This year, I made it out to the renown Frieze Art Fair 2015 – one of the largest contemporary art fairs out there. Galleries from all parts of the world fly in to participate and showcase a wide variety of modern artwork. With this much hype and press, it should come to no surprise that admission into the event is $44. “Yikes!” is right. (But… if you buy your ticket online as a student, you can get in for $10 without anyone checking your ID. You didn’t hear that from me, though. 😉 )
Anyway, you may have already heard quite a bit of buzz regarding Frieze this year due to the recent publicity surrounding Richard Prince’s work. He had taken screenshots of existing Instagram user’s pictures, enlarged them, added his own photoshopped comment at the bottom and sold them for loads of money. All without the user’s permission.
PC: CNN
The concept of the series, named “New Portraits”, is actually quite ingenious. Instagram has really become the modern-day self portrait. It’s just unfortunate that Richard Prince didn’t request (or, feel the need to request) for permission before selling these works for one reason or another. What do you think? Is it considered stealing if these photos are already public? More press about his work at Frieze Art Fair 2015: CNN, Refinery29, artnet news, theguardian
All scandalous things aside, there is an incredible number of works at the fair. It took my friend and I more than 3 hours to walk through all the galleries. The indoor space has beautiful, soft natural light to illuminate the space and artwork.
There were all sorts of styles, mediums and creativity showcased at each gallery. As with almost all contemporary art, there was a statement to be made in every piece. Some messages were clearer than others.
There was such a wide spectrum of styles using conventional and non-conventional mediums. We even saw a few Warhol pieces made of his own urine (not pictured here).
Some artworks were not what they seemed from an initial glance… like this mesmerizing pattern of branching nerves. Up close, you realized it was comprised of pills in resin.
This picture doesn’t truly capture the optical illusion created by these precisely positioned T-pins.
My favorite part of the Frieze Art Fair was the various projects displayed throughout the floor. Based on his previous Frieze experiences, one artist Korakrit Arunanondchai created a full-body experience of massage chairs out of his characteristic bleached denim as an escape from the Frieze hustle and bustle.
My friend and I challenged ourselves through Aki Sasamoto’s 3D version of a personality test and multiple-choice questionnaire. Confronted by questions and choices, we were led through a maze until we exited through doors with color-coded personalities labeled on the floor. There was a lady greeting us with a button to correspond with our personality types. Is it accurate? I’m not really quite sure… but, it was a fun and interesting social experiment nevertheless. Which of these options would you have chosen?
Check out the Frieze Art Fair next year when it’s back in NYC!