A visit to Frieze London
Frieze London is in full swing and the MyArtBroker team went along and had a look.
It was Preview day yesterday so serious collectors were in town; not as important as the VIPs who viewed on Tuesday. But, still, crowds of the well-heeled (dressed in black, expensive hair, expensive handbags) picked their way through Marylebone to the giant white tent of Frieze London.
They passed through a grungy ‘purgatory’-inspired entrance by artist Lutz Bacher, into the enormous white space inside –smelling strongly of new carpets and fresh paint. Here, some 200 of the world’s best contemporary galleries (from New York, Istanbul, Tokyo, Berlin) each had a little square booths — about 8 metres square stretching as far as the eye could see. The gallerists sat tapping at their MacBooks, sipping from paper cups of coffee as people browsed the works, greeting each other in German, Russian or Italian, it was a very international crowd proving that London is still the heart of the global art market
The atmosphere was serene; most of the big deals will already have been made on VIP day, when it was said to have been ‘packed’, and some stands had already sold all their works. There seemed less quirky, outrageous imagery this year, a more elegant/museum style approach — indeed many of the big names had pieces to tie in with the big shows in town. A huge and brilliantly red John Hoyland was at Pace Gallery to tie in with the show at Damien Hirst’s new gallery in Newport Street. White Cube had sold a Damien Hirst (one of the few at the show) for over £1million. A huge purple iron-cast tree root by Ai Weiwei was at Lisson Gallery — to compliment the show at The Royal Academy. It had also been sold. At Thomas Dane, there was a humble piece of wooden carpentry by Abraham Cruzvillegas — an interesting footnote to his huge installation currently at Tate Modern.
Even the Frieze projects were quite contained… two subterranean installations involving plywood and disorientation, and some very swish boutique style bedrooms produced by the art collective ÅYR, where weary art buyers could sprawl out and check their iPhones.
The Focus section had the most energy — here up-and-coming galleries were showing unexpected works. There was an installation with stones and flags by Polish artist Maria Pininska-Beres (at David Radziszweski gallery from Warsaw). A constant crowd was formed around the piece by Samara Scott (pictured above) at The Sunday Painter, London. The intriguing installation was actually a shallow pool of water in which ugly/beautiful objects floated and soft colours swirled into each other. From a distance it looked like an Impressionist painting.
For the more modest collector, affordable pieces were at the Allied Editions stand from as little as £40. After viewing the big-gun pieces it was thrilling to be see works by artists such as Rachel Rose, Matt Connors and Pablo Bronstein at from this unique artist’s editions collective organised by Camden Arts Centre, Chisenhale Gallery, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), South London Gallery, Studio Voltaire, Serpentine Galleries and Whitechapel Gallery.
Frieze London until 17 October.
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