Frieze Art Fair 2017 is around the corner, taking place from 5 - 8 October at London’s Regent’s Park. In its 15th edition, the fair will host more than 160 galleries from 31 countries. One of the more eye catching, ambitious gallery displays will be Hauser & Wirth – a recreation of a dusty, fictional regional museum showing bronze works borrowed from regional museums as well as bronze works by Louise Bourgeois, Paul McCarthy and Henry Moore. The fair this year also features, among other things, an exhibition of previously censored feminist art and a focus on interrogating the term ‘post truth’.
New for 2017, Ralph Rugoff (Hayward Gallery, London) will curate Frieze Talks for the first time, exploring artists’ response to an age of ‘alternative facts’, with speakers and performers including Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Nástio Mosquito. The 2017 fair will also feature a new themed gallery section devoted to the legacy of radical feminist artists, organized by Alison M. Gingeras (independent curator); and curator Ruba Katrib (SculptureCenter, New York) will co-advise on the Focus section dedicated to emerging galleries.
Sex-Work is a new section for Frieze London 2017, curated by Alison Gingeras, exploring feminist art and radical politics. The section at Frieze London will be dedicated to women artists working at the extreme edges of feminist practice since the 1960s, and the galleries who supported them, including: Galerie Andrea Caratsch presenting Betty Tompkins; Blum and Poe presenting Penny Slinger; Richard Saltoun presenting Renate Bertlmann; Salon 94 presenting Marilyn Minter; and Hubert Winter presenting Birgit Jürgenssen.
Sedition Artists at Frieze
Work by Michael Craig-Martin (New Art Centre) is among that on show in Frieze Sculpture’s outdoor display of sculpture, which opened on 5 July and culminates alongside Frieze Art Fair. Artists in the exhibition, selected by Clare Lilley of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, also include Sir Anthony Caro (Annely Juda Fine Art), Takuro Kuwata (Alison Jacques Gallery and Salon 94), Alicja Kwade (kamel mennour), Ugo Rondinone (Sadie Coles HQ) and Sarah Sze (Victoria Miro).
At Frieze’s Booth B19 P.P.O.W. Gallery presents all four works in Hew Locke’s Restoration series. The works in the series are described by the artist as “mindful vandalism” - taking public statues, relics of empire, as starting point the artist decks them with trinkets and trophies to emphasise the hoarding of wealth on which empire is built. Tracey Emin presents work in the White Cube booth D8 alongside Michael Armitage, Damien Hirst, Jannis Kounellis, Jac Leirner, Sarah Morris, Liu Wei and more.
On 6 October at 12:30pm Jeremy Deller, Adam Pendleton and Antony Gormley discuss what kinds of alternative monuments might make most sense in an age of ‘alternative facts’., in a discussion moderated by Ralph Rugoff (Hayward Gallery, London). On 5 October at 12 noon, Isaac Julien (artist) will be in conversation with Nicholas Cullinan (National Portrait Gallery, London). Talks are hosted in the auditorium at Frieze London and are free for visitors to attend.
Sedition Recommends Beyond Frieze
Beyond the fair, there are a wealth of exhibitions and events taking place alongside. Here are a few recommendations outside the fairs.
This year’s Serpentine Marathon explores the themes of artificial intelligence, consciousness, trans-humanism and non-linear time. The GUEST, GHOST, HOST: MACHINE! Marathon takes places at London’s City Hall on 7 October from 10am-10pm, bringing together artists, scientists, activists, engineers, musicians and other creative professionals including Isaac Julien, James Bridle and Hito Steyerl, to discuss the timely issues in the coming age of machine intelligence and its wider implications. Following Ars Electronica extensive view of artists using AI in their work, Serpentine provides a perspective that space across disciplines and into conceptual and social realms of possibilities.
An exhibition worth checking out is Zach Blas’ first solo exhibition in London, Contra-Internet at Gasworks in Vauxhall. The exhibition features a new commission Jubilee 2033, a queer science fiction film installation that includes live action, CGI animation, blown glass sculptures and a single edition publication titled The End of the Internet (As We Knew It). Blas’ work presents a speculative futures towards new modes of resistance in an age where the internet has become an instrument of accelerated capitalism, surveillance and control.
Idris Khan presents a solo exhibition, Absorbing Light, at Victoria Miro in North London off Old Street roundabout comprising a monumental sculpture, a multi-part installation, paintings and works on paper, which will be his most comprehensive show in four years. Jake & Dinos Chapman also open a solo exhibition, The Disasters of Everyday Life, at Blain|Southern featuring their latest body of sculptural works alongside etchings inspired by Francisco Goya. The exhibition opens in private view on 5 October from 6-8pm in Mayfair.
Additionally, two exhibitions curated by Victor Wong are now on display at Sadie Coles gallery on 62 Kingly Street. An installation by Shanghai-based artist Xu Zhen features his XUZHEN Supermarket (2007/2017) for the first time in the UK as he experiments with tropes of advertising, distribution, and consumerism. Upstairs there is also a group show Zhongguo 2185 featuring works by Lu Yang, Sun Xun, Tianzhuo Chen amongst others. The exhibition runs until 4 November 2017.
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Image: From the Serpentine Marathon, Zadie Xa, Crash, Boom, Hisssssss. Legend of the Liquid Sword (performance). Photo by Arron Photo.
