March 2026 events calendar for Los Angeles

The New York export returns to L.A. for the art fair’s seventh West Coast edition. After debuting in the surreal setting of the Paramount backlot and then decamping to a space next to the Beverly Hilton, the event has since settled on a site-specific tent in the southeast corner of Santa Monica Airport. Frieze’s massive tent is packed with a lineup of 100 impressive galleries—and its surrounding grounds with lounges and local-favorite food—but the price of admission will likely keep out the most casual art fans. Thankfully, Frieze is about more than just the fair: Its arrival attracts major openings at free gallery shows all across the city in the days surrounding the event.

Participate in a 5K or 10K run/walk, a 2K dog walk, a kiddie run or a 20- or 50-mile bike ride that will take you along the L.A. River and through Griffith Park during this weekend-long Lunar New Year tradition centered in the heart of historic Chinatown. All courses start and end at Chinatown Central Plaza, which will host a concurrent, free family-friendly festival with a beer garden, kids’ activities and live entertainment, if you want to celebrate without breaking a sweat. Don’t miss the weekend opening ceremony, with lion dancers and the traditional lighting of 100,000 firecrackers. Check the website for a detailed schedule of events.

Discover the next big thing at the 15th edition of this art fair, which is more accessible than most (meaning you can find original art for under $500) and places an emphasis on experiencing art, offering immersive installations, performances and DJs. For this latest and largest installment, the Other Art Fair has a new Culver City location and is honoring the one-year anniversary of the Eaton Fire by partnering with nonprofit Altadena Brick by Brick. Browse work by 160 independent artists, play a game of ping-pong on artist-designed tables, commission your own mini hand-drawn portrait at the Faux-To Booth, step inside an inflatable installation made out of 1,500 recycled plastic bags and more. 

Not to be confused with a similarly named fest at L.A. State Historic Park a few years ago, this Skyline comes from mega promoter Insomniac. For the fifth edition of the fest, held now next to the Sixth Street Viaduct at Ace Mission Studios, you’ll find Richie Hawtin, Marco Carola, Chris Stussy, I Hate Models, Joseph Capriati, VTSS and many more on the house and techno-heavy lineup that celebrates the city’s underground scene.

Scope out poolside cabanas stocked with top-notch showings from 56 galleries from around the world (including several based in Los Angeles) when this contemporary art fair returns to the Hollywood Roosevelt as part of L.A. Art Week. Modeled after the intimate hotel fair format of the ’90s, Felix is welcoming 20 first-time exhibitors, pairing emerging galleries with established names. A single-day pass will cost you $75, while a run of show pass (valid for all days of the fair) is $100.

Black-owned, artist-first fair BUTTER will make its L.A. Art Week debut this month at Inglewood’s Hollywood Park. Spotlighting the work of 40 artists—a range of independent, emerging, mid-career and established names, including many from Los Angeles—the fair notably highlights the artistry of the African diaspora and gives 100% of art sales proceeds directly to the artists, cultivating a sense of community in the process. 

The Hammer Museum’s excellent, ongoing series of biennial exhibitions ups the ante with each edition of its spotlight on emerging and under-recognized L.A. artists. This October’s exhibition—the seventh such show—brings together works from 28 artists, spanning film, painting, theater, photography, sculpture and video, that engage with the city of Los Angeles.

Highlights include Kelly Wall’s penny press and wishing well, plus racks of postcards of L.A. skies fabricated out of glass; Patrick Martinez’s East L.A.–inspired cinder block wall, adorned with Mayan murals and neon trim (as well as another neon sign that reads “Agua is LIFE, NO ICE”); and re-creations and photo documentation of the late Alonzo Davis’s freeway murals from the 1984 Olympics. Before you even step inside, you’ll notice Alake Shilling’s Buggy Bear Crashes Made in L.A., which, yes, is a giant inflatable bear driving a car that’s careening toward the Glendon Avenue corner of the Westwood museum.

This display of film and video art, billed as “a sweeping odyssey into the depths of human experience,” will take over all six stories of the abandoned, historic Variety Arts Theater in Downtown L.A. (the theater served as the setting for this past Halloween’s immersive haunt Delusion, and the expansive space was as impressive as the production itself). Over a century of visual storytelling will be explored, blurring the line between visual art and cinema. The contemporary video works by artists including Marina Abramović, Doug Aitken, Chris Burden, Cyprien Gaillard, Arthur Jafa and Precious Okoyomon—juxtaposed with cinematic works by the likes of Walt Disney and Georges Méliès—come from the time-based art collection of the Germany-based Julia Stoschek Foundation.

Pasadena’s underrated collection of museums and performance spaces open up their doors for free at this biannual arts and culture open house. Take advantage of the free shuttle buses to travel between local institutions such as the recently reopened USC Pacific Asia Museum, ArtCenter, Norton Simon Museum, Gamble House, Kidspace Children’s Museum and more, many of which will be offering special arts programming and live performances. And, of course, no arts fest would be complete without food trucks, which often include pop-ups from local bricks-and-mortar businesses.

In case “uncensored” wasn’t enough warning, make sure you leave the kids at home for this one. Part puppet show, part improv show, “Puppet Up! Uncensored” combines top puppeteering talent with music, jokes and shenanigans. It’s not just about watching the puppets either—you’ll be mesmerized by the sheer skill of the puppeteers on full display, who are coming up with songs on the fly while manipulating puppets onstage. If you’re a Jim Henson buff, this show is not to be missed: It’s put on by Brian Henson and Henson Alternative (the official adults-only arm of the Jim Henson Company), and you’ll see re-creations of Henson classics with a twist.