Here Are the Top 5 Highlights of Frieze Sculpture 2018

The summer exhibition returns to Regent's Park in London where the fair's organizers hope it will be seen by 5 million visitors.

Richard Woods, Holiday Home (Regent’s Park) (2018), Alan Cristea Gallery.

John Baldessari’s big Penguin is stopping joggers in their tracks in Regent’s Park. It looks as if it’s strayed from the nearby London Zoo. The “self-portrait” measures the exact height of the veteran artist, and the big bird is but one of 15 new works unveiled in the second edition of Frieze Sculpture’s extended summer-through-autumn show. The free sculpture exhibition, which opens today, July 4, in the park’s English Garden near where Frieze London’s tent will be erected in the fall, features work by 25 artists.

The project is curated once again by Clare Lilley, the director of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s program. Lilley stressed that the gender ratio of this year’s exhibition was balanced between male and female artists. Among the new works by female artists that impressed on preview day were the colorful sculptures by Indian artist Bharti Kher, rising star Rana Begum, who is based in London, and the US artist Virginia Overton. A flock of Tracey Emin’s bronze birds have also flown in.

Frieze’s artistic director, Jo Stella-Sawicka, estimates that the sculptures on show could be seen by around 5 million visitors, a figure that gave Tristram Hunt pause for thought. The director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, who opened the exhibition, noted that figure was higher than attendance at the national museum of art and design, which is home to the national—and rather dated—sculpture collection. (A typically British anomaly, the V&A shows contemporary sculpture but the Tate does the acquiring.)

One of Richard Woods’s Pop art buildings, which were last seen on the beach, promenade and floating in the harbor of Folkestone for its triennial last year, adds to the jollity of the park. His Holiday Home (Regent’s Park) also makes a serious point as an ironic comment on London’s indecent lack of decent housing. The artist  currently has two “tower blocks” on show in the Royal Academy of Art’s Summer Exhibition, and more empty homes at Alan Cristea gallery in London.

At Frieze, Wood’s sculpture stands temporarily on the doorstep of some of London’s most desirable residencies: the US ambassador to London is a nearby neighbor and Damien Hirst has a mansion in a James Nash-designed terrace. Nearby, Wood’s work, the artist Conrad Shawcross was especially happy to see his large-scale interactive labyrinth installed in the local park. It is an open invitation to play hide and seek.

Here are five highlights from Frieze Sculpture 2018.

Bharti Kher, The Intermediary Family (2018)
Hauser & Wirth – worldwide

 

John Baldessari, Penguin (2018)
Marian Goodman Gallery – New York, Paris, London

Rana Begum, No. 814 (2018)
The Third Line – Dubai; Jhaveri Contemporary – Mumbai; Kate MacGarry – London; Galerie Christian Lethert – Cologne

Virginia Overton, Untitled (122 x 244 View) (2018)
White Cube – London, Hong Kong

Conrad Shawcross, Optic Labyrinth (Arrangement I) (2018)
Victoria Miro Gallery, London

Photo by Stephen White. Courtesy of the photographer and Frieze.

Frieze Sculpture is on view from July 4 through October 7, English Garden, Regent’s Park, London.


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