For its 14th edition Frieze London saw 37 galleries in its Focus section hailing from Dusseldorf to Tokyo. The section is dedicated to young galleries founded after 2004, and is a great place to discover emerging talents who stage ambitious solo presentations at the fair.
Here are seven young artists to watch out for:
1. Marguerite Humeau at Clearing
The Brooklyn and Brussels-based gallery brought works by Marguerite Humeau from her series she debuted this year at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, which proposes an alternate dimension populated by linguistically-advanced behemoths. Mystery, science, and fantasy lie at the heart of Humeau’s practice. The ghost-like sculptures of mythical pre-historic creatures are personified through speakers emitting animal noises creating an eerie mood at the gallery’s booth. Humeau takes us back to the origin of life by reimagining its alternate future.
Rob Chavasse at The Sunday Painter. Image courtesy of the gallery.
2. Rob Chavasse at The Sunday Painter
London-based gallery The Sunday Painter’s booth was dedicated to the work of British artist Rob Chavasse. Stacked on top of one another are slabs of industrial plasterboard. Each stack will end up back in circulation and be sold to companies who distribute drywall. Director Harry Beer told artnet News Chavasse’s idea was to “divert the route of these dry boards.” The conceptual piece is done very much in the vein of Felix Gonzalez Torres’s work, in the sense that the purchaser owns the right (and a certificate) to produce the work of art to specific measurements. When asked how the gallery would police the owner to see if each piece of plasterboard ended up back on the market, Beer replied dryly, “trust.”
Jochen Smith at VI, VII. Image courtesy of the gallery.
3. Jochen Smith at VI, VII
Oslo-based gallery VI, VII has two works by Hamburg-based Collective Jochen Smith that are a delight. The collective humorously comment on and feed into the conversation on the relationship between artistic labor, commodities, and the notion of luxury. Two works hang in the booth’s wall, one made from shredded money depicting a generic modernist abstract image, while the other, made from Italian cashmere, is embroidered with a repetitive paint splatter pattern—an image used in the past by designers such as Helmut Lang and Ralph Lauren.
Yu Honglei at Antenna Space. Image courtesy of the gallery.
4. Yu Honglei at Antenna Space
Shanghai gallery Antenna Space presents three sculptures by Mongolian-born, Beijing-based artist Yu Honglei. Two large Matisse-inspired blue Chinese totem panels line the booth’s walls. Each panel has an adjoining showerhead with strings of blue beads coming out of its faucet that echo the look of kinetic artist Jesús Rafael Soto. The deliberate fakeness of everyday objects gives the work a surprisingly sci-fi twist. Image courtesy of the gallery.
Gabriele Beveridge at Chewday’s. Image courtesy of Christie Chu.
5. Gabriele Beveridge at Chewday’s
Chewday’s booth at Frieze was one of the most intriguing. Director Tobias Czudej liked the idea of presenting Gabriele Beveridge’s work, a young up-and-coming artist, in context with ancient Cycladic heads and Anatolian idols from 3rd century BC. Consumerism, society, religion, and the female body all play a part in the conceptual connection between Beveridge’s work and the ancient artifacts. By using old advertisements from the 1970s, Beveridge critiques the current state of our consumerist capitalist society and its “new, now” obsession.
Celia Hempton at Southard Reid. Image courtesy of Christie Chu.
6. Celia Hempton at Southard Reid
Fairgoers who enter Southard Reid’s booth will find they are confronted by limp penises painted in soft flesh colors. But to see Hempton’s paintings as mere body parts or figures would be too simple. In fact the body is only part of the story; Hempton is more interested in the situation that was created for the painting.
According to Frieze Magazine, the first painting in the series was of her boyfriend. Although she initially wanted to paint his erection, which required him to watch pornography, Hempton eventually painted his backside. To her it is more about the interaction and situation that contextualizes her pictures rather than the physical paintings themselves.
Darja Bajagic at Carlos/Ishikawa. Image courtesy of Christie Chu.
7. Darja Bajagic at Carlos/Ishikawa
New York-based artist Darja Bajagic is showing three works at London gallery Carlos/Ishikawa. The series features a woman the artist discovered on the Internet named Holly from Texas, posing in various sexualized positions naked, holding a knife provocatively, and covered in blood. Each piece has red liquid coming out of either the woman’s mouth or nipple. Bajagic’s work which often incorporates porn and serial killer “murderbilia” is hard to digest, but its unabashed confrontation and explicit material make it difficult to look away.