Frieze London 2016 – roundup

‘The high quality of work and confident atmosphere at Frieze London this year translated into substantial sales at every level… Frieze is the place to meet curators and exchange ideas, as well as to buy art – something which was particularly apparent this year.’ – Victoria Siddall, Director of Frieze Fairs

The 14th edition of Frieze London closed on Sunday 9 October, having seen major acquisitions by international institutions and significant sales to private collectors. The fair, which brought together more than 160 galleries from 30 countries, attracted a record number of collectors with a 30% increase in attendance on preview day and increased collector numbers throughout the week; alongside a 20% increase in museum groups across Frieze fairs. In 2016, Frieze also partnered with two major acquisition funds for national museums: the Frieze Tate Fund, now supported by WME | IMG, and the launch of the Contemporary Art Society’s Collections Fund at Frieze in support of a regional museum in the UK: Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.

Here's what the media, visiting museum curators and galleries said:

Media
‘Electric from the get-go’ – International New York Times

'More than ever this year, that tone of disrupted elegance and historical questioning, kick-started by the launch of Frieze Masters in 2012, is a shared aesthetic of both fairs.' – Financial Times

‘From tongue-in-cheek displays to vaudeville performance and, of course, stop-you-in-your-tracks artworks, the mood was ebullient.’ – W Magazine

Museum Directors & Curators

‘Nicolas Trembley’s wonderful Nineties section was a great highlight - a portrait of a decade through the remaking of exhibition history. As Eric Hobsbawm said, “a protest against forgetting”.’– Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of The Serpentine

‘This year’s Frieze Art Fair continued to stimulate the imagination with a reassuring degree of certainty, proving once again how London is a world-class centre for contemporary art.’ – Gregor Muir, Executive Director of the ICA, London and incoming Director of Collection, International Art at Tate

‘Frieze 2016 presented me with a wonderful opportunity to not only get a snapshot of what was happening in art globally but also to see different kinds of experimentation happening at the edges of film and performance. … From judging the Stand Prize which so moved me – kurimanzutto from Mexico and Tillmans in The Nineties both brought tears to my eyes – to having the opportunity to moderate two events; Frieze extends its generosity through its conversations outside of the pure limits of the art market and into the wider world of art and culture.’ – Dr Omar Kholeif, Manilow Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Galleries
‘I am delighted to have placed the work of Phillip Lai with the Tate collection thanks to the 2016 Frieze Tate Fund, and also to have had the opportunity at this fair to place the work of a number of the gallery’s artists with the collections of prominent museums in Britain, the United States and China.’ – Stuart Shave, of Stuart Shave/Modern Art

‘This fair has a non-stop flow of high-calibre, well-informed, serious collectors and curators. The editorial heritage of Frieze is evident here through the atmosphere of high-level contemporary cultural dialogue at the fair which is refreshing and the perfect context for our solo presentation of James Turrell.’ – Bill Griffin, of Kayne Griffin Corcoran

‘We have had a thoroughly enjoyable week at Frieze! The fair’s vivacious spirit and forward-looking attitude encourages us to be more playful with our presentations and to offer something a bit different for collectors – this year with our eccentric ‘L’atelier d’artistes’ and Luis Laplace’s beautifully designed booth at Masters. This approach paid off in spades; we placed numerous important works and experienced consistent sales throughout the week, several in excess of a million dollars, by artists including Louise Bourgeois, Cy Twombly and Fausto Melotti, in addition to having built relationships with collectors new to the gallery.’ – Iwan Wirth, President and Co-Founder of Hauser & Wirth

‘Frieze Week brings an incredible energy not just to the art world, but to the city, too. We absolutely thrive in our Mayfair gallery during this time. We see a tremendous increase in visitors making the rounds between the fairs, the galleries, and the museums, and we most certainly appreciate that.’ – Angela Choon, Senior Partner, David Zwirner, London

‘We are always impressed with Frieze’s ability in keeping things fresh and innovative.’ – Philomene Magers, Co-Owner of London’s Sprüth Magers

‘Frieze this year has felt so light and energetic with both its architecture and atmosphere. We’re very happy; we’ve seen everyone we wanted to see, and we’ve made great sales. Something we’ve noticed is the number of fantastic curators - we took part in The Nineties section with Fountain of Youth by Karen Kilimnik. It received a wonderful response - this year has been one of the best for us.’ – Lisa Spellman, Founder and Director of 303 Gallery

‘The fair went extremely smoothly and as soon as the doors opened our booth was buzzing - and it gained in momentum with each day. P.P.O.W. has been showing feminist work for decades, and it felt timely to bring these artists’ works together and to have an international platform to celebrate our artists’ achievements… We were overwhelmed with the positive attention both from people who knew the work, and from those who were encountering it for the very first time.’ – Wendy Olsoff, Co-Founder of P.P.O.W

The Focus section
‘This was our first time participating in the Focus section, and we’ve enjoyed it. There are lot of discoveries to be had here. It’s not at every fair that you feel the need to slow the pace of getting to your own booth down to stop and see others. It’s been a great audience and a great crowd; a lot of institutional contacts to build upon, a lot of press attention and in terms of sales we’ve done well so I’m happy. The visibility of the platform is tremendous. To bring lesser known artists to Frieze where the audience is so large is incomparable.’ - Esperanza Rosales, Founder and Director of VI, VII

‘We have met new people; exciting people  from different regions - from the Middle East, from Russia, from Turkey and South America - and people from different generations. I love the diversity. We’ve sold quite a few editions, and we’re selling every day, so it’s very exciting.’ - Leo Xu, Founder of Leo Xu Projects

‘It’s been a really strong Frieze for us, with strong sales for both our artists, Laura Aldridge and Grace Weaver. Focus looks great this year - people have been willing to take a risk and have brought their best.’ - Kendall Koppe and Emma Astner of Koppe Astner, Glasgow

‘We were so proud to stand for Marguerite Humeau. She gave us the best booth and we were thrilled to place the work with great public and private institutions. It was fruitful and fun!!’ - Olivier Babin, Founder and Director of C L E A R I N G

The Nineties section
‘The general response to the Nineties section has been really good. It gave us the opportunity to show Daniel Pflumm’s work in a new setting. Frieze is strong with its curated sections - with the Live section as well, and with helping young galleries - giving them a chance to be seen. We’re very happy about the positive experience this year.’ - Marie-Christine Molitor, Director of Galerie Neu

'For us it’s the first time exhibiting at Frieze London. We have presented this wonderful project by Sylvie Fleury which has been exciting. We’ve met a couple of collectors that we don’t meet in other fairs, especially London based collectors, and curators as well, so its’ been a good fair. We’ve sold Sylvie’s video work to a European collection and we’re very happy for the artist. It’s been a great fair.' - Galerie Mehdi Chouakri

'The fair was dynamic and The Nineties section a great addition to it. I hope that this special section will return next year. We were happy to see new people coming to the stand as well as long standing clients. I was pleased to sell two Steven Parrino works; one to a new collector and one to a seasoned collector.' - Andrea Caratsch, Founder and Director of Galerie Andrea Caratsch

Frieze London will return to The Regent's Park in October 2017. Follow @friezeartfair on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to keep up with our latest news.