On this episode I'm joined by Essence Harden. Essence Harden is the Visual Arts curator at CAAM, the California African American Museum. She' s one of two curators of the Made in L.A. biennial taking place next year in 2025.
This year, Essence was named the curator of Focus at Frieze LA. For this year's focus, Essence explores the intimate, environmental, and urban dimensions of ecologies. Across all Frieze Fairs, Focus is a space dedicated to galleries founded within the last 12 years. So there's lots of emerging galleries and artists to discover. Just last week, the Hammer Museum named Essence one of two curators of the 7th edition of the Made in LA Biennial. to be held in the fall of 2025. When I catch up with Essence, she's fresh off a call with friend and artist Lauren Halsey.
On this episode, we chat about Lauren Halsey, the importance of place and geographies, and her curation of Focus at Frieze LA opening next week.