For Frieze Los Angeles 2023, Ortuzar Projects and Andrew Kreps Gallery are pleased to present a solo presentation of works by Ernie Barnes. The works span over five decades of Barnes' career and feature the genre scenes that are at the heart of his oeuvre, including sports, musical performance, and the joys of everyday life. The artist's signature "neo-mannerist" style is marked by elongated, fluid figures set in motion. Barnes animates the lyricism of the human body in moments of athleticism and play–from shooting hoops to singing with a broomstick while cleaning–to create a sense of transcendence. Barnes carefully studies American master painters, including Thomas Hart Benton, Andrew Wyeth, and Charles White. His early paintings capture the ability of his subjects to find pleasure within mid-century Black Southern life, which he referred to as the "spiritual currency of the ghetto." Many of his works feature communal elation and shared excitement amongst crowds of fans and groups of friends. In Street Song (1971), Barnes pictures the syncing of voices and joining of bodies in an acapella quartet. In Homecoming (1994), he illustrates the synergistic energy of celebration between a marching band and its audience. In other works, like Juba Dis an Juba Dat (1976) and Dance Class (2008), singular figures are caught in solitary moments of pleasure.

Ernie Barnes (1938–2009) was born in Durham, North Carolina at the height of the Jim Crow era. Though segragation barred him from visiting museums as a child, Barnes was able to study art books at the home of an attorney whos home his mother managed. After studying painting at North Carolina Central University (then North Carolina College), Barnes mintained a practice throughout his career in the NFL, where he played for the Sand Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos. In 1966, a year after retiring from professional sports and turning his focus entirely to painting, Barnes' first solo exhibition in New York sold out. In 1984, Barnes was named the official artist of the 1984 Los Angeles summer Olympic Games. Barnes' paintings have been featured and referenced widely in pop culture, most notable in the television series Good Times, in Marvin Gaye's I Want You album cover (amongst many others), and in rapper Anderson Paak's 2016 music viedo for his song "Come Down."

This presentation of works by Barnes at Frieze Los Angeles will run concurrently with the major survey Ernie Barnes: Where Music and Sould Live at UTA Artists Space, Los Angeles. In 2020, UTA Artists Space presented Liberating Humanity from Within, a survey exhibition of Barnes' work. In addtion, a retrospective of his work was exhibited at the California African American Museum in 2019 and at the North Carolina Museum of History in 2018–2019. Barnes' work is currently held in the collections of the African American Museum in Philadelphia; the California African American Museum, Los Angeles; the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Canton, Ohio; Brigham Young University Museum of Art, Provo, Utah; North Carolina Central University Art Museum, Durham; and the American Sport Art Museum and Archives, Daphne, Alabama, among others.