Frieze Los Angeles 2024 sees a surge in artists working in sculpture, stretching and honing the medium’s potential with innovative and reclaimed materials to shape dynamic forms, both abstract and figurative, and charging it with a forward-looking political and ecological purpose. The fair offers artists an exciting platform on which to debut new work, either in group presentations, such as Lauren Hasley in Gagosian’s curated show Social Abstraction, or solo booths, such as Jesse Schlesinger presented by Anthony Meier.
Yeni Mao’s “Freemartins” rise from mounds of soil as steel structures interspersed with leather, porcelain and volcanic rock. These sculptures are the latest works in Mao’s exploration of the network of tunnels underneath the town of Mexicali, where, during the Mexican revolution, the Chinese-Mexican community was forced to live by the United States’ discriminatory treatment of Asian immigrants. Mao uses steel plates to recreate the floor plan of each tunnel and inserts organic elements between the layers, reflecting on the liminality, both physical and psychological, of diasporic experiences.
