- Venue
- Regent's Park
- Location
- South East England
This is my fifth year of visiting the annual Frieze Art Fair. The press creates such a buzz around it that it’s really hard to ignore, even if you art not on the art scene. It is the fair’s eighth outing and has over 150 galleries from around the globe exhibiting thousands of works. It is certainly a fair rather than an exhibition in the sense that it’s very much trade driven and quite theatrical. It’s an assault on the senses; visual, sound and smell, due to the huge crowds (despite already having a ticket it took over 30 minutes queuing to get in), the vast amount of art and a number of eateries (pop up cafes alongside the pop up galleries).
Last year saw a slight revamp on the format with Frieze Frame, an area at the back devoted to galleries which have been established less than six years and have dedicated artist solo presentations. Frame was still here this year but some of the more established galleries have followed suit and also have dedicated solo presentations. With the business side of the art market laid bare for all to see, if it were not for the projects Frieze would be in danger of taking itself a little too seriously.
The Frieze Projects make a bit more of a site specific effort, are curated and tend to critique the fair itself as well as inject a bit of humour. Simon Fujiwara, one of this year’s project artists, rises to the challenge of the brief perfectly with ‘Frozen’, a spoof archaeological dig of a ‘City of Art’ beneath the fair. Unfortunately Matthew Derbyshire’s remodelling of the ticket booth inspired by a mobile phone shop was just too subtle for the event.
The sculpture park is another respite from the mayhem. As well as an arresting Jeppe Hein mirror mobile and Gavin Turk’s sublime eggs there is also a pile of smoking, noisy trash by Wolfgang Ganter and Kaj Aune. I can’t help thinking that this too is a critique on some of the work indoors.
Anyone who goes to the Frieze will be disappointed if they expect a coherent exhibition of consistent quality. Some work may even make you question what the gallery’s agenda is. Critics in the past have accused the fair of being a supermarket selling off old stock. It is the odd and the sometimes good which stands out but not always. Sometimes even Gerhard Richter’s or Wolfgang Tillmans’ work struggle to be heard above all the visual noise.
Here are the ones which had their heads above the parapet for me.
The Marianne Boesky Gallery’s solo dedicated presentation of Donald Moffett’s spikes of oil on linen, on sculpted wood panel supports.
Sarah Morris, Jenny Saville, Anish Kapoor and Damien Hirst for their monumental trademark work which are still able to ‘shout look at me’.
The crowd pulling spectacle of David Shrigley, drawing on peoples arms in another solo dedicated, non- Frame, gallery space.
The simple but compelling Callum Innes, which seemed to be popping up all around the fair but particularly the works on paper at the Frith Street Gallery.
Jeppe Hein, 1-Dimensional Mirror Mobile, 2009
