Frieze London 2019: Announcing Record International Participation, New Curators and Themed Sections for 17th Edition

Frieze London 2019 will bring together more than 160 galleries from 36 countries, representing the fair’s most international edition since its launch. Introducing new curators and sections showcasing performance, emerging artists and the contemporary significance of complex art genealogies and colonial legacies, Frieze London will create an exceptional moment for cultural conversations on a global level. Opening 3 to 6 October 2019, Frieze London coincides with Frieze Sculpture and Frieze Masters in The Regent’s Park, together forming the most significant week in London’s cultural calendar. Global lead partner Deutsche Bank supports Frieze London for the 16th consecutive year, continuing a shared commitment to discovery and artistic excellence.

This year’s fair brings together a new roster of curatorial talent, working in collaboration with Victoria Siddall (Director, Frieze Fairs) and Jo Stella-Sawicka (Artistic Director, Frieze London). The 2019 edition welcomes Cosmin Costinas (Executive Director/Curator, Para Site, Hong Kong) as curator of the fair’s new themed section Woven, bringing together solo presentations by eight international artists who employ textiles, weaving and tapestry; Diana Campbell-Betancourt (Artistic Director, Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka and Chief Curator, Dhaka Art Summit) returns as curator of LIVE and the Frieze Artist Award; and Lydia Yee (Chief Curator, Whitechapel Gallery, London) will again coprogramme Frieze Talks with Matthew McLean (Senior Editor, Frieze Studios). For the first time, an international committee of gallery peers comprising Stefan Benchoam (Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala City), Edouard Malingue (Edouard Malingue, Hong Kong), and Angelina Volk (Emalin, London) will advise on the selection of participants for Focus, the fair’s section for younger galleries.

Continuing Frieze’s enduring relationship with collecting institutions across the UK, Frieze London again partners with two acquisition funds for national and regional public collections. The Frieze Tate Fund, supported by Endeavor, returns for its 17th year; alongside the fourth edition of the Contemporary Art Society’s Collections Fund at Frieze, this year acquiring works on themes of protest, activism and rebellion for the Nottingham Castle Museum. Following its praised debut in 2018, the Camden Arts Centre Emerging Artist Prize at Frieze also returns, which will once again award a solo exhibition for an outstanding artist within the Focus section. The 2018 winner, Wong Ping (Edouard Malingue Gallery) receives his exhibition prize this summer at Camden Arts Centre.

Victoria Siddall said: ‘This year’s editions of Frieze London and Frieze Masters embody the exceptional international spirit of London, a city that is a meeting point for art, ideas and people from all over the world. We will welcome the most significant galleries from around the globe, across both fairs, some of whom are joining us for the first time. They represent art and artists from around the globe, from the Asian influence on Collections at Frieze Masters, to new galleries joining Frieze London from Brazil, Lebanon, Estonia and Taiwan, as well as leading programmes from the USA and Europe. The two fairs and Frieze Sculpture, along with exhibitions opening during Frieze Week including Kara Walker in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern and Elizabeth Peyton at the National Portrait Gallery, make Frieze in London a vital and truly global cultural moment in the city.’

World-Class Galleries

Frieze London welcomes the return of world-class galleries, many of which are long-time Frieze participants, including Gavin Brown’s enterprise, Galerie Gisela Capitain, Gagosian, Greene Naftali, Hauser & Wirth, Xavier Hufkens, Galerie Lelong & Co., Goodman Gallery, Lisson Gallery, Matthew Marks Gallery, kamel mennour, Pace Gallery, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Esther Schipper, Sprüth Magers, Galeria Luisa Strina, White Cube and David Zwirner, among others.

Welcoming greater participation from South East Asia and Latin America, new additions to the main section include Gallery Baton (Seoul), Chi Wen (Taipei), Galeria Nara Roesler (São Paulo) and STPI - Creative Workshop & Gallery (Singapore), in addition to newcomers from London and around the world such as Alexander Gray Associates (New York), Gió Marconi (Milan) and Sikkema Jenkins (New York).

Building on Frieze’s support for galleries at all stages of their development, previous Focus participants, including 47 Canal, Carlos/ Ishikawa with Antenna Space, Galerie Emanuel Layr and Koppe Astner, graduate into the main section for the 2019 edition.

Curated Programme

New for 2019: Woven curated by Cosmin Costinas

Cosmin Costinas, writer, critic and Executive Director/Curator of Para Site (Hong Kong), has been invited to curate the new themed section at Frieze London 2019. Entitled Woven, the gallery-led section brings together eight artists whose practice is informed by rich and complex art genealogies, revealing the many ways in which contemporary practice is entangled with a plurality of traditions. The international artists featured in Woven are of different generations – from Brazil, the Philippines, China, India and Madagascar – and are working with vernacular, indigenous, or underground traditions, employing textiles and weaving, either in a direct way or as an expanded exploration of this fertile medium.

Costinas said: ‘Together these eight solo presentations will make visible the histories and continuous legacies of the colonial catastrophe, from the economies around textiles to current forms of exploitation and political complicity, as well as point to the various languages available to artistic practice in this critical effort.’

The participating artists and galleries in Woven are:

• Pacita Abad presented by Silverlens Galleries, Manila

• Joël Andrianomearisoa presented by Primae Noctis, Lugano

• Monika Correa presented by Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai

• Cian Dayrit presented by 1335 Mabini, Manila

• Chitra Ganesh presented by Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco

• José Leonilson presented by Galeria Marilia Razuk, São Paulo

• Mrinalini Mukherjee presented by Nature Morte, New Delhi

• Angela Su presented by Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong

Focus: Emerging Art from Across the World

Focus, the fair’s section for galleries aged 16 years or younger, continues to evolve as a platform for younger voices in the art community. For the first time, the section will be advised by an international committee of gallery peers comprising Stefan Benchoam (Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala City), Edouard Malingue (Edouard Malingue, Hong Kong), and Angelina Volk (Emalin, London).

The section welcomes many first-time participants representing emerging art scenes around the globe, such as 80M2 Livia Benavides (Peru), Aike (Shanghai), Commonwealth and Council and and Wilding Cran Gallery (both Los Angeles), Company (New York), Drei (Cologne), Galerie Tanja Wagner (Berlin), Marfa’ (Beirut) and Temnikova & Kasela (Talinn). Tiwani Contemporary (London) also takes part in Focus for the first time, joining young London galleries who return to the Focus section including Arcadia Missa, Emalin, Project Native Informant, Southard Reid, The Sunday Painter and Union Pacific.

Featuring 33 galleries from 19 countries, highlights for the 2019 Focus section include:

• A solo by New York-based Troy Michie focused on African American and Latinx cultural experience, immigration and queerness (Company Gallery, New York);

• Canadian artist Kapwani Kiwanga’s solo project commenting on “A Law for Regulating Negro and Indian Slaves in the Night Time” passed in 1713 (Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin);

• Joy Labinjo – ahead of her solo exhibition at BALTIC, Newcastle in October 2019 – with work informed by the artist’s British-Nigerian heritage (Tiwani Contemporary, London);

• Artist, filmmaker and writer Sophia Al-Maria’s solo installation, coinciding with her Art Now show at Tate Britain (Project Native Informant, London);

• Tang Dixin’s latest iteration of his ongoing performance project Rest is the Best Way of Revolution (AIKE, Shanghai) employing live bodycasts;

• A presentation of plaster sculptures by Los Angeles-based artist Karon Davis together with paintings by Californian artist Gary Lang (Wilding Cran, Los Angeles);

• Performance artist, filmmaker and musician Kembra Pfahler’s solo presentation with Emalin (London), combining Future Feminism and the underground scenes from 1970s’ Los Angeles and 1980s’ New York;

• An installation by Nicholas Pope, entitled Yahweh and The Seraphim, conceived as a non-denominational chapel, and continuing the artist’s overarching body of work exploring belief and lived experience (The Sunday Painter, London); and

• A solo project by Rolf Nowotny, who will recreate the former home and garden of his grandmother, to explore how dementia challenges our conception of subjecthood (Christian Andersen, Copenhagen)

Live

The fair’s program for performance works beyond the gallery booths is again curated by Diana Campbell Betancourt (Samdani Art Foundation, Dhaka/Dhaka Art Summit).

The Live programme, including the 2019 theme, participating galleries and artists, as well as gallery presentation highlights across the main section, will be announced in the coming months.