18 October, 2022
Last week, art professionals and lovers all across London and the world gathered once more at Regent’s Park for the Frieze Art Fair, composed of Frieze London and Frieze Masters. Among them was London Trade Art. Each year, LTArt is thrilled to attend the London art fair to stay up to date on the latest trends in the art market. Here are some we spotted.
Canvases Galore
The dominant theme at Frieze, this year, was figurative art. Everywhere we looked, there were canvases after canvases of often bright, abstract paintings. One that stood out was David Zwirner’s highly sought-after super-realist painting of a birdhouse by Kerry James Marshall, titled ‘Black and Part Black Birds in America: (Yellow headed Black bird; Black Chinned Hummingbird; Ruby Throated Hummingbird, male and female)’, which reportedly sold to an unnamed museum for $6 million. It was also reported that Gagosian sold a series of large-scale paintings by Jadé Fadojutimi. The sales prices were not disclosed by the gallery; however, Art News stated that each work had been listed for £500,000.
Jadé Fadojutimi's works at the Gagosian stand.
Politically Charged
Another important theme running throughout the fair was art that adopted a more social or political stance, unsurprising given the current climate. The one that stood out to use was Tehran-based Dastan Gallery’s exhibition of works by Homa Delvaray and Reza Aramesh, which serve as visual representations of or comments on the violence affecting Iranians over the past century.
Works by Homa Delvaray and Reza Aramesh at the Dastan Gallery at Frieze London.
Similarly, close to the entrance to the fair, a sensory installation by Laure Prouvost at the Lisson Gallery stand invited viewers to enter the embrace of an octopus and other exotic creatures, challenging them to engage with critical issues, including immigration climate change and societal polarisation.
Laure Prouvost’s installation with Lisson Gallery.
Indra’s Net
This year, a special section of Frieze London was titled ‘Indra’s Net’ and curated by London-based curator of Asian art for the Guggenheim Museum in New York Sandhini Poddar. It brought together several lesser-known galleries, from Asia to Latin America, showcasing works by 18 artists. According to both Buddhism and Hinduism, Indra’s net floats over the world protecting and revealing the interconnectedness of life. It stood as a symbol not only of artistic inclusion but also of the fragile state of the world amidst environmental threat and wars.
One example of a work featuring in this section was Martha Atienza's installation, titled “The Protectors,” a 75-minute silent black-and-white film of a fisherman at work on his boat. The artist has documented the plight of families living off of the fishing industry on Bantayan Island in the Philippines.
Still Playful
Since it started in 2003, crowds have flocked to Frieze London to view what they deemed to be the most eccentric and cutting-edge pieces on the art market, which were seen to play with how people perceived art. This year, for example, the fair honoured its playful side with a fun installation of larger-than-life sculptural pumpkins by Anthea Hamilton at Thomas Dane Gallery’s stand. The pumpkins appeared to embody the very nature of this autumnal fair and attracted much attention from people who wanted to be photographed posing alongside them.