Trending Artists Under 40 at Frieze London
Collectors, take your mark: Frieze London opens to the public tomorrow, and among over 1,000 artists being shown at the fair, we’ve identified the ten most popular artists under age 40 within Artsy’s fair preview, based on pageviews. From Daniel Arsham, who will show a fossilized keyboard with Galerie Perrotin (not unlike the volcanic ash Casios he made with frequent collaborator Pharrell Williams), to Eddie Martinez, whose new solo show at Timothy Taylor Gallery helped ring in the start of Frieze week, we suspect the ten artists below will be ubiquitous this Frieze London—and thereafter.
10. Waqas Khan
Inspired by Sufi mysticism, Pakistani artist Waqas Khan creates minimalist ink drawings while in a trance-like state, aligning his breath with the mark of his hand. This year, Khan was shortlisted for the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Jameel Prize (dubbed the Islamic Turner Prize)—but at Frieze London, his delicate drawings, recalling traditional Persian miniature paintings, will steal the show at Galerie Krinzinger.
New York-based photo-conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas debuted his first solo show with Johannesburg’s Goodman Gallery earlier this year, exploring South Africa’s recent history. At the fair, the gallery will show one of his oversized fiberglass-and-aluminum political buttons, referencing anti-apartheid lapel pins and artifacts of the U.S. civil rights movement (complete with a pin on the back!).
8. Garth Weiser
Known for his process of “cannibalization,” Brooklyn-based artist Garth Weiser consults photographs of previous works as source images for his new abstract paintings. At the fair, you’ll find one of his layered and scarred “interference pattern” paintings on view at Casey Kaplan, created through a process of addition and subtraction to produce a moiré effect, likened to wood grain.
Cory Arcangel is everywhere. The 36-year-old artist, who recently inaugurated Team Gallery’s Los Angeles Bungalow with his first show in Los Angeles, has a current solo exhibition in the gallery’s New York space, featuring works from his “Lakes” series—images pulled from pop culture, projected on flatscreens, to which a Java applet has been applied. At Frieze, he’ll show a work from this series amongst a woven installation of his “Photoshop Gradient Demonstrations”—in addition to his clothing line Arcangel Surfware (2014)—as well as posters he’s hung in the Regent’s Park underground station (in cahoots with fellow artist Ryan Gander).
6. Idris Khan
This time last year, London-based artist Idris Khan unveiled a monumental wall drawing with Victoria Miro Gallery—featuring over 120,000 lines of layered, handwritten text—that was among the most talked-about works of Frieze Week. This year, the gallery will show his work at Frieze London and then skip over to Paris to present a solo booth of his new “White Paintings” at FIAC. If you’re in London, you can also see his (and his wife Annie Morris’) work in The Fine Art Society’s “What Duchamp Taught Me” exhibition. Otherwise, mark your calendars for his solo shows at Victoria Miro and Sean Kelly, both in 2015.
5. Sun Xun
Though usually recognized for his hand-drawn animations (he created the first Chinese animation to be shown at the Venice Film Festival), Beijing-based artist Sun Xun is also known for his drawings and installations. Sun was included in the Met’s “Ink Art” exhibition last winter, and began this year with a solo exhibition at London’s Hayward Gallery. On the heels of his solo exhibition at ShanghART’s Singapore space, he’ll show a work from his new “Palimpsestes” series at Frieze London, Palimpsestes II (2014), which was painted on the paper of an old Xinhua dictionary. This December, he’ll get cozy with Sean Kelly Gallery: for his first exhibition the gallery, Sun will produce work in-house through the course of the show.
Swedish artist Andreas Eriksson, who represented the Nordic Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, will show new paintings and tapestries at Stephen Friedman Gallery’s booth; per his usual, recalling nature and his native Scandinavia. Earlier this year, Eriksson debuted his first major international solo exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall in Sweden. Since then, the exhibition has traveled to Norway, Switzerland, and is currently on view at Reykjavik Art Museum in Iceland.
Following his solo exhibition at New York’s Half Gallery this summer, Brooklyn-based artist Eddie Martinez presents a solo show of new paintings at London’s Timothy Taylor Gallery—one which will be included in the gallery’s booth at Frieze London. The new series, titled “Island I,” takes its name from the Rastafarian concept “I and I,” as well as the long summer the artist spent creating the work from his Long Island studio (notably, with lack of mobility while nursing a tennis injury).
In light of September’s news that Casey Kaplan now represents Philadelphia-born, Brooklyn-based artist Sarah Crowner, the gallery is bringing one of Crowner’s signature sewn canvases to Frieze London, created by stitching together separate pieces of painted cloth. Galerie Catherine Bastide is also showing Crowner’s works; among them, Leaf Motif (2014), featuring vibrant, geometric forms united via stitches.
Two thousand fourteen has been a big year for Daniel Arsham. Not only has he had four strong solo shows—at OHWOW Gallery, Baró Galeria, Galerie Perrotin, and Locust Projects—but he was amongst the 37 artists handpicked by Pharrell Williams for his “G I R L” show at Perrotin, the musician’s debut as a curator. He’s also one half of beloved design and architecture collaboration Snarkitecture. But more than anyone else, Arsham’s name tops our trending artists list, and Frieze London’s is no exception. His “future relics,” like the fossilized keyboard he’ll show with Perrotin, have proven to be very much objects of the moment.
