Zipora Fried debuts in Los Angeles with bold, transformative exhibition at Sean Kelly Gallery
Sean Kelly Gallery proudly presents Trust Me, Be Careful, I Like Your Shoes, Zipora Fried’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles—a milestone that marks both a reflective survey and an audacious leap in the artist’s evolving practice.
Bringing together four distinct bodies of work—monumental works on paper, intimate new drawings, ceramic sculptures, and a towering hanging piece—the exhibition demonstrates Fried’s mastery of material and form, while revealing a newly invigorated energy in her approach.
Renowned for her exploration of the space between surface and subconscious, Zipora Fried has long worked across drawing, sculpture, and installation. Her large-scale drawings exhibit a controlled elegance: meticulously composed with precision, their refined structure commands quiet attention.
These works choreograph the viewer’s eye through calculated placement of angles and voids, achieving a balance that reflects both restraint and depth. Beneath their pristine surface lies a meditative stillness, revealing the artist’s intellectual rigor and emotional containment. Contrasting this is a fresh body of smaller works that veer sharply into freedom and instinct.
In these new drawings, Zipora Fried releases herself from the constraints of structure. Mark-making becomes an act of liberation, with raw, fluid strokes that revel in gesture and the unexpected. Imperfection is embraced as expressive force. Here, color becomes more than a visual device—it is a language of emotion, contrast, and immediacy.
Fried extends her experimentation into the sculptural realm with Miron, 2025, a ceramic work inspired by Japanese Kokeshi dolls. The piece balances playfulness with subtle unease, its exaggerated head and simplified form suggesting quiet imbalance and psychological ambiguity.
Meanwhile, All I Thought and Forgot #3 (deep cobalt green), 2016 expands the very definition of drawing. Suspended and architectural, it is a monumental testament to commitment—months of layering a single hue until the color becomes an immersive, sculptural presence. Despite its scale, the work retains a vulnerability born from time and labor.
This exhibition is not only a presentation of works, but a declaration of transformation. Fried’s practice has entered a new phase—one of intuition, play, and bold exploration. The artist, fully fluent in her visual language, now chooses when to speak in precision and when to shout in spontaneity. In every medium, she balances control and release with remarkable finesse.
Zipora Fried studied at the Academy of Applied Arts in Vienna and has exhibited internationally, with group shows at MoMA PS1, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Künstlerhaus Museum Vienna, and Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo. Her work is held in esteemed collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Albertina Museum, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, and the Austrian Government’s Permanent Collection of Contemporary Art. She currently lives and works in New York.
Photography by Brica Wilcox with courtesy of Sean Kelly, New York/Los Angeles
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