Installation Notes on Frieze London 2022
Writer and curator Mark Segal takes a look at trends at Frieze and Frieze masters
‘Visiting Frieze London on the opening evening, I was intrigued by the number of galleries hosting installations, across Frieze and Frieze masters, rather than the usual selection of gallery artist’s work. I’ve chosen five which struck me in particular.”
Images (left to right]: Jeffrey Gibson, Martínez Garay, Laure Prouvost, Tobias Rehberger
Jeffrey Gibson, Stephen Friedman Gallery
Combining Indigenous artisanal handicraft, Gibson, of Choctaw-Cherokee heritage uses beadwork, leatherwork and quilting, as well as painting, performance, sculpture, textiles and video. His multi-faceted practice includes vibrant colour and pattern, mixing his heritage with references to club culture, queer theory, fashion, politics, literature and art history. Seeing Gibson apply his practice to this installation on this scale is magnificent.
www.stephenfriedman.com/art-fairs/66-frieze-london-jeffrey-gibson/
Martínez Garay’s, El Creador (2019), GRIMM
Garay who lives and works between Amsterdam and Lima has a practice which includes painting, sculpture, printmaking and site-specific installation. Referencing pre-Columbian aesthetics, and Ican civilization, El Creador is a sculpture populated island, isolated in this booth.
First shown at the Istanbul Biennale in 2019 this is the first UK presentation of El Creador. The references to excavation and appropriation are unmissable, while blooming structures suggest reclamation and ownership.
Laure Prouvost, Lisson Gallery
A major immersive installation in the Lisson Gallery booth, invited the audience to ‘embrace the octopus and other exotic creatures’. Including paintings, film, sculpture, and protest banners Prouvost challenges people to consider concerns like immigration, climate change, species extinction and polarisation. Physically engaging with the work is encouraged, through breaks in the canvas, with gloves for hands to be inserted into….A cushioned seat allows for comfortable viewing. I liked the subversiveness of statements such as ‘I am sorry this room is not so nice I did ask for it to be changed’.
www.lissongallery.com/news/lisson-gallery-at-frieze-london-2022
Mary Corse, The Cold Room, Pace Gallery
Conceived 54 years ago, and only first realised in 2017, Corse’s Cold Room is a highly subjective experience, each individual experiencing a different pattern of light. This subjectivity is a core part of Corse’s practice, developed through the use of microspheres, incorporated into her painting practice. It’s an eerie experience, not being able to share or articulate what you see, challenging our ability to communicate what is in front of us.
www.pacegallery.com/artfairs/frieze-masters-2022/
Nikita Gale, 63/22, BMW Open Work Commission
There is a lot to like about the ideas and concerns behind this installation but is it despite or because of its association with BMW? Of course, a BMW car features as a centre piece to the installation, but it acts as speakers for guitars which themselves are fabricated from car parts. Which are named after prominent 20th Century black women musicians, from Sister Rosetta Tharpe to Joan Armatrading. Female and non-binary performers play the guitars activating the work both within the installation, and across the wider fair. The work reflects Gale’s continuing interest in cars and car shows, but is this a triumph of artistic appropriation of consumerism, or something less appealing?
www.press.bmwgroup.com/united-kingdom/article/detail/T0404563EN_GB/nikita-gale-premiers-“63/22”
Tobias Rehberger, Into the Maze, LG Electronics
A further artist/consumer focused company partnership is Tobias Rehberger’s, Into the Maze, another artist revisiting Dazzle painting, which he first explored for the British Centenary Art Commissions in 2014 along with Carlos Cruz-Diez for that years Liverpool Biennale. Invented by British artist Norman Wilkinson during WW1, Dazzle was also part of Peter Blake’s commission for MV Snowdrop in 2015. Here, using LG OLED televisions, screens blend into the work. It’s an intriguing installation, but I’m not sure the televisions add much.
http://lgoledart.com/artist/TOBIAS_REHBERGER
Maotik, Sense of Blue, La Prairie collaboration
I think Maotik’s collaboration with La Prairie, a luxury cosmetics brand completed my interest in consumer collaborations, and for me, while a highly immersive experience, and Maotik’s use of algorithms to trigger how the system works is so appropriate for today, it seems to me the weakest of the bunch.
Mark Segal, November 2022