Frieze London 2016

This year’s fair brings together more than 160 of the world’s leading galleries, alongside the fair’s celebrated non-profit programme of ambitious new artist commissions and talks. In 2016 the fair will debut a new gallery section, The Nineties, recreating seminal exhibitions from the decade, alongside the return of sections Focus and Live, the definitive platforms for emerging galleries and performance art respectively.

Frieze London coincides with Frieze Masters and the Frieze Sculpture Park, and is supported by main sponsor Deutsche Bank for the 13th consecutive year.

Museums at the Fair
Building on Frieze’s enduring relationship with collecting institutions, this year, the fair partners with two acquisition funds for national museums, including the the Frieze Tate Fund, now supported by WME | IMG; and the launch of the Contemporary Art Society’s Collections Fund at Frieze, supporting a regional museum in the UK.

The World’s Leading Contemporary Galleries
Frieze London 2016 draws together 119 galleries to present ambitious solo and group exhibitions across its main section. Solo artist highlights include an immersive light installation by James Turrell with Kayne Griffin Corcoran (New York), who will take part in Frieze London for the first time; and Philippe Parreno’s new sculptural work (Pilar Corrias, London), conceived in conjunction with the artist’s commission for Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall.

Monographic presentations by major female artists can also be seen across the main section such as Goshka Macuga (Galerie Rudiger Schöttle, Munich), Latifa Echakch (kamel mennour, Paris), Francis Upritchard (Kate MacGarry, London), Penny Siopis (Stevenson, Cape Town) and Channa Horwitz with Ghebaly Gallery (Los Angeles).

A New Section: The Nineties
Selected by Geneva-based curator Nicolas Trembley, galleries will revisit seminal exhibitions from the 1990s, highlighting key collaborations between dealers and artists that have had a lasting impact on contemporary art.

Highlights include Wolfgang Tillmans’s very first exhibition at Daniel Buchholz’s gallery in 1993, then located in his father’s Cologne bookshop; and a series of performances ‘Characters to be reactivated’ (1991-1995) by French artist Pierre Joseph, which contributed to the art world’s understanding of ‘relational aesthetics’ (Air de Paris, Paris).

Live
Advised by museum curators Jacob Proctor (Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, University of Chicago) and Fabian Schöneich (Portikus, Frankfurt), the pioneering section for performance and participatory art returns, with new and historical projects presented throughout the fair. Highlights include the international premiere of Para um corpo..., from the series ‘Hábito/Habitante’ by Martha Araújo (Galeria Jaqueline Martins, São Paulo & PM8, Vigo); and in the first installation of its kind at the fair, the groundbreaking Berlin-based artist Christine Sun Kim, who has been deaf since birth, will explore the materiality of sound through drawing, painting, and performance, opening up new fields of perception to hearing and non-hearing audiences alike (with Carroll/Fletcher, London).

Focus
Also advised by Proctor and Schöneich, Focus is the definitive destination to discover emerging talents from Berlin to Shanghai, featuring 36 galleries all under 12 years of age.

A wave of new-generation London galleries join Focus for the first time this year, including Chewday’s with Gabriele Beverage, Arcadia Missa (Jesse Darling, Dean Blunt and Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings), Seventeen (Jon Rafman) and Southard Reid (Celia Hempton). Taiwan and Guatemala will be represented at Frieze London for the first time, with newcomers Chi-Wen Gallery bringing Yin-Ju Chen and Proyectos Ultravioleta presenting works by Elisabeth Wild and Vivian Suter.

Frieze Projects
Supported by the LUMA Foundation and curated for the first time by Raphael Gygax (Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich), the non-profit programme of new artist commissions will feature Sibylle Berg & Claus Richter; Martin Soto Climent; Coco Fusco (UK debut, co-commissioned with Liverpool Biennial); Operndorf Afrika (Opera Village Africa); Julie Verhoeven; and Samson Young. The winner of the 2016 Frieze Artist Award is Yuri Pattison. The selected artists for Frieze Music and Frieze Film will be announced soon.

The Reading Room
Returning for a second year, the Reading Room offers visitors the opportunity to meet writers, editors and artists in book signings and presentations, hosted each hour by the world’s leading arts publications.

Frieze Talks
Curated by Christy Lange (Frieze) with Gregor Muir (Institute of Contemporary Arts, London) – recently named Director of Collection, International Art for Tate – Frieze Talks will bring together today’s most influential artists, writers, curators and thinkers. The full programme will be announced in September, including a new series of daily workshops exploring the theme of ‘borders’.

Frieze Sculpture Park
Following a celebrated three-month residency in 2015-16, the Frieze Sculpture Park will return to the English Gardens in The Regent’s Park, creating a major free cultural attraction at the heart of London. Curated by Clare Lilley (Yorkshire Sculpture Park) and featuring large-scale artworks presented by galleries from both Frieze London and Frieze Masters, the full programme will be announced soon.

Coinciding with Frieze Masters, Frieze London takes place a week earlier than previous years, from 6–9 October with a new Preview Day on Wednesday 5 October. Frieze London is supported by main sponsor Deutsche Bank for the 13th consecutive year.

Book your tickets to Frieze London now. All tickets are limited and often sell out. Book in advance to save and ensure entry, particularly at the weekend. Booking fees apply.

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Explore the galleries taking part in Frieze London 2016 here.