Keiichi Tanaami – ‘a weirdly wonderful wow’?

By CHRIS OSBURN [Londonist] – A more subdued fair than in recent years but nonetheless an invigorating opportunity to view what’s what in contemporary art, this year’s Frieze Art Fair ultimately does not fail to inspire…

Highlights? After a thorough meander through, Spartacus Chetwynd’s giant cat bus ode to Hayao Miyazaki, “A Tax Haven Run by Women (in the Style of a Luna Park Game Show)”, more than pleased while Gillian Wearing’s “Me as Warhol in Drag with Scar” (Maureen Paley gallery, London) got an audible ‘huh?’ out of us and Keiichi Tanaami’s ultra vibrant offerings (Nanzuka Underground, Tokyo) were a weirdly wonderful wow of a display. Our favourite piece? Well, leaving a semi-permanent smirk on this reporting Londonista’s face, Marcus Coates’ video installation, “The Plover Wing – A Meeting with the Mayor of Holon, Israel” (Kate MacGarry gallery, London) was as irksome as we suppose great contemporary art should be.

Continued at Londonist

‘F’ for Frieze.

By ADRIAN SEARLE [The Guardian] – I came looking for the House of Pleasure. The pamphlet mentions “erotic carvings and bisexual murals” and the remains of a civilisation so decadent it considered human meat a luxury to die for. It features the skeleton of a dead artist under the floor, a crumbling ancient art market, broken columns, and a promise of instant gratification. It is all a fake – but that’s art fairs for you.

Simon Fujiwara’s fictional Frozen City, of which the House of Pleasure forms part, is made out of distressed, painted polystyrene, fabricated by a company that specialises in making tableaux for museum displays. This ancient, corrupt city is a spoof series of archeological excavations beneath the floor of all the marquees that house the Frieze art fair in London’s Regent’s Park…

At the fair, there are $10 paintings masquerading as million-dollar masterpieces, piles of rubbish pretending to be sculpture, sculptures pretending to be indoor water features, and real painted steel sculptures by Gabriel Kuri that double as ashtrays. It’s like stubbing out a fag on an Anthony Caro. I use mine as a boot-scraper.

What is it about contemporary art? Last year’s good is this year’s bad.

Continued at The Guardian | Guardian special section | More Chronicle & Notices.