@londonart blog

It's the time of the year in London when everybody suddenly talks about art. Yes, it's Frieze week (or weeks) coming up. Following our tradition, we have handpicked our favourites from the endless offers in town so you don't have to be frustrated scanning through the listings.

Our top 10 of the week are as follows (in no particular order!) -

1. Catch L’Expédition Scintillante, Act 2 (light show) by Pierre Huyghe in Raven Row's current show “Reflections from Damaged Life” - A great retrospective show spanning decades of works, make sure you stay in the gallery until you see this performance, it runs every half hour.

2. "Tomorrow" by Elmgreen & Dragset in V&A - The Norwegian duo's greatest site specific commission yet in Britain inside the V&A museum's former Textile Galleries.

3. "Beyond the Black" by Idris Khan int Victoria Miro - an important departure from Khan's photographic based works, this show comprises a suite of large black paintings, a monumental site specific wall drawing and a series of works on paper.

4. Tatsuo Miyajima's "I-Model" in Lisson Gallery - the Japanese artist is famous for his zen minimal pieces incoporating LED digit displays. There is a clay chamber room for meditation in the show, only one person to enter at time.

5. Wolfgang Tillmans' solo show C entral Nervous System in Maureen Paley - once again Tillmans returns to Frieze week and we couldn't wait to see his latest creations.

6. "A series from Within" by Larissa Nowicki in Man & Eve - intriguing pieces formed from the printed pages of books, sliced and intricately woven to form new works that cannot be read in the traditional sense

7. "Sandra Blow Paintings & Prints" in Kings Place - Sandra Blow is a pioneer of the British post-war abstract movement. Seeing her works in the multi-storey atrium in Kings Place is a joyful experience

8. "Erebus" (film) by Du Preez & Thornton Jones in Londonewcastle Project Space - Du Preez & Thornton Jones have created a new body of work in collaboration with choreographer Russell Maliphant, inspired in part by the work of Auguste Rodin

9. "The Seymour & Milton Posters Show" in Kemistry Gallery - a great retrospective show about one of the most influential designer duos in the 20th century who signature push-pin style has become iconic.

10. Frieze Sculpture Park in Regent's Park - this year's sculpture park is the largest in the history of Frieze, and it's free so how can you miss it?

And apart from the Original Frieze and Frieze Masters, you have the choice of numerous satellite fairs around town. Here are a few we believe most of our followers could find something they like and go have a look -

Sunday & Touch Art Fair in Marylebone

Sluice in Bermondsey

The Other Art Fair in Brick Lane

1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in Somerset House

Multiplied at Christie's

Moniker in Brick Lane

Visit our facebook page over the week to see what we have found in town apart from the above. Enjoy the best London offers in the Autumn!

*****

Further Readings -

Page - Top 10 Photograph Exhibitions in town on TimeOut London

Page - Top 10 Art Exhibitions in town on TimeOut London

Interview - of the Director of Sluice Art Fair Ben Street by Tabius Khan for Londonist

Shadow Catchers: Camera-less Photography

V&A Museum

13.10.2010-20.02.2011

Technology changes the face of our world, and it only accelerates in the post-millennium world we all live in. What's new today would be out in a matters of months or even weeks. New techniques and media emerge all the time which bring artists countless possibilities to explore & re-invent their works.

Since the arrival of digital cameras, film cameras and polaroids have fallen into victims of the 'fastfood' generation - everything has to be fast, instant and hassle-free. It doesn't need to be perfect, but it has to be seen. It is the Zeitgeist. So do you remember how people capture what they see before cameras exist?

Well, you may say paintings. Yes, you know it because there's a National Portrait Gallery in Trafalgar Square. But there is something between paintings and photos from cameras - well technically photos can only be taken by cameras, is it? Not really...

The Night Cell (2010) by Garry Fabian Miller

Given a light sensitive surface, which is what a photo paper really is, photography - capturing objects from 3D to 2D - can be done without an actual piece of camera. It is not a new technique, but most people probably don't think it is practised any more nowadays, not to mention having an exhibition. V&A Musuem has devoted its prime exhibition space right next to its main entrance to this show, to recall people's memory of how wonderful and admirable this technique is.

Chemigram 25/1/66 V (1966) by Pierre Cordier

The show features works of 5 contemporary artists (they're not called 'photographers' in the official publications) - Garry Fabian Miller, Pierre Cordier, Adam Fuss, Floris Neusüss and Susan Derges. Although they all make photos without a camera, their photos look very different from each other's.

Invocation (1992) by Adam Fuss

These photos cannot give you the HD crystal clear view of the subjects like the snapshots on your iphone, but they give you more by showing less - just as what Mies van der Rode said. The viewers are free to interpret what the photos are about, what the artist is trying to capture, and what exactly has been captured. It is a process which you cannot accelerate - you would need to spend time looking at each of them, instead of flipping them through your finger on the ipad screen.

Körperfotogramm (1962) by Floris Neusüss

The museum has prepared a short clip for each artist (as embedded in this post) to provide more background to the viewers how they create each photograph and why they would do it in his/her own way. It is like magicians revealing the secret - you can see how these beautiful images are made. And perhaps you will be inspired after seeing the show.

Arch 4 (summer) (2008) by Susan Derges

Location -

View Larger Map

*****

@londonart blog

Independent London art tweets & bites since 2009

Tag V&A

Frieze Art Week 2013

photos without cameras