Frieze London came and went again. It was mostly sunny. Frieze London looked better than usual, or rather there were fewer weak points (as Basel shows, consistency counts). Frieze Masters was as good as ever and Frieze Sculpture—a ten minute stroll through Regents Park—was particularly strong.
Looming Brexit doesn’t appear to have changed the visiting collectors but then London is a financial castle in a land of precarious ambitions and doubtful intentions. The art market remains strong because it is inside the citadel.
Yet for all London’s vaunted multi-culturalism, it is so, so odd that there are still only a smattering of galleries from China, surprising, too, given how hard Frieze is working to sell magazines and advertising to China. Sometimes I have the feeling the Western art fairs are only interested in Chinese galleries in Chinese art fairs. No? Am I wrong? Well, expect a better show at fiac and Asia Now in Paris next this month.
ShanghART had a standout solo-presentation of Liang Shaoji (museums everywhere take note: we need to see a major retrospective of Liang Shaoji). BANK (Shanghai) was present at Frieze Masters with a presentation of Maryn Varbanov‘s woven sculptures and Antenna Space brought a series of paintings by Cheng Xinyi.