Frieze London came and went again. It was mostly sunny. Frieze London looked better than usual, or rather there were fewer weak points (as Basel shows, consistency counts). Frieze Masters was as good as ever and Frieze Sculpture—a ten minute stroll through Regents Park—was particularly strong.
Looming Brexit doesn’t appear to have changed the visiting collectors but then London is a financial castle in a land of precarious ambitions and doubtful intentions. The art market remains strong because it is inside the citadel.
Yet for all London’s vaunted multi-culturalism, it is so, so odd that there are still only a smattering of galleries from China, surprising, too, given how hard Frieze is working to sell magazines and advertising to China. Sometimes I have the feeling the Western art fairs are only interested in Chinese galleries in Chinese art fairs. No? Am I wrong? Well, expect a better show at fiac and Asia Now in Paris next this month.
ShanghART had a standout solo-presentation of Liang Shaoji (museums everywhere take note: we need to see a major retrospective of Liang Shaoji). BANK (Shanghai) was present at Frieze Masters with a presentation of Maryn Varbanov‘s woven sculptures and Antenna Space brought a series of paintings by Cheng Xinyi.
Liang Shaoji solo presentation at ShanghART
Cheng Xinyi “Julien” 2017 at Antenna Space
Anna Uddenberg at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler
Alicja Kwade framing Paul McCarthy at frieze Sculpture
Sarah Lucas at Sadie Coles
Tracey Emin signing books at White Cube
Zanele Muholi at Stevenson
Chen Zhen at Galleria Continua frieze Masters
Maryn Varvanov at BANK frieze Masters
Maryn Varbanov at BANK Shanghai frieze Masters
Esther Schipper booth
Boris and Axel Vervoordt with Kazuo Shiraga
Anna Hulačova at Hunt Kastner
Daniel Knorr at Fonti Naples
Hauser & Wirth show off space curated by Professor Mary Beard, a “fake” Bronze Age show including stuff from Hauser & Wirth and stuff from eBay—touring now…bored with these now already.
Lucy + Jorge Orta at Frieze Projects
Yuri Pattison at Dublin’s mothers tankstation—now also with a permanent gallery in London
Cristina Iglesias at Marian Goodman
Andra Ursuta at Massimo de Carlo
