‘Spotlight’ at Frieze Masters 2023: Groundbreaking 20th Century Artists

Spotlight returns to Frieze Masters for 2023, from 11 to 15 October in The Regent’s Park. Directed for the first time by Valerie Cassel Oliver (Sydney and Frances Lewis Family Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts), the section features solo presentations by 20 influential 20th century artists from geographies as broad as Buenos Aires to Bucharest, across a wide range of media. 

In addition to its special focus on underrepresented work, Spotlight reveals new research into overlooked figures and presents significant but unfamiliar pieces by established artists. This year’s edition champions new voices at the fair, with half of the galleries participating Frieze Masters for the first time. Here are some select highlights from the section.

Kate MacGarry devotes its booth to Rose Finn-Kelcey. Coming to prominence in the early 1970s, Finn-Kelcey was at the heart of the UK’s emerging community of Feminist and performance art. Finn-Kelcey’s work often engaged notions of self and identity by staging a conversation between her two selves, addressing the paradox of making public what is intrinsically private.

Standard (Oslo) and Ivan are collaborating on a presentation of Romanian artist Simona Runcan. Marginalised by the artist community and closely watched by the authorities, Runcan's work was rarely exhibited in her lifetime, but she remained devoted to exploring the still life genre through painting, drawing and print. This exhibition centres around Runcan’s series 'The Principles of Equilibrium' (1975–81) and features Runcan’s miniature preparatory installations in wood, straw, cloth and sandbags sewn from silk. 

Kó presents a vibrant span of paintings and sculptures by Ben Enwonwu. Across oil, gouache, wood and bronze, themes recur, including evocations of masquerade, Igbo aesthetics and the exploration of the human form. This selection of works reveals Enwonwu’s profound influence in shaping the visual and conceptual discourse of African modernism.

James Cohan curates a selection sculptures by ceramicist Toshiko Takaezu. Fusing inspiration from Abstract Expressionism with the traditions of East Asia, Takaezu’s vibrant works are suspended between pottery, sculpture and painting. They reveal exceptional control of colour in a medium that is often at the whim of the kiln. 

Susan Inglett Gallery recreates elements of Maren Hassinger’s pivotal installation On Dangerous Ground at LACMA (Los Angeles County Musuem of Art) in 1981. Wire sheaves stand bristling in a cluster in the centre of the booth and are unravelled to Starburst form on the walls. Evoking natural forms with metal, Hassinger opens up questions about order and freedom, which are similarly posed by the installation’s title, suggesting the artist's own relationship to the museum setting as a woman and conceptual artist of colour (Hassinger’s 1981 exhibition marked the first solo presentation of a Black artist at the museum). 

MC Gallery presents a selection of works by Horacio Zabala. At the forefront of conceptual art in Latin America, Zabala’s work exposes the ecological catastrophes and the politicised practices of the military and dictatorial regimes across the 1960s–70s. Although rooted in its local context, Zabala’s practice has far-reaching resonance. 

Cecilia Brunson Projects champions the work of Judith Lauand, renowned as the ‘First Lady of Concretism’ and the sole female member of Grupo Ruptura, who pioneered abstraction in Brazil. This selection of works demonstrates Lauand’s cerebral approach to abstraction alongside her experimentation in figurative pop style. 

Lawrie Shabibi’s presentation of Iraqi artist Mehdi Moutashar features a selection of paintings and ink works across a decade of his practice, 1969–79. Moutashar’s work occupies the intersection of two artistic traditions: the western heritage of geometric abstraction and the Islamic aesthetic tradition of geometric and linear order.

Participating Galleries

Cecilia Brunson Projects, London

Berry Campbell, New York

James Cohan, New York

Galerie Volker Diehl, Berlin

The Gallery of Everything, London

Eric Firestone Gallery, New York, East Hampton

Gajah Gallery, Singapore, Jakarta, Yogyakarta

Susan Inglett Gallery, New York

Ivan, Bucharest

Kisterem, Budapest

kó, Lagos

Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai

Kate MacGarry, London

MC Gallery, Buenos Aires

Nonaka-Hill, Los Angeles

Parrasch Heijnen, Los Angeles

Richard Saltoun Gallery, London, Rome

Sicardi Ayers Bacino, Houston

Standard (Oslo), Oslo

Galleria Federico Vavassori, Milan, with Gianni Piacentino

Frieze London and Frieze Masters take place concurrently from 11–15 October, 2023 in The Regent’s Park, London.

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_{Main Image: Simona Runcan, Legile echilibrului (The Principles of Equilibrium), 1979, mixed media installation, 15 × 60 × 30cm. Courtesy: Standard (Oslo)}