Part Three, the third part of this forage into the bits we wish to pick from the ridiculously overcrowded cherry tree that is this year’s Frieze London. If you missed Part One or Two may we politely suggest you go back and start on that buffed tube train that that took us to The Regent’s Park in the first place. The second part ended with the life that flows from those big Eilen Itzel do Espírito Santo paintings and now here we are maybe about (not yet) halfway around the vast thing – I nearly said the vast and offensively bloated thing and by the way, is climate change no longer a problem for the art world? Last year’s fashion thing to mention (a little) now just swept away? Not a cool issue any more? And what about Palestine, Ukraine, is all that so last year darling? At least last time there was a hint of tokenism and never mind all that, are you flying to Paris for next week, the train is so tiresome?
We did say no cynical smiles and at least there’s no dinosaur skulls in here, the Masters seems even more obscene than the main fair this year with all those important things reduced to being just stuff, reduced to being super rich men’s trinkets, mere play things alongside their supercars, the football club their cheating with and the Hirst they now have stuck in storage, all those things that at least should be in museums and not in the bank vaults of the tasteless super rich. We all know what the sister fairs are both about but Frieze Masters really did have an uncomfortable tone to it this year (and no doubt the press release boasting about the big sales will be along later and yes before you point it out, we are in here on press tickets, we are part of it, we have been invited to come review, we didn’t have to pay, we probably couldn’t afford the cost of a ticket, that’s a lot of money not spent on paint or overdue studio rent!)
Back to the main event, back to the big tent, where were we? Way more than five, probably nearly six hours spent slowly walking around the Fair that was entered on Thursday morning. More than five hours carefully following those numbers up above the endless booths; meticulous, relentless, thorough, determined, looking for the cherries. We did say back in Part One that I know I could easily just write a couple of thousands words about all the bad art, the unassuming uninspiring disconnecting artlessness of so so much of it, or that we could just assume you know there was going to be a lot of not really worth a mention art and let’s just get on with the cherry picking… And I probably still didn’t see everything, really don’t think it possible to see everything, this thing really is way too big. It really is a stupid thing.
Caroline Monnet has of course been selected by Jeffery Gibson, we’re still in the Artist-To-Artist section (and still without throwing anything at any owls or anything); now, as has already been said in Part Two, this particular section has, in the past couple of years or so, well since the first time in 2023, this section has been rather rewarding. Seven artists selected by seven rather respected artists, seven passionate advocates, the word of an artist tends to come with a little more attached to it and Caroline Monnet did bring up thoughts of Jeffery Gibson before the information was gathered. Caroline Monnet is presented by Galerie Blouin Division of Toronto and Montreal – “Caroline Monnet is a multidisciplinary artist of Anishinaabe and French ancestry, originally from the Outaouais region, who lives and works in Mooniyang/Montreal. Her work grapples with colonialism’s impact, updating outdated systems with anishinaabeg methodologies…” – her 2026 piece We Carry What Remains is particularly powerful before you get close enough to see that it is a lot more than just a fabric weave, it is actually floor and roof underlay, waterproofing and insulating membranes, sill gasket, polyethylene, tarpaulin, thread, grommets, Caroline Monnet’s work is another highlight…
On to the Carl Freedman Gallery booth (from Margate of course) and some colourful energy from the artist known as (slightly confusingly) Studio Lenca, an artist from El Salvador who lives and works in Margate – “Studio Lenca is the working name of artist Jose Campos – ‘Studio’ referring to a space for experimentation and constantly shifting place; ‘Lenca’ referring to the name of the artists ancestors from El Salvador”, his story is an interesting one; “Jose Campos was born in La Paz, El Salvador and like many had to flee the country during its violent civil war during the late 1980s. He travelled to the US by land, illegally with his mother and grew up in the gaze of a strictly conservative administration – an ‘illegal alien’. Studio Lenca is focused on ideas surrounding difference, knowledge and visibility. He works with performance, video, painting and sculpture…” – if you don’t know the the artist, then well worth more that a Warholian fifteen minutes exploring his website and if you must, his social media, an artist worth knowing about…
And there’s some rather immediate about Lola Stong-Brett paintings in the Carl Freedman Gallery booth, another Margate-based painter, London born this time. Good to see the Margate gallery supporting hometown artists, something that hardly ever happens with any of East London’s current crop of galleries.
Laura Footes is another Margate-based painter, her pieces here in the Carl Freedman booth are, if a little difficult to read – “dream-like” apparently – they are beautifully painted, undoubtedly so – “a cast of ghost-like forms are rendered through an elastic time frame, occupying almost hallucinatory space yet tethered to a familiar reality” – these pieces are intriguing, they have you curious, especially if you already know some of her work, her ghostly beds, that unmade one, not sure how to read these particular dreams if that’s what they are? – “With everything laid bare for her audience – the uncomfortable moments, the daily rituals, and even our internal systems, both anatomical and psychological, Footes hopes to share the beauty of dysfunction…” – the artist herself offers; “In general my work is about dysfunction, examined through a bodily, psychological or societal lens. This year I created a suite of paintings that explore power. Men who think they’re above the law – because they are, they never face justice. They forget they are flesh like the people they destroy but flesh will enact its own justice as nature comes for us all…”
There’s a set of paintings in the Amanda Wilkinson booth, at first Madeleine Strindberg came to mind, not as biting as Madeleine though, not as laced with those undertones or that way Madeleine Strindberg hits the nail right on the head so many times with her economy, it is actually the work of Amanda Wilkinson Gallery regular Joan Jonas (one day we might tell the story about how back in the days when we ran a gallery space three or four doors from the big Wilkinson space in Vyner Street, the story of how they’d never return a hello, they’d walk pass our front door with their noses in the air, never a response, utter disdain, we called it the Wilkinson Smile, we deliberately said hello every time, not once in four years did any of them return a hello, good to see things haven’t changed in here, London Gallery people can be so aloof, don’t look up now, head down, important laptop work to do)
There’s a big (almost two metres high) Wolfgang Tillmans print, a large inkjet print of a photo – Paul, Nude, Golf Ball (1994), there it is, being shown by London’s Maureen Paley Gallery, it adds a slightly different flavour I suppose, really not sure why a thirty year old photo is taking up an entire wall but then I’ve not felt the need to step into the gallery’s Three Colt Lane space for a quite a while now. I pass Maureen Paley’s space on the way to other East London spaces all the time, I get to that uninviting frosted glass that hides the Paley space and think you know what, can I really be bothered? I haven’t been for quite a few months now even though I’ve been in the street for Rose Easton, for Herald Street Gallery and such, indeed took a walk over there to see the Yuko Mohri show at Mother’s Tankstation a couple of days ago, walked towards Maureen Paley’s place afterwards and well, just didn’t feel like bothering and really that can-we-be-bothered feeling is creeping in to rather a lot of what we’re seeing in here at Frieze today. I mean that is without doubt an interesting print, but why is a photograph from thirty off years ago actually here? What is the point? Well besides wanting to make a ale of course, which does seem to be the only point…
Cape Town (South Africa) artist Kemang Wa Lehulere (1994) has a piece made out of bits reclaimed from old school desks painted with bold enamel paint, something called The Reign of Colourful Alphabets, a piece that holds attention for a little bit, a piece presented by Cape Town gallery Blank Projects – actually it holds enough attention to send us exploring the gallery’s website to discover a lot more about the “celebrated multidisciplinary contemporary artist working across sculpture, installation, drawing, performance, and video artist” (which is partly why I bother to write these pieces rather than just going for a look, taking a few photos on my phone like everyone else then posting a photo on instabloodygram to show how cool and deeply interesting I am before forgetting most of what was seen at things like Frieze. I am writing this as much for me as I am for you, I’d never heard of Kemang Wa Lehulere until last Thursday).
On we go, where’s the next cherry? New York’s Jane Lombard Gallery lifts the flagging spirit, especially those paintings and the edges of those paintings of Squeak Carnwath; “Jane Lombard Gallery is pleased to participate in the 2026 edition of Frieze London with a multigenerational presentation of new and recent works by Jane Bustin, Squeak Carnwath, Lucy + Jorge Orta, Michael Rakowitz, Howard Smith, and Sawangwongse Yawnghwe. Tracing temporality, this presentation looks at repetition as a means to explore how the past is remembered, revisited, and transformed…” – As I do keep saying, we are cherry picking here and well, I was staring to flag until a Squeak Carnwath painting called for attention, and then another of Squeak Carnwath’s paintings called out and let’s cheat a little (Hey I’ve been writing this for hours now) and really the paintings tell you what you need to know, the paintings and the edges of the paintings, I do adore those edges and the edge they give those paintings – “Squeak Carnwath (born 1947) is an acclaimed American contemporary painter, printmaker, and arts educator widely recognised as a foundational voice in West Coast art. Based in Oakland, California, since 1970, she serves as a Professor Emerita of Art at the University of California, Berkeley. Carnwath’s distinctive style seamlessly fuses elements of 1970s New Image painting, Conceptual Art, and Process Art” – They really did call out, come here they say, they say lots of things, or suggest them, and those edges, love those layers and layers of oil paint, the knife work, love the playing of the textures with the suggestions of the text, the hints of secrets, the seemingly improvisational appearance, the physical nature of the working of that paint, the energy (and the power of those edges, I love those edges). One of those little punch the air moments (well not an actual punching of the air, it happened in my head but you know what I mean, yes, of course there’s good art waiting in here, how could there not be, how much of it is being looked at is a different question, most people seem to be looking at their phones)
I must confess, some three or so hours into searching through the fair, the delight of the Squeak Carnwath paintings and all they were suggesting (rather than saying) kind of drew my attention away from the rest that Jane Lombard Gallery had to offer, that rather wordy rather big Sawangwongse Yawnghwe piece – The Parallax of Manichean Delirium (2026) – deserved far more attention, as did pretty much everything in the gallery’s booth. I apologise wholeheartedly to Jane Lombard and her friendly gallery people (see London people, even New York galleries can say hello), the work of Jane Bustin (and her edges) deserved more attention as well….
And that, I rather think, concludes Part Three, there is more though, lots (lots) more, this is going to be long, this is going to five or six parts at leasy, are we half way round yet? We haven’t even got to those pens… (sw)
Frieze London is on until 18th October 2026 at The Regent’s Park, London
Previously
And as always, do please click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show…
