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Marking the art calendar’s annual marquee moment, Frieze London has opened the doors to its big tent. That means the general public finally gets to see what every major gallery in the world thinks is worth bringing to the big white yurt in Regent’s Park.
If you come to Frieze looking for a satisfying, moving, profound art experience, you’ll be disappointed. Instead, this is a chance to take a big gulp of rarified art world air, to see what all the biggest galleries in the world – and some of the best smaller ones – think is worth sharing, celebrating, championing, and flogging.
Is this year’s Frieze better than last year’s? Worse? No, it’s pretty much the same thing you always get: big trophy art, loads of abstracts, awful still lifes, bad pop and questionable conceptualism, all aimed at billionaires with infinitely more money than taste. There’s some great stuff here, and a genuinely jaw-dropping amount of dross too. Just like every year. It’s expensive, ludicrous, overblown, silly, and a lot of fun. Just like every year.
It’s a pretty overwhelming experience - there’s a lot of art to take in, and it can be hard to separate the good from the bad. So here is our pick of the must-see artworks at Frieze London, just eight things we think are just about worth the price of entry.
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Eight things we loved at this year’s Frieze London
Stephen Shearer at David Zwirner
Oh boy I love Steven Shearer. He’s an amazing painter; intricate and detailed and heavily layered. But it’s the web of references that push it over the edge for me: his stunning images of gorgeous long haired teenage boys are cribbed from heavy metal and rock history – the singer of Mayhem, Kronos from the band Venom, and in the only full painting, Yes’s Rick Wakeman with the word ‘Hash’ swirling through his luscious blonde locks. Such beautiful, intense, clever painting.
Sun Woo at Gallery Vacancy
A terrifying, wintery, gothic nightmare: Sun Woo’s installation combines painting, sculpture and a wood well filled with hair to gruesome, fairytale-like effect. It’s a morbid booth, filled with death and threat, which makes a nice change from having to see yet another pink and blue abstract.
Billy Childish at Lehmann Maupin
Booths that focus on just one artist are invariably the best, and Lehmann Maupin gallery has gone all in on Billy Childish. The English painter’s deeply atmospheric, hazy landscapes and images of swimmers are dark and weird and gorgeous, and to top it off, he’s here at the booth, painting live throughout the fair, adding a bit of theatre to the whole shindig.
The ‘Smoke’ section
Frieze has various ‘themed curated’ sections, and the best this year is ‘Smoke’, which is filled witness clay and ceramic art. Maybe it’s just because it’s nice to have a break from the endless stream of huge trophy paintings, but the whole section feels different, slower and more considered, filled with references to non-Western history and ancient creative practices. Ayla Tavares’ stack of ceramics in pool of water is standout work in a standout bit of the fair.
Jenkin Van Zyl at Edel Assanti
Time Out fave Jenkin Van Zyl has built a full sauna at the Edel Assanti booth. Inside, a film follows a cast of skeletal, erotic, pink creatures that flounce and stomp and dance through around an abandoned swimming pool. This is grim, surreal, uncomfortable and very hot art.
Benedikte Bjerre at Palace Enterprise
The biggest hit of the fair is this little colony of penguins that bounces and sways and giggles as you walk past. It’s an adorable, silly crowd pleaser. Is it about climate change and how the planet is dying? Probably. But ooh look, cute penguins.
Peter Uka at Mariane Ibrahim
Peter Uka’s work in the ‘Artist-on-Artist’ section of the fair looked familiar, and then I realised that one of his portraits – a cool, calm, nostalgic image of a shirtless man in sunglasses – was one of the best things in this year’s Summer Exhibition too. Given space for more than just one painting here, you finally get to luxuriate in his gorgeous, elegant, intricate portraiture.
Hannah Morgan at Xxijra Hii
This minimal display of carved alabaster sat on metal structures is one of the highlights of this year’s ‘Focus’ section, where you’ll find the newest galleries bringing the newest artists. The work is full of grief and history, with one of the pieces of alabaster being an off-cut from Richard III’s re-interment in 2015.
Frieze London is on until Sun Oct 13. More details here.
Want more? Here are the top ten art exhibitions in London right now.
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