Flanking the entrance to Thaddaeus Ropac’s stand at this year’s Frieze London are two towering, rhythmic paintings of nightclub scenes by the gallery’s newest signing, Denzil Forrester. Nearby, Victoria Miro’s booth also foregrounds a newly represented artist with two luminous still-lifes by Clare Woods. All four paintings sold in the first hours of the fair.
Forrester, Woods and dozens of other artists found themselves blindsided at the start of the year when Stephen Friedman, their London gallery, closed suddenly. Before the gallery went into administration in February, it represented 39 artists and estates. The Art Newspaper later reported that the gallery owed a total of £7.8m to creditors, including more than £800,000 to artists.
This week, during the first edition of Frieze London since the gallery’s sudden dissolution, many members of Friedman’s diaspora will be refinding their feet without their old London gallery. Josh Lilley’s stand features four sculptures by Holly Hendry, of whom the gallery announced its representation at the beginning of this week. Elsewhere, Sarah Ball—who has been represented by Pilar Corrias since last month—is showing new paintings in her new gallery’s viewing room. Last year work from Ball’s solo stand at Frieze London with Friedman was selected for the Arts Council Frieze Acquisitions Fund.
Frieze London is among these artists’ first outings with their respective new dealers. Having been stung by the sharp end of the unpredictable gallery world, and after Friedman’s closure being taken by many as an indicator of an ailing market, many of them are now keen to look to the future.
“While it was tough to experience the closure of Stephen Friedman, I’ve had the most incredible experience to start a new chapter with Victoria Miro,” Woods tells The Art Newspaper. The gallery’s president Glenn Scott Wright says, “It felt like a natural progression after following her work for several years to bring her into the gallery fold,” adding that “our collectors have welcomed her just as avidly”. Woods’s work sold out both at Frieze London today and at the Armory Show in New York last month. Her first solo exhibition with Victoria Miro will open in February next year.
Forrester hits the spot for Ropac
“It feels very appropriate that our first time showing Denzil’s work now that we are working with him should be in London,” says the gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac, describing the artist’s paintings as “among the most enthralling and distinctive of his generation”. Both of Forrester’s paintings, which sold for £175,000 apiece within the fair’s first hour, went to collectors who were introduced to his work for the first time.
Denzil Forrester joined Thaddaeus Ropac after Stephen Friedman Gallery closed David Owens
Forrester, who will open an exhibition with the gallery next June, had reportedly been courted by several galleries before settling on Ropac following advice from Peter Doig. He bears no ill will towards Friedman, telling The Art Newspaper that Friedman “did a lot of good for me, but I’m in the right place now”.
Not all former Stephen Friedman artists have taken on new representation this year; some continue to find success with their existing galleries. Paintings by Caroline Walker, for example, are on show at Frieze with both Grimm Gallery and Ingleby Gallery, with whom she has been showing since 2018 and 2020 respectively. Others, including Andreas Eriksson and Claire Barclay, appear to have no UK representation at present.
A number of artists from Friedman’s former roster declined to comment on gallery dynamics, anxious to stop an art market narrative from dominating the discourse around their work. Indeed, the green shoots emerging after Friedman’s closure also serve as a reminder of the ripple effect after galleries close.
