By Maxwell Rabb
An immediate standout at Roberts Projects’s booth is an installation by Betye Saar that features two mixed-media assemblage works: the small rocking chair Critter Chair: The Seat of the Spirit (1990) and the windowpane sculpture Fragments of Fall (1989/1999). Originally featured in the “Sanctified Visions” exhibition at MOCA in 1990, the installation draws on the life of American writer Zora Neale Hurston. Here, the gallery reconstructs an evocative environment with moss and corrugated sheet metal, mimicking aspects of Hurston’s childhood surroundings. The purpose of mounting such a historically embedded exhibition, said the gallery’s founder Bennett Roberts, is to emphasize the vital history of the city.
“It’s all about memory and remembering,” Roberts told Artsy. “I think that’s the thing about L.A. is that we always go through these problems, but we always seem to come out stronger and better. So, we decided to use it after all of this happened and create it as an environment that’s about remembering.”
The rest of the group presentation features highlights from the Los Angeles–based gallery’s program. This includes Wendy Red Star’s Evening Star #1 (2025), which features two mirrors positioned at a 90-degree angle, reflecting a star quilt pattern crafted from earth pigments in rich shades of blue and red, inspired by Apsáalooke (Indigenous Americans that primarily live in Montana) women’s rawhide paintings and quilting techniques. The price range for Red Star’s works starts at $9,000, extending to Amoako Boafo’s portrait Japonica Round Neck (2023), priced at $205,000.