The Art Newspaper

Royal Academy's chief executive joins new art fair's advisory board

Art13 to bring art of Asia, Middle East and Africa to London

By Melanie Gerlis. Web only
Published online: 31 October 2012

Charles Saumarez Smith. Photo by Mariana Cook

Charles Saumarez Smith, the chief executive of London's Royal Academy of Arts (RA), has joined the advisory board of Art13, a new London fair that is due to open in March 2013.

The RA's chief executive is not the only head of an arts organisation represented on the fair's roster of heavyweight advisers, as the lines continue to blur between institutions and the market. Sunhee Kim, the director of the Daegu Art Museum in South Korea is also on the board.

Saumarez Smith says: "I’m delighted to join the advisory board. I’m impressed with the fair’s commitment to bring art from Asia, the Middle East and Africa to London, reflecting the city’s burgeoning importance within the art world. Such global ambition is also important to the Royal Academy of Arts."

Art13 has been created by the founders of ArtHK: Tim Etchells and Sandy Angus. The new fair's director will be Stephanie Dieckvoss, who managed the Frieze art fair for its first three years. She says the fair will represent art from Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as western Europe and the Americas.

Dieckvoss says that the RA's committment to include Asian-based shows in its programme is one of its “shared interests” with the fair. An exhibition of works by the contemporary Japanese artist Mariko Mori is due to open at the RA in December. The first major show of her work in London for 14 years, "Rebirth" will take place academy's Burlington Gardens space (13 December-17 February 2013).

Art13 will host 120 modern and contemporary galleries and will announce its full list of exhibitors next month. Seventeen galleries from 15 countries will have stands in its London First section for young galleries (which are less than six years old). These include: Ani Molnár Galeria (Budapest), Aranapoveda Gallery (Madrid), Athr Gallery (Jeddah), Brundyn and Gonsalves (Cape Town), Dukan & Hourdequin (Paris), Galerie8 (London), Patrick Heide Contemporary Art (London), IMT Gallery (London), Galerie Martin Kudlek (Cologne), Rahncontemporary (Zurich), Lawrie Shabibi (Dubai), Galerie Tatjana Pieters (Gent), Scaramouche (New York), Temnikova & Kasela Gallery (Tallinn), Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill (Gratz), Gallery Em (Seoul) and Chan Hampe Gallery (Singapore). The advisor for this section is Lisa Le Feuvre, the head of sculpture studies at the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds.