The Frieze London 2020 platform for modern and contemporary art has announced the opening of both Frieze and Frieze Masters for their online London edition. Due to the COVID pandemic, the closest you will get to the actual artwork is by visiting the Frieze Sculpture Park open until the end of the online show. You may also visit the galleries themselves as no tent in Regents Park exists this year. As a consolation prize, several of the leading galleries have set up shop in the ghost-town confines of Cork Street.
Frieze was founded in 1991 by Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp, with the launch of frieze magazine, a leading international magazine of contemporary art and culture. In 2003, Sharp and Slotover launched Frieze London art fair, which takes place each October in The Regent’s Park, London.
Frieze London 2020 Viewing Rooms can be accessed here:
Watch This:
https://www.frieze.com/article/welcome-FVR-victoria-siddall-and-claudio-de-sanctis
Frieze London 2020 Talks
Curated by Dr. Nicholas Cullinan (Director, National Portrait Gallery), the Frieze Talks programme features internationally renowned artists in conversation with leading curators.
This year the talks will be hosted digitally via Zoom and will subsequently be available to watch online at Frieze.com.
Register for the talks and view the full schedule here
The Frieze London 2020 lineup includes:
● Lubaina Himid (Artist) in conversation with Clare Lilley (Director of Programme, Yorkshire Sculpture Park)
● Tavares Strachan (Artist) in conversation with Ekow Eshun (Writer & Curator)
● John Akomfrah (Artist) in conversation with Zoé Whitley (Director, Chisenhale Gallery)
● Michael Armitage (Artist) in conversation with Ralph Rugoff (Director, Hayward Gallery)
● Rashid Johnson (Artist) in conversation with Dr Nicholas Cullinan (Director, National Portrait Gallery)
● Takashi Murakami (Artist) in conversation with Tobias Berger (Head of Arts, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong)
● Yan Pei-Ming (artist) in conversation with Pi Li (Sigg Curator and Head of Curatorial Affairs, M+)
● Jordan Casteel (Artist) in conversation with Amanda Hunt (Director of Public Programs, Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Los Angeles) and moderated by Mark Guiducci (Creative Editorial Director, Vogue)
● Jeff Wall (Artist) in conversation with Dr Nicholas Cullinan (Director, National Portrait Gallery)
In addition to the Frieze Talks programme, and for the third year running, Frieze is collaborating with BBC Radio 3 to present a debate focused on Museums in 21st Century, which will be moderated by Anne McElvoy. This year’s participants are; Ms Chong Siak Ching, Chief Executive Officer of National Gallery Singapore; Kaywin Feldman, Director, National Gallery of Art, Washington and Mikhail Piotrovsky, The Director of The State Hermitage Museum, President of the Union of Museums of Russia. They will share experiences of leading cultural institutions in a new millennium, while facing the challenges of Covid-19.
The debate will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking (bbc.co.uk/freethinking) at 10pm BST on Thursday 8th October, 2020 and available worldwide as a BBC Arts & Ideas podcast.
Register for the talks and view the full schedule here
Frieze Viewing Room, hosting Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2020 editions, opens Friday 9 to Sunday 16 October 2020, with Preview Days on 7 and 8 October.
Registration for the Frieze Viewing Room is open here.
Sound And Performance Frieze London 2020
This temporary institute at 9 Cork St, London, brings together eight UK-based artists to experiment and work together, through a series of installations and events over six days. All performances are distributed across three floors – occurring at separate times, and online –to keep within current health and safety measures.
Haroon Mirza (presented by Lisson Gallery): The programme’s 111 hours of duration stems from artist Mirza’s research into the physiological properties of the frequency of 111 Hz, one that has been demonstrated by scientists to resonate from certain prehistoric megalithic structures that served as centres for social or spiritual events. For Frieze LIVE, Mirza will present a new participatory light and sound installation ‘MindFlip’, in collaboration with soprano opera singer Sarah-Jane Lewis. Audiences will be able to use a QR code to activate the work and the 111 Hz frequency, at 9 Cork Street from 8–11 October.
Denzil Forrester (presented by Stephen Friedman Gallery): Drawing on the important role that both dance and music have played in the transformation of the visual arts, the IMH will present key works by artist Forrester including Youth of the Day (1989), that vibrantly depicts the dancing bodies that populated London’s reggae and dub nightclubs in East London during the 1980s. Forrester will also be in conversation with Victor Wang, at 9 Cork Street on 8 October and broadcast online on 9 October.
Mandy El-Sayegh (presented by Lehmann Maupin) introduces a new site-specific floor installation that acts like a second skin of language and light, and offers a contact space for performances to occupy: it also blurs the lines between other live performances, as well as her new live work with guest collaborator Sanaa Abstrakt and a soundtrack composed by Lily Oakes, taking place on 9 October and broadcast online on 10 October. Performers: Aretha Ameen, Alethia Antonia, Letizia Mateo and Uma Vanderpuye.
Alvaro Barrington (presented by Emalin) partners with musicians, comedians and performance artists to produce a series of live acts that will be broadcasted from the IMH via @friezeartfair on 10 and 11 October. The performances establish a conversation between London, where Barrington is based, and his hometown New York, and continue the artist’s ongoing commitment to interconnectedness, collaboration and unity.
Anthea Hamilton (presented by Thomas Dane Gallery) creates an immersive installation at 9 Cork Street consisting of a digitally printed wallpaper and commercially made black mannequins, which act as placeholders. They physically engage with the other live works through figurative language. In addition, a fragrance floats, albeit briefly, in the space. These were formulated with two performers the artist has worked with in the past.
Zadie Xa and Benito Mayor Vallejo (presented by Agustina Ferreyra): Working collaboratively with dancer and performer Jia-Yu Corti and make up artist Ophelia Liu, Xa and Mayor Vallejo rehearse a new experimental performance – taking place at 9 Cork Street on 9 October and broadcast online on 11 October – that directly responds to work by Anthea Hamilton, Mandy El-Sayegh, and Haroon Mirza.
Cécile B. Evans (presented by Chateau Shatto and Emanuel Layr): The format of rehearsals also plays an important role at the IMH, as a way to reverse the processes of making and presenting in live art. On 6 October, Evans will present two live-streamed “dress rehearsals” for their new performance Notations for an Adaptation of Giselle (welcome to whatever forever).
Life goes on, and so has the Frieze Tate fund sponsored by Endeavor which for the past five years has given 150k to Tate to better diversify their collection with generally emerging and sometimes established names. To date more than 120 works by over 80 artists have been acquired, contributing to many displays that have taken place across Tate’s four galleries.
This year the Frieze Tate Fund’s selection panel included two guest curators: Mark Sealy, Director of Autograph and Principal Fellow Decolonising Photography at University of Arts London
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, Writer and critic and contributing editor for Bidoun
They were joined by Tate curators: Gregor Muir, Director of Collection, International Art, Polly Staple, Director of Collection, British Art
Clarrie Wallis, Senior Curator of Contemporary British Art
Catherine Wood, Senior Curator, International Art (Performance)
Tamsin Hong, Assistant Curator, Performance International Art
Nathan Ladd, Assistant Curator, Contemporary British Art.
Artists Chosen
Larry Achiampong (b. 1984)
Helen Cammock (b. 1970)
Grada Kilomba (b. 1968)
Veronica Ryan (b. 1959)
Buhlebezwe Siwani (b.1987)
Mounira Al Solh (b. 1978)
Tourmaline (b. 1983)
Maria Balshaw, Director, Tate said, “It’s wonderful to be bringing such a great selection of works into the national collection this year thanks to the Frieze Tate Fund. We are extremely grateful both to Endeavor and to Frieze for making these acquisitions possible and, in turn, for helping to support artists at such a difficult time.
Last But Not Least Frieze Sculpture Park Is Open
This year the Frieze Sculpture Garden shines a light on Sculpture in the open air, creating a place of inspiration and enjoyment. Curated by –Clare Lilley, Director of Programme, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Frieze Sculpture will return to The Regent’s Park from 5 – 18 October this year, featuring 12 ambitious works by leading international artists throughout the park’s English Gardens. Frieze Sculpture will be presented as part of an expanded Frieze Week programme of activity throughout London and coincides with Frieze London and Frieze Masters, which this year introduce a new hybrid format of online and offline activity.
The 2020 line-up features artists David Altmejd, Fabio Lattanzi Antinori, Gianpietro Carlesso, Eric Fischl, Patrick Goddard, Lubaina Himid, Kalliopi Lemos, Richard Long, Sarah Lucas, Gavin Turk, Rebecca Warren and Arne Quinze.
Frieze London 2020 & Frieze Masters 2020 Edition Preview 7-8 October 9-16 October