Eight UK artists reveal what they're showing at Frieze London — SkimNews
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- Kira Freije (41) is showing wall-based 'gesture works' cast in aluminium and bronze, one incorporating fabric, that she says 'allude to a crowd'; her career highlight is her exhibition at the Hepworth Wakefield.
- Mohammed Z Rahman (29), a self-taught figurative painter, is exhibiting a sculpture built from painted shipping crates inspired by Frieze 2023, decorated with fish imagery drawn from Bangladesh's kheta folk stitching; he appeared at this year's Venice Biennale after curator Koyo Kouoh's death.
- Jake Grewal (32) is showing a large charcoal drawing of two adolescent figures in a forest scene, with the artist describing his practice as exploring genderless, anthropomorphic figures with 'a queer undertone'.
- Alvaro Barrington (43) is exhibiting a hip-hop-influenced head portrait, naming Tupac as both his favourite dead and living artist and framing his life in four chapters titled after Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Audre Lorde, and Biggie Smalls.
- Louise Giovanelli (32) is unveiling 'Cathexis' — her first fusion of two series — depicting a face projected onto a glitter curtain; her 2024 show originated at Hepworth Wakefield before touring to Graz and Munich's Museum Villa Stuck.
- Shaqúelle Whyte (26) is selling 'Gulliver's Forrest' and 'Miss Mammy' and says he will be the youngest person ever to hold a solo show at South London Gallery; he confirmed rapper Stormzy has recently visited his studio.
- Poppy Jones (41) works at intimate scale, cutting canvases from clothing materials and even her own garments, with conceptual plays between textile subjects and surfaces — pointing to eBay as a potential future cultural archive.
Why it matters: By spotlighting eight UK-based artists in their own words — from Freije's crowd-alluding bronzes to Whyte's youngest-ever South London Gallery solo — the piece maps the commercial centre of gravity at Frieze London, where the eight featured names are simultaneously being marketed to collectors and positioned for institutional careers.
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