Frieze 2022

What did we find at Frieze 2022, here are our top picks for this year’s art fair.

Blue-Chip Work

Often known for his extensive studio team and hands-off approach, Veil of Dreaming by Hirst demonstrates the artist’s appreciation for unique artwork. Despite preconceptions that Hirst never creates art himself, his Veil Paintings prove that he continues to execute one-off originals that are painted by him, and him alone. Exploding with colour and thick with paint, the large-scale canvas demonstrates the artist’s aptitude for impactful mark-making.

Work By A Rising Star

Flora Yukhnovich, Fantasia, 2019 (Victoria Miro)

Inspired by a Venetian fresco, Fantasia is an abstract painting by rising star Flora Yukhnovich. In 2021, the British painter caught the art world’s attention when her third ever work to go to auction went under the hammer at Phillips for $1.2 million. Her Rococo inspired artworks have led her to become one of the most rapidly rising stars of the art market, and her painterly canvas shown at Victoria Miro’s booth explains why.

Work By An Emerging Artist

Michael Ho, Und alles rund vergisst, 2022 (Gallery Vacancy)

Featured as part of a solo presentation, Und alles rund vergisst is a striking near monochromatic oil and acrylic on canvas painting that depicts three figures with their backs facing the viewer. Part of Michael Ho’s project, Tryst, at Gallery Vacancy’s booth, the work forms part of a larger narrative that examines Yellow Peril, the thought there is a political threat being posed by the people of southeast Asia as an existential danger to Western existence. Ho’s paintings all feature Dr. Fu Manchu, a supervillain cartoon character. Although the character is always present, he is only ever partially revealed alluding to the mystified perception of racial thought in contemporary history.

Female Artist

Jennifer Carvalho (Helen Anrather)

Referencing antiquity and the Renaissance, Jennifer Carvalho creates small oil paintings that connect contemporary crises to historical narratives. Executed in muted tones with a limited palette, her paintings are at once seemingly ancient and yet contemporary in composition. Her work plays upon the theory of hauntology, a term coined by Jacques Derrida used to describe the philosophy that the ghosts of the past are unknowable while remaining paradoxically present.

Male Artist

Didier William (James Fuentes)

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1983, Didier William’s practice is inspired by Haitian history and mythology, as well as his personal biography. His large-scale paintings depict androgynous figures that aim to challenge pre-conceived notions of gender and race. Adorning their bodies with eyes, his work returns the viewers’ gaze, with the confrontational stare forcing us to acknowledge how we perceive identity.

Sculpture

Jeffrey Gibson, Stars In Their Eyes, 2022 (Stephen Friedman)

Created from abalone, crystals and glass beads, Jefferey Gibson’s sculpture Stars In Their Eyes is as hypnotic as it is colourful. Situated in the Stephen Friedman booth amongst bright patterned wallpaper and other mixed-media works by Gibson, the solo presentation marked the artist’s first show with the gallery. In his practice, Gibson fuses traditional techniques from Choctaw-Cherokee artisanal handcraft with references from fashion, queer theory and club culture to create vibrant works that celebrate historically marginalised identities.