Uzi Parnes
Frieze Los Angeles: Uzi Parnes
Feb. 26–Mar. 1, 2026
For the 2026 edition of Frieze Los Angeles, Gordon Robichaux will present a Focus booth featuring a group of Uzi Parnes’s wall-based Photo Chandaliers. These historical assemblages combine a montage of photographs of men and the West Side piers in Manhattan with found objects including feathers, glitter, fabric, small toys, metallic pipe cleaners, and fragments of broken mirror. Each work is mounted on mat board—some within frames or nested in a box—and is illuminated by clusters of colored electric light bulbs.
Created between 1984 and 1985, Parnes’s Photo Chandaliers recall the ruins, decadence, glamour, and urgency of art and creative communities in New York City during that time. The constructions originally adorned the walls of the legendary East Village performance venue Chandalier, which the artist founded and co-directed with Ela Troyano in the 1980s. Over the course of its history, the club presented hundreds of avant-garde plays and performances featuring luminaries of underground theater, among them Ethyl Eichelberger, Tabboo!, Penny Arcade, Carmelita Tropicana, and Agosto Machado.
Installation view: Uzi Parnes, Gordon Robichaux, F9, Frieze Los Angeles 2026
Installation view: Uzi Parnes, Gordon Robichaux, F9, Frieze Los Angeles 2026
Uzi Parnes, Where the Boys Are #49, 1984, 9x13 inch Cibachrome print made with multiple exposures in camera, printed in 1984 from a slide taken in 1978, mat board, paint, feathers, miniature car, miniature bird, light bulbs, wiring, 16 x 20 x 4 inches
Uzi Parnes, Where the Boys Are #67, 1984, 9x13 inch Cibachrome print made with multiple exposures in camera, printed in 1984 from a slide taken in 1978, mat board, paint, glitter, mirror shard, toy astronaut, tassel, light bulbs, wiring, 16 x 20 x 5.5 inches
Uzi Parnes, Where the Boys Are #57, 1984, 9x13 inch Cibachrome print made with multiple exposures in camera, printed from a slide taken in 1978, astroturf, toy soldier, doll arm, mirror shard, light bulbs, wiring, 19.5 x 23.5 x 6 inches
Uzi Parnes, Untitled Construction, 1985, 8x10 inch reversal print of a mural by TAVA, printed by the artist in 1983, found box, angel ornament, fabric, playing card, miniature doll, glitter wrap, light bulbs, wiring, 12 x 13 x 5 inches
Uzi Parnes, The Beach Club, 1985, 8x10 inch reversal print, printed by the artist in 1983, found frame, mat board, plastic toy, bulb, screws, electric bulbs, wiring, 14 x 18 x 2.75 inches
Uzi Parnes, Dollway To Heaven, 1987, 8x10 inch reversal print, made in camera with double-exposure and printed by the artist in 1983, found frame, mat board, doll parts, glitter, electric bulbs, wiring, 17.25 x 21.25 x 4.5 inches
Press
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