Photo: via Frieze
In less than a month, the 13th edition of Frieze London will open the doors of its mega tent in Regent’s Park, designed by Universal Design Studio following their successful layout redesign last year.
This is the first edition with Victoria Siddall as director of Frieze Fairs and, if the savoir-faire and chutzpah with which she launched the successful Frieze Masters in 2012 are anything go by, we could be in for a treat.
Over 160 leading galleries from 30 countries will bring their best works by their best artists, hoping to entice the horde of collectors that descend upon the British capital from all over the world.
Although the number of galleries participating in the fair is similar to last year’s edition, there are a good number of new and returning galleries in the line up, which points perhaps at a renewed faith in the London fair, that got some serious competition from the undeniable success of its rival fair in Europe, FIAC, which takes place the following week in Paris’ glamorous Grand Palais.
Among the new additions to Frieze London this year, notable names include Galerie Kamel Mennour from Paris, Cheim & Read and P.P.O.W. from New York, and Gallery Hyundai from Seoul, all of which had participated in previous editions of Frieze New York or Frieze Masters.
Meanwhile, galleries that are returning to the fair after an absence include Simon Lee, Rob Tufnell, and Ibid from London, The Breeder from Athens, 47 Canal from New York, and Galleria Lorcan O’Neill from Rome.
And the newbies are making their debut with style. Kamel Mennour, for example, will feature a new commission by French art star Camille Henrot, developing on her successful 2013 video Gross Fatigue.
Jeff Wall, A Woman and her Doctor (1980-81).
Photo: Courtesy the artist and Johnen Galerie, Berlin.
Berlin’s Johnen Galerie will offer works by Roman Ondák and Jeff Wall’s Woman and Her Doctor (1980-81), a stunning photograph with a price tag of over $1 million. Wall’s carefully staged, large-scale photographs have been a hit at art fairs all over the world for decades now, and his appeal for collectors shows no signs of abating.
Meanwhile, David Zwirner will present a number of works by the Swiss-born artist Carol Bove, who was recently the subject of the successful solo exhibition “The Plastic Unit” at the London branch of the gallery.
Jenny Holzer, All Fall (2012). Texts: Selections from Truisms (1977-79), Living (1980-82) and Survival (1983-85) © 2015 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
Photo: Joshua White/JW Pictures Courtesy Sprüth Magers.
At Sprüth Magers, Thea Djordjadze (who is also featured in the Frieze Projects section) will show a new site-specific sculpture, Jenny Holzer will show one of her famous LED pieces, and there will also be a number of works by Thomas Scheibitz available.
Anne Hardy, Pitch (2014).
Photo: © Anne Hardy Courtesy Maureen Paley, London.
“Frieze London is always an important and exciting time of year for us,” London-based gallerist Maureen Paley told artnet News. “We are delighted to be bringing significant works from a range of gallery artists to the fair.” These include a large photograph by Wolfgang Tillmans for $80,000, as well as a large sculptural installation by Anne Hardy, and a bronze by Rebecca Warren.
Erika Verzutti, Star Without Makeup (2015).
Photo: © The artist Courtesy of Alison Jacques Gallery.
London’s Alison Jacques is going big, planning a sizable booth including drawings by Lygia Clark from the 1950s (£100,000 – £150,000), paintings by Irma Blank (€10,000 and € 110,000), sculptures by Maria Bartuszová (£30,000 – £55,000), a delicate work on cigarette paper by Fernanda Gomes for $30,000, paintings by Ryan Mosley (ranging from £4,000 to £35,000,) and bronze and pigmented wax sculptures by Erika Verzutti ranging from £8,000 – £16,000.
B. Wurtz, Untitled (2014).
Courtesy: MaisterraValbuena, Madrid.
Madrid’s MaisterraValbuena, which will be present in the main section after having previously participated in the Focus section, will bring sculptural works by B. Wurtz (€5.000– €18.000), Daniel Jacoby (€3,000 – €10,000), Maria Loboda (€4,000 – €20,000), and works on paper by the Spanish artist Néstor Sanmiguel Diest.
Berlin’s Esther Schipper will bring a group presentation including a white neon by Liam Gillick, entitled, McNamara Motel (1997) and a sculpture by Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, called Rotating Table 2 (2015).
Marian Goodman Gallery will showcase a selection of works by Anri Sala, Ettore Spalletti, and Adrián Villar Rojas, while Madrid’s Elba Benítez will present a solo booth dedicated to the Spanish conceptual artist Ignasi Aballí.
Mira Dancy, Blood Moon (2015).
Courtesy: Night Gallery.
In the Focus section, devoted to solo presentations, Los Angeles’s Night Gallery will present a series of acrylic on canvas paintings by Mira Dancy, with prices ranging from $13,000 to $18,000, while the booth of San Francisco’s Jessica Silverman Gallery will be dedicated to two-, and three-dimensional works by Ruairiadh O’Connell, with prices ranging from $10,000 to $20,000.
As part of the not-for-profit Projects section, one of the most awaited commissions of this year’s edition is that of Rachel Rose, who won the 2015 Frieze Artist Award, supported by the LUMA Foundation. Rose will create a scale-model of the fair structure in which lighting and sound design will simulate the sonic and visual frequencies of the animals that live in Regent’s Park.
But there’s more to Frieze Week than Frieze London and, a short walk away, the elegant tent of Frieze Masters, designed by architect Annabelle Selldorf, will host an exquisite selection of art historical and modern art from 131 international galleries.
This year sees the introduction of a new section called Collections. Organized by the illustrious British curator Sir Norman Rosenthal, Collections will feature presentations from eight galleries, including Galerie Daniel Blau from Munich and Simon Theobald from London, which will cover a range of historical matters, from wooden Egyptian sculpture to Expressionist prints.
Carmen Herrera, Red & Blue (1993).
Photo: via Lisson Gallery.
At the main section, a sure highlight will be the booth of Lisson Gallery, which will be dedicated to the phenomenal abstract artist from Cuba, Carmen Herrera, who is celebrating her landmark 100 birthday this year.
London’s Thomas Dane Gallery is sharing a booth with Chicago’s Corbett vs. Dempsey (a collaborative model that is trending at art fairs worldwide). Their booth, which takes loose inspiration from the Roland Barthes book Empire of Signs, will feature works by Lynda Benglis, Joseph Beuys, Glenn Ligon, Bruce Nauman, Roman Opalka, Ed Ruscha, and Christopher Wool, among many others.
The much-loved Spotlight section, dedicated to solo presentations of 20th-century art, has a new curator this year, Clara M Kim—former senior curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and director/curator Los Angeles’s REDCAT. Galeries featured in this section include Kukje Gallery from Seoul, Christopher Grimes Gallery from Santa Monica, Richard Saltoun Gallery from London, and Galerie Nathalie Obadia from Paris.
Frieze London takes place from October 14-17, 2015. Frieze Masters takes place from October 14-18, 2015.
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