Six Must-See Solo Shows at Frieze London 2024

Redesigned for 2024, Frieze London positions solo presentations and curated sections at its heart. Galleries showcase the careers of established and experimental artists, enabling visitors to the fair to encounter the latest directions of their practices. 

Featuring Carol Bove’s monumental steel sculptures, tender works in glass and paint by Leiko Ikemura, Charles Gaines’s return to his iconic ‘Shadows’ series, Dawn Ng’s innovative use of frozen pigment, Danielle Dean’s reflection on hope and urban development, and live painting sessions from Billy Childish, this year’s edition of Frieze London celebrates diverse and radical perspectives.

Carol Bove at Gagosian (D12)

Carol Bove transforms Gagosian’s space into a forest of nine towering steel sculptures. Reprising her use of square profile stainless steel tubes, Bove introduces crumpled forms, rendered in lavender and yellow, set into clustered fragments of raw steel. For the past two decades, the interdependence of an artwork and its context has been at the core of Bove’s practice. In these new sculptures, Bove works with both treated and untreated materials, allowing each sculpture to evolve according to its environment and the season.

Danielle Dean at 47 Canal (A15)

Danielle Dean reflects on her experience growing up as one of few Black children in Hemel Hempstead in the 1980s. In new watercolours for Frieze London, Dean charts the evolution of Hemel Hempstead from medieval village to monument of Postwar social housing to industrial hub, haunted by racism and neglected by post-Brexit austerity. Dean imagines 47 Canal’s space as a blend of an antiques shop and mid-century show home, drawing audiences into a comparison of the promises and delusions of futures past. 

Billy Childish at Lehmann Maupin (C13)

Across prose, poetry, photography and punk music, Billy Childish candidly addresses themes of protest, addiction and his turbulent childhood. Describing himself as a ‘radical traditionalist’, Childish’s paintings reveal a subtler side to the artist. Working quickly and intuitively in oil paint, Childish captures the landscapes of South East England, his family, self-portraits, film scenes and dreams. Presenting Childish’s latest paintings, Lehmann Maupin also offers the opportunity to see the artist at work, with live painting sessions at the gallery’s stand throughout the fair.

Leiko Ikemura at Lisson Gallery (D1)

Lisson Gallery announces its representation of Berlin-based artist Leiko Ikemura with a solo show at Frieze London comprising new glass and bronze sculptures and tempera paintings. Reflecting on cross-culturalism, the feminine experience, resilience and renewal, Ikemura’s introspective approach imbues her subjects and materials with an ethereal quality. 

Charles Gaines at Hauser & Wirth (D18)

For Frieze London, Charles Gaines returns to his ‘Shadows’ series (1978–) for the first time since the 1980s. In his new works, Gaines depicts different species of plants and their shadows, creating ‘sets’, which consist of a photograph, ink drawing and a watercolour. Between sets, Gaines rotates and plots the plant and its shadow on a numbered grid. Using this strict but arbitrary formula, Gaines questions how we participate in the construction of an ordinary object.

Dawn Ng at Kate MacGarry (A9)

‘How do you hold time in a residue?’ asks Dawn Ng. Over the course of a month, the Singaporean artist assembles frozen pigments in her studio, layering them into near-geological stratifications of colour. From the resultant 60-kilogram frozen blocks, Ng makes photographs, films and finally, as the blocks melt, residue paintings. Working with the material’s ephemerality, Ng seeks to ‘catch’ and ‘keep’ time through her processes. Kate MacGarry’s solo show features Ng’s new works, including her paintings on wood, the latest development in her practice. 

Further Information

Frieze London and Frieze Masters, 9 – 13 October 2024, The Regent’s Park.

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^{Main Image: Danielle Dean, production still from Hemel, 2024. Courtesy: the artist and 47 Canal, New York}