Frieze London and Frieze Masters opened on Wednesday (Oct. 14) at a slower, reset-era pace that has by now become familiar at fairs around the world. Even so, the aisles of both the contemporary fair and its sister show grew steadily busier as the day went on. After years of covering the fairs, Observer decided to start the day at Frieze Masters, and we weren’t the only ones. Mid-day, when moving between the tents, we overheard two prominent American collectors who’d structured their day similarly discussing the desire for genuine scarcity—the kind that makes an acquisition feel truly unique, like an opportunity not to be missed, as opposed to the artificially manufactured demand that has oftentimes fueled the contemporary market boom.
Frieze Masters hosted more than 140 galleries this year, with booths offering a journey through centuries of human creation, from antiquity to modernism. Its narrative grows broader and more diverse each year, inviting a multiperspectival reading of art history across geographies and long-overlooked viewpoints, with greater attention to mystical, queer, self-taught and Indigenous expressions long excluded from the canon. The result is a chance to reconsider these traditions not as isolated or marginal developments but as expressions of human creativity evolving in parallel across borders and time.
[...] Making its Frieze Masters debut, Andrew Edlin Gallery pairs work by two long-overlooked figures: Antiguan painter Frank Walter (1926-2009) and American sculptor Beverly Buchanan (1940-2015), both enjoying growing institutional and commercial recognition. Walter’s vivid, intimate depictions of Caribbean landscapes and everyday life have drawn increasing attention since his work appeared at the 2017 Venice Biennale, and an exhibition at David Zwirner in Los Angeles, opening Nov. 13, should further build momentum. His works were priced between $20,000 and $370,000. Buchanan’s humble shacks and assemblages become powerful repositories of memory, preserving the often-overlooked histories of Black communities in the American South and translating experiences of displacement and resilience through vernacular architecture. Following her inclusion in this year’s Venice Biennale, she is the subject of her first European survey, “Weathering,” at Spike Island in Bristol and will feature in the upcoming exhibition “Hard Art” at MoMA PS1. Her works are priced between $70,000 and $125,000, and several sold on opening day.
- Elisa Carollo