7 Impressive Emerging Artists to Watch From the Frieze Week Fairs in London

Walking through aisle after aisle during London’s
Frieze Week, it’s easy for all the art to blur together. But for
those paying close attention, there are plenty of discoveries to be
made.

We scoured the major fairs underway in the UK capital
this week, from Frieze London and Masters to 1-54 and beyond, to
find exciting talents. You may not have heard of them yet—some are
better known in their home countries and are just beginning to gain
international renown—but you will know them soon enough.

We selected artists based on a mix of factors: they
have gained some institutional traction, with inclusion in
biennials or major exhibition; they have some high-profile buyers
and supporters; their work is memorable and distinct; their prices
still have room to grow; and they have that distinctly
unquantifiable, ever-elusive distinction: buzz.

Alteronce
Gumby

Who: The
Bronx-based artist, born in 1985, is showing new abstract works
that transform fragments of colored glass into terrazzo panels that
explore identity and how people rebuild their lives after traumatic
events. Named after jazz compositions, Gumby’s iridescent wall
pieces pack plenty of what auctioneers call wall power. The young
artist brings something new to the party thrown by similar artists,
such as Jack Whitten, Sam Gilliam, and Robert
Rauschenberg.

On View: False Flag at the Sunday Art
Fair 

Based in: New York

Why You Should Pay
Attention: Trained as
a painter, Gumby found his voice in glass. Like Rauschenberg when
he spotted the potential of rubber tires, Gumby’s turning point
came after he saw a smashed bus shelter near his studio in the
Bronx. After earning his MFA at Yale, Gumby undertook a year-long
residency at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris via a summer
residency at the the Camden Arts Centre in London. He has also
hung out at Captiva in Florida on a Rauschenberg fellowship. The
artist Rashid Johnson included Gumby’s work in the 2017 group show
“For Color” and other recent group shows include “Abstract,
Representational, and so forth,” at Gladstone Gallery in New York
this past summer. 

What to Look Out For: The New
York-based False Flag gallery is showing a series of square
terrazzo panels in two sizes. All have romantic titles, many
inspired by classic jazz tracks. The artist’s blue-note piece
Soul Searching (2019) is one of three works that have sold
or are on reserve.

Prices: $12,000 to $13,000

Julien
Creuzet

Tania Pérez Córdova

Who: Córdova, born in
1979, creates sculptures of prosaic objects—like a brass trumpet, a
piece of wire fence, or a glass jar—by casting them, melting them
down, and recasting them in their own molds. The results are
objects that look like echoes or memories of their former selves.
The artist likes to say that she could continue this process
indefinitely—or at least until each object degrades so much that it
disappears. 

On View: Galerie Martin
Janda at Frieze London 

Based in: Mexico
City

Why You Should Pay Attention: Córdova’s career has been on a steep upward
trajectory since 2015, when she was included in the New Museum
Triennial in New York. Since then, she has had solo exhibitions at
the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago in 2017 and the
Kunsthalle Basel last year. Her work has also been acquired by top
patrons including the Colección Cisneros.

What to Look Out For: Like lots of good art, Córdova’s work makes you
look at the world with a bit more care and attention—it makes
things you normally take for granted just strange enough to require
a second glance. Two of her objects—including a worn trumpet she
bought off a man busking in her neighborhood—are on view at Frieze,
offering an opportunity for elegiac reflection amid the sensory
overload of the fair. 

Prices: The works at
Frieze London are priced between €11,300 and €13,600.

Up Next: She will be the
subject of a solo show at the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City next
year, according to her gallery. 

Jacqueline de Jong

Who: Jacqueline de Jong, 80, is one of those artists
who played an important and active role in the European
avant-garde, but whose contributions were largely sidelined in
favor of her more famous male companions. Her work—unabashedly
autobiographical, brash, bright, and figurative—was unfashionable
at the height of Minimalism in the 1960s and ‘70s, but looks
exceedingly forward-thinking and fresh today.

On View: Pippy Houldsworth Gallery at Frieze
Masters

Based in: Amsterdam and the Bourbonnais province of
France

Why You Should Pay Attention: De
Jong won this year’s outstanding merit prize—awarded to a female
artist who has been working for 30 years or more—from the
Paris-based nonprofit AWARE. Her work has been extensively
collected by museums in Europe, including the Moderna Museet, the
Centre Pompidou, and the Stedelijk Museum. She also counts
Texas-based collector Howard Rachofsky as a supporter. But she
remains relatively little known in the United States.

What to Look Out For: The Frieze Masters presentation focuses on de
Jong’s work between 1968—when she produced posters for the student
protest movement in Paris—and 1971, when she was living between
Paris and Amsterdam. During that time, she began to make paintings
on small-scale canvases that were hinged together like suitcases so
they could easily be opened and closed and transported from one
city to another.

Prices: The works at Frieze Masters are priced between
€24,000 to €45,000.

Mary Sibande

Who: The 37-year-old
South African photographer and installation artist makes works
depicting an archetypal Apartheid-era domestic worker named
Sophie.

On View: SMAC Gallery at
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair

Based in: Johannesburg

Why You Should Pay Attention: Sibande is having her first solo exhibition in
the UK, titled “I Came Apart at the Seams,” at Somerset House
in London. It is organized in partnership with the 1-54
Contemporary African Art Fair. Earlier this year, she had a solo
exhibition at the LeRoy Neiman Gallery at the Columbia School of
the Arts. Her work is included in collections including the Zeitz
MOCAA in Cape Town, South Africa, and the Smithsonian in
Washington, DC.

What to Look Out For: Sibande is continuously transforming
representations of Sophie, and each series can be distinguished by
a presiding color.

Prices: The works at 1-54
are priced between £8,000 and £12,000.

Up Next: Her work is on
view at Somerset House until January 5, 2020.

Jeanette
Mundt

Who: Mundt is a 37-year-old artist who creates
tirelessly inventive paintings that overflow with technical
precision while still disarming with grace and humor.

On View: Société at Frieze London

Based in: New York

Why You Should Pay Attention: After showing
with beloved but now-shuttered New York galleries Clifton Benevento
and Off Vendome, Mundt staged solo shows in 2018 at Gavin Brown’s
Enterprise in Harlem and at Bridget Donahue in Chinatown. She also
had a show with her Berlin gallery, Société, that was called “Lana
Del Rey,” and did not appear to have anything to do with the singer
of the same name.

What to Look Out For: She may be best known for
the work that she debuted at the 2019 Whitney Biennial, which
showed Olympic gymnasts in various freeze-frames. At Frieze, her
gallery is showing earlier works, yellow green landscapes from
2014, that are no less stunning.

Prices: Around €30,000

Up Next: Mundt has a show at the Los Angeles
gallery Overduin & Co. that is up until October 26, and will have
her next show at Société in 2020.

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