Frieze London 2018: What You Need To See

This year’s Frieze London has a de facto girl power theme. Start at Social Work, a section dedicated to feminists who bucked the late 20th-Century patriarchy. On display will be everything from Sonia Boyce’s Afro-Caribbean-inspired canvases to the late Helen Chadwick’s provocative, anatomical sculptures. Meanwhile, Pilar Corrias will celebrate its 10th birthday with a display of pieces by noteworthy female artists, including the brilliant up-and-comer Tschabalala Self; the Hollybush Gardens stall will house paintings by 2017 Turner Prize-winner Lubaina Himid; and The Modern Institute will present works by the brilliant Glaswegian artist Cathy Wilkes, who has been chosen to represent the UK at the 2019 Venice Biennale.

If your main goal in visiting Frieze is a 10/10 Instagram post, make a beeline for Focus - the fair’s dedicated section for emerging talent. The 2018 line-up includes Hong Kong-based Wong Ping’s immersive neon works - which call to mind retro video games - as well as Penny Goring’s Amelia Paintings series, whose motifs include “severed heads, sainted selves, plague flowers, shit-storms, broken horses, curse plants, melting trees, and a set of emergency sticks” - naturally. Another key highlight? Uriel Orlow’s Theatrum Botanicum, a giant conceptual herbarium designed to spotlight the plant world’s role in our existence.

This year’s film section hones in on various different manifestations of control. The most interesting contributions? Paul Pfeiffer’s study of the most intense forms of devotion around the world - from rabid teenage fans of Justin Bieber to infamous TV preachers in their American megachurches - and Lucy Raven’s powerful cinematic renderings of volcanic debris, inspired by the fallout from the 1991 eruption of Mountain Pinatubo in the Philippines.

Preview here