Lehmann Maupin returns to Frieze Los Angeles with a special presentation of new and historical works from across the gallery’s program. Highlights include a selection of works that illustrate Liza Lou’s rigorous exploration of materiality and beauty that bridges fine art and craft; a new painting by Lari Pittman, ahead of his solo presentation inaugurating the opening of Lehmann Maupin’s expanded location in Seoul; a suite of new drawings by Brooklyn-based artist Arcmanoro Niles; and a sphere by Light & Space pioneer Helen Pashgian, coinciding with her survey Presences at SITE Santa Fe. The booth will also include new and recent work by McArthur Binion, Mandy El-Sayegh, Shirazeh Houshiary, Lee Bul, Catherine Opie, and Robin Rhode. 

Central to our presentation is Liza Lou’s Into the Mountains (2021), a large-scale work created from a labor-intensive process of painting, layering, smashing, and mending glass beads in dense, multi-layered compositions. Known for her extensive body of work primarily utilizing glass beads—including the room-sized installation Kitchen (1991–96) on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York—Lou has exposed the conceptual potential of the medium. Also on view is Going to California (2021), a work that responds to Lou’s newfound home—the California high desert. 

Debuting at the fair is Mandy El-Sayegh’s Net-Grid (red art) (2022). This work belongs to El-Sayegh’s acclaimed Net-Grid series, where the artist embeds images and texts from found source material—some painted, some mixed-media, some silkscreen—underneath a grid with lines of varying thickness across the entire surface of the work. The artist has an upcoming solo exhibition at UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, opening April 2022. El-Sayegh has been included in major exhibitions, including the Busan Biennale (2020), and her work was the subject of a solo exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery in 2019. Currently, her work is on view in the Hayward Gallery’s touring British Art Show 9. 

Also on view at the fair will be a signature painting by Lari Pittman, whose newest body of work will be the focus of the inaugural exhibition at Lehmann Maupin’s new Seoul gallery. The artist’s recent works continue his investigation into the history of human nature through the decorative arts by referencing traditional vanitas paintings, which include symbols of wealth, ephemerality, and death. Pittman’s major retrospective, Lari Pittman: Declaration of Independence, opened at the Hammer Museum in 2019 and new iterations of the monumental exhibition will travel this year to Jumex Museum, Mexico City in November 2022; and Kistefos-Museet, Jevnaker, Norway, in early 2023.

Lehmann Maupin will also debut a new suite of works on paper by Arcmanoro Niles, following his debut exhibition with the gallery in 2022. In recent years, the artist has garnered widespread attention for vivid, brightly-hued paintings that expand our understanding of traditional genre painting and portraiture. Niles will have his first solo exhibition in London with Lehmann Maupin in November 2021, and his work will be included in a major group exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, opening March 2022.