Frieze Sculpture 2021

About

Listen to Clare Lilley's audio guide here

Curated for the ninth year by Clare Lilley (Director of Programme at Yorkshire Sculpture Park), the 2021 edition features Rasheed Araeen, Daniel Arsham, Anthony Caro, Gisela Colón, José Pedro Croft, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Stoyan Dechev, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Divya Mehra, Annie Morris, Isamu Noguchi, Jorge Otero-Pailos, Solange Pessoa, Vanessa da Silva, Tatiana Wolska, Rose Wylie and Yunizar. In addition, Serpentine will present Sumayya Vally, Counterspace, marking the first time a public institution has participated in Frieze Sculpture.

This year’s selection of works addresses themes including architecture, geopolitical power structures and environmental concern.

Jorge Otero-Pailos’ Biosignature Preservation and Isamu Noguchi’s Play Sculpture pertain to civic navigation, while sculptures by Ibrahim El-Salahi, Vanessa da Silva, Divya Mehra and Counterspace centre on issues related to displacement.

Daniel Arsham’s Unearthed Bronze Eroded Melpomene presents remnants of a post-apocalyptic fictional archaeology and Stoyan Dechev’s Event Horizon calls on a mythical past to speak of an endangered future, while a sense of the personal-primordial is evident in Yunizar’s Induk Monster (Mother Monster) and the soapstone sculptures from Solange Pessoa’s Skull series.

Tatiana Wolska and Ibrahim El-Salahi touch on concerns relating to nature and the environment.

The exhibition will also foreground colour, with sculptures by Rose Wylie, José Pedro Croft and Carlos Cruz-Diez, alongside works by Rasheed Araeen, Gisela Colón and Annie Morris that extend minimal and abstract sculptural vocabularies.

Each Frieze Sculpture installation brings such a different picture of sculptural practice and it’s heartening that this year is especially global, including artists who herald from South America, South and North Africa, Indonesia, Pakistan, the USA and Canada, and from across Europe. Although the artists span three generations, I see exciting sculptural conversations across time and geography and while many sculptures here relate to social and environmental concerns, there is much heightened colour and dextrous handling of material, resulting in an overall sense that is celebratory. As we learn to live with the pandemic and emerge into public spaces, Frieze Sculpture 2021 allows people to come together in safety and with pleasure and is a tonic for the mind, body and soul – Clare Lilley, Curator of Frieze Scuplture

For the fourth consecutive year, Mtec continue their support of young galleries and emerging artists by offering a bursary to put towards their participation in Frieze Sculpture. The 2021 Mtec Bursary has been awarded to l’étrangère and Irène Laub, presenting Untitled (module 1 and 2), 2019, by Tatiana Wolska.

Frieze Sculpture coincides with Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2021, and will have a virtual presence on the Frieze London and Frieze Masters Viewing Room, 13–17 October, 2021.