Frieze Art Fair

! Amongst those involved in contemporary art, complaining about the Frieze Art Fair

has developed into its own comic genre. Firstly one moans about the size; of the aching

legs which are an inextricable fact of navigating its apparently endless aisles. Secondly

one complains about the volume of work on show; of a certain glazing of the eyes which

the rapid succession of a thousand unrelated objects is apt to produce. And lastly one

laments the ostentatious wealth which produces - and is produced by - so overtly

commercial an enterprise.

! Unsurprisingly then, not too many artists will admit to actually liking the event. And

yet as in physics where mass increases gravity, such is the magnetism of the the fairʼs

vast scale that even fewer translate their gripes and grumbles into the concrete gesture of

non-attendance. There exists then a strange love/hate relationship between the ʻart-worldʼ

and an event which (complete with trading-floor stalls) unambiguously represents the ʻart-

marketʼ. So that for all its evident faults, Frieze remains a major ʻmust-seeʼ event, its profile

expanding with each installment.

! To find out why, we must first turn to the very reasons for which the fair is so often

condemned. There is little question that its gigantic proportions tend to saturate the viewer

after an hour or so of extensive browsing. Yet to say that there is ʻtoo much artʼ is to take

for granted how fortunate we are to live in so creatively active a city as London. Such a

complaint betrays so odious a set of first-world distortions that it is difficult to follow through

with much conviction. This yearʼs event was no different; yes there was an almost mind-

numbing amount of work on offer, but resist the temptation to wander aimlessly and it was

Friday, 14th October, 2011

possible to see it all in a day. And for every empty vessel of commerce - every polka-dot

Hirst and neon Emin - there was a few genuinely exciting pieces to be discovered.

! For the past few years as in this one, a great deal of these ʻdiscoveriesʼ were

provided by the Frieze Frame section of the fair. Here, 25 galleries under six years old are

invited to present one artist from their roster. The solo-show format gives welcome respite

from the diversely crammed conventional stalls, allowing the visitor to spend more time

with a singular body of work. Though most of this segment was solid, two exhibits stood

out in particular; an investigative instillation by Columbian artist Benando Ortiz for the

Galeria Casas Reigner, and a great site specific piece by Elena Bajo for D+T Projects.

Both of these decisively un-glossy projects injecting some much needed criticality into their

slick surroundings.

! The Frame galleries, along with the Frieze Projects (an annual crop of new artistsʼ

commissions) and a small, yet well-chosen selection of talks and screenings serve to

offset some of the blatant commerce with which the event is associated. Make no mistake

however, the Frieze Art Fair is at heart little more than a bank-sponsored traderʼs

convention for art. Yet it never fails to deliver a few great works among its vast stock of

shiny new product. The promise of which - regardless of motive - is why Frieze remains

one of the busiest spectacles in Londonʼs creative calendar.

Available: www.idolmag.co.uk/art-culture-review/frieze-art-fair