California African American Museum Acquisition Fund
In partnership with Frieze, the California African American Museum (CAAM) returns to the fair with its annual acquisition fund. This year, works by Zenobia Lee and Jessica Taylor Bellamy were selected by CAAM executive director Cameron Shaw and LA-based collector V. Joy Simmons to enter CAAM’s permanent collection. Shaw said, ‘We are thrilled to work together with Frieze to bring institutional support and attention to Los Angeles-based artists and the fair. Building CAAM’s permanent collection with artists that speak to the Black California and diasporic experience is our mission in action.’
Jessica Taylor Bellamy, Linear Burn, 2025. Presented by Anat Ebgi.
In new LA-infused paintings, shown with Anat Ebgi at Frieze LA, Jessica Taylor Bellamy observes home and landscape from a place of ecological precarity.
Zenobia Lee, Why allow the tendrils of the heart to twine around objects (abject) - for Harriet Jacobs, 2024. Presented by Sea View.
Lee’s monumental steel gimlet pierces the facade of Sea View’s stand at Frieze LA. Inspired by abolitionist and writer Harriet Jacobs’s autobiography, the sculpture evokes the tool Jacobs used to carve sightlines during her enslavement.
MAC3 Acquisition Fund
Now in its second year, the MAC3 collective – comprising the Hammer Museum, LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and MOCA (The Museum of Contemporary Art) – supports emerging or under-recognized LA-based artists through an acquisition fund supported by Jarl and Pamela Mohn and Frieze. At Frieze LA 2026, the fund has acquired works by three artists: Clarissa Tossin, Zenobia Lee and Sharif Farrag.
Clarissa Tossin, LA Weeds: First Harvest, 2026. Presented by Kaufmann Repetto.
Clarissa Tossin creates her ‘Piante Vagabonde’ series, which includes LA Weeds: First Harvest, by impressing the canvas with her body and botanical specimens taken from urban margins, roadsides and broken soil. The plants’ resilience becomes a powerful metaphor in a moment of climate crisis.
Sharif Farrag, Bridge, 2025. Presented by Jeffrey Deitch.
Sharif Farrag’s Bridge is inspired by Italian wall reliefs, and fuses motifs from Los Angeles, the artist’s hometown (on the left) and New York City (on the right).
Zenobia Lee, Poeisis, 2025. Presented by Sea View.
Lee’s wonky dominoes, hand-carved in ebony, reframe the traditionally male-dominated Caribbean pastime – introduced to the region through colonial force and later embraced by enslaved communities – as a site of queer camaraderie.
The selected works by Farrag, Lee and Tossin enter MAC3’s shared collection that reflects the city’s creative energy and strengthens its cultural legacy. Launched at Frieze Los Angeles 2025, following Jarl Mohn’s transformative 2024 gift of over 350 works to the three institutions, MAC3 highlights the collaboration between LA’s leading museums, Frieze and the city’s creative ecosystem.
Santa Monica Art Bank Acquisition Fund
The annual Santa Monica Art Bank Acquisition Fund continues its support of Los Angeles–based artists by acquiring works from Frieze LA to expand the city’s public collection. This year’s jury, which includes Santa Monica Arts Commission representative Marla C. Berns, The Brick deputy director and curator Catherine Taft and Frieze director of Americas Christine Messineo, selected a work by Erica Mahinay from the fair’s Focus section.
Erica Mahinay, Unfetter (Blue Gaze), 2025. Presented by Make Room
Mahinay presents new works with Make Room in Focus, Frieze's section for emerging galleries curated by Essence Harden. In her painting Unfetter (Blue Gaze) Mahinay begins by underpainting the canvas in deep earth pigments such as burnt sienna and Dutch brown, before adding layers of vibrant coloured brushwork.
‘Creativity lies at the heart of Santa Monica’s identity and is vital to the strength of our local economy,’ said Mayor of Santa Monica Caroline Torosis. ‘Through our partnership with Frieze, we are not only positioning Santa Monica on the global art stage but also deepening our commitment to championing emerging talent and ensuring the arts remain a vibrant, enduring pillar of our community.’
Established in 1984 to place art in civic spaces and grow the Art Bank collection with work by artists based in Southern California, the fund’s previous acquisitions at Frieze LA include works by Edgar Arceneaux (2025), Gary Tyler (2024) and Edgar Ramirez (2023).