designboom guide to frieze london and frieze masters 2024
Frieze London is set to return for its 2024 edition from October 9 to 13, bringing with it a bold new design and a refreshed curatorial direction at Frieze Masters. Held in The Regent’s Park, both fairs will emphasize artists and the spirit of discovery. This year, Frieze London will unveil an innovative floor plan designed by A Studio Between, enhancing the visibility of its curated sections, including Artist-to-Artist and the themed section, Smoke. Visitors will also encounter two stands showcasing solo artist presentations, selected annually by the Frieze London committee, ensuring new voices gain increased visibility each year. Meanwhile, at Frieze Masters, a new artist-centered approach will debut, featuring an expanded Studio section and a refined floor plan by Annabelle Selldorf. This design encourages visitors to make connections between objects and artworks from different eras and locations.
From Yayoi Kusama to Olafur Eliasson and Es Delvin, and from Gagosian to Tate Modern and Carpenters Workshop Gallery, designboom is rounding up a curated selection of the most anticipated artists, galleries, and exhibitions, both inside and outside the Frieze London art fair. Read on to see what this year’s edition has in store.
Yoshitomo Nara, Ennui Head, 2020 | image courtesy of Frieze
Frieze Sculpture
Frieze Sculpture (find more here) is on view at The Regent’s Park from September 18 to October 27, running alongside the Frieze London and Frieze Masters. This year’s exhibition brings together 22 prominent international artists from five continents, featuring names such as Leonora Carrington, Theaster Gates, Zanele Muholi, and Yoshitomo Nara. With a particular emphasis on the contributions of women artists, the display highlights the diverse voices shaping contemporary sculpture today.
Curated for the second time by Fatoş Üstek (find more here), the 2024 edition is marked by a bold expansion in both scale and ambition. Üstek’s vision pushes the boundaries of what sculpture can achieve in a public setting by integrating diverse elements like sound, light, performance, painting, video, and augmented reality. Featuring 27 works—18 of which are new—the exhibition is spread throughout The Regent’s Park, inviting viewers to engage with art in unexpected ways. Üstek’s experimental approach explores themes of social and environmental consciousness, conceptual thought, and spiritual practices, creating a cohesive experience that reflects the evolving nature of sculpture in the public realm.
what: Frieze Sculpture
when: 18 September – 27 October 2024
where: The Regent’s Park, London, UK
Céline Condorelli, Tools for Imagination | image courtesy of Céline Condorelli
BMW GROUP CULTURE AT FRIEZE LONDON
In conjunction with Frieze London, BMW (find more here) unveils a new mural titled Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (I am because you are by Esther Mahlangu (find more here) at the Serpentine Galleries (find more here). This year, BMW’s presence at the fair revolves around the artistic contributions of the Ndebele artist who was the first woman to create a BMW Art Car in 1991. Additionally, a new publication featuring a conversation with the artist is presented during Frieze week, ahead of its official release later this autumn. Published by Thames & Hudson and authored by Thomas Girst, Azu Nwagbogu, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, the book offers unique insights into Mahlangu’s work and creative process.
Continuing their longstanding partnership, BMW and Frieze also collaborate to present Frieze Music in London. This initiative, which explores the intersection of music and the arts to foster dynamic dialogues, offers artists the opportunity to create distinctive performances. Originally launched during the first Frieze Los Angeles in 2019, Frieze Music has previously featured an eclectic mix of musicians, including Moses Sumney, Caroline Polachek, Nilüfer Yanya, and Loyle Carner.
what: Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu (I am because you are) by Esther Mahlangu
when: 9 – 13 October 2024
where: Serpentine North Gallery, Hyde Park, London
what: Frieze Music London 2024
when: 10 October 2024
where: The Regent’s Park, London, UK
image courtesy of BMW Group
Serpentine Galleries presents Lauren Halsey: emajendat
Serpentine Galleries (find more here) hosts the first UK exhibition of Lauren Halsey, titled emajndat. Halsey, an artist from South Central Los Angeles, creates sculptures, installations, and environments that reflect the vibrant community and cultural heritage of her hometown. Her work uniquely blends elements such as funk music, Afrofuturism, and ancient Egyptian motifs, engaging with both intellectual histories and the contemporary Black experience. In this exhibition, Halsey expands upon her recent large-scale architectural forms developed for the Met’s Roof Garden and the Venice Biennale. The Serpentine exhibition transforms the gallery space into what the institution describes as an ‘immersive funk garden,’ responding to its location and offering a rich, layered aesthetic experience.
what: Lauren Halsey: emajndat
when: 11 October 2024 – 2 March 2025
where: Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens
Lauren Halsey, land of the sunshine wherever we go II (detail), 2021. courtesy Lauren Halsey | image courtesy of Frieze
Mike Kelley major exhibition at Tate Modern
During Frieze London, Tate Modern (find more here) presents the first major UK exhibition of American artist Mike Kelley (find more here). Spanning his career from the late 1970s to 2012, the exhibition highlights Kelley’s diverse body of work, which includes drawing, collage, performance, found objects, and video. It features some of his most iconic pieces, such as his ‘craft’ sculptures made from textiles and plush toys, as well as complex multimedia installations like Day Is Done. Drawing on references from popular and underground culture, literature, and philosophy, Kelley explores how the roles we play in society are entangled with historical facts and imaginary characters from the films and images we consume.
what: Mike Kelley – Ghost and Spirit
when: 3 October 2024 – 9 March 2025
where: Tate Modern, Bankside, London, UK
image courtesy of Tate Modern
Mire Lee: Open Wound takes over tate’s Turbine Hall
Tate Modern (find more here) also unveils a new large-scale sculptural installation by artist Mire Lee (find more here), transforming the Turbine Hall into a surreal, body-like space that resembles an eerie factory. The installation combines Lee’s fascination with mechanical systems and organic forms, reflecting the building’s industrial past while exploring themes of fragility and decay in contemporary life. This is Lee’s first major UK exhibition and the ninth annual Hyundai Commission, made possible through the partnership between Tate and Hyundai Motor (find more here).
Titled Hyundai Commission: Mire Lee: Open Wound, the installation reimagines the Turbine Hall as a construction site, featuring fabric sculptures resembling membranes or ‘skins’ suspended from the ceiling by 54 metal chains. At the eastern end of the hall, a seven-meter-long turbine hangs from one of the building’s original cranes, which has been specially recommissioned for this project. This motorized device evokes the coal and oil-fired turbines that once powered the Bankside Power Station, Tate Modern’s former identity. By removing parts of the Turbine Hall bridge to reveal its internal structure, Lee draws attention to the building’s industrial heritage, breathing new life into its history.
what: Mire Lee: Open Wound
when: 9 October 2024 – 16 March 2025
where: Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, Bankside, London, UK
Hyundai Commission: Mire Lee: Open Wound, installation View | image © Tate (Lucy Green)
Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers at The National Gallery
The National Gallery (find more here) presents the exhibition Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers, which marks a significant celebration for the institution as it commemorates its 200th birthday and the centenary of its acquisition of Van Gogh’s iconic works, Sunflowers and Van Gogh’s Chair. The show features some of Van Gogh’s most celebrated pieces from the final two years of his life, including loans from private and public collections, such as The Yellow House (1888) and The Bedroom (1889). This is a rare opportunity to experience these masterpieces in person, highlighting Van Gogh’s extraordinary use of paint.
what: Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers
when: 14 September 2024 – 19 January 2025
where: The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, UK
Vincent van Gogh, The Bedroom, 1889. Oil on canvas, 73.6 × 92.3 cm. © The Art Institute of Chicago | image courtesy of Frieze
Gagosian presents Anna Weyant’s first London exhibition
Gagosian (find more here) will present Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolves?, the first London exhibition by Anna Weyant (find more here) opening on October 8, 2024, at the Davies Street gallery. In this new series, Weyant blends autobiographical elements with the symbolic humor and refined technique that characterized her earlier exhibitions in New York and Paris.
Weyant’s meticulously detailed figure paintings and portraits subtly reveal the unease beneath her subjects’ poised appearances, while her still-life compositions transform everyday objects into scenes that feel both surreal and unsettling. The six new paintings in this exhibition continue to explore themes of distance and isolation, creating a reflective and atmospheric mood.
what: Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolves?
when: October 8 – December 20, 2024
where: Gagosian, Davies Street, London
Anna Weyant, Girl in Window, 2024 | image courtesy of Gagosian
George Rouy solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth
George Rouy’s debut solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth London (find more here), titled The Bleed, Part I, showcases new works exploring themes of collective mass, movement, and human existence. The second chapter, The Bleed, Part II, will open at Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles in February 2025. The distinctive style of George Rouy (find more here), featuring human figures marked by desire, alienation, and crisis, addresses the emotional extremes of our time and examines identity in the modern world.
The term ‘the bleed,’ used by Rouy, describes the interaction between figures and their surrounding space, where boundaries blur and merge. His paintings reflect these tensions and harmonies, both between individuals and within groups, creating a dynamic visual narrative.
what: The Bleed, Part I
when: 7 October – 21 December 2024
where: Hauser & Wirth London, 24 Savile Row Offices
