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The picture shows 'LeiXue, Drinking Tea, Galerie Martina Detterer. From Year_07. the artist'.
For those who really do covet a piece of the Frieze action, but just couldn't afford to go home with a Sarah Lucas under their arm, there's the Free Art Fair. From October 8 to 14, 11am-6pm, this alternative fair will take place at 5, 8 and 21 Seymour Place, London W1H.
At the end, all the art will be given away, and you could end up with a piece of work by the same artists who occupy the Saatchi collection. Participating artists include Bob & Roberta Smith, Matthew Collings and Cathy Lomax among many other well known names.
What's behind it? Free Art Fair Founder Jasper Joffe seems to have nothing but altruistic reasons.
"I thought we should do something different from what everyone else is doing at this time of year and non-commercial," he said, "and something that excites people and values art, not selling. This gives anyone the chance to own a serious piece of art."
Will you just end up with a piece of paper with a scribble on? The organisers say no, not unless that's what the artist does anyway.
At Frieze, meanwhile, Jake and Dinos Chapman will doodle on your money for free, probably increasing the value of your fiver by a hefty amount. Bonkers.
The seamier side of the spending frenzy that is Frieze is being examined in the exhibition Decadence, Decay and the Demimonde, at 92 George Street, London W1.
The theme is a questioning of over-indulgence, deliberately set to coincide with the most lucrative moment in the art calendar. Works around the subject of a glamorous demi monde populated by dandies, party girls, celebs in rehab and glossy WAGS will inevitably evoke a sense of futility, but heck, the launch event at swish Home House on Portland Square sounds like a laugh (October 10, by invitation only).
The exhibition features a selection on loan from the Saatchi Galley, including work by Marcus Harvey, best known for his controversial portrait of Myra Hindley comprised of children's handprints. Other works promise seductive imagery that disturbs and pricks the conscience at the same time.
Meanwhile, back in the East End, a show at The Old Truman Brewery proclaims it will reveal the 'New London School'. The Future Can Wait is hailed as the biggest exhibition of its kind, with hundreds of soon-to-be collectable works by the stars of the moment.
The works will all be on sale in a kind of contemporary art hypermarket at the Atlantis Gallery on Brick Lane from October 9 to 14. Names on the bill include Gordon Cheung, Tessa Farmer, Bettina Graf, Sarah Mcginity, Tim Parr, Miho Sato, Dominic Shepherd and Stella Vine.
At County Hall from October 11-14, another huge fair is offering rising new names from the international art scene. Come here for a showcase of art from Japan to Switzerland, the USA to Belgium. Year_07 as it's called, is presented by East London's Keith Talent gallery.
The Royal Academy of Arts stages its own, non-profit making version of Frieze, which has slightly fewer exhibitors. Frieze's younger sibling, Zoo Art Fair, October 12-15, is moving in 2007 from London Zoo (hence the name) to the RA's premises at 6 Burlington Gardens.
The emphasis is on young commercial and non-commercial art organisations – galleries, project spaces, artist collectives, curatorial groups and publications. While it's an international feast, the focus is on home-grown talent.
Lastly, The Fine Art Society, 148 Bond Street, is presenting a selection of works from seven artists, the common thread being that the works are unrealised. The display, Unfinished Symphony, brings together maquettes, drawings, plans, models and notebooks for works that were never completed because of political, logistical, financial or personal reasons, or just sheer idleness. www.24hourmuseum.org.uk
Posted October 10th, 2007 by ruzik_tuzik
