Lucy Loves: October
Lucy Loves: October
My ultimate guide to London’s biggest celebration of art and design
Frieze London is back for 2024, bringing with it a slew of exciting new shows, installations and satellite fairs across the city. Navigating the dizzying programme of events can be a daunting task, so this month’s Lucy Loves column is a Frieze Week special. Read on for the 10 essential things to see and do during London’s biggest celebration of art and design. Plus, where to eat, stay, drink & relax. Happy Friezing!
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Frieze London, Frieze Masters & Frieze Sculpture
Returning to Regent’s Park for its 21st edition is Frieze London (9 – 13 October), London’s biggest and most respected contemporary art fair. Of all the things to see, this year’s themed section Smoke looks set to be a highlight. As for booths, look out for Gagosian’s solo presentation of new large-scale works by Carol Bove. Also noteworthy is Timothy Taylor’s solo presentation of large-scale oil paintings by Paul Anthony Smith that reflect on diasporic identity, cultural memory and the landscape.
For a well-earned glass of fizz, book into Maison François. Rested and refuelled, wander across the park to Frieze Masters, via Frieze Sculpture (more on this coming soon) to see works spanning six thousand years of art history. Make tracks for White Cube’s solo booth of new and historical works by Doris Salcedo before scoping out Frankie Rossi Art Projects. Their immesive display provides a glimpse into the studio of the brilliant Frank Auerbach through new and rarely-seen historic works.
Congregation by Es Devlin
Es Devlin has made her name creating large-scale immersive installations that fuse music, language and movement. Her latest project, a large-scale choral installation (above), will be on view at St Mary le Strand between 3rd and 9th October.
The monumental work, which comprises 50 large scale chalk and charcoal portraits, each depicting a Londoner who has experienced forced displacement from their homelands, takes the form of a monumental projection-mapped tiered structure inside the church. Accompanying the installation will be free public choral performances each evening. Find out more here.
1-54
Rolling into Somerset House is the 12th edition of 1-54 (10 – 13 October), Europe’s only art fair dedicated exclusively to contemporary African art. It brings together more than 60 galleries, showcasing the work of over 160 artists hailing from the continent and global diasporas. Works by established names such as Esther Mahlangu and Mous Lamrabat will be shown alongside emerging talents including Freya Bramble-Carter, Layo Bright and Kofi Perr.
Of this year’s special projects, I’m most excited about Zoubida, an interactive installation centred around a giant chess board by the French-Moroccan creative Sophia Kacimi. I’m also keen to see Slawn’s large-scale project titled Transition, which features two life-sized London double-decker buses.
The Warburg Institute
London’s Warburg Institute, one of the world’s leading centres for the study of art and culture, reopens its doors on 1 October following a major transformation led by the Stirling Prize-winning architects Haworth Tompkins. The swanky new space, which features a large auditorium, a centre for special collections and the Institute’s first exhibition gallery, will host a rich programme of public exhibitions and events that will explore the movement of images and culture through time.
Inaugurating the new gallery is Memory & Migration: The Warburg Institute 1926-2024, which charts a series of remarkable moments in the Warburg Institute’s journey from Hamburg to London through a selection of objects in the collection.
Going Once…
Coinciding with Frieze Week are the big-ticket Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art auctions at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips. Offered for sale are important works by some of the leading names of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Degas, Kusama, Koons, Warhol and Hockney. Not planning on bidding… tune in online to see the action. Going once, going twice…sold!
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The new Hyundai Commission for Tate Modern
The unveiling of the Hyundai Commission at Tate Modern (9 October 2024 – 16 March 2025) is one of the most hotly anticipated events of Frieze Week. Following in the footsteps of El Anatsui is Mire Lee, the Korean artist best known for her visceral sculptures exploring notions of selfhood, social acceptability and cleanliness. The details of her new site-specific work for the Turbine Hall are still under wraps, but expectations are high as this will be the first major presentation of her work in the UK. Get yourself to the Southbank sharpish.
Gallery hopping in Mayfair, St James’s & beyond
Frieze Week is when the galleries in Mayfair and St James’s roll out the big guns. At David Zwirner, you’ll find a solo presentation of new paintings by Oscar Murillo, while Hauser & Wirth presents Speedchaser, an exhibition of rare works by Jack Whitten from the 1970s.
On display at Pilar Corrias is a series of new hyper-saturated paintings by Vivien Zhang that explore notions of authenticity and identity through the prism of the natural world. Victoria Miro, which is between Angel and Old Street, is staging an exhibition of new colourful paintings by Brooklyn-based Jules de Balincourt. And then there’s Gagosian. See new paintings by Jonas Wood at the gallery’s Grosvenor Hill outpost before eyeing up Anna Weyant’s first London exhibition at their space in Davies Street.
Sonia Boyce and Lygia Clark at the Whitechapel Gallery
There has been much buzz around Sonia Boyce in recent years — and for good reason. She won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2022 and since then she has enjoyed well-received solo shows at Leeds Art Gallery and Turner Contemporary. In 2024 she was made a Dame. Her new exhibition, An Awkward Relation (Until 12 January 2025), is conceived in dialogue with The I and the You, an exhibition of work by the mid-20th century Brazilian artist Lygia Clark showing at the Whitechapel Gallery concurrently.
An Awkward Relation brings together a number of Boyce’s pivotal and rarely seen works that explore themes of interaction, participation and improvisation – notions which Clark also examines in her experiential and participatory practice. Also on display will be works that explore Boyce's fascination with, and use of, hair since the 1990s.
PAD London
It’s set to be another thrilling October for design enthusiasts, with PAD London (8 — 13 October) popping up in Berkeley Square once again during Frieze. The only fair in the UK exclusively dedicated to 20th-century and contemporary design, it offers everything from mid-century French furniture to contemporary brass coffee tables. Among my favourite exhibitors are Nilufar Gallery, Tristan Hoare and Rose Uniacke.
Where to eat, stay, drink & relax
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