The Italian luxury fashion house Stone Island will begin offering bursaries to emerging galleries at Frieze art fairs, supporting up to 30% of the stand fees for exhibitors in the Focus section.
"This [multi-year] partnership is a true reflection of Frieze's unwavering commitment to fostering creativity and supporting emerging galleries and artists worldwide,” says Emily Glazebrook, Frieze's commercial director. "Stone Island's generous support will play a crucial role in enhancing the visibility of new voices featured in our Focus section, further spotlighting them, and fostering connections between our global community."
The Focus section features galleries that are 12 years old or younger; it has been running since 2009. The announcement of the partnership comes before the fair’s forthcoming London edition (11-15 October), where 34 galleries from 18 different countries are due to present a solo or dual-artist presentation in the Focus section.
Artist presentations will include those by Larry Achiampong (Copperfield, London), Débora Delmar (Llano, Mexico City), Hamed Maiye (Harlesden High Street) and Jordan Strafer (Heidi, Berlin and Hot Wheels, Athens). This year's section will be advised by Angelina Volk, director of Emalin gallery in London, Piotr Drewko, director of Wschód in Warsaw, and Cédric Fauq, the director of CAPC Musée d’art Contemporain, Bordeaux.
The advisory partners will host an event at Camden’s Koko music venue to celebrate the fair’s 20th anniversary on 12 October, with DJ sets from Haroon Mirza, Andrew Pierre Hart, Mark Leckey and Rabz Lansiquot.
The designer brand will also become the official partner of Frieze 91, the art organisation’s membership scheme.
“Stone Island is built on community and creative energy inspired by research and innovation, characteristics that define the Focus section of Frieze’s art fairs, as well as the Frieze 91 programme”, said Robert Triefus, chief executive of Stone Island, in a press release. “Through this partnership, Stone Island will offer foundational support to some of the world’s most significant emerging galleries and artists for years to come.”
