Frieze Art Fair 2021: Colour, commerce & how ceramics showed up
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I’m not a huge fan of the the art fair experience. For an introvert, fairs are really, really people-y and frenetic; yet, they have their uses.
This year, 2021, I wanted to go to Frieze, simply because it was open, unlike last year.
I went with a focus: catch the mood, have a quick meeting and look for works in ceramic.
I gave myself a strict 90 minutes to be in the tent.
This is a capsule of what captured me:
Fellow fair go-er, could not resist taking a picture of him in the red rectangle.
As for mood, there was A LOT of colour. A lot of painting. It was an art fair to delight, celebrate, not to think too hard — which makes sense after the hellish pandemic nightmare we have all been contending with.
Dealers were playing it safe. I guess it paid off as Artnet reported a healthy number of six and seven figure sales from a selection of the top galleries. {Although the galleries tend to always report ‘strong sales’ to the press. One would have to do further research into the numbers to find where we are in terms of other years.}
I don’t remember as much sponsor presence in previous years and I get that this is not a non-profit, but when the La Prairie, Matches Fashion & Gail’s stands are busier than gallery booths, that’s sort of weird. Then again, the booths can put people off and everyone loves food & free samples…
So, back to looking at art….Yahooo for Frieze Focus!
Always a favourite of mine, Frieze Focus is one of the curated programmes within the fair. Generally solo presentations of work by younger artists, represented by younger galleries and international in scope. I get to see stuff I haven’t come across before, plus — it feels way less ‘art mall’.
I loved Hong Kong based Blindspot Gallery’s new body of work by Sin Wai Kin (Victoria Sin). A tongue in cheek music video and various other boyband ephemera that capture an essence of queer joy.
Very, very easy to get sucked into a fangirl/boy/by experience with full size cut outs, videos playing, sing-a-long possibilities, collectables, signed posters. Joy in expression attracts.
It’s interesting to see this in the context of the fair, how entertainment equations quite simply work on us, draw us in. This piece had a gripping and distinctive ‘now’ feel to it plus I dig the elemental and spiritual vibe of the face painting.
Next favourite…Edgar Calel serves up offerings…
The other Frieze Focus piece worth mentioning {and created way less fangirl guilt} was Edgar Calel’s Ru k’ ox k’ob’el jun ojer etemab’el (The Echo of an Ancient Form of Knowledge) presented by Guatemala City gallery, Proyectos Ultravioleta.
Offerings, ancestors, gesture, colour, rocks.
Touching.
Invitational, generous.
Performative, with an absent performer.
Contemplative.
I loved it.
And the gallery and its programme are so, so cool. I now follow them in instagram and they don’t disappoint.
It made me think about my piece in process for the Thames, a modern day ritual object which I’ll take to the river, perform a ritual with and ultimately offer it to the tides of the Thames.
Offerings, rituals, quiet, contemplation - these are subversive acts — like leaving food out or throwing something that took weeks to make into a river. It’s anti-capitalistic gesture, pointing to something beyond bean-counting mentality and ‘productivity’, pointing towards mystery, reverence, freedom in expression.
As for ceramics…
I had a little meeting at Modern Art about a piece we are excited to acquire, (which happens to be slip cast earthenware, not on view at the fair)…and Alexander showed me this stunning piece by Ron Nagle.
This piece made me miss the Western US, Colorado, California, the open spaces, katchina dolls, mestizo aesthetic…it feels more talismanic than other pieces I have seen of his. These palm sized sculptures of Nagle’s are bewitching, beguiling — masterstrokes in form and delight. The contrasts in organic lines & straight edges with a clever palette of both colour and surface — just so dang good.
This pieces come with his own vitrine, for example, from a recent show:
I am curious (and perhaps a little undecided) about the inclusion of vitrines. Pretty sure I like them, but…
As an art history student in the 1990’s I fell HARD for early Jeff Koons tank pieces and wrote about them & him quite a bit. (These pre-date any tanks by Hirst):
Tanks, not really vitrines — but the effect is similar. A defined and controlled space. A ‘special place’, a new context for focused observation. It looks quieter in there, special-er. (Koons went directly from being a commodities broker on Wall Street to the art world, in fact, there was an overlap.)
I have this feeble theory that people who are somewhat outside of the ‘fine art’ realm for whatever reason (in this case for instance, perhaps the misguided notion that ceramics can be seen as a poor cousin compared to ‘museum-grade’ sculpture), might be a bit over enthusiastic about putting their work in vitrines?…dare I mention, Edmund deWaal, who I think is wonderful and certainly has deployed vitrines to great effect (and acclaim).
But is this a stepping stone, the boxes, the special-ness that needs to be created around ceramic works? Do these boxes prop the work up, how integral are they, do they open up a conversation about collection, context, architecture? Yes, they do that as well…
I think to myself that if I ever bought a piece of Nagle’s…it would be liberated from it’s vitrine…knowing full well, there’s probably a little art-asshole hell I would then be destined for…
I see how the vitrine works, I just wonder if it’s a bit of a shortcut and what the ‘long cut’ looks like…maybe Theaster Gates who, as a man very much of the hour, had a piece at Whitecube. No need for a vitrine, it took up & commanded space by itself beautifully — totally unapologetic, utterly present, on the floor.
YES.
YES.
YES.
Something quite different, a different energy altogether.
Theaster is super duper.
From his artist page on Whitecube:
Theaster Gates’ practice includes sculpture, installation, performance and urban interventions that aim to bridge the gap between art and life. Gates works as an artist, curator, urbanist and facilitator and his projects attempt to instigate the creation of cultural communities by acting as catalysts for social engagement that leads to political and spatial change.
Gates has described his working method as ‘critique through collaboration’
I am so looking forward to going to his exhibition at Whitechapel, A Clay Sermon.
from Whitechapel on A Clay Sermon:
In Christian scripture, the relationship between God and humanity is analogous to the potter working with clay. ‘As a potter’, according to Theaster Gates, ‘you learn how to shape the world’. Clay and religion are foundational to the artistic practice of the Chicago based artist who has received international acclaim for his community and cultural interventions in Black space, particularly on the South Side of Chicago. As a youth, Gates joined the New Cedar Grove Missionary Baptist Church choir and, subsequently, studied urban planning, theology and ceramics.
I look forward to seeing how this looks and feels, and appreciate the very clear reference to Christian spirituality, being a vicar’s wife and more immersed in Christianity than I had ever planned, but benefitting from it so dang much — despite frustrations, complexity, institutional arrogance & ineptness and general weirdness of of how Christians are seen. I am deeply curious and I deeply bow to the intention of Gates.
The exhibitions feels like a significant moment for ceramics. Thank you Theaster.
A stop off at Corvi-Mora…so much ceramic sensitivity going on here…
Stair’s pieces I have long admired — monumental silence and stillness, timelessness. I particularly like the very large works. One of which I recently saw at the V&A and absolutely hated the fact it was shoved in the corner. I want to walk around it, like a stupa.
Bakewell’s work I only recently discovered. Joyful as well as intellectually satisfying. The catalogue at the fair included some pieces made of parian that I found really interesting in that they had been sculpted to have nice straight lines, and the dust created by the sculpting had been captured and then reintegrated with the piece, fired and thus the geometric shape plus the dust were solidified together. Poetic and timely in an age of waste.
There were also a couple of pieces by Alison Britton who has had a big influence on British ceramics, not least by teaching at the Royal College of Art for a long time. I was told she sort of liberated ceramicists from having to make things symmetrical — which is pretty cool. And whilst the pieces were interesting and beautiful they sort of just made me wish I was looking at a Betty Woodman instead, like they didn’t cross lines of polite-ness, didn’t take it far enough. There’s little doubt in my mind that I am being unfair and it was possibly because I was experiencing fair burn out that I didn’t step fully into the experience of these pieces. I will look her up and look at more of her work. However, I do think ceramics does often suffer from politeness…
Lastly, lovely Lubna…
Lubna Chowdhary at Jhaveri Contemporary
London based Lubna Chowdary, in her words from the first page on her website:
creates sculptural objects and site-specific artworks, working primarily in the field of ceramics.
Urbane and engaging, she is a master with colour, glaze and undulating geometry. Her work is a delight, this was the first time I have seen it in person. Like Bakewell, she studied ceramics at the Royal College (where Britton taught). So many of the ceramicist making a mark in recent publications, commissions and exhibitions are from the Royal College and I am reminded of how conservatively the art world casts its net and how it’s early days for ceramicists to ‘cross over’ into the fine art world and fine art market.
REFERENCES
Frieze London
21 et al.
https://www.frieze.com/fairs/frieze-london
10 Works That Sold at This Year’s Frieze London
Durón
Frieze London 2021: Sin Wai Kin
Edgar Calel
Ron Nagle: Lincolnshire Squire at Modern Art Helmet Row, London
Modern Art
Edmund de Waal
Mora
Mora
Betty Woodman. The Portuguese in Japan. 2000: MoMA
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/101815?artist_id=7051&page=1&sov_referrer=artist
Lubna Chowdhary
