Disruption at Play: Frieze Art Fair Becomes the World’s Stage

With social media already a ubiquitous part of our daily lives, it was only a matter of time before it would pervade the art fair circuit. But instead of simply becoming the passive subject of a slew of Instagrams, tweets, or fleeting Snapchats, this year Frieze is embracing and even embodying social media and the spirit of a generation of millennials, where disruption is celebrated and emojis and hashtags have become a new language of sorts. Since the VIP opening of both Frieze London and Masters on Tuesday, the general impressions and themes at the fair have become these buzzwords of the week: Curation, Disruption, Collaboration, Play.

At Frieze Masters, generally considered the more civilized of the two fairs, a walk through traditional, well-lit presentations by the likes of Marlborough (showing Francis Bacon) or Gagosian (showing Helen Frankenthaler) led to an immersive, cinematic showing by Helly Nahmad that reimagined the display of modern masters. (Nahmad collaborated with movie set designer Robin Brown and producer Anna Pank on the booth.) Diverting from a formal booth, the gallery hung works by Joan Miró, Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, and other artists in the imagined flat of a fictional collector in 1968 Paris—strewn with gallery receipts, artist monographs, and stacked exhibition catalogues. “It was one of the best things I’ve seen in any of the fairs in the past years,” said Abdullah Al-Turki, a London-based collector who noted the rise of curated booths. “With so many art fairs at the moment around the world, [and] Frieze and FIAC back to back, [there should be] more than just artwork in the fair, and more proponents of performance art, and musicians, architects, involved in being part of Frieze.” And when disruption, curation, and collaboration raise the bar this high, the pressure is on. “This year, we did well, but it’s far more competitive,” said Angela Westwater, of New York’s Sperone Westwater, who reported strong sales including works by Gilbert & George, Richard Long, and Bruce Nauman. “Now my job is to think about what we’re doing next year.”

Read the full article by Marina Cashdan & Molly Gottschalk at Artsy