Frieze 2015 fair of contemporary art enthralls London.

David Franchi – Wednesday, 21st October 2015.

The 13th London edition of Frieze Fair for contemporary art presented 164 of the world’s leading galleries from 27 countries.

Probably the best ever edition, Frieze Art Fair 2015 offered Sculpture Park, Frieze Talk and Frieze Projects. A new team started its work, with Victoria Siddal becoming responsible for all Frieze events.

For the first time, Frieze Sculpture Park will remain open to visitors for three months, until 17 January 2016. At no cost, the Sculpture Park is located in the English Gardens of Regent’s Park, London. It exhibits 16 works, both new and already seen, by international artist.

For the 2015 edition, Frieze Talks presented a mix of drastic art and promising artists practice. With its usual combination of conversations, lectures and panel discussions, highlights were Cuban activists Tania Bruguera, artist and novelist Douglas Coupland, stylist Vivienne Westwood, and a panel discussion about the affordability for artists who want to live in London chaired by Justin Simons, Head of Culture for the Mayor of London.

Frieze Projects is a non-profit curated programme, supported by LUMA foundation, with additional assistance offered by Arts Council England.

A significant highlight was Frieze Film. It staged works of four artists, including Charles Atlas with Rashaun Mitchell + Silas Riener, Xavier Cha, Gery Georgieva and Thirteen Black Cats. The works proposed expressed a range of approaches contemporary film – making.

For the 2015 edition, Frieze Projects displayed seven new commissions, including ÅYR, Lutz Bacher, castillo/corrales, Thea Djordjadze, Jeremy Herbert, Asad Raza and Rachel Rose.

The latter is also the winner of the 2015 Frieze Artist Award 2015. Based in New York, Rachel Rose is currently on a solo exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery, London. For the Frieze Artist Award 2015, she created a scale -model of the fair structure, with lighting and sound design simulating the fauna of Regent’s Park. Frieze Artist Award calls an artist to create a site – specific artwork at Frieze London. For this year edition, 1200 applications from all over the world have been received.

Another important innovation is the new managing team for the Frieze Fairs. Last month Victoria Siddall was appointed as Director of Frieze London and Frieze New York, in addition of already being Director of Frieze Masters.

London Frieze Fair has seen Joanna Stella –Samicka taking up the position of Artistic Director and managing relationship within Europe, Middle East, Russia and Africa.

The business management group is now composed by Kerry Bishop (COO), Paul Rakker (CFO) and Anna Sterling (Frieze Publishing). Abby Bangser has been appointed as Artistic Director for Americas and Asia.

The winner of the Stand Prize at Frieze London 2015 is Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London. The Stand Prize recognises to an outstanding gallery presentation at Frieze London. Supported for the seventh year by Champagne Pommery, the prize consists in the sum of £10,000.  Five further galleries received Special Commendations from the jury for their presentations: The Approach, London; Experimenter, Kolkata; Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin; Casas Riegner, Bogotá and Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco.

Running in London alongside Frieze Masters 2015, Frieze Art Fair was sponsored by Deutsche Bank for the 12th consecutive year.

The Frieze Art Fair 2015 was at Regent’s Park, London, from 14^th until 17^th October.