top picks in the frieze week 2012

Venue Design by Kevin Carmody & Andrew Groarke for Frieze Art Fair 2011

With the return of Frieze Art Fair to its home town after a trans-atlantic conquer in New York earlier this year, it would be interesting to see how its spin-off fair Frieze Masters would fare among fellow art critics and audience. Continuing its well-praised tradition last year, Carmody & Groarke is reappointed (see photo above) to design the venue of the main fair this year. The Masters show next door would be, interestingly, designed by New York-based Selldorf Architects. It seems the competition between the two global cities are everywhere.

As usual, apart from the Giant Frieze, Moniker Art Fair in Village Underground and Sunday Art Fair in Ambika P3 are catering to a slightly more specific audience and do not cost a penny to get in. For the numerous shows in galleries around the whole city, we have shortlisted the followings for those who have no time to do the window-shopping: (in no particular order)

Kris Ruhs in the Wapping Project - full photo set here

Landing on Earth by Kris Ruhs in the Wapping Project
Kris has created a series of large installations in the power station (see photo above) that have a dialogue with each other as well as the space.

Elmgreen & Dragset's transformed attic space in Victoria Miro

Harvest by Elmgreen & Dragset in Victoria Miro (@victoriamiro) -
The duo who put a bronze boy on a rocking horse on the 4th plinth is making two distinct spaces inside the gallery's two floors in their latest show in town.

snails on junk in one of Bertozzi & Casoni's works in the show

Regeneration by Bertozzi & Casoni in All Visual Arts (@allvisualarts) -
Examine the bizarrely colourful life-like works of the Italian duo which are almost renaissance paintings come alive in 3D.

Left: Untitled 12050; Right: Untitled 12044 (2012) by Lee Knagwook

Invisible by Lee Kangwook in Hada Contemporary -
Korean artist Lee uses colour pencils and charoal to create minimalist works (see photo above) that look vibrant yet intriguing in order as a whole. The sparkle highlights in his works make a glam touch to the works.

Revolver presents works by ten artists made between 1983 and 2012 in discrete spaces in the gallery in a three-part series of short exhibitions. Show 2 features Anna Barham's live installation, Graham Gussin's sepia toned photographs and Tai Shani's sound-tracked installation.


Spazio di Luce by Giuseppe Penone in Whitechapel Gallery (@_thewhitechapel) -
No other artist have made a more poetic piece for Whitechapel Gallery's columned room yet than Penone (see photo above).

Ligurian Sea Saviore (1993) by Hiroshi Sugimoto

Dark Paintings & Seascapes by Rothko and Sugimoto in Pace (@pacegallery) -
If you think David Chipperfield's museum space is a must-see, a joint show of Mark Rothko & Hiroshi Sugimoto inside a space designed by Chipperfield would be one that is seen to be believed. See the above teaser photo. We hope the show can stay forever, it is timeless.

 

 

Blastfurnace by Atelier Van Lieshout in Carpenters Workshop (@cwgparislondon) - 
Carpenters Workshop is renown for their taste of craft designs. It is showing a few pieces of AVL's works that viewers can view the chemistry among them when they are all in the same space. 

On a sidenote, there was outrageous queue everyday in the Barbican Curve gallery since its current show opened last week (see below photo), those who live in London should avoid getting there in frieze week to save your valuable time in this period.

Random International (also represented by Carpenter Workshop)'s interactive Rain installation in the Barbican Curve gallery

A Kassen's work in Sunday Art Fair 2011 represented by New Gallerie Paris

A Kassen's work in Nettie Horn, 17A Riding House Street

17A Riding House Street by A Kassen in Nettie Horn (@nettiehorn) -

Danish Collective A Kassen is known for their reaction with the environment and space in their works. The show would see how they respond to the relocated gallery (from Vyner Street) in its new premise and hence an one-off not to be missed.

art february in london - part 1

E2 Art Walk
13.02.2010
Havn't visited Vyner Street for quite a while (previous post here), so when a few friends are visiting London this month, I stole the chance to re-visit it again.
The Chair Arch at V&A Museum of Childhood

Chair Arch (close-up)

We approached V&A Museum of Childhood on Cambridge Heath Road first after getting off at Bethnal Green Station. I decided to go in as I reckoned my friends would be interested to see the vintage toys. To our surprise, we found the chair arch which was previously exhibited at the V&A Museum in Kensington at the central space there! We also saw a great photography show at the entrance space called Wendy's World by london-based french artist Etienne Clément (check the Further Readings section below about the concept and a full view fo the works) - 

 

Parade by Etienne Clément

Continuing the walk up Cambridge Heath Road, we dropped by briefly at IMT gallery and 242 gallery -


Naoko Takahashi at IMT gallery


On Vyner Street we first stepped into 12A Gallery and found wonderful sculptures by Paul Munn -

Paul Munn at 12A Gallery 

Kate MacGarry is showing Josh Blackwell's miniature paper sweaters -

Josh Blackwell at Kate Macgarry

At Ibid Porjects there're some less-interesting installations of Magali Reus but the short film somehow makes it up. (Note: I previously posted an excerpt of the film here but the person who shot it has contacted me and told me that it is up for commercial sale and I should take it offline. So you won't be seeing it now.)

Background by Magali Reus at Ibid Projects

Nettie Horn has a compilation show with 3 artists, and we found Rebecca Stevenson to be the one that impressed us the most among them -

Show poster featuring Folie a l'orange (2009) by Rebecca Stevenson at Nettie Horn

Luxe Vert (2008) by Rebecca Stevenson at Nettie Horn

At the Gooden Gallery, Simon Morse's pseudo-mechanical switch boxes are lining up the walls of the gallery space. The mix of low-tech knobs and punch line text scattered on the face of the boxes creates a sense of strange-ness in the familiar -

Wilkinson Gallery has the most amazing work we have seen in the whole afternoon by london-based norwegian artist A K Dolven. The show is minimal yet powerful, characteristic of scandinavian aesthetics - 

Ahead (2008) by A K Dolven

The day the sky become my ground by A K Dolven at Wilkson Gallery (video link)

Full photo set here

Further Readings -
An interactive map of galleries in Vyner Street by the Guardian, 29.09.2009
Official website of Simon Morse
Official website of Paul Doeman
Official page of Wendy's World on Etienne Clément's website with full screen viewing of the series
Official website of A K Dolven