Autumn is in the air in London, and the city is buzzing with cultural activity. After a year's absence, sister fairs Frieze London and Frieze Masters return to Regent's Park. We select a handful of favourites from the former, where over 150 galleries will present contemporary art from across the globe between 13 and 17 October 2021.
Chris Ofili at Victoria Miro
Afternoon with La Soufrière (prelude 2) is one of eight watercolour and pastel works on paper by Chris Ofili showing with Victoria Miro at their floral-themed Frieze London presentation.
A student at Chelsea School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London in the 1990s, Ofili has since curated his signature style around religious iconography, jazz and hip hop, African cave paintings, among other diverse sources as a means of exploring identity and representation.
This exquisite group of small-scale watercolour works detailed in pastel, gold leaf, ink, and charcoal depicting figures in whimsical settings are wonderful examples of Ofili's multifaceted work.
Danielle Mckinney at Night Gallery
Born in 1981 in Montgomery, Alabama, Danielle Mckinney graduated with an MFA in Photography from the Parsons School of Design before settling in New Jersey.
For the past 20 years, photography has been Mckinney's primary creative outlet. However, lockdown encouraged her to put her camera on hold in favour of painting, which she has kept up throughout her artistic career.
Having had her first solo exhibition at Night Gallery in the summer, the gallery will be showing two paintings by the artist in their Frieze presentation. Both produced in 2021, the works capture intimate moments of self-reflection tinged with colourful hues.
William Kentridge at Goodman Gallery
Born in Johannesburg in 1955, William Kentridge's drawings, prints, sculptures, and paintings tackle issues surrounding the socio-political conditions in post-apartheid Africa.
Showing with Goodman Gallery, Action (2018) is a free-standing bronze sculpture that forms part of Kentridge's 'Lexicon' series.
Having started off as ink drawings and cut-outs, the series comprises a group of elemental symbols, or glyphs, which can be arranged and rearranged at will, allowing a multitude of memories and influences of different cultures and periods to interact.
Simone Leigh at Hauser & Wirth
Incorporating raffia and ceramic torsos, Simone Leigh's latest body of work continues the artist's 'auto-ethnographic' approach to explore the subjective experiences of female-identifying Black women.
The artist's 'Village' series can be found at Hauser & Wirth's Zurich space, marking her debut solo exhibition with the gallery and first major show in Switzerland.
In 2022, Leigh will be the first Black woman to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale.
David Hammons at White Cube
David Hammons' acclaimed 'body prints', which involved the artist pressing greased body parts to large sheets of paper before dusting them with powder pigments, earned him the reputation as one of the most influential post-war American artists of his time.
Speaking on Hammons' body prints ahead of his exhibition at The Drawing Center in New York earlier this year, Ocula Advisory's Rory Mitchell explained that 'Hammons has an eye for powerful compositions, but a restrained, almost magical delicacy still permeates these images'.
Nearly 30 works by the artist are currently on view at the Bourse de Commerce Pinault Collection, Paris, until 31 December, before his solo exhibition at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt opens next year.
Nicolas Party at The Modern Institute
Nicolas Party has gone from strength to strength in recent years, with 2021 institutional shows including Le Consortium, MASI Lugano, and his site-specific installation Draw the Curtain (2021) wrapping around the iconic cylindrical exterior of the Hirshhorn Museum.
In place of his characteristically colour-saturated paintings and sculptures, The Modern Institute presents this small-scale black and white mezzotint work featuring his familiar dreamlike landscapes, executed in extraordinary precision and detail.
Having originated in the 17th century, mezzotint enables soft gradations of black and white tone.
Isamu Noguchi at White Cube
Recognised as one of the most critically acclaimed sculptors of the 20th century, Isamu Noguchi's designs were inspired by his extensive travels around Mexico, China, and Italy, among others, before heading back to his studios in both Japan and New York.
Combining Japanese crafts with industrial materials, Noguchi is celebrated for his pioneering approach to exploring the spatial and kinetic possibilities of the materials he works with.
Alongside Magritte's Stone, Noguchi's warped steel and red-painted Play Sculpture is on show in Regent's Park for White Cube's presentation for Frieze Sculpture. The artist's oeuvre is also being traced in a retrospective now on view at the Barbican.
Yuichi Hirako at Gallery Baton
Japanese-born Yuichi Hirako received his BFA in Painting from London's Wimbledon College of Art before moving back to Tokyo where he now lives and works.
Portrayed in fantastical settings inhabited by fictional half-human, half-tree characters, Hirako's paintings reconsider the coexistence of nature and humans in modern society.
Speaking on the eve of Hirako's debut solo show at Gallery Baton in the summer, Ocula Advisory's Rory Mitchell explained that the paintings 'call to mind some other market stars such as Jonas Wood and more recently, Hilary Pecis, but Hirako's work feels less refined and more energetic. Expect the queue for Hirako's work to lengthen over the next few months'.
Mohammed Sami at Modern Art
Mohammed Sami's striking ability to portray light makes works such as Refugee Camp all the more transfixing. The artist's autobiographical paintings detail the conflict and violence he recalls from growing up in Iraq.
Studying drawing and painting at The Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad, he went on to complete an MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London. Today, he splits his time between London and Sweden.
A number of his works are currently on view in Mixing It Up: Painting Today at London's Hayward Gallery.
Justin Caguiat at Modern Art
Based between New York and Oakland, California, Justin Caguiat creates dreamlike pools of colour, which teeter between abstraction and figuration.
As noted in Ocula Magazine ahead of his solo exhibition at Modern Art last year, 'In the absence of figuration, mental imagery comes into play . . . inviting viewers to bask in dreamlike canvases whose scale and dusky tones approximates them to frescoes.'
Looking ahead, a solo exhibition of the artist's work will be on view at the New York-based gallery Greene Naftali in September 2022.
John Chamberlain at Hauser & Wirth
Born in Rochester, Indiana, in 1927, John Chamberlain enrolled at the The Art Institute of Chicago and the renowned Black Mountain College of North Carolina, following his service in the navy during World War II.
Twisted, folded and crushed, Chamberlain's three-dimensional structures are sculptural embodiments of Abstract Expressionism.
Chamberlain's six-decade career is currently highlighted in Stance, Rhythm, and Tilt at Gagosian's West 21st Street space in New York until 11 December 2021.
Main image: Danielle Mckinney, Spare Room (2021). Acrylic on canvas. 61.3 x 45.7 cm. Courtesy the artist and Night Gallery, Los Angeles. Photo: Peter Kaiser.
