ICA Does... Frieze London 2016

ICA Does… is a bulletin series focusing on the various art fairs where the ICA shows and sells our Artists’ Editions. By shedding light on their particularities—from dates and locations, to missions and overall styles—this series of blog posts by ICA Sales Advisor for Editions Alexandra Olczak will hopefully steer you towards finding the right fairs (and editions) for you.

What is Frieze London?

October marks the unofficial start of art season in London. Thousands of art aficionados, collectors and galleries from across the globe flock to the capital for what has become one of the biggest events in the art world calendar: Frieze Art Fair. Deriving from publishing company Frieze, Frieze Art Fair amorphous presence consists of Frieze London (the largest presentation of contemporary art in the capital), Frieze Masters (its sister fair showcasing Ancient to Modern art pre-2000), the Frieze Sculpture Park (in Regent’s Park) and a series of tours, talks, new artist projects and performances.

How is the ICA participating?

For the sixth year running, the ICA is exhibiting editions from leading contemporary artists alongside our partners in Allied Editions at Booth B22. Allied Editions is a unique artists’ editions collective featuring seven of the capital’s leading arts organisations: Camden Arts Centre, Chisenhale Gallery, South London Gallery, Studio Voltaire, Serpentine Galleries and Whitechapel Gallery. Each year at Frieze London, Allied Editions offers specially-commissioned limited edition artworks by contemporary artists. The editions are donated, with all proceeds going directly back to supporting the organisations’ public exhibitions and education projects; these sales have raised over £500,000 to date.

Frieze London also hosts annual non-profit programmes supporting artists themselves. These include the Frieze Artist Award and Frieze Projects, the latter commissioning site-specific works for the fair. This year, British artist and designer Julie Verhoeven—who generously created two limited edition cushions for the ICA to accompany Julie Verhoeven: Whiskers Between My Legs (9 December 2014 – 18 January 2015)—will be presenting her new Frieze Project The Toilet Attendant… Now Please Wash Your Hands (2016).

What should I look out for?

The ICA will be giving collectors the opportunity to purchase original editions by Korakrit Arunanondchai, Judy Blame, Zhang Ding, Christian Flamm, Alasdair McLellan, Prem Sahib, Tomas Saraceno and Betty Woodman. Recent editions created by artists Cary Kwok and Chris Succo for the ICA’s 70th Anniversary celebrations will also be available, as well as the launch of a brand new edition by New York-based artist Harold Ancart. Don’t forget that Frieze ticket holders will receive a special 5% discount on selected ICA Editions during the fair!

Sounds great! So when and where can I find you?

If you fancy donning your most comfortable fashion trainers and braving the crowds for a cultural day out and an opportunity to collect unique limited editions for a special price, we'll be at Booth B22. See you there! ■