Frieze London / Frieze Masters 2021
Presenting major galleries from around the world, both Frieze art fairs offer the opportunity to discover up-and-coming talent as well as explore the work of the most renowned artists working today. This year’s edition included Sadie Coles HQ, Hauser & Wirth, Xavier Hufkens, Taka Ishii Gallery, Karma, Kukje Gallery, Matthew Marks Gallery, Mendes Wood DM, Maureen Paley, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Stevenson and David Zwirner.
Frieze London again focused on contemporary art and living artists. The fair’s exhibiting galleries represent some of the most exciting artists working today, from the emerging to the iconic, from the performance-based works to impressive presentations curated by the up-and-coming galleries.
Participants included: Arcadia Missa, Emalin, Empty Gallery, Instituto de Visión, Hot Wheels Athens, Edouard Malingue Gallery, PM8 / Francisco Salas, Proyectos Ultravioleta and Temnikova & Kasela.
At the Carl Freedman Gallery booth Lidsay Mendick was showing her glistening, decadent ceramic vases, with sides sprouting octopus-like arms and shiny penises.
Deborah Roberts was perhaps the most powerful political artist on show here. She portrays young Black identity as distressingly fragmented and reassembled, an anxious bricolage.
Digitally collaged together from found photos, textile patterns, digital memorabilia, and other materials, her fused figures make physical the ways that playfulness and innocence criss-cross with darker themes of violence, corruption, and alienation.
With his display of new works entitled Various Small Fires, Los Angeles–based artist Glen Wilson was showing panels of synthetic resin printed with photographs of the artist’s local community. The panels were woven through rusted gates salvaged from buildings that were demolished due to gentrification. You see two different images depending on which way you look; one side is printed with portraits of people, while the other with something more abstract.
As in previous years, Frieze Masters brought together millennia of art – from rare antiquities, to Old Master paintings, to the 20th century heavyweights – creating a perfect milieu where visitors can discover or purchase a piece of art history.
The fair featured major galleries including Acquavella Galleries, Colnaghi, Marian Goodman Gallery, Johnny Van Haeften, Lévy Gorvy, Kukje Gallery, Nahmad Contemporary, Perrotin, Thaddaeus Ropac, Shibunkaku and Skarstedt Gallery, alongside specialists in their field, such as ArtAncient, Gisèle Croës – Arts d’Extrême Orient s.a, Peter Finer, Sam Fogg and Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books.
