now she is arriving Wednesday, on a 6 a.m. flight. “It’s a layover [flight], which I’ve never taken to LA before since there’s usually so many flights,” she said, noting that her connection in Minneapolis is only an hour. She’ll arrive in LA at 11:30 a.m., meaning she’ll have missed the install and part of the VIP opening.
“The install [at Felix] is always a little trickier because [the booth] is a hotel room, but I actually really enjoy it, moving the furniture and figuring it out,” Uffner said. Her business partner, Lucy Liu, was skiing out West this past weekend and will now figure out the booth’s configuration alone. To help her out, the gallery also had to hire an assistant at the last minute and contact Felix to get an exhibitor pass.
“We’re so used to being quick and resourceful,” Uffner added, but “this is kind of new.”
LA-based dealer and Post-Fair founder Chris Sharp told ARTnews in an email that he knew of one exhibitor had his flight delayed but was already en route and would make it by the opening. Both Post-Fair and Frieze LA benefit from the fact that their VIP openings are Thursday morning, giving exhibitors a bit more time to make it out in time, even if their booth installs might happen under a more compressed timeline than usual.
Perrotin, which has an LA-based team and is exhibiting at Frieze, saw some of its New York–based contingent experience flight delays, but by Tuesday those staffers were already mid-travel, with plans to make it time for Thursday, according to a spokesperson for the gallery.
In an email to ARTnews, a Frieze spokesperson said that preparations for Thursday’s opening were on schedule for its exhibitors, including those based on the East Coast. “We’re aware that severe weather on the East Coast has affected some travel this week, as it has more broadly,” the spokesperson said. “A small number of exhibitors have adjusted arrival times, but install runs over several days and galleries plan with contingencies in place.”
