Come see us in London this October

from The Art Newspaper August 2,2010

New satellite fairs want a slice of the Frieze cake

Christie’s to open its first fair in October; East end urban art display and Indie fair “Sunday” hope to fill the gap left by Zoo

By Gareth Harris | Web only
Published online 31 Jul 10 (News)

The man behind Christie’s first art fair, which is set to open during Frieze week in October, has told The Art Newspaper that the auction house “has to be mindful of the trade” in light of the move, adding that “dealers selling primary market contemporary works” will form the basis of the fair. Christie’s international head of prints Richard Lloyd says that the new event at the company’s South Kensington salerooms (“Multiplied”, 15-18 October), will be devoted to contemporary editions of, for instance, prints, photography and sculpture.

“Previous divisions between the primary and secondary market are no longer particularly relevant,” adds Lloyd, who stressed that “there will be no direct competition between participating galleries and Christie’s. Only five to ten per cent of what will be on show at the fair would have come up for sale at a Christie’s auction.”

So what’s in it for Christie’s? “We will benefit simply from people visiting South Kensington. It is now a great space in which to view contemporary art, and we want people to feel comfortable just dropping in to see what’s on,” comments Lloyd. Christie’s contemporary art clients will reportedly receive promotional material about the event.

Thirty-five mainly London-based galleries keen to benefit from the Frieze collector traffic have signed up for the first edition. Admission will be free while stand fees range from £700 to £5,000.

Meanwhile, a new urban art event, Moniker International Art Fair (14-17 October), will open in London’s east end at Village Underground, a vast Victorian warehouse. The fair is the brainchild of Kristophe Hofford, co-owner of the Shoreditch-based art and events space Blackall Studios, and Frankie Shea who runs the arts management and project-based gallery Campbarbossa.

“It’ll be an alternative space to Frieze,” says Vanessa Vainio, a fair spokeswoman. “The event will consist of six international galleries and six project spaces showcasing individual artists that will reflect the finer side of urban art with artists who have shown in major institutions and galleries,” she adds, with participants including New Image Art of Los Angeles and Galleria Patricia Armocida of Milan. “Now seemed like the right time, in light of Zoo [an established Frieze satellite fair] not taking place this year,” say Vainio who declined to reveal the stand charges; admission will be free.

According to the Zoo website, “Zoo Art Enterprises will not be presenting an event in October 2010”. Its absence has also prompted the launch of “Sunday”, a fair for young international galleries to be held in Ambika P3 (14-16 October), a subterranean space at the University of Westminster. Co-organised by London gallery Limoncello, the Tulips & Roses gallery in Brussels and Croy Nielsen gallery in Berlin, “Sunday” is set to include 20 galleries, some of which appeared in Frieze’s 2009 “Frame” section for galleries under six years old, such as Berlin’s Tanya Leighton Gallery.

So is “Sunday”, which initially launched as a one-day event in Berlin earlier this year, a competitor to Frame? “Frame does not have the capacity [to accommodate] all galleries; quite a few good ones did not get in this year,” says Henrikke Nielsen of co-organiser Croy Nielsen Gallery who adds that the “focus in London will be more international, with galleries from New York [On Stellar Rays and Laurel Gitlen]”. Participants, who will pay a set £1,000 stand fee, were selected on an invite-only basis.

The low-cost approach has drawn parallels with the Independent fair held in New York in March during the Armory Show. “There are similarities, such as having open stands, but Independent is a bigger project,” adds Nielsen.