Freeze for Frieze London Show: A Round-Up of the Top Female Artists
The biggest annual event for art is happening soon, so keep an eye out for Frieze. This October from the 12th to the 16th, Frieze London and Frieze Masters will be taking place simultaneously in Regent’s Park. The Frieze London show will feature many different mediums such as: painting, photography, installation, and sculpture. An artist to keep on the radar is Abbas Zahedi, this year’s winner of the Frieze Artist Award. Zahedi’s work, Waiting With {Sonic Support} is an installation consisting of two different sites: a public waiting area and a public support area. Abbas Zahedi takes his inspiration mainly from his interest in borders and looking at how fluid forms can move throughout a system of networks.
Frieze Masters, which is just in walking distance from Frieze London, will feature art ranging from ancient to contemporary. This year the Spotlight section is curated by Camille Morineau and the AWARE team, (Archives of Women Artists) showing 26 different female artists, both established and rising in the art world. Here’s a quick look at what we have seen so far:
Madvhi Parekh
Parekh is a leading artist of India. She is self-taught and has a beautiful array of folk art under her belt. It is stylized in a way that is so unique to her, and captures the melding of times and cultures like in her work The Last Supper.
Madhvi Parekh, Kangaru,1976, 16.5 X 12.0 in. (41.9 X 30.5 cm), courtesy of the Artist and DAG
ORLAN
ORLAN is an internationally renowned artist from France. Orlan is known worldwide for her look that was achieved through plastic surgery for the sake of art, inspired by past works such as Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and François Boucher’s version of the goddess Europa. With portraits akin to those of Cindy Sherman, ORLAN carries a shock factor that adds freshness to today’s contemporary art.
Fahrlenissa Zeid
Fahrlenissa Zeid was a Turkish artist, one of the first women to attend art school in Turkey. Her abstract work is often described as “kaleidoscopic.” But beyond the holy marriage of colors and shapes, Zeid’s work is a meeting point for Byzantine, Persian, Islamic influences from the east, and the amalgamation of European cultures of the west.
FAHRELNISSA ZEID(1901-1991), Adam & Eve, 1968, Oil on canvas, 121x 181cm, courtesy of the Artist and Dirimart
There are so many incredible female artists on display this year. Other names to look out for are Sister Gertrude Morgan, Nike Davies-Okundaye, Sonia Balassanian, Leonor Fini, Mary Corse.