Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, organized by Shio Kusaka

The works on view highlight Suarez Frimkess’s innovative handbuilt sculpture and drawing. The artist models her own ceramics based on her educational background in painting, sculpture, and textile. Her imagery ranges from animal and floral motifs, ancient Mesoamerican art, and Venezuelan statesman Simón Bolivar to popular cartoon characters from the United States and Latin America, such as Blondie or Felix the Cat, and neighbors from her immediate Venice Beach environs. Magnolias and birds of paradise cover irregular stoneware plates, while freestanding figurines picture Olive Oyl from Popeye and Minnie Mouse.

Shio Kusaka first saw Suarez Frimkess’s work at South Willard, Los Angeles, in 2012, and met the artist around the time of the 2013 group exhibition GRAPEVINE~ at David Kordansky Gallery. That show, curated by artist Ricky Swallow, brought together Suarez Frimkess and other California-based ceramicists, putting her forms in conversation with those by Michael Frimkess, John Mason, Ron Nagle, and Peter Shire. As Suarez Frimkess’s work was spotlit in these years, fellow artists such as Kusaka and Jonas Wood, Swallow, Mark Grotjahn, Jennifer Guidi, Karen Gulbran, Evan Holloway, and Lesley Vance began collecting her work in depth and brought renewed interest to her oeuvre beyond the region and across the art world. This growing reputation was further cemented in 2024, when the Los Angeles County Museum of Art presented The Finest Disregard, a survey exhibition of Suarez Frimkess’s work.

At David Zwirner Los Angeles, Kusaka—with her signature eye for installing ceramic sculptures—arranges Suarez Frimkess’s work on a long pedestal, allowing viewers to see them individually. This installation calls attention to Suarez Frimkess’s connecting narratives and singular line, characteristics Kusaka admires.

Suarez Frimkess also maintains a daily drawing practice, producing abstract and figurative works on paper that are likewise preparatory, standalone, and self-reflexive. These sketches speak to her recurring visual vocabulary and the primacy of her line, evident in the rendering of well-known characters and the inscriptions that cover these drawings.