Frieze London returns to Regent’s Park once again and will run from 6th-9th October 2016. Here’s what to look forward to…
Words Andrea Cheong
The shopping event of the season for art collectors, a hive of buzzing inspiration for creatives and a transient cultural site that doubles up as a celebrity safari for ticket holders. It’s October and if you haven’t already guessed, Frieze is back. Over four days, 20,000 people will spill through the gates of Regent’s Park toward the most hyped art event of the year.
As an integral member of the international art scene’s cool kids, the Frieze will host 160 galleries from around the world and over 1000 artists. Yuri Pattinson, winner of the 2016 Frieze Artist Award will exhibit her working title, ‘sketch for Insights (crisis trolley)’. The piece is a chilling interpretation of ‘trending’ data systems, similar to the Big Board style monitors used by media and finance corporations. Working with digital media and sculpture, Pattison’s screen will collect and display live information from fair’s environment as well as the ‘Internet of Things’.
Known for its dedication to contemporary art and living artists, the fair’s specially curated section Focus is a non-profit effort that commissions and showcases emerging talents. Expect a historic installation by the Polish artist Maria Pininska-Beres, a floor-based ‘water relief ’ by Samara Scott and a multifaceted ceramic presentation by Jesse Wine. Live, the acclaimed series on performance art returns with a political edge. This year, Egyptian artist Mahmoud Khaled explores censorship and surveillance. For the first installation of its kind at the Frieze, Christine Sun Kim who has been deaf since birth, will explore the materiality of sound and new fields of perception.
A new addition this year is The Nineties, curated by Nicholas Trembley. It’s an introspective on the incredibly influential period on contemporary art, one of accelerating digital age, the prevalence of subculture and of course, the glory years of the YBA’s. If you consider yourself a little bit of an art buff, initiation into the elite clique of this industry should begin with Frieze Talks, curated by the fair’s magazine editors.
Within walking distance is Frieze Masters, a fair exhibiting 130 galleries that features ancient art all the way to pieces from the late 1900’s. The sculpture garden that is free to the public will be held concurrently to these events.
Frieze London – frieze.com
