With help from Lubaina Himid, Glenn Ligon and more, Frieze’s Artist-to-Artist initiative is supporting new talent

When on the lookout for rising artists making extraordinary work, there may be usually no higher place to start out than with the opinions of different extra established artists. Frieze found this final 12 months by the success of its Artist-to-Artist initiative, which noticed six famend inventive figures, together with Tracey Emin and Simone Leigh, nominate the following technology of expertise for solo exhibitions on the honest.

Frieze has introduced Artist-to-Artist again this 12 months, inviting one other six main artists—Hurvin Anderson, Lubaina Himid, Rashid Johnson, Glenn Ligon, Zineb Sedira and Yinka Shonibare—to place ahead their choices. “All of our nominators have a longstanding dedication to supporting different artists in their very own apply, by educating, curating or establishing areas to help artists,” says Frieze London’s director, Eva Langret, noting that for a lot of this can be their honest debut. Right here, the nominating artists inform The Artwork Newspaper about their selections.

Lubaina Himid on Magda Stawarska

I’ve recognized Magda Stawarska for over twenty years. Though our work contrasts aesthetically and differs in subject material, we’re each desirous about revealing the hidden facets of the recollections and histories we discover. I chosen her for Frieze as a result of I significantly admire her and her gallery, Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix.

Magda is an individual who layers issues, and I discover how she does this endlessly fascinating because it’s totally different from my apply. Artistically, I’m within the layers of historical past you possibly can peel again, however that’s not how I paint. One in every of Magda’s items in Frieze, for instance, is a 20m by 20m print made with 12 layers of patterns. Equally, when she makes sound works, there could possibly be a subject, a voice, and an archive recording composed one on prime of one other.

Selecting her for this challenge can also be a possibility to commemorate the numerous issues I’ve discovered from working together with her in numerous methods. She was one of many first folks to assist me make prints. Then, in 2017, I used to be requested to restage my paintings Naming The Cash, which, on the time, had a soundtrack that I made in 2004 in a shoddy method. She remade and recomposed the sound so it matched the standard of the paintings. I’ve additionally participated in a few of her sound items. I feel extra folks ought to learn about her.

Rashid Johnson on Rob Davis

Rob Davis is from a reasonably under-resourced background and his work explores photos and signifiers from this. I first met the New York-based artist round 25 years in the past once we had been each in Chicago. He was in a curatorial collective with one other painter, Michael Langlois, engaged on an exhibition that included me and some others. I fell in love with Robert and Michael’s apply as a result of it was out of step with the instances. Their representational work spoke this candid language round photos, exploring themes and ideas that weren’t de rigueur on the time. I turned very intrigued by the sophistication of their strategy.

Rob ultimately started making work on his personal, which carried on the sensibility of what he had been doing within the collaboration, however with extra of a relation to nostalgia and the exploration of his personal experiences. I’ve watched his apply mature and change into extra difficult, and I feel he’s making among the most attention-grabbing and sincere photos of any artist I do know right this moment. I’m in deep gratitude for the seat I’ve had in watching his work unfold and evolve.

Hurvin Anderson on Peter Uka

I got here throughout Peter Uka’s work by a mix of basic analysis and a pal’s suggestion. I’ve but to satisfy Peter [in person], however we’ve had a number of conversations and I’m notably desirous about his use of color, particularly its depth and boldness.

His work centres across the Black determine, which feels extra necessary to me now than ever. Whereas it’s implausible that there have been many distinguished exhibitions which have centered on the Black expertise just lately, I don’t assume the momentum ought to change in that respect. So, if I get the prospect to have a good time the work of a Black artist I love, I take it.

There aren’t that many parallels between Peter’s work and mine, other than perhaps our concepts round reminiscence and the truth that we’re each attempting to recapture the essence of one thing from the previous. That mentioned, like me and lots of others, Peter has painted the barbershop. It’s a culturally important area, in order that’s no shock. Nevertheless it’s at all times attention-grabbing to see one other artist’s interpretation of it.

I hope that Peter’s show at Frieze will introduce many different folks to his work and that guests will see the ability he has together with his palette and the refreshing notion in his storytelling and composition.

Yinka Shonibare on Nengi Omuku

I met the Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku simply over ten years in the past when she was a scholar at Slade Faculty of Advantageous Artwork, and I’ve been watching her progress ever since. As a substitute of engaged on canvas, she paints on Sanyan fabric, a conventional Yoruba cloth, the place she creates stunning photos that mix facets of Nigerian and Western heritage.

Rising up, Nengi labored together with her mom, a florist and horticulturist, throughout faculty holidays, and she or he has introduced this expertise into her work in a multifaceted method. In her work, you possibly can see nature, landscapes and figuration, referencing her upbringing, in addition to the local weather. Her figures are additionally considerably nameless trying as a result of she doesn’t need them to have any pronounced racial options, permitting them to be seen extra as common folks.

Nengi’s items are typically displayed unconventionally, too, with some hung away from the wall so viewers can stroll round them. This provides folks the chance to see the ability that goes into making these materials, breaking the boundaries between artwork and craft whereas additionally championing girls’s work. In 2022, she went on an artists’ residency in Senegal, the place she labored with girls who weave such materials.

It’s necessary for folks to see various views, totally different tales, and totally different folks. And as somebody with an African British background, she has a voice that must be heard.

Glenn Ligon on Appau Junior Boakye-Yiadom

Appau Junior Boakye-Yiadom’s work is multifaceted, utilizing efficiency, pictures, video and sound. I selected him as a result of platforms like Frieze enable artists to get their work out to a wider viewers. I feel it’s exhausting to search out institutional areas to accommodate the number of his apply, which Frieze will enable him to do.

We frequently think about that artists are totally fashioned, and I like that his work is in regards to the want to study and the method of studying in public, in addition to the will to collaborate. I’m additionally impressed together with his capacity to assume by what it means to make in and with the general public. An important facet of that is the danger. To study in public is to fail in public, too, and I feel that’s a generosity his apply presents—letting the inventive course of be seen.

Through the years, his ambitions have change into extra advanced. He’s diving into his works in many various kinds and contemplating their implications. He’s pondering deeply about how he needs to interact audiences and who he’s collaborating with. We’re not merely watching him study, we’re studying too as a result of we get perception into how artists assume and the way they make work. That’s what makes him stand out to me.

Zineb Sedira on Massinissa Selmani

I selected Massinissa Selmani as a result of he’s an artist I respect. Like me, he’s from Algeria, and his work offers with many facets of the nation’s politics and tradition, which I can hook up with.

There’s solely a small neighborhood of artists popping out of Algeria, so we are likely to know one another, both bodily or by one another’s artwork. His work took me aback as a result of it was very witty and had a way of humour particular to the nation. I additionally did a giant challenge on humour from the Nineties, and I keep in mind having a really lengthy dialog with him in regards to the caricature, jokes and humour used to battle towards what we name the “black decade” in Algeria. Massinissa and I are related in that we’re each desirous about researching and pulling out histories from Algeria that might disappear if no person mentions them.

In my choice, I additionally thought of the area the place the works can be proven. I see Frieze extra as cubicles than exhibition areas, and I felt he might do one thing attention-grabbing with that. He makes use of animations, drawings and installations. He exhibits drawings on the partitions framed in a really classical method but additionally goes past that by displaying objects and animations on small screens and tables. I needed to decide on an artist who wouldn’t simply slap issues on the partitions like many galleries do.