A Guide to the Best London Art Exhibitions During Frieze Week

Courtesy Frieze
Courtesy Frieze

Art & Design Editor

As we fast approach the opening of Frieze London and Frieze Masters, which over the years has spurred new art fairs such as 1-54 and Sunday, here are the best pop-up, experiential and free exhibitions not to miss during the hectic madness known as Frieze Week.

Martine Syms at Sadie Coles

For her second show at Sadie Coles, the young American artist wants to explore performed identities in the digital age by engaging with gallery visitors. But instead of meeting the real Syms, you’ll encounter her interactive avatar, made using advanced VR and motion capture technology. You’ll be able to interact with Syms’ avatar via your mobile phone.

Martine Syms: Grand Calme is at Sadie Coles HQ, 62 Kingly Street, W1B 5QN until 20 October 2018.

Installation view of Martine Syms’s ‘Grande Calme’ at Sadie Coles HQ London

‘Dasha’ at Gagosian Davies Street

Be sure not to miss this show as the work is literally on fire. The Swiss artist Urs Fischer has immortalised his friend and founder of the Garage Museum in Moscow, Dasha Zhukova, in wax form. Over the course of the show’s run, the larger than life candle sculpture will burn until all that is left is a pile of wax drippings. Fischer has been making candle sculptures since the 2000s as a reflection on the transience of life and art.

Urs Fischer: Dasha is at Gagosian 17-19 Davies Street, London, W1k 3DE until 3 November 2018. Free.

Urs Fischer, Dasha, 2018

‘Swiss Passport Office’ at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

For one day only (Friday 5 October) during Frieze week, Swiss Passports will be issued at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac for €20. Remaining open for 24 hours, you’ll be able to secure your – artificial – Swiss citizenship at the American artist Tom Sachs’s Swiss Passport Office installation. As the artist said in a statement: “The Swiss passport is the most prestigious brand name in international identity.” The installation will remain on view until November but no passports will be issued after this date, so make sure you have your Euros at the ready.

Tom Sachs: Swiss Passport Office is at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, 37 Dover Street, London, W1S 4NJ until 10 November 2018. Free.

Swiss Passport Office, Tom Sachs Studio, 2018

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‘Stockholm Calling’ at Asia House

Galleri Magnus Karlsson are taking a different approach to presenting their roster of artists with an art fair context, and for the first time will explore the scope of a pop-up exhibition. For six days the Stockholm-based gallery will take back their autonomy and present a group exhibition of new works by the gallery artists at Asia House in Marylebone.

Stockholm Calling is at Asia House, 63 New Cavendish Street, London W1G 7LP between 2-7 October 2018. Free

Richard Johansson, Sweet Arlen, 2018

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‘Bookmarks’ at The Vinyl Factory

As part of the Bookmarks collaboration that seeks to raise awareness of the Hungarian neo-avant-garde movement and reposition it in the canon of art history, András Szántó curates this show of rarely-seen works by 35 artists who never gained their deserved recognition because they were hidden behind the Iron Curtain.

Bookmarks: Revisiting Hungarian art of the 1960s and 1970s is at The Vinyl Factory, 16-18 Marshall Street, W1F 7BE from 4 to 14 October 2018. Free

Homage to Vera Mukhina, performance with the participation of Julia Klaniczay and Guglielmo Achille Cavellini, Heroes’ Square II, Budapest, May 1980.

Focus Kazakhstan at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station

Situated throughout – and outside – the impressive former power station in Wapping is this presentation of Kazakhstani contemporary art. Through the diverse practices of 32 artists the exhibition explores the recently coined term “post-nomadism” while also reflecting on Soviet predecessors.

Focus Kazakhstan: Post-nomadic Mind is at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station, 37 Wapping Wall, London E1W 3SG until 16 October 2018.

Installation view of ‘Focus Kazakhstan’ at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station

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‘PsychoBarn’ at Royal Academy of Arts

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you, there is a strange house which has taken residence in the Royal Academy’s courtyard. Inspired by the house in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, which in turn was inspired by a painting of a house by Edward Hopper, Cornelia Parker’s sculptural installation Transitional Object: (PsychoBarn) explores the allure of artifice in creative practice and the psychological associations we place on architecture.

Transitional Object: PsychoBarn by Cornelia Parker is at the Courtyard of the Royal Academy, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD until March 2019. Free.

Installation view of ‘Transitional Object (PsychoBarn)’ at the RA

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