Frieze Art Fair

Frieze Art Fair under construction in Regent's Park, in 2009.

Frieze Art Fair is an international contemporary art fair that takes place every October in London's Regent's Park. The fair is staged by Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, the publishers of frieze magazine. Frieze Art Fair features more than 170 contemporary art galleries, and the fair also includes specially commissioned artists’ projects, a talks programme and an artist-led education schedule.

Since 2014, the magazine has also been running a New York edition, on Randall's Island.

Background

Although staged for the purpose of selling work, the fair has become a cultural entertainment event and out of its 68,000 visitors it has been suggested that 80% attend purely to spectate. The fair also commissions artist projects and holds a programme of talks.

Frieze Art Fair released sales figures following the first three fairs. However, Sharp and Slotover came to regard such results to be misleading and inaccurate, as many sales are completed post-fair, and many galleries choose to keep their sales figures private. From 2006 the fair has not released sales figures.

In 2008, Deutsche Bank was the main sponsor of Frieze Art Fair for the fifth consecutive year.

In 2010, Matthew Slotover, co-founder of the fair, debated whether "art fairs are about money" with Louisa Buck, Matthew Collings, and Jasper Joffe for the motion and against the motion Norman Rosenthal, Richard Wentworth, Matthew Slotover. Joffe claims that his criticisms of Frieze Art Fair led to his work being banned from the fair in 2010.

In May 2011, Slotover and Sharp announced the launch of two new art fairs – Frieze New York, and Frieze Masters.

Since the mid-2000s, auction houses Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips have expanded their mid-season contemporary sales that coincided with Frieze London.

Facts

Frieze Art Fair 2003

• Space hire was £180 per meter.
• The fair's income was £990,000 from 5,500 square meters (2,250 rentable).
• Sales were £20 million.
• There were 124 galleries.
• There were 27,700 visitors.

Frieze Art Fair 2004

• Space hire was £190 per meter.
• The fair's income from galleries was £1.5 million from 8,000 square meters (4,000 rentable).
• Sales were £26 million.
• There were 150 galleries.
• There were 42,000 visitors.
• Public admission price was £12.
• There were over 1,000 gallery applications for places.
• Booths were 24–120 square meters.
• The fair was sponsored by Deutsche Bank AG.
• US galleries included Gagosian, Zach Feuer Gallery Matthew Marks and Barbara Gladstone.
• British galleries included White Cube, Lisson Gallery and Victoria Miro Gallery.
• European galleries included Hauser & Wirth.
• Galleries came from Beijing, Melbourne, Moscow and Auckland.

Frieze Art Fair 2005

• There were 160 galleries.
• 38 exhibitors were American and 35 British.
• Celebrities at the opening included Claudia Schiffer, David Bowie and Alexander McQueen.
• Tracey Emin launched her book Strangeland to coincide with the 2005 fair.

Frieze Art Fair 2006

• The fair was 12–15 October 2006.
• There was a preview for invited guests on 11 October 2006.

Frieze Art Fair 2007

Dog Breeder by Andrew Litten, exhibited during Frieze Art Fair 2007

• The fair was 11–14 October 2007.
• There was a preview for invited guests including Tracey Emin, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Sam Taylor-Wood.

Frieze Art Fair 2008

• The fair was 16–19 October 2008.
• Ticket prices for public entry cost between £15 and £25.
• The fair featured talks by speakers including Carsten Holler, Yoko Ono, and Cosey Fanni Tutti
• The winner of the Cartier Award 2008 was Wilfredo Prieto.

Frieze Art Fair 2009

• The fair was 15–18 October 2009
• Over 1000 artists showcased, 60,000 visitors, 165 galleries from 30 countries
• Curators: Daniel Baumann and Sarah McCrory; the Fair included work by Stephanie Syjuco, Monika Sosnowska, Per Oskar Leu, Ryan Gander, Kim Coleman and Jenny Hogarth
• The sculpture park included work by Paul McCarthy and Vanessa Billy
• The winner of the Cartier Award 2009 was Jordan Wolfson.

Frieze Art Fair 2010

• The fair was 14–17 October 2010
• Frieze Projects was curated by Sarah McCrory with work by Annika Ström, Nick Relph, Shahryar Neshat, Jeffrey Vallance, Spartacus Chetwynd amongst others.
• The sculpture park included work by Jeppe Hein, Slavs and Tatars, Franz West, Hans-Peter Feldmann
• The winner of the Cartier Award 2010 was Simon Fujiwara.

Frieze Art Fair 2011

Frieze Masters' sign, 2014. Held by coincidence near the site of the long gone Master of Regent's Park's house.

• The fair was 13–16 October 2011
• The P.V was on 12 October 2011
• Frieze Projects is curated by Sarah McCrory with work by Bik Van Der Pol, Pierre Huyghe, Christian Jankowski, LuckyPDF, Laure Prouvost, and Cara Tolmie
• The winner of the Emdash Award 2011 was Anahita Razmi.

Frieze Art Fair 2012

• The fair was 11–14 October 2012
• Also the first year for the Frieze Masters and Frieze New York editions.
• Featured 175 leading international contemporary galleries and over 1,000 artists
• Frieze Projects is curated by Sarah McCrory with work by Thomas Bayrle, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, DIS magazine, Grizedale Arts / Yangjiang Group, Joanna Rajkowska.
• The winner of the Emdash Award 2012 was Cécile B. Evans.

Frieze Art Fair 2013

• Held from 17 to 20 october.
• Featuring 152 galleries from 30 countries.
• 70,000 people attended the fair.

Frieze Art Fair 2014

• Held 15-18 october.
• 47,000 visitors
• 162 participating galleries from 25 countries
• Entry tickets cost £30 (£15£ after 5pm) and £60 for the vernissage premium inauguration.

Frieze Art Fair 2015

The fair was on 14 to 17 October.

• 164 galleries from 27 different countries participated.
• 55,000 was the number of visitors this year.

Frieze Sculpture Park

The Frieze Sculpture Park has been curated in 2012 and 2013 by Clare Lilley of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, with historic pieces joining the contemporary collection.

Outset / Frieze Art Fair Fund to benefit the Tate Collection

Main article: Outset Contemporary Art Fund

Outset Contemporary Art Fund was founded by Candida Gertler and Yana Peel in 2003 as a philanthropic organisation dedicated to supporting new art. The charitable foundation focuses on bringing private funding from its supporters and trustees to public museums, galleries, and art projects. In 2003, Outset established the world's first acquisitions fund connected to an art fair. This ongoing collaboration with Tate and Frieze proved to be a cornerstone in the foundation's programme of institutional acquisitions.

With a fund of over £775,000, 72 works by 45 significant international artists have been collected since 2003.

See also

• Frieze (magazine)
• Art Basel
• Art Cologne
• The Armory Show (art fair)

External links

• Official website
• Interview with FRIEZE co-founder Amanda Sharp
• From Frieze to triptych, Financial Times 2011
• New Masters fair should end the classic art Frieze-out, Guardian 2011