wHY designs Frieze Los Angeles tent at Paramount Studios location
The inaugural Frieze Los Angeles kicks off with a new indoor and outdoor tent design by local architecture studio wHY. Pitching up at Paramount Studios, Frieze’s new location in Hollywood celebrates the city’s creative eco-system, while the tent design brings in the Californian light and makes the most of the good weather with outdoor spaces and green walls.
‘We basically surgically insert the tent into a working busy film studio,’ says Kulapat Yantrasast, founder and creative director at wHY, and a Los Angeles resident since 2003. He wanted to create the effect of being backstage, and reflect the ‘less rigid’ art scene of LA, in comparison to other contemporary art hub cities.
A pink banner afloat two archways wrapped in faux-foliage welcomes you to the fair. The structure is a reference to the Paramount Studios’ famous double arch entrance on Melrose Avenue. Yantrasast used plants throughout, real and artificial, to anchor the fair into its new climate. Inside the entry pavilion, blue-stained plywood is constructed using set-building techniques of the studio’s master production designers.
Frieze London, 2009
Architecture and branding have developed a close relationship across the Frieze art fair design since it launched in 2004. Here, at the 2009 rendition in London, the trademark Frieze stamp appears like a billboard atop three chunky architectural columns marking the entrance. While the branding has become more muted as the fair has matured, this bastion is reminiscent of the early Frieze days. As a streak of continuation, sections of the fair continue to be highlighted by a series of neon shades.
Being at an art fair is often like being in a fluorescently-lit black hole, where you lose all sense of time. Yet wHY’s opaque and translucent plastic ceiling panels bring in more daylight than ever before for an enjoyable viewing experience – and the gallerists’ wellbeing – for the week.
Indoor areas are balanced by outdoor spaces that feature open-air artworks by Sarah Cain, Paul McCarthy and Barbara Kruger amongst others. Los Angeles is after all blessed with more reliable forecasts than London or New York, where Frieze spends the rest of its year.
Before reaching your destination booth, you might also be tempted by cult eateries SQIRL and Roberta’s, both woven into the experience along the way. Building a pathway to guide visitors from pulling up at the curb to writing a cheque, was the main aim of Yantrasast – as Frieze Art Fair has continued to prove since its founding in 2003, the art fair can be a lively social and educational experience too.
INFORMATION
For more information, visit the wHY Architecture website
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.
-
The new Renault 5 E-Tech’s design secrets and designer dreams revealed
Wallpaper* talks to Renault’s Laurens van den Acker and Gilles Vidal about how they shaped the eagerly awaited Renault 5 E-Tech
By Guy Bird Published
-
Anselm Kiefer's vast mixed media works take over Venice's Palazzo Strozzi
A new exhibition, 'Fallen Angels,' sees Anselm Kiefer present a combination of old and new works that reflect Palazzo Strozzi's unique position within the Florentine Renaissance
By Finn Blythe Published
-
Misha Khan masters anti-conformism with a furniture collection inspired by human shapes
Misha Khan presents 'Morphologica' a collection including a sofa and an armchair for the eclectic Italian brand Meritalia, marking the American designer's first collaboration with a furniture brand
By Maria Cristina Didero Published
-
Frieze LA 2024 guide: the art, gossip and buzz
Our Frieze LA 2024 guide includes everything you need to know and see in and around the fair
By Renée Reizman Published
-
Andrea Bowers’ sculptural chandelier for Ruinart reflects a shared commitment to environmental conservation
Andrea Bowers has partnered with Ruinart to create a work to be unveiled at Frieze LA, before it finds a permanent home at Maison Ruinart’s HQ in Reims
By Hannah Silver Published
-
MJ Harper’s performance piece at London’s Koko will close Frieze Week in style
Artist MJ Harper will premiere ‘Arias for a New World’ at Koko in London this Sunday, 15 October 2023
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
The Modern Institute explores otherworldly narratives at Frieze London 2023
The Modern Institute is showcasing the work of artists Rachel Eulena Williams, Jim Lambie and Andrew Sim and more
By Anne Soward Published
-
Quayola x LG OLED bring digital Impressionism to Frieze London
Quayola x LG OLED present Jardins d’Été, an immersive work that mixes Old Masters’ florals with super vivid 4K technology
By Simon Mills Published
-
Frieze London 2023: what to see and do
Everything you want to see at Frieze London 2023 and around the city in our frequently updated guide
By Hannah Silver Last updated
-
Frieze celebrates 20 years of putting art lovers in the picture
Frieze London director Eva Langret looks back on 20 years of the pioneering art fair
By Amah-Rose Abrams Published
-
Takashi Murakami and Ryan Murphy headline Wallpaper* November 2023
In the Wallpaper* November 2023 Art Special, discover Takashi Murakami’s pandemic-inspired creatures, producer Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood HQ, 20 years of Frieze and more, on newsstands today
By Sarah Douglas Published