Frieze Masters 2016

Frieze Masters brings together 134 of the world’s leading historical and modern galleries. Encompassing expertly vetted art and antiquities from the ancient era to Old Masters to the late 20th century, the quality and diversity of the 2016 fair is further strengthened through Frieze’s collaborations with leading international curators, including Toby Kamps (The Menil Collection, Houston), Clare Lilley (Yorkshire Sculpture Park), Tim Marlow (Royal Academy of Arts, London) and Sir Norman Rosenthal (independent curator).

Frieze Masters is supported by main sponsor Deutsche Bank for the fifth consecutive year, with Gucci as Associate Sponsor and sponsor of Frieze Masters Talks.

For the first time, the fair will host an independent art advisory service and a Reading Room with hourly events, alongside the celebrated Frieze Masters Talks programme. Coinciding with Frieze London contemporary art fair, as well as Frieze Sculpture Park, the two fairs form the heart of Frieze Week in early October, which includes special programmes mounted by galleries and museums across London.

New Galleries
2016 marks the first participation of leading galleries specializing in ancient art and antiquities such as Phoenix Ancient Art (New York), Kallos Gallery (London) and Rudigier (Munich); with Galerie Chenel (Paris) and Sycomore Ancient Art (Geneva) coming into the main section following their debuts in Collections last year. Old Master experts Koetser Gallery (Zurich) also join the fair, alongside specialists in 20th-century art Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac (Paris) and photography, Kicken Berlin (Berlin).

Innovative Gallery Collaborations
18 international galleries will partner to mount creative and thought-provoking presentations. Collaborating for the first time, Salon 94 (New York) and Bernard de Grunne (Brussels) will juxtapose figurative works by Judy Chicago with African and Oceanic sculptures, to explore representations of the body in a stand designed by leading British architect David Adjaye. Hauser & Wirth and Moretti Fine Art (both London) will come together for the second year, presenting 20th-century icons including Philip Guston and Fausto Melotti alongside Italian masterpieces from the Gothic to the Baroque – in a stand designed and curated by architect Luis Laplace.

Solo Exhibitions & Extraordinary Objects in the Main Section
The fair draws 106 established galleries from around the world to present major solo and group exhibitions. This year’s edition features an increased presence of female modern masters including Anni Albers (Alan Cristea Gallery, London), Paula Rego (Marlborough Fine Art, London) and Susan Rothenberg (Sperone Westwater, New York). Other solo exhibitions include Tony Bevan (Ben Brown Fine Arts, London), Agustin Cardenas (Almine Rech Gallery, Paris), Robert Motherwell (Bernard Jacobson, London), Eduardo Paolozzi (Jonathan Clark Fine Art, London) and Auguste Rodin (Bowman Sculpture, London), ahead of a major exhibition at London’s Courtauld Institute of Art.

Specialist art and antiquity dealers will bring rare presentations of singular pieces, from an Egyptian mummy mask from the 26th Dynasty (Ariadne, New York), to one of the oldest ancient idols extant in Cyladic art (5th millennium B.C), presented by David Ghezelbash Archéologie, Paris, to a previously unknown painting by Annibale Carraci (1560-1609), presented by Lampronti Gallery, London. 

Spotlight: Rare Presentations of 20th-Century Artists
Curated for the first time by Toby Kamps (The Menil Collection, Houston), Spotlight builds on its reputation for thoughtfully designed, museum-quality presentations, revealing foundational movements in art through pioneering 20th-century figures.

The section will feature an international selection of painters, sculptors, and Fibre and Land Artists from India, Western and Eastern Europe as well as the United States, who expanded the scope and reach of feminist ideas. It also includes pioneering works in painting, sculptures, drawing, video and social practices by artists from around the world that add new complexity and interest to the stories of modern and contemporary art. Among the many highlights will be Mrinalini Mukherjee (1949-2015), a key female sculptor from the postwar period who challenged boundaries between art and craft, presented by Jhaveri Contemporary (Mumbai); and little-known bodies of work by international artists and theorists Wolfgang Paalen (1905-1959, with Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco) and Li Yuan-Chia (1929-1994, with Richard Saltoun, London), who used painting and sculpture to reach for new dimensions in visual art and consciousness.

Collections with Sir Norman Rosenthal
Following its acclaimed debut in 2015, the Collections section returns with eight specialist galleries chosen by Sir Norman Rosenthal, who said: ‘These dealers represent an enormous repository of art - each of the selected presentations is a kernel of an idea that could easily develop into significant exhibitions at any of the world's great museums.’

The section features an array of thoughtfully curated presentations of extraordinary historical art and objects of the highest quality: from Suprematist ceramics (Sophia Contemporary Gallery, London) to exquisite items from their collection covering 1,100 years of east Christian art (400-1500) including Russian icons (Axia, London). Simon Theobold’s (London) presentation will explore German Expressionism’s relationship with the ‘Cult of Nature’, while The Gallery of Everything (London) will recreate groundbreaking early exhibits at Jean Dubuffet’s Le Foyer de l’Art Brut; and Jason Jacques Gallery (New York) will present exceptional Art Nouveau ceramics.

The Reading Room
For the first time, visitors are invited to take part in book signings, conversations and events hosted by world-leading cultural publications in the new Reading Room.

Frieze Sculpture Park
Following its celebrated three-month residency in 2015-16, 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 in September.

Installed in a vibrant, lightfilled structure designed by Annabelle Selldorf in The Regent’s Park, the fifth edition of Frieze Masters will take place from 6–9 October, with a new Preview Day on Wednesday 5 October. 

Book your tickets to Frieze Masters now.

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Explore the galleries taking part in Frieze Masters 2016 here.