Get Up Stand Up: Art, Urgency, and Global Solidarity Converge in a Landmark Frieze LA Benefit

During this year’s edition of Frieze Los Angeles, a dynamic intersection of art and advocacy took center stage with Get Up Stand Up: Artists for Jamaica and Los Angeles, a major fundraising auction presented by CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort) and TBA21–Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. Held on February 26 in a private Hollywood venue, the evening brought together an influential cross-section of the international art world—artists, collectors, musicians, and cultural leaders—in response to the devastating effects of Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica and ongoing wildfires across Los Angeles.

Led by renowned auctioneer Simon de Pury, the live sale generated over $500,000, with additional works continuing online, expanding the initiative’s reach and impact. Featured artists included Nari Ward, Alberta Whittle, Phoebe Collings-James, Hank Willis Thomas, Tomás Saraceno, Ernesto Neto, and Ragnar Kjartansson, among others, reflecting a broad and globally engaged artistic community. 

The benefit was spearheaded by producers and host committee members Rachael Barrett and Lauren Taschen, with support from the distinguished committee and donors spanning leading galleries, collectors, and artists. All proceeds will directly aid CORE’s long-term recovery efforts in Jamaica, Haiti, and Los Angeles, while also bolstering its Emergency Response Fund—enabling swift, community-led action in crises around the world. 

Highlights of the evening ranged from spirited bidding wars—most notably between Diplo and Winnie Harlow—to the presentation of Urs Fischer’s Lifeboat (2024) as the star lot, and a final experiential offering that included a private stay in Jamaica accompanied by a bespoke musical composition. The unforgettable night concluded with performances and DJ sets, reinforcing the sense of collective momentum and shared purpose.

Whitewall spoke with Barrett about the vision behind the sale, the urgency of its mission, and the deeper narratives carried through the works on view.

Building an Intimate Yet Urgent Sale

WHITEWALL: You worked with a tightly edited selection of works for Get Up Stand Up. Can you talk about how that focus came together—and how your personal relationships and anecdotes with the artists helped shape a sale that feels both intimate and urgent in service of the cause?

RACHAEL BARRETT: I have been fortunate to build wonderful relationships with artists from the wider Caribbean diaspora and Black Atlantic. As part of my doctoral research into the Caribbean contemporary art market, I’ve built a wonderful community of artists and curators from across the Caribbean, Global South and its diasporas whose work engages shared historical themes such as decolonialism and resistance, and contemporary issues from caribbean climate action and diasporic relationships to urban development in tropical environments; double-consciousness and globalization. 

Increasingly over the last few years, in their work and anecdotally among each other, these artists often discuss issues concerning economic under-development; controversies within the tourist economy; the effects of consumption and capitalism from developed nations in the West on the Global South… so when hurricane Melissa hit, and the facts started to emerge… strongest winds ever recorded; a super-storm, possibly the first category 6 on record… conversations quickly developed to look at the tragedy from a bigger perspective.

For some of the Jamaica based artists who have donated work, this is a very personal effort as they’ve had family members directly affected through loss of income and housing. But I was really pleasantly surprised at the artists and gallerists who are not Jamaican themselves, but take an interest in how climate change affects life today or have fond memories of time spent in Jamaica… they were among the first who rallied to support this call. In fact a primarily European based WhatsApp group first built the momentum to get this effort going, and it has been really heartwarming to see how quickly people from all over the world have responded to support this call.

Art as Amplifier: Climate, Visibility, and Response

WW: Many of the artists in the auction engage deeply with themes of climate, displacement, and resilience. Was there a particular moment—an artist story or studio conversation—that crystallized how these works could meaningfully support CORE’s long-term recovery efforts?

RB: On the ground in the relief zone in Jamaica shortly after the hurricane had passed, first responder emergency NGOs were on the ground. I met the team from CORE and observed their work as first responders in one of the hardest hit parishes St. Elizabeth, and in one of the most difficult districts, Parrottee. Just two weekends before I was at a significant art event in Los Angeles, where most guests who are known for their campaigning within climate action frameworks, had never even heard of what had happened in Jamaica. It was a shock, and a reminder of how serious events can disappear on the global stage.

Art has always served as a great voice, amplifying people’s wants, wishes and needs; acting as a sounding board for ideas and a messaging platform to raise awareness. TBA21 has long designed their programming and commissioning focus on art and artists who are exploring central themes of environmental research and ocean conservation. So working with artists like Ernesto Neto, Tavares Strachan and Richard Nattoo who crystallize historical research, indigenous traditions and practice… Marcía Falcão and Katrina Coombs, artists who focus on expression centred on personal histories and the body… It was important to tell a story with artists who are able to communicate both the bigger picture of globally driven climate events, as well personal stories that highlight the faces and people impacted by the event.

“It has been really heartwarming to see how quickly people from all over the world have responded to support this call.”

Rachael Barrett

Global narratives of climate action, climate responsibility and the reality of increased environmental and changed societal behaviors can easily go over people’s heads if they are not contextualized within localized perspectives of the people and places that are affected.

CORE retained a local team to transition from immediate emergency response to long-term recovery. This commitment to locally informed, sustained engagement made them a strong charitable partner. For many years, CORE has also hosted a major arts-aligned fundraiser and has expressed interest in deepening its collaboration with the arts to amplify its message and support its programming, making the partnership a natural fit.

Balancing Aesthetics and Ethics

WW: This sale brings together artists rooted in Caribbean histories alongside those connected through residency, diaspora, or shared concerns around the Anthropocene. How did you think about balance—both aesthetically and ethically—when narrowing the list, and what stories behind individual works feel especially important for collectors to hear?

RB: The surprising thing about putting something like this together is witnessing how artists who might initially seem unrelated—whether aesthetically, socially, or historically—can become swiftly united through a shared ideology. The mathematically driven layers of a painting by Haas Brothers, with their accretive structures rooted in depictions of the natural world, align beautifully with a broader effort to draw attention to the persistence and resilience of the environment. Meanwhile, Richard Nattoo’s Jonkonnu painting evokes the historical traditions of masquerade and ritual, celebrating cultural engagement with the natural elements. In a different register, Paul Anthony Smith’s picotage-textured photographs trace the movements and memories of the Caribbean diaspora, suggesting dreamlike visions of Jamaica in which memory becomes fragmented, meaning remains fluid, and new ways of seeing and imagining the past begin to emerge.

The disasters to which Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) responds in its emergency work are often events that level the playing field. A hurricane on the scale of Melissa is felt by everyone in its path, regardless of background, interests, or taste. In balancing the works assembled here—each illuminating the severity of the issue while reflecting the diverse people, places, and histories affected—a broad, holistic range of artistic perspectives felt essential. Such a range allows the exhibition to mirror the wide-reaching impact of these events while emphasizing the shared vulnerability that connects us all.

Translating Complexity for Collectors

WW: Many of these works carry layered histories—material, political, and personal. How do you approach translating those complexities for collectors and audiences in the room, especially when the goal is to connect the emotional power of the work directly to the urgency of the cause?

RB: The translation of the layered meanings behind works like these is a difficult task, not just for the live auction but also for the online! We have included biographies of each artist as well as some artist written background on the works, but the hope is that articles like this one, and posts in our social campaign that highlight the connection between some of the deeply personal themes addressed in the work and bigger picture of climate injustice that will help make the broader issues resonate with a global audience and inspire engagement—and bids!

Works That Resonate

WW: This is described as a moment where cultural weight and critical urgency intersect. Are there one or two works in the sale whose backstories you find yourself returning to—pieces where the artist’s intent, the material, and the cause align in a way that feels especially powerful?

RB: What I found particularly powerful in assembling this collection was the opportunity to bring together works that span a wide range of materials and approaches, demonstrating the breadth of artistic practices engaging with these urgent themes. Across both the live and online auctions, artists employ abstraction, figuration, photography, light, and video to reflect on resilience, memory, migration, and our relationship to the natural world.

In the live auction, we were fortunate to feature a work created especially for the sale by Alvaro Barrington. Conceived as an ode to the Black Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea, the work embraces abstraction while remaining grounded in Barrington’s ongoing commitment to celebrating Caribbean resilience and cultural continuity. In the online auction, Savannah Harris’s Hope offers another compelling exploration of abstraction, evoking the persistence and continual transformation of the natural environment.

Tavares Strachan’s We Belong Together is an especially poignant addition to the live auction. Strachan’s practice centers on recovering overlooked histories and making visible those who have been excluded from dominant narratives. In this work, light becomes both material and metaphor, illuminating stories that might otherwise remain unseen. The work belongs to several major museum collections, making its inclusion here—at a scale that speaks powerfully to the relationship between disaster in the developing world and response from the developed world—an exceptional contribution.

In the online auction, Richard Nattoo’s Jonkanoo stands out as another museum-quality work of particular significance. The series explores shared cultural narratives between the African diaspora and the Caribbean through traditions of masquerade, celebration, and resistance, while also reflecting on the enduring relationship between people, land, and environment.

In a very different visual language, Adee Roberson’s Healer Dub honors Jamaican women writers and musicians whose creative practices have shaped cultural memory, resistance, and spiritual continuity. Through her palette, Roberson also invokes the ocean and the Blue Lagoon as sites of passage, healing, and ancestral memory—spaces where history, migration, and renewal converge.

“Such a range allows the exhibition to mirror the wide-reaching impact of these events while emphasizing the shared vulnerability that connects us all.”

Rachael Barrett

Lakwena Maciver’s HAHA introduces yet another stylistic register. Bold and graphic, the work offers a sharp commentary on resistance, contemporary divisions, and the tightening control of public space and speech. It forms part of Maciver’s ongoing exploration of the human longing for paradise and the contradictions that shape that desire.

DiAndre Caprice Davis’s Chaotic Beauty presents an opportunity to encounter award-winning experimental video art from an artist based in Jamaica. Davis’s research-driven practice integrates arts education, cognitive psychology, mathematics, and technology, resulting in works that examine complexity, perception, and the layered dynamics of contemporary life.

Finally, Paul Anthony Smith’s Melodies from a Running Spring: Enchantment and Ludovic Nkoth’s Sunday offer thoughtful reflections on memory, migration, and identity from a diasporic perspective. Through distinct visual languages, both artists explore how personal and collective histories travel across geographies, shaping new ways of seeing, remembering, and belonging.