For Made in L.A 2020: A Version, we worked closely with the artist and fabricator Eben Goff to design thin 1/4” face mild steel frames which were heat-treated to create a bluing/bruising effect to compliment the ambiguously biological character of the images. The corners of the frames were left crudely ground, showing multidirectional machining marks. All of the photographs were mounted to Dibond and fit using black acrylic spacers, museum glass and magnetic strainers so that no holes or hardware are visible from the exterior.

Evan started working with us after seeing our X spline on Kelly Akashi’s frames. Instead of repeating that same mark, we designed the W spline especially for Evan and continue to use it only on his frames. We have changed the finish formula and process over the years, but one thing that always stays the same is that we make the mouldings out of walnut and the splines out of maple to achieve that eye-catching contrast. Here are images of his 2020 exhibition, In My Room, at Tyler Park Presents in Los Angeles.

Jaime Muñoz incorporates elaborate geometric borders into his paintings. When we had a chance to frame this print of his, we wanted to carve a pattern that Jaime has used in a number of paintings. You probably remember learning to draw it in the margins of your middle school notebook. The symbol appears in photographs of LA & NY graffiti dating back to the ‘70s and appears in a Basquiat drawing from 1982, where it is labeled the “classic S of graf.” We carved the classic s of graf into a 1/4 raised panel on the side of this sapele frame. Because the original moulding had a 3/4” face, cutting the dados for this raised panel created a slimmer 1/2” face on the frame, which is much more in scale with this mid-size print and serendipitously created a handsome profile which we continue to use without any carving at all.

For Made in LA, 2018, we framed three photographs from Houck’s Playing and Reality series in splined walnut mouldings with Optium Museum Acrylic. We framed works from his Accumulator series in white lacquered maple frames. The three-dimensional creased prints are mounted to printed color backgrounds on Dibond with matboard spacers lined with matching printed colored paper. All works are framed with Optium Museum Acrylic.

For Kelly Akashi’s 2019 exhibition, Figure Shifters, at Francois Ghebaly Gallery in Los Angeles we worked closely with the artist to design and build red oak frames and shelving units that utilize locking mitres on the corners and sliding dovetail joints on all of the shelving units. Some of the shelving units hold litho film prints in double-sided 3/8” face walnut frames with an X spline. This special detail, the first that we designed for any artist, is now an icon in our logo, and Kelly has graciously agreed to allow us to use the X spline on frames for other clients. All images here are Courtesy of the Artist, Tanya Bonakdar, New York and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles. Photos of 2D works: Robert Wedemeyer, photos of 3D works: Marten Elder

Artist Kyle Tata made this photograph while working as an art handler for a major institution in town. The collector wanted to commemorate this inspiration in the production of the frame. When she delivered the piece, she also brought a shipping crate that was used for another work in her collection. We salvaged the plywood center panels of the crate which had stencils indicating the orientation and fragility of the work and milled them into 1” x 1/8” strips which we inlaid into a frame made from maple europly. The ply’s of the europly show on the face and on the internal spacers in a nod to the humble, functional materials of artworld logistics.

Paul and Paradise Founder and CEO Michael Cataldi have been working together since before Paradise existed. They overlapped in UCLA’s MFA program, and Michael framed Paul’s graduate thesis show there. For Paul’s 2020 exhibition at Susanne Vielmetter Gallery in LA, A Conversation About Around Pictures, he produced some of his most ambitious photographs to date, including diptychs of 60” x 80” prints. Paul often photographs his subjects with cameras and mirrors in the frame so we consciously choose to use acrylic glazing without a non-glare coating in many of Paul’s works. This allows reflections to function conceptually with his images and even incorporates the viewer.

Artists often have the best collections. They trade with one another while participating in residencies out of mutual admiration and friendship. They want to live with artwork from their friends and interlocutors and rarely put anything in storage or sell it on the secondary market. That’s why when our friend Paul Mpagi Sepuya came to us with many works that he has collected this way over the years, we chose a broad range of different frame profiles and finishes to compliment the pieces that would be on view in his home for years to come. Photography by Marten Elder.