Dream like an artist at the Groucho
Anyone in need of some respite from all the fun of the art fair(s) can find an oasis of calm in the surprising setting of the Groucho Club. During Frieze week visitors in need of some shut-eye can book hourly slots (for one person only) in a specially designated Nap Room at the member’s club, as part of a Dreaming Together project curated by Bompas & Parr. As well as doing their own snoozing, guests can immerse themselves in the dreams had by several artists who occupied the same room. The, er, dream team of artist dreamers includes Gavin Turk, Tai Shani, Larry Achiampong and Jamiu Agboke. To further aid dozing, a specially concocted Dream Serum is on offer along with a number of prompt cards encouraging snoozers to write down their own unconscious adventures as part of “a collective dreaming experiment”. Sleep tight!
ST.ART’s project is taking art out of galleries and onto the streets
Wheel-y good gallery skids into town
If you can’t get into Frieze, art can be seen outside the fair on the streets of London thanks to ST.ART Gallery’s Defrost London, a custom-built, fold-out exhibition trailer that is turning the thoroughfares of the capital into a moving art venue. “The idea is simple but ambitious: to take art out of closed rooms and into the everyday, to give young artists a bigger platform, and to hopefully spark a movement of guerrilla gallery making, where the bike can be used for takeovers and future interventions,” says the ST.ART gallery director, Charlie Pannell. New commissions by Cem Hasimi x Baris Kareli, Tom Enoch and Mason Newman will be shown on the nomadic gallery constructed from modular T-slot aluminium. Scheduled stops this week include Somerset House and Bond Street.
Le Salon offers a view of the fair from the barber’s chair
Comb see the fair at 1-54
Fancy a haircut and checking out some customised jackets and T-shirts as well as some art? Or just sitting down and having a chat? Welcoming people to 1-54 art fair at Somerset House is Le Salon: Art of Conversation, a special project by Le Tings (Harris Elliott) x Johnnie Sapong, which describes itself as “a playful and visual celebration of Africa and its diaspora cultures through the lens of street markets and visual ephemera”. During the fair, free coiffure artistry for all hair types is on offer from a rolling roster of stylists who do a great line in conversation as well. What better way to peruse the surrounding wares—which also include tufted carpet portraits and figure studies by Studio Amponsah—than from the vantage of the hallowed barber’s chair?
The artist tells us some reindeer pelts have fertility benefits
Jai Monaghan, Photo © Tate
Watch where you sit at Tate Modern
Máret Ánne Sara’s Turbine Hall installation at Tate Modern invites us to embrace the culture, philosophy and science of her Sámi community, which has reindeer herding at its heart. Just as reindeer are omnipresent in every aspect of Sámi life and culture, so they dominate Sara’s Tate installation, which includes the animals’ skin and bones. Apparently the mere act of physical contact with the furry reindeer hides that cover the seating areas in her installation “can be very beneficial for your health”. But she also informs us that the rarer white pelts are especially valued for their beneficial effects on fertility. Maybe some visitors will be receiving rather more from their Tate trip than they bargained for…
Naked ambition draws a crowd
A series of male nudes in dirty socks are drawing the crowds at Frieze London. The graphic paintings, courtesy of the artist Glen Pudvine, are available with Xxijra Hii gallery, which has hung the trio of works against a mirrored backdrop, prompting a flood of selfies from visitors keen to be pictured next to Pudvine’s lean torso. “The works explore Glen’s crisis of identity,” says Ema O’Donovan, the gallery founder. “He is calling out the wellness industry and how competitive behaviour can be toxic. There is an element of humour to the paintings; Glen is presenting himself as a mere mortal.”
Doig’s Family Values
The Peter Doig family are certainly filling London with sound and vision this week. First off is Peter’s widely acclaimed transformation of the Serpentine Gallery into a House of Music, with his music-inspired paintings accompanied by multifarious melodies emanating from vast vintage speakers. Together with Doig spinning his own discs, other impromptu DJ’s have included Brian Eno turning up to give his new album its first airing and Ed Ruscha putting together a personal playlist that even got Larry Gagosian throwing a few shapes on Sunday afternoon. Key to orchestrating the Serp’s musical makeover has been Doig’s curator wife Parinez Mogadassi, who has also found time to open three further shows across town with her Tramps gallery. Paintings by Behrang Karimi and Merry Alpern’s photographs are now inhabiting the dingy upper rooms of the former McGlynn’s pub, an old-school boozer in King’s Cross which the couple have just purchased; while the Doigmeister was back behind the decks again on Monday night, in Tramps’ other space in Micawber street where more of his vintage kit was offering a sonic backdrop to a show of Hope Atherton’s paintings. Play it again, Pete…