Part Two then and I really don’t know why we say things are more conservative this year than they were last year, it does seem to said every year, what are we really expecting? Surely the review could have been written before we went anywhere neat this year’s fair? Sure we knew it was going to be even more conservative than it was last year? Yes, I know, it is a rather conservative thing in the first place, yes it does seem to get a little safer every year, we kind of knew that would be the case again, so why do we say it? There aren’t many risks taken at Frieze London these days. I guess even the biggest galleries have to play it safe these days? This is Part Two, it is still Wednesday, we’re a couple of hours in, this is still the first day of the actual fair, we’re halfway through the week itself, if you haven’t read it already, then it would probably make sense to start with Part One – ORGAN: Frieze week – The Fair itself Part One; in via The Pit and Viola Frey, a gorgeous Katherine Bradford painting, the colour of Ana Segovia, Faiza Butt, llana Harris-Babou, the first hour and a bit… Or maybe even start with the piece about Frieze Sculpture? Frieze Week – Exploring Frieze Sculpture before the week seriously kicks off, exploring the work of Reena Saini Kallat, Andy Holden, Assemble, Simon Hitchens, Burçak Bingöl and more, we’re off…

Part Two then and the question we left it with at the end of Part One was about those big Yun-Hee Toh paintings and if they were anything more than a restbite at the end of this first part of of this over long and now to be continued Frieze piece that’s being put together here? They were enjoyable in Gallery Hyundai‘s booth. On we go, past Several Dogs Barking and past a sculpture that, well, um… yes. 

Where were we? Where next? Richard Saltoun Gallery is always interesting and here at Frieze this year Fragmented Bodies features nine female artists, a booth curated by Lucia Pesapane, shame Christine Binnie isn’t in there with the nine artists. What we do find are “Grotesque figures, odd creatures, anthropomorphic forms are opposed to classical images of the perfect female body. Charged with erotic energy, these works often reference genitals and oral or anal cavities, aligning themselves with a subversive register that asserts the possibility of another canon of beauty. Physical distortions forge a link between the work on view, with grimacing masks and the rest of the bodies decomposing into amorphous masses. The Earth/clay, long associated with fertility and the feminine realm, has been chosen by some artists as a preferred material. It becomes a medium that links ancient goddesses to modern-day heroines. Through it, artists create hybrid figures rooted in prehistory and the mythologies of ancient Greece and the Middle East, evoking what Robert Graves once called  “White Goddess of Birth, Love, and Death.” – and I guess if you’ve got time to pay full and proper attention then things aren’t quite so conservative in the Richard Saltoun Gallery booth but then you really do need time to pay full and proper attention and a fair like this doesn’t afford a spare hour or two to give these pieces from these nine artists the respect they deserve as they “explore the female and often feminist connotations of ceramics, proposing a vision of a new matriarchal society”. Watch this space, we shall return to Richard Saltoun Gallery’s booth and those nine artists…

 On to Grimm‘s booth, they’ve just opened a new London space by the way, or are just about to, there’s a couple of paintings by Daniel Richter that are part of Grimm’s presentation that warrant a touch more time as we scan the horizon, the people, the conversations. There’s a Fischer Mustin painting as well, more of that ambiguity, and that couple of beautifully textured rather yellow Matthias Weischer paintings that, according the gallery’s own social media feed “depict domestic interior scenes and landscapes that challenge the viewer’s perception of space. He has refined his technique by repeatedly crafting and restaging compositions, often drawing from his own studio as a point of departure. Gradually building thick layers of pigment on the canvas, he creates surfaces alive with rich texture. This approach allows for a striking interplay between intricate detail and elusive space”.

That Jonathan Wateridge painting is worth the once over twice as well, a new painting, Red Desert. It is so easy to walk past these things, you see so many people just walking past or having conversations, or talking on their phones, who are all these people, these thousands of people who have paid so much to be in here?  “We are pleased to announce that Anna Ruth will debut two new paintings with the gallery at Frieze next week” said Grimm, things are looking good in the Grimm booth, those two paintings looked strong as well, need to go back and see them again…

“Living and working in Prague, Anna Ruth’s work is rooted in emotion and transformation. Her work explores the human condition through dreamlike, symbolic imagery and immersive environments. At the heart of her practice lies a reflection on how human society evolves and seeks to understand its existence. Frequently depicting recurring elements such as pearls -symbols of natural beauty that, for Ruth, carry a deeper layer of allusive meaning-, night butterflies and bugs, fragile creatures that many people fear, are rendered tentatively with care and detail, highlighting their often-overlooked beauty”.   

 Spanish gallery Albarrán Bourdais are making their debut at the Fair with a number of interesting pieces based around a new carpet installation by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster that demands you walk around it again and again, there’s rather a lot going on down on that floor before we glance up to smile at those textile pieces hanging from the roof again. Rather like that textile pieces are figuring again at the fair this year. 

There’s a really big bold bright Katharina Grosse Untitled acrylic piece on canvas piece that dates from 2017, one of her last I assume? The big painting is in the Galerie Max Hetzler space, on we go, I did have more ot say but hey…

Once again am I really seeing much in here that I can’t see almost ever week of the year in the (admitedly not so many) artist-led group shows that none of these gallery people ever go anywhere near? I mean there are so many exciting artists that could have work in here, artists that never ever do appear in any of these galleries. Are we seeing anything better in here that we see in the small London spaces and the artist-led DIY group shows? There’s a number of things in here that might not make it in to some of the artist-led shows that can be caught in places like Peckham’s Safehouse.

Past Emalin‘s booth we go, can I remember the last time anything in any of Emalin’s East London spaces got us interested enough to want to write about any of it? There they sit in the middle of East London ignoring anything and everything to do with London’s artists as they constantly tell is how much greener the grass is over there. Emalin aren’t the only ones. Past the Phillida Reid Gallery booth, good to see North Wales represented by a Bedwyr Williams piece amongst other things, past a Claudia Kogachi piece and on to the Project 88 space and the Indian gallery’s presentation of a rather strong four-panel canvas piece that is Amitesh Shrivastava’s Backyard, that piece or those four pieces are a sensorial adventure indeed, that or they lift the flagging spirits a little as we hit the two hour mark in here and try to un-see some to the things we have already seen already… 

Amitesh Shrivastava’s Backyard, really is a pleasure, it is more than just that though, a big four-panel canvas that pulls the viewer in and out again and again as bit of whatever we’re looking at disappear and re-emerge and you try and find that point of focus (there are so many), that horizon that never quite declares itself. Nothing appears fixed, colours, figures, everything fluid, we’re almost being played with, bits of light, his almost bits of sound, it almost feels raw, it is raw but not in that obvious way, or maybe it is?   

 Here’s another #43SecondFilm…

But there is so much to see, there’s a bed frame with coloured bits of whatever underneath it, what are they? They look like polite sanitised versions of those No Nose pieces that have been appearing on top of bus stops in East London for years now? Not sure what’s going on with The Sunday Painter?

New York’s Peter Blum Gallery booth is kind of fun with that eagle or whatever it is hiding behind the William Morris wallpaper. Not sure it is intended as fun and you know what was said about art and fun recently. No Fun!  yes, there probably is a very serious point being made if we let it, at this point, this far in I’m not sure we want to? I like that man’s shoes and he’s wearing a nice pink coat, she looks good, who designed that dress? A lot of this is a fashion parade, about being seen, about groups of people who probably haven’t seen each other since the last big art fair, when was that? Basel last week or is that next week? Miami? Dubai? Do they just spend their lives talking to each other in different major cities? There’s a big green piece of neon on the wall over there, it just says “Things”. Are we half way round yet?  Are we having fun yet? To be continued, Part Three in a moment…  (sw)   

Previously…

ORGAN: Frieze week – The Fair itself Part One; in via The Pit and Viola Frey, a gorgeous Katherine Bradford painting, the colour of Ana Segovia, Faiza Butt, llana Harris-Babou, the first hour and a bit…

ORGAN: Frieze Week – Exploring Frieze Sculpture before the week seriously kicks off, exploring the work of Reena Saini Kallat, Andy Holden, Assemble, Simon Hitchens, Burçak Bingöl and more, we’re off…

Frieze London 2025 is on now at Regent’s Park, London until Sunday 19th October.

As always, do please click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show (the labels will miraculously appear on the work a little later on)