London Frieze Week (October 9-13) is a highlight of the art calendar, and this year is no exception. The Regent’s Park art fair celebrates its 21st edition this year across a whole week, which generates a lot of public interest and results in many sales that will be keeping framing shops in north London busy.
The event opens with a refreshed layout. Eva Langret, Director, Frieze London, explains: “As we welcome you to London this October, I am especially excited for everyone to discover a refreshed Frieze London. With a reimagined layout over a year in the making, it is a delight to see this new geography materialise and I can’t wait for you to explore it.”
“The inspiration for this bold design comes first and foremost from our exhibiting galleries, and our desire to provide an inspiring and memorable context for our visitors to experience the incredible art showcased by this global community. The new layout also truly takes advantage of the fair’s extraordinary, uniquely bucolic setting in The Regent’s Park.”
The range of galleries and fairs at the Frieze London event means that there is work that will appeal to all tastes, from the eclectic and esoteric to the more mainstream. Much of the work is for sale as original artworks or high quality prints, and it offers a range of price points so it’s a great way to access affordable art or begin a collection.
Here are some of the highlights to look out for this year.
A celebration of surrealism
It is 100 years since the revolutionary Surrealist Manifesto was published by the French poet, writer and psychiatrist André Breton, sparking one of the most subversive, fascinating and influential artistic movements of the 20th century. Today, surrealist art continues to provoke, question, intrigue and engage new generations.
At this year’s Frieze, the anniversary is marked by celebrating a group of artists who have previously been overshadowed or underrepresented in the movement, including Dora Maar, Leonora Carrington, Baya Mahiddine and Julianna Seraphim, among others.
Carol Bove
Among the names to watch out for include Carol Bove, who will be displaying new stainless steel and painted sculptures. Bove was born in Switzerland but raised in California, and she graduated from New York University in 2000. Her work features metal sculptures juxtaposed with found objects to link places, ideas, and periods in history.
Bove discusses the influence of surrealism on her own art, which she first began producing shortly after graduating from university. She explains:
“I started thinking about surrealism about 20 years ago. At the time, art people were squeamish about explicit references to intuition. They thought of themselves as serious and rational and were therefore averse to the sexy, pictorial version of the Freudian unconscious that went along with surrealism. It was this collective embarrassment that got my attention.”
Nengi Omuku
Nengi Omuku is a Nigerian artist who works with native woven textiles made from moth silk and cotton, over which she applies delicately detailed colours to illustrate the landscapes of her homeland, and also further afield. For example, some of her work was inspired by Claude Monet’s Giverny Gardens.
Frederick J Brown
Brown was an artist with Native American and African American heritage who passed away in 2012. His vibrant figurative and abstract paintings were under appreciated during his lifetime, but are now being given the exposure they deserve. Catch his vivid and colourful work at the Levy Gorvy Dayan Gallery in London W1.
Rose Wylie
The British artist Rose Wylie turns 90 this year, and her inspirational floor to ceiling paintings will be given a dedicated space in the David Zwirner Gallery. One painting explores the story of Lilith, the mythical first wife of Adam who was expelled from the Garden of Eden and has subsequently been demonised and celebrated in equal measure.
Frieze sculpture
Frieze Sculpture is a public art initiative that takes place concurrently in Regent’s Park, running from 18 September to 27 October. It is curated this year by Fatos Ustek and includes the work of 22 leading international artists from across five continents, and will be free to view throughout the park.