Art Fairs
See What Dealers Are Bringing to Frieze London
Get an exclusive sneak peek of what's on offer.
Lorena Muñoz-Alonso
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The 15th edition of Frieze London and the fifth edition of Frieze Masters are upon us. Both kick off next week as the two fairs have moved forward on the October calendar for this iteration.
“It starts a week earlier than usual this year, to avoid a clash with the Jewish holidays, as our opening day would have fallen on the first day of Yom Kippur, which would have been culturally insensitive,” the director of Frieze Fairs, Victoria Siddall, told the Evening Standard of the change.
The adjustment has not just shortened the typical post-holiday slumber for art workers in London and abroad, it also created a scheduling conflict for international galleries and collectors, some of whom exhibited and attended both Frieze and Paris’s FIAC, usually held back to back. With a week-long gap now carved between both fairs, some dealers are forced to choose, and FIAC’s recently-announced exhibitor list revealed that many US galleries—including important ones like Greene Naftali, Tanya Bonakdar, Andrew Kreps, and Matthew Marks—have in fact opted for Frieze.
This year, Frieze London gathers 160 galleries from 30 different countries, and Frieze Masters, 133 galleries. The numbers are pretty much identical to last year’s, which evidences that both fairs have found the right scale. So confident are its organizers, in fact, that they have also decided to shorten their duration, with the coveted VIP previews taking place on Wednesday October 5 (as opposed to the usual Tuesday date).
Frieze’s ongoing success is not only with its exhibitors and collectors, but also with the general public, the vast number of ticket-paying attendees—shelling out around £55 ($71.48) for a combined ticket for both fairs—who don’t come to buy but to look at the art: last year, attendance across both fairs totaled over 105,000 visitors (up from 100,000 in 2014).
So, with the stakes being so high, what are dealers bringing to Frieze London and Frieze Masters this year?
Bharti Kher, Three decimal points. of a minute. of a second. of a degree (2014). Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.
Hauser & Wirth, which last year triumphed with its large, museum-like booth devoted to sculptures on plinths, returns to Frieze London with “L’atelier d’artistes,” another reflection on museological presentations, this time on the ubiquitous practice of reconstructing artist studios. The mega-gallery will show works by many of its artists, all united by a shared, muted color palette and use of raw materials. The booth will feature a dazzling array of works, including a sculpture by Phyllida Barlow that could be yours for £35,000 ($45,500); a work on canvas by Isa Genzken, titled Geldbild XIX (2014) priced at €45,000 ($50,500); Bharti Kher’s stunning sculpture Three decimal points. of a minute. of a second. of a degree (2014), priced at €120,000 ($134,800); a Paul McCarthy drawing, entitled Mad House Drawing 1 (2011), priced at $180,000, a Fausto Melotti sculpture, titled Alberello (1965) with a price tag of €120,000 ($134,800), a recent video object from 2015 by Pipilotti Rist for CHF 75,000 ($77,500); and an ink on paper drawing from 1953 by David Smith, which could be yours if you have $125,000 to spare.
Also in the blue chip section, Marian Goodman Gallery will show new works by John Baldessari, William Kentridge, Ettore Spalletti, and Nairy Baghramian, as well as existing works by Tacita Dean, Thomas Struth and Annette Messager. Meanwhile, with a strong 2D and painting bias, Thaddaeus Ropac will bring works by Alex Katz, Arnulf Rainer, Cory Arcangel, Daniel Richter, Georg Baselitz, Marcin Maciejowski, Robert Longo, Robert Rauschenberg, and Sigmar Polke. For sculpture fans, works by Antony Gormley and Tony Cragg will also be on view.
Goodman Gallery, from Capetown and Johannesburg, will have a Liza Lou work titled Canvas; Be afraid of the enormity of the possible; a neon work in text by Alfredo Jaar; two new drawings by William Kentridge; the Soliloquy series by Shirin Neshat; Losing my Religion 23 by Kendell Geers; works from the Divine Violence series by Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, a film by Tracy Rose called Die Wit Man; and a work by Deutsche Borse award-winner Mikhael Subotzky.
Mona Hatoum, Electrified (variable II) (2014) ©Mona Hatoum. Photo George Darrell ©White Cube.
London’s top galleries are going for group presentations featuring many of their artists. White Cube, for example, will show works by Mona Hatoum, Raqib Shaw, Magnus Plessen, and Liu Wei, while Lisson Gallery will feature works by a number of artists from its roster, including new and recent artworks by Ai Weiwei, John Akomfrah, Ryan Gander, Susan Hiller, Shirazeh Houshiary, and Santiago Sierra, as well as works by Anish Kapoor, Allora & Calzadilla, and Pedro Reyes.
Maureen Paley, on the other hand, will show a curated selection of new and recent photographic works by Wolfgang Tillmans, including Separate System Reading Prison (self b) (2016) and Kleine Welle (2015), as well a 2016 c-print mounted by Anne Hardy titled Equilibrium (umph, ohwh, ah, clk clk) and Automatic 2, a painted work from 1986 by General Idea. Additional works by Paulo Nimer Pjota and Gillian Wearing will also be on show.
Philippe Parreno, Speech Bubbles (Transparent Orange) (2016). Courtesy Pilar Corrias Gallery.
Pilar Corrias is bringing two works to Frieze London. Coinciding with Philippe Parreno’s Turbine Hall Commission at Tate Modern, the gallery will show Parreno’s Speech Bubbles (Transparent Orange) (2016), as well as Shahzia Sikander’s Singing Suns, a new HD-video animation with music by Du Yun.
Laura Bartlett will present not just one, but two different configurations of artists during the fair. The first set will include works by John Divola, Cyprien Gaillard, the British artist Lydia Gifford, and Elizabeth McAlpine. The second half of the week will see works by American artist Margo Wolowiec, another work by Gaillard, a set of paintings especially made for the fair by Ryan McLaughlin, wall-based pieces by Marie Lund, and a new painting by Latin American artist Sol Calero, coinciding with her second solo show at the gallery, on view during Frieze.
Not suffering from Brexit-induced anxiety, Parisian power-dealer Kamel Mennour is launching his first London branch all guns blazing, coinciding with Frieze. To maximize impact and the attention of collectors, the gallery has devised both a solo booth at the fair and a solo show of Latifa Echakhch at its new London space.
From LA, David Kordansky Gallery will bring a presentation of new works by artists including Harold Ancart, Andrea Büttner, Steven Claydon, Aaron Curry, Shahryar Nashat, Ruby Neri, Ricky Swallow, Lesley Vance, Mary Weatherford, and Betty Woodman. The display will explore new additions to the gallery roster (such as Ancart) putting them in dialogue with established names from the American and European canons (such as Büttner, Claydon, and Woodman).
Maria Luisa Fernandez, Artistas Ideales (1990). Courtesy of MaisterraValbuena, Madrid.
Madrid’s MaisterraValbuena returns to the general section for the second consecutive year with a presentation of works by gallery artists, including works by the recently re-discovered Basque sculptor María Luisa Fernández (with prices ranging from €18,000–38,000 [$20,000–42,700]), B. Wurtz (€5,000–20,000 [$5,600–22,400]), the young Spanish painter Antonio Ballester Moreno (€4,000–12,000 [$4,500–13,500]), the Polish artist Maria Loboda (€8,000–20,000 [$8,985–22,400]), Néstor Sanmiguel Diest (€6,000–35,000 [$6,700–39,000]), and the hot new name on the block, Daniel Jacoby (€6,000–12,000 [$6,700–13,500]).
Esther Schipper is taking part in both the general section and the new section The 90s, curated by Nicolas Trembley and devoted to seminal shows staged in that decade. At the general section, the Berlin blue chip dealer will offer a selection of works by gallery artists, including AA Bronson, Angela Bulloch, Ceal Floyer, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Gabriel Kuri, Liam Gillick, Ryan Gander, and Roman Ondák. Over at The 90s section, the gallery will feature a historical work by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster called RWF, taken from a 1993 solo exhibition in which Gonzalez-Foerster transformed an entire apartment in Cologne into an imaginary film set, in a nod to Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s practice of using his own apartment as a film location.
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, R.W.F. (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) (1993) Exhibition view, “Dominique Gonzalez- Foerster. 1887–2058,” Centre Pompidou, 2015. Photo ©Andrea Rossetti, courtesy the artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin.
Also at The 90s section, Thomas Dane will present Michael Landy’s 1992 installation Market. The seminal piece is a social and political commentary on Britain during the decade that began with Margaret Thatcher and ended under Tony Blair’s leadership. Like many of the works featured in this curated section, it doesn’t exist in its original state so the installation at Frieze will showcase the exhibition’s remnants. Meanwhile, Sprüth Magers, in collaboration with Mehdi Chouakri and Salon 94, will present Sylvie Fleury’s A Journey to Fitness or How to Lose 30 Pounds In Under Three Weeks, a 12-channel film installation first shown at the Venice Biennale in 1993.
The young London gallery Arcadia Missa, is graduating from its debut at the fair last year at the Live Section and showing at the Focus section this year, where it will showcase a new sculptural installation by Jesse Darling, a new video work by Dean Blunt (in the region of £3,000 [$3,900]), and the aluminum piece Attitude (priced between £8,000–9,000 [$10,400–11,700]) by artist duo Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hasting, which was recently exhibited at London’s Somerset House. Fellow young London gallery Carlos/Ishikawa will show works by Darja Bajagić and Lloyd Corporation.
Rising Portuguese gallery Múrias Centeno is again showing at Focus, this year with a presentation of works by artist Carla Filipe, who has exhibited recently at the Istanbul Biennial, São Paulo Biennial, and Manifesta.
Lee Lozano, No title (c. 1962) ©the estate. Courtesy the estate and Hauser & Wirth.
After a mere 15-minute stroll across Regent’s Park one arrives at the Frieze Masters tent, where a complete different setting unfolds: Where Frieze London is fast, loud, and brash, Frieze Masters is tranquil, elegant, and pared down, even in its tent design and colors. Galleries here are, after all, credited with staging “museum quality” displays.
The shared booth between Hauser & Wirth and Moretti Fine Art, for example, will feature works including Lee Lozano’s painting No title (c. 1962), with a price tag of $675,000; Takesada Matsutani’s painting Work-B-62 (1962), priced at $450,000; and a spray enamel on canvas by David Smith for $425,000.
For the art historically minded, Tornabuoni Art is bringing a selection of Arte Povera works, an increasingly successful art movement in the art market. Inspired by the recent “Un Art Pauvre” exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the London-based gallery will show works by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Giulio Paolini, Gilberto Zorio, Mario Merz, Mario Ceroli, Alighiero Boetti, and Pier Paolo Calzolari.
Claes Oldenburg, Fagend Study (1975). Courtesy Luxembourg & Dayan.
In that same museological vein—and perhaps as a nod to The 90s section over at Frieze—Luxembourg & Dayan will present “Formless, Re-examined,” which celebrates the famous exhibition “L’Informe: mode d’emploi,” curated by Yve-Alain Bois and Rosalind E. Krauss at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1996. The presentation will include works by modern masters who participated in the show, such as César, Marcel Duchamp, Lucio Fontana, Robert Rauschenberg, and Claes Oldenburg. The display continues at the fair’s Sculpture Park, where the large, outdoor sculpture Fagend Study (1975) by Oldenburg will be on display and for sale. If you like it, it could be yours (if you have $2 million to spare, that is).
Stephen Friedman will present “Wool, Wire, and String,” which looks at the exploration of these materials by four important 20th century masters: Alexander Calder, GeGo, Eva Hesse, and Jiro Takamatsu. Meanwhile, New York’s Mnuchin Gallery will offer drawings, paintings, and sculptures by modern and contemporary artists including Ruth Asawa (a stunning iron wire sculpture with a whopping $1,800,000 price tag), Lee Bontecou (a work on paper at $325,000), John Chamberlain, Willem de Kooning, and a Bridget Riley painting priced at $1,500,000.
Ruth Asawa, Untitled, S. 080 (Hanging Five-Lobed Continuous Form Within a Form) (c. 1950). Courtesy Mnuchin Gallery.
Lastly, on a (much) more historical level, the London-based Kallos Gallery, founded in 2014 by Baron Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza, will be making their debut at Frieze Masters with a collection of treasures from ancient Greece, showcased at a stand created by the multidisciplinary designer Arthur De Borman. The focal point of their booth is an extremely rare Archaic Cretan bronze helmet, worth £5 million ($6.5 million), of which only two examples are known worldwide. The gallery will also present a selection of ancient Greek pottery, sculpture, coinage and jewelry, including a Hellenistic armlet, dating to circa 300 BC (£250,000 [$324,900]) and a Greek geometric bronze votive horse, dating to 900–700 BC and priced at £550,000 ($714,800).
Frieze London and Frieze Masters take place from October 6-9, 2016 at Regent’s Park, London.
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