UK collections boosted by Frieze art fair acquisitions

A number of UK collections have bought new works through acquisition funds created in partnership with the Frieze art fairs, which took place in London on 9-13 October.

Over the five days of Frieze London and Frieze Masters, the fairs welcomed 90,000 visitors from more than 110 countries worldwide. More than 270 galleries from 43 countries exhibited.

The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) bought two works at Frieze London for the Hepworth Wakefield. They are by Haegue Yang and Nour Jaouda, who will be represented for the first time in the Yorkshire gallery’s collection.

Yang was born in Korea is based in Berlin and Seoul while Jaouda was in Libya and is based in Cairo and London.

Past acquisitions for the CAS Collections Fund have included works for the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Norwich Castle Museum; The Harris, Preston; Nottingham Castle Museum; The Box, Plymouth; Towner Eastbourne; and Mima in Middlesbrough.

Tate has acquired a total of seven works by four different artists from the Frieze Tate Fund 2024, which is supported by Endeavor, a global sports and entertainment company. This is the ninth year that Endeavor has made available £150,000 for the fund to acquire works at Frieze London and Frieze Masters. 

This year, Tate bought Milnyawuy 2024 by Naminapu Maymuru-White, an artist who lives and works in Australia (acquired from Sullivan+Strumpf, Frieze London); The Lovers 2024 and The Spaghetti House 2024 by Mohammed Z. Rahman, who lives and works in London (Phillida Reid, Frieze London); Spící Venouš (Sleeping Venus) 1969 by Eva Švankmajerová, an artist from the Czech Republic who died in 2005 (The Gallery of Everything, Frieze Masters); and three works by Bani Abidi, who lives and works in Berlin (Experimenter, Frieze London).

The Arts Council Collection has acquired works by Nour Jaouda, Nicole Wermers and Shaqúelle Whyte at Frieze London. They are The Light in Between, 2024, by Jaouda; Reclining Female #3, 2022, by Wermers; and Whyte’s Form i: Under the lonely sky, 2024.

The Arts Council Collection Frieze Acquisitions Fund was created to buy work by UK-based early to mid-career or overlooked artists at Frieze.

The Spirit Now London Acquisition Prize has given the Women’s Art Collection, Cambridge, £40,000 to acquire works by women artists under 40 exhibiting at Frieze London. Spirit Now London, an international philanthropic community, was set up in 2015 to promote women and emerging artists worldwide.

The fund facilitated the acquisition of three new works for the Women’s Art Collection: Shafei Xia’s Thanks for everyone, I did it, 2024 (P420); Asemahle Ntlonti’s Uhambo, 2024, (Blank); and Bambou Gili’s Legally Stev, 2024, (Night Gallery).

Nat Faulkner, showing in Frieze London’s Focus section with Brunette Coleman, was announced as the winner of the Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize. Faulkner’s photographic work, titled Artificial Sun II, was also acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Photography Centre. The acquisition was supported by Stone Island, the official partner of Frieze’s Focus section for emerging galleries.

Frieze also included programmes that helped curators attend the event.

This year, the Contemporary Visual Arts Network developed a new partnership, working with London Gallery Weekend, Frieze London and Frieze Masters to host 30 contemporary art curators across England to attend the fair, including 20 spaces specifically allocated to regional curators.

This initiative aims to forge stronger connections between regional curators, London galleries and the artists they support with networking opportunities facilitated by the organisers.

The Art Fund Curators Programme at Frieze Masters brought together emerging career curators from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds to exchange ideas through talks, workshops and tours.

Collaborating with the Subject Specialist Network for European Paintings pre-1900 and the National Gallery, the programme offered 10 fully funded places for UK regional curators, alongside five international counterparts, to attend a two-day programme exploring exhibition making.

Frieze also runs the Deutsche Bank Emerging Curators Fellowship, which was launched in 2020, to support emerging Black and POC curators through 12-month, full-time, paid fellowships within arts organisations.

The partner for this year’s fellowship is Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery, which named Amrit Sanghera as the recipient of the fellowship. 

Deutsche Bank also supported the display of work of by Rene Matić, a multidisciplinary artist living and working in London, at Frieze London. The British artist’s work at Frieze included lightboxes and photographic artworks, wallpaper installations, an out-sized mirror ball as well as music they have been inspired by.