Frieze Art Fair

Frieze Art Fair is an annual contemporary art fair first held in 2003 in London's Regent's Park. Developed by the founders of the contemporary art magazine Frieze, the fair has since expanded to include editions in four cities, in addition to acquiring several other art fairs. Following the original Frieze Art Fair (also referred to as Frieze London), the fair added Frieze Masters (2012), also in London, dedicated to art made before the year 2000; Frieze New York (2012); Frieze Los Angeles (2019); and Frieze Seoul (2022). In 2023, Frieze acquired The Armory Show in New York, and EXPO Chicago.

In 2016, American holding company Endeavor acquired a majority stake in Frieze.

History
Frieze magazine was launched in 1991 by Amanda Sharp, Matthew Slotover, and artist Tom Gidley. The magazine served for a time as an alternative to more established art publications like Artforum, drawing contributors like Hilton Als, Peter Schjeldahl, and Lynne Tillman.

In 2003, Slotover and Sharp parted ways with Gidley and launched Frieze Art Fair. Early editions of the fair saw steady increases in attendance, rising from 27,700 at the first fair to 105,000 in 2016. Frieze has been noted for being among the first art fairs to implement practices like commissioning works from artists and holding artist talks during the fair. Multiple writers have stated that the original Frieze Art Fair helped unite London's art scene, which was gaining in prominence after significant investments in institutions like the Tate Modern. Despite high attendance, it was suggested in 2006 that only 20% of the fair's 68,000 visitors intend to buy work. Frieze stopped self-reporting sales figures in 2006, claiming that the figures were not accurate given that many sales happen in private or following the end of the fair's run. Since the mid-2000s, auction houses like Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips have expanded their mid-season contemporary sales to coincide with Frieze London.

In 2010 Slotover participated in a formal debate at London's Saatchi Gallery with artists including Jasper Joffe, on the subject of whether "art fairs are about money." Joffe claimed that his criticisms of Frieze and Slotover led to his work being banned from the fair that year.

In May 2011, Slotover and Sharp announced the launch of two new art fairs, Frieze New York and Frieze Masters, with their first editions occurring in 2012. Frieze Masters, held concurrently to the original Frieze Art Fair, comprises art made before the year 2000.

In 2016, American talent agency and holding group Endeavor acquired a 70% controlling stake in the Frieze brand, including the magazine and art fairs. Following the acquisition, Slotover and Sharp continued to lead the company until 2020 when Simon Fox, a former media executive at Reach plc, was named CEO, overseeing all publications and fairs.

In 2019, the fair expanded again with the addition of Frieze Los Angeles, followed by Frieze Seoul in 2022. Writers have compared Frieze's presence in Los Angeles and Seoul to its original presence in London, noting the similarities in both cities' art scenes to London's art scene in 2003, as both cities are considered to be rising in importance in the art world.

Frieze acquired two additional, locally grown art fairs in 2023: The Armory Show in New York, and EXPO Chicago. Both fairs will continue to operate under their independent brands.

Fairs

Frieze Art Fair 2003
Space hire was £180 per meter.
The fair's income was £990,000 from 5,500 square meters (2,250 rentable).
Sales were £20 million.
There were 124 galleries.
There were 27,700 visitors.
non-profit programme Frieze Projects initiated with Polly Staple as curator.

Frieze Art Fair 2004
The fair's income from galleries was £1.5 million from 8,000 square meters (4,000 rentable).
Sales were £26 million.
There were 150 galleries.
There were 42,000 visitors.
Public admission price was £12.
There were over 1,000 gallery applications for places.
Booths were 24–120 square meters.
The fair was sponsored by Deutsche Bank AG.
US galleries included Gagosian, Zach Feuer Gallery, Matthew Marks, and Barbara Gladstone.
British galleries included White Cube, Lisson Gallery, and Victoria Miro Gallery.
European galleries included Hauser & Wirth.
Galleries came from Beijing, Melbourne, Moscow and Auckland.

Frieze Art Fair 2005
There were 160 galleries.
38 exhibitors were American and 35 British.
Celebrities at the opening included Claudia Schiffer, David Bowie, and Alexander McQueen.
Tracey Emin launched her book Strangeland to coincide with the 2005 fair.

Frieze Art Fair 2006
October 12–15
There was a preview on 11 October 2006.
Mika Rottenberg won the Cartier Award 2006.

Frieze Art Fair 2007

October 11–14
There was a preview for guests including Tracey Emin, Jake and Dinos Chapman, as well as Sam Taylor-Wood.
Mario Garcia Torres Wins the Cartier Award 2007
Neville Wakefield becomes curator of Frieze Projects

Frieze Art Fair 2008
October 16–19
Ticket prices for public entry cost between £15 and £25.
The fair featured talks by speakers including Carsten Holler, Yoko Ono, and Cosey Fanni Tutti
The winner of the Cartier Award 2008 was Wilfredo Prieto.

Frieze Art Fair 2009
October 5–18
Over 1000 artists showcased, 60,000 visitors, 165 galleries from 30 countries
Curators: Daniel Baumann and Sarah McCrory; the Fair included work by Stephanie Syjuco, Monika Sosnowska, Per Oskar Leu, Ryan Gander, Kim Coleman and Jenny Hogarth
The sculpture park included work by Paul McCarthy and Vanessa Billy
The winner of the Cartier Award 2009 was Jordan Wolfson.

Frieze Art Fair 2010
October 14–17 
Frieze Projects was curated by Sarah McCrory with work by Annika Ström, Nick Relph, Shahryar Neshat, Jeffrey Vallance, Spartacus Chetwynd amongst others.
The sculpture park included work by Jeppe Hein, Slavs and Tatars, Franz West, Hans-Peter Feldmann
The winner of the Cartier Award 2010 was Simon Fujiwara.

Frieze Art Fair 2011

October 13–16
The P.V was on 12 October 2011
Frieze Projects is curated by Sarah McCrory with work by Bik Van Der Pol, Pierre Huyghe, Christian Jankowski, LuckyPDF, Laure Prouvost, and Cara Tolmie
The winner of the Emdash Award 2011 was Anahita Razmi.

Frieze Art Fair 2012
October 11–14 
Also the first year for the Frieze Masters and Frieze New York editions.
Featured 175 leading international contemporary galleries and over 1,000 artists
Frieze Projects is curated by Sarah McCrory with work by Thomas Bayrle, Aslı Çavuşoğlu, DIS, Grizedale Arts / Yangjiang Group, Joanna Rajkowska.
The winner of the Emdash Award 2012 was Cécile B. Evans.

Frieze Art Fair 2013
October 17–20
Featuring 152 galleries from 30 countries. 
70,000 people attended the fair.
Pilvi Takala received the Emdash Award 2013
Nicola Lees becomes Frieze Projects curator

Frieze Art Fair 2014
October 15–18
47,000 visitors
162 participating galleries from 25 countries
Mélanie Matranga won the inaugural Frieze Artist Award 2014

Frieze Art Fair 2015
October 14–17
164 galleries from 27 different countries participated.
55,000 was the number of visitors this year.
Rachel Rose won the Frieze Artist Award 2015

Frieze New York 2016
In 2016, David Horvitz hired a pickpocket to place sculptures in the pockets of attendees of the annual Frieze Art Fair.  This was part of “Frieze Projects” a program of 6 commissioned interactive activities at the fair.  Said Horvitz, “Imagine how much money is concentrated there, among collectors and galleries—and then there’s this person walking around who’s basically a trained thief,”

Frieze Art Fair 2017
October 5–8

Frieze Art Fair 2018
October 4–7
Camden Arts Centre Emerging Artist Prize at Frieze won by Wong Ping

Frieze Art Fair 2019
 Regents Park
 October 3–6
 160 exhibitors from 36 countries
 40,000 square meters

Frieze Los Angeles 2019 

 Inaugural Los Angeles Edition
 February 15–17
 Presented at Paramount Pictures Studios

Frieze New York 2020 

 Cancelled in light of global health concerns regarding COVID-19 (coronavirus)

Frieze Art Fair 2021
Regents Park 
October 13–17
159 exhibitors
 £524 per square meter, £241-£338 per square meter in Focus

Frieze Masters Art Fair 2021
Regents Park
October 13–17
132 exhibitors
 £631 per square meter

Frieze New York 2021
 The Shed Manhattan 
 May 5–9
 64 exhibitors
 Admission $55-$265

Frieze Seoul 2022 

 COEX World Trade Center
 September 2–5
 110 exhibitors

Frieze New York 2023 

 The Shed Manhattan
 May 17–21, 2023
 68 Exhibitors
 Frieze Artadia Prize Introduced
 Winner: Jessica Vaughn

Frieze Sculpture Park
The Frieze Sculpture Park has been curated since 2012 by Clare Lilley of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, with historic pieces joining the contemporary collection.

Outset / Frieze Art Fair Fund to benefit the Tate Collection

Outset Contemporary Art Fund was founded by Candida Gertler and Yana Peel in 2003 as a philanthropic organization dedicated to supporting new art. The charitable foundation focuses on bringing private funding from its supporters and trustees to public museums, galleries, and art projects. In 2003, Outset established the world's first acquisitions fund connected to an art fair. This ongoing collaboration with Tate and Frieze proved to be a cornerstone in the foundation's program of institutional acquisitions.

See also
Frieze (magazine)
The Armory Show (art fair)
EXPO Chicago
Art Basel
Art Cologne

Notes and references

External links

Interview with FRIEZE co-founder Amanda Sharp
From Frieze to triptych, Financial Times 2011
New Masters fair should end the classic art Frieze-out, Guardian 2011
Letter to Panelists presenting at Frieze NY ART FAIR

Endeavor
Festivals in London
Arts festivals in England
Contemporary art fairs
Art fairs