An SMC alum's sculpture at Frieze LA
On a breezy stretch of tarmac at Santa Monica Airport, a squad of aspiring SMC student-artists recently got to test the runway where big-name careers take off.
High-end collectors, curators and featured artists represented by 95 galleries from 22 countries converged on the tarmac in late February for Frieze Los Angeles, a major international art fair presented by London-based Frieze magazine.
For many Corsairs, it was their first brush with the global art scene.
“It’s like multiplying a gallery opening by 100,” says SMC Art faculty Kim Garcia. “My students could see what galleries in London, New York and Tokyo choose to present, who they believe in, and how art circulates globally.”
Frieze Los Angeles is part of the Frieze network, a series of art fairs held in world capitals like London, New York, Seoul, Chicago and Abu Dhabi. The LA edition premiered seven years ago at Paramount Pictures Studios; it moved to Santa Monica Airport in 2023, having outgrown the original space.
This year’s Frieze Los Angeles, which ran February 26 through March 1, drew more than 32,000 visitors from 45 countries, including museum professionals from 160 institutions.
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Though no stranger to the event, SMC seriously ramped up its participation in 2026.
“This is our first year interning with Frieze,” says art professor Emily Silver, who together with Kim coordinated the collaboration—drawing on alumni connections, contacts with Frieze-affiliated curators and faculty outreach.
Twenty-two students signed up to work the fair’s four-day run. Some helped interpret the work of a single artist; others moved through different exhibition spaces as frontline Frieze Los Angeles ambassadors.
“They acted as docents but also as participants,” Kim says. “They weren’t just explaining the work. They were learning how audiences engage with it.”
Among the featured artists whom the interns assisted were four SMC graduates. “We’ve had alumni in the fair before,” Emily notes, “but never this many at once!”
SMC alum Sharif Farrag had one of the fair’s most talked-about solo booths, hosted by Jeffrey Deitch galleries. Sharif’s space was filled with playful hybrid-ceramic sculptures fusing his Syrian-Egyptian heritage with elements of American pop culture. Sales were brisk, with one of the artist’s pieces acquired by the Mohn Art Collective, a shared initiative of LACMA, MOCA and UCLA’s Hammer Museum.
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Outside the main tent, SMC alum Cosmas & Damian Brown was a featured artist in the Body & Soul series, an outdoor curated exhibition space for large-scale works. Sponsored by the NewYork-based nonprofit Art Production Fund, this part of the fair was aimed at the general public with free admission. In Cosmas & Damian’s installation, “Fountain: Sources of Light,” incense rises from six large ceramic heads encircling a fountain filled with metal vessels. Visitors are encouraged to rearrange elements, thereby altering the acoustics and rhythm of the falling water.
Meanwhile SMC alumni artists Ozzie Juarez and Rory Toole were part of a Deitch-curated pop-up exhibition at a vacant 99 Cent Only Store on Wilshire Boulevard—one of many off-site happenings that make Frieze Week a citywide event.
Ozzie, Sharif, Rory and Cosmas & Damian share a special bond: all four were classmates in SMC’s long-running Art Mentor Program.
“They’ve really stuck together and moved through the art world as a force,” Emily says, of the foursome, who she fondly remembers as former star students.
The Art Mentor Program (Art 87A/Art 87B) is a rigorous capstone experience for advanced Art Department students. Taught by Emily, this three-part series of courses focuses on developing an artistic voice, expanding the portfolio, organizing an exhibition showcasing the work, and mapping out a sustainable career.
Kim teaches a separate three-part series of courses in Exhibition and Display Studies (Art 80/82/84), which provides hands-on experiences in the production, implementation, activation and management of fine art exhibitions. With no prerequisites, Kim’s courses attract students of all ages and skill levels.
The 22 Frieze Los Angeles interns came from both Emily’s and Kim’s classes. For most, it was their first exposure to the sometimes opaque logic of the global art marketplace.
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“Works by major artists were going for millions of dollars, while other work by emerging artists was going for $5,000 to $15,000,” Kim says. “My students could see how galleries navigate that commerce, where the price tags are.” She means that both figuratively and literally, as in, “sometimes they’re posted on the walls, sometimes you have to ask.” Such experiences are especially valuable to those contemplating careers as gallerists or curators, Kim notes.
The cost of attending a world-class art fair can be prohibitive, even without the need to travel. Frieze Los Angeles general admission for one-time entry started at $85, and discounted student tickets cost $40. For SMC interns, however, access was free and included a full immersion experience. Even Kim’s non-intern students got a free pass on Friday, when she held her regular class session on the airport fairgrounds.
“They were really excited,” Kim say. “They saw in a very hands-on and immersive way how the art world works, how galleries and art fairs feed into museums.”
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For enterprising student-artists like Caleb Deal, the Frieze internship was a golden networking opportunity.
The 25-year-old from Seattle originally came to SMC to study fashion design, but his artistic output is now firmly rooted in foam-based sculpture.
“SMC really helped me create a strong practice,” says Caleb, who will transfer in the fall to Cal State Long Beach’s BFA program. “They opened the doors and made it super-doable for me to make whatever I want.” He credits Emily, in particular, with showing him “what galleries and collectors want to see” while pushing him to “stay true to myself. I found my drive and my passion. I grow stronger every day with every critique,” he says.
At Frieze, Caleb floated between projects, working one day alongside Cosmas & Damian, lighting incense in “Fountain: Sources of Light” and answering visitors’ questions about the installation. He crossed paths a few times with LA-based artist Amanda Ross-Ho, whose durational performance piece, “Untitled Orbit,” involved her rolling a 16-foot inflatable Earth around the perimeter of the Airport Park soccer field. Caleb struck up a conversation with respected sculptor Dan John Anderson, whose large-scale wood and bronze works were part of the Body & Soul series. That bit of networking may lead to a summer assistantship for Caleb at the artists’ Yucca Valley studio.
“That’s how the art world works,” Emily says. “You show up, you meet people. It’s no different from what Kim and I do as artists in the real world. You don’t just hand someone your portfolio. You have conversations. ”
Kim agrees. “It’s about relationship building,” she says, “not hustle culture—something more sustainable.”
Emily and Kim plan to keep building sustainably on the Frieze relationship. They can’t wait for the next wave of Corsairs to hit the tarmac.
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