It’s Frieze Week in London, and most of the news we hear out of the mega tents of Regent’s Park is about sagging sales and the uncertainty of the market. No shit. Look around, it’s not like the world is on stable ground. I’m over it. As much as talking about the art market is great for headlines, I want to look, talk about, discuss, enjoy the main thing: the art. There’s is good art in a bad market. There is great art in a moment of global transition that speaks to the moments we are in.
I did what I normally do when the art world descends upon a place for a week (like it will in Paris next week) and just wanted to note the good things to go see. And with The Unibrow currently on newsstands throughout the UK, it feels like a good time to give some attention to the British audience.
You have to be living under a rock to not know that the Kerry James Marshall: The Histories show at the Royal Academy is probably the UK exhibition of the year, so this is a must-see. When the RA does something well, it is done really, really well, and this is no exception to see a living master being masterful. The Nigerian Modernism show at the Tate Modern, Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life at The Courtauld Gallery and Peter Doig’s House of Music at the Serpentine have all been heavily well-received and close enough to the Park that you can catch each.
The best part of an art week are the actual gallery openings and shows available to see (for free). I thought so, anyway. Most galleries prepare all year for this sort of critical and mass attention, and Thomas Dane Gallery has an exhibition of the brilliant Dana Schutz titled, One Big Animal. Rember Yahuarcani at Josh Lilley shows a new series of works from the Peruvian painter, Hauser & Wirth is hosting Nicolas Party’s new series of trees and forests, Victor Man is about Zwirner, and one of my personal favorites, Lenz Geerk, just opened at MASSIMODECARLO. —Evan Pricco
Top image: Victor Man @ David Zwirner, London
