Two weeks of phenomenal openings and art events in London

Frieze Week London, various locations

The arrival of two colossal white tents in Regent’s Park – one housing Frieze London, the other Frieze Masters – usually hails the start of a frenzied autumn art season in the capital. Unsurprisingly, not this year: the coronavirus crisis forced the fairs’ organisers to cancel the physical iterations, replacing them instead with the Frieze Viewing Room. The online platform, which first launched in May for Frieze New York, will bring together presentations of works from over 200 of the world’s leading galleries.

But Frieze Week in London has never been just about the fairs. This year, as in previous years, there will be a brilliant Frieze Week programme of online and live exhibitions and events.

Image credit: Twice as much ain ́t twice as good (dedicated to S. by Assunta Abdel Azim Mohamed, 2018, Ballpoint pen on paper, 50 x 65 cm. Courtesy of Galerie Ernst Hilger

Mayfair Art Weekend

An annual highlight of the art world calendar, Mayfair Art Weekend sees more than 40 galleries and auction houses across Mayfair and St James's throw open their doors to the public to stage a weekend of free art events, exhibitions, tours and talks.

From Old Master paintings to cutting-edge contemporary art, the event celebrates the diverse offering of this historic cultural district – and, what's more, it's completely free. Highlights include the much-loved Gallery HOP!, taking place on Friday 2 October, and an all-new Mayfair Sculpture Trail, available to enjoy for the entire month of October.

María Berrío: Flowered Songs and Broken Currents, Victoria Miro

The Colombian-born, New York-based artist is best known for her intricate, dream-like collages meticulously crafted from layers of Japanese paper. Her large-scale works, as the gallery explains, often reflect on ‘cross-cultural connections and global migration as seen through the prism of her own history.’

Berrío draws on her childhood memories in Colombia, mythology, and contemporary socio-political issues – particularly immigrant experiences and identities – facing America today. Her compositions often feature bold, vibrant colours and figures, usually women, who stare straight at the viewer.

‘We haven’t had a voice,’ Berrío told The Guardian in a recent interview. ‘I feel like it’s my responsibility to shine the light on other Latina women who haven’t had this possibility.’ Her first solo show in the UK is set to do just that.

Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy

Grayson Perry, Chris Ofili and Tracey Emin join unknown hands, rising stars and those famous red dots at the Royal Academy’s long-awaited Summer Exhibition, delayed until the autumn for the first time in its 252-year history due to the coronavirus pandemic. Co-ordinated by Jane and Louise Wilson, the world’s largest open-submission contemporary art show will present around 1,000 works (whittled down from an astonishing 18,000-plus entries) in a range of media – including installation, painting, film, photography and sculpture.

Belong to Cats II by Eileen Cooper, oil on canvas, 51 x 61 cm. © Eileen Cooper RA. Photo: Malcolm Southward

Artists for Biden, David Zwirner

In a rare and unified political statement from the art world, over 100 leading contemporary artists are donating works to Artists for Biden, an online-only sale raising money to support the Democratic presidential candidate, with all proceeds going to the official Biden Victory Fund. The sale features works by some of the biggest names in the business, including Carol Bove, Cecily Brown, Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha and Kehinde Wiley. Hosted by David Zwirner and taking place on the newly launched Platform.art channel, the sale features works priced between $2,500 and $350,000, and hopes to appeal to both deep-pocketed collectors and those just starting out.

London Craft Week, various locations

Landing four months later than usual, London Craft Week is running from 30 September to 10 October, with 250 makers, designers, brands, artists and galleries putting on over 100 events across the city. Expect a plethora of workshops, demonstrations, and exhibitions which engage with a variety of different materials and techniques including wood carving, bronze casting, glassblowing and weaving. Visit the website to get a sense of the extensive offering – which spans shops and hotels as well as traditional exhibition spaces – and all comes together in one big celebration of the sheer pleasure of working with our hands.

Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer, Barbican Gallery

It's impossible to overestimate Michael Clark's impact on British dance. Fresh out of the Royal Ballet School, a ballet graduate of rare elegance with a glorious classical line, he abandoned his first job with Ballet Rambert and chose instead to plunge wholeheartedly into the heady post-punk culture of 80s Britain. This autumn, the Barbican honours the epoch-making career of the dancer and choreographer with a comprehensive exhibition.

Photo: Michael Clark, Because We Must 1987, Sadler's Wells London © Richard Haughton

Paradise Lost exhibition, Kew Gardens

Artist Jan Hendrix's immersive exhibition at Kew Gardens will explore the fragile wonders of Kamay Botany Bay on the southern coast of Australia. Specimens collected by the botanist Joseph Banks and naturalist Daniel Solander are going on display as part of the exhibition, which straddles the line between art and architecture, and is Hendrix's first solo UK show.

Bruce Nauman exhibition, Tate Modern

Provocative, raunchy, uplifting, darkly funny… Bruce Nauman’s work is all of these. His art has also been described as unsettling, even obtuse. Visitors to Tate Modern will be able to draw their own conclusions about Nauman's work this October, with an exhibition showcasing the full range of his 50-year career through more than 40 artworks.

Stephen Friedman Gallery celebrates 25 years

Mayfair’s Stephen Friedman Gallery is celebrating its 25th anniversary this month, with an exhibition showcasing the diversity of the gallery programme and its history. Spanning both gallery spaces, the exhibition is a chance to peruse new and historic works by each of the gallery’s 29 artists, including Mamma Andersson, Yinka Shonibare CBE and David Shrigley. Highlights include a new naturalistic painting by Kehinde Wiley that ‘continues the artist’s investigation into the hierarchies and conventions of classical portraiture’, and a hand-painted series of works made specially for the exhibition by David Shrigley.

Portrait of Yapsa Ndiaye Ndao by Kehinde Wiley, 2020, oil on linen, 211 x 181.2cm. © Kehinde Wiley. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Photo: Ain Cocke.

Artemisia, National Gallery

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654 or later) is one of the most important painters of the Italian baroque and something of a feminist icon. She was a follower of Caravaggio and the first woman to become a member of the Accademia delle Arte di Disegno, a significant achievement in a violently misogynistic period of history.

This autumn, the National Gallery is mounting an exhibition of Gentileschi’s paintings, the first monograph of her work to be staged in the UK. The show’s centrepiece will be her Self Portrait as the martyred Saint Catherine of Alexandria (about 1615-17), acquired by the gallery in 2018 for £3.6 million.

Image credit: Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1654 or later) Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria about 1615-17. © The National Gallery, London

Leila Alaoui: Rite of Passage, Somerset House

Whether documenting the journeys of Syrian refugees fleeing civil war in Lebanon or young North Africans seeking an alternative future in Europe, Leila Alaoui made it her mission to capture the complex identities and resilience of the communities facing hardship. The French-Moroccan photographer, video artist and activist tragically lost her life during a terrorist attack in Burkina Faso in 2016, aged just 33. She’d been in the area reporting on a women’s rights campaign called My Body My Rights for Amnesty International at the time. This autumn, the first major UK retrospective of Alaoui’s work is going on show at Somerset House.

Natreen by Leila Alaoui, 2013. Photo: Fondation Leila Alaoui & GALLERIA CONTINUA

Photo London, online

Photo London, the UK's largest selling exhibition of photography from all over the world, has been given a digital makeover. Swapping its native home of Somerset House for the virtual sphere, the glamorous event – now in its sixth year – has proudly rebranded itself as the world’s first international online photography fair. As well as a chance to shop for prints from a truly global array of photographers, look forward to a digital programme of talks, workshops and live public events, as well as VIP/Collector visits to leading galleries.

Laure Prouvost: Re-dit-en-un-in-learning CENTER

For many of us, 2020’s intense period of lockdown was a time of seriously questioning what we thought we knew about the world. Since then, we’ve learned to introduce a ream of new, surreal rituals into our lives – from wearing masks to applying hand sanitiser each time we step inside a building. Bottling up the sentiment of 're-learning' behind these experiences is the French Turner Prize-winning artist Laure Prouvost, whose first solo show in London since 2017 opens at the Lisson Gallery this October.

Prouvost has transformed the gallery spaces at 67 Lisson Street into an immersive educational environment, inviting visitors to ‘de-learn or un-learn what they have forgotten they already know, and to newly acquire – or re-learn – a language of her own devising’. Not for the unimaginative, the experience requires its visitors to become something else – a goat or a piece of wood – as they work on reconditioning their relationship with memories, textures and smells.