Issue 245
September 2024

Art can confront the strangeness and inequalities of societies and spin them back on themselves.  Sean Burns

In the September issue of frieze, assistant editor Sean Burns profiles Marlene Dumas ahead of her show at Frith Street Gallery, London. Plus, an extensive oral history on Bidoun, a magazine offering perspectives in and of the Middle East and the Arab Diaspora.

Profile: Sean Burns on Marlene Dumas

‘Dumas toys with notions of agency over self-image: who has control and who doesn’t.’ Sean Burns pens a tribute to the artist’s psychological portraits, in which she probes the power – and horror – of found imagery.

Oral History: Bidoun magazine

‘There was this embrace of the idea that we didn’t all have to think the same way and that was fundamental to the mission.’ Through the voices of the magazine founders, editors and contributors, this oral history delves into Bidoun’s history of showcasing the Arabic-speaking world’s artistic and cultural narratives through humour, angst and experimentation.

Also featuring  

Glenn Ligon speaks with senior editor Terence Trouillot about the parallels between his artistic, curatorial and writing practice; Erika Balsom documents her visit to Michael Heizer’s City (1970–2022), a monumental land art sculpture located in the Nevada desert; and Juliet Jacques highlights a wave of artists, filmmakers and writers who address labour conditions and class relations in their work.

Columns: Wordplay   

Fernanda Brenner writes on the tenderness and solidarity in José Leonilson’s practice, Rainer Diana Hamilton looks at Kevin Killian’s Amazon reviews, Sydney Baloue shares an excerpt from Marcel Christian LaBeija’s ‘Idle Sheets’ zine on the ABCs of drag ballroom culture, Lara Pawson pens a tribute to Gertrude Stein’s poem ‘If I Told Him’. Plus, Lara Mimosa Montes talks to Na Mira about translation, animism and the artists upcoming contribution to the 15th Gwangju Biennial.

Finally, ahead of Matthias Groebel’s presentations at the Gwangju Biennial and Schiefe Zähne, Berlin, Jeppe Ugelvig responds to his 1996 painting Untitled (069). Plus, Glenn Ligon contributes to our series of artists’ ‘to-do’ lists.

From this issue

The artist’s paintings, featured in the upcoming Gwangju Biennale, are strikingly familiar yet elusive, offering a challenge to decode

BY Jeppe Ugelvig |

A new collection of Kevin Killian’s product recommendations is a masterclass in the craft 

BY Rainer Diana Hamilton |

The centenary of the writer’s portrait-poem ‘If I Told Him’ is marked with an elegy on its enduring impact

BY Lara Pawson |

The artist discusses their exchange with the late director and the mythology behind their presentation at the 15th Gwangju Biennale

BY Lara Mimosa Montes AND Na Mira |

As an exhibition on the late artist opens in São Paulo, Fernanda Brenner reflects on the comfort she found in his delicate drawings

BY Fernanda Brenner |

An excerpt from ‘Idle Sheets’, a rare archival gem, provides invaluable insights from the scene’s first historian

This oral history, with insights from the publication’s editors and contributors, delves into its mission to shape perspectives on the Middle East

Amid rising political instability, practitioners are tackling working conditions and class relations with renewed urgency and determination

BY Juliet Jacques |

On a recent visit to Nevada, Erika Balsom discovered how the artist’s monumental sculpture is a meditation on transience

BY Erika Balsom |

The artist’s exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge intervenes in the collection to address issues of wealth extraction and colonial expansion

BY Glenn Ligon AND Terence Trouillot |

On the courage and vulnerability of the painter’s diverse subjects – from ancient deities to modern martyrs – ahead of her show at Frith Street Gallery in London

BY Sean Burns |

An exhibition at BWA Wroclaw celebrates the work of five artists who put Poland’s spiritual scenes and winding rivers front and centre

BY Agata Pyzik |

At Grand Union in Birmingham, the collective collaborates with sound artist utopian_realism on a show foregrounding access and highlighting art world burnout

 

BY Cathy Wade |

In Rome, a group exhibition dedicated to immersive spaces encourages gleeful interaction inside the museum's walls

BY Ana Vukadin |

At the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, the artist’s cinematic tableaux announce his arrival on the mainstage of queer figurative painting

BY Christopher Alessandrini |

At Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, the artist’s UEFA-inspired film mixes balletic beauty with uncomfortable stereotypes

BY Emily May |

At 798CUBE, Beijing, the artist presents marvels of engineering with lives of their own

BY Sean Burns |

At V.O Curations in London, the artist attempts to navigate the overwhelming influx of imagery in contemporary culture

BY Joe Bobowicz |

At Zalucky Contemporary, Toronto, the artist builds on legacies of copies and proxies

BY Georgia Phillips-Amos |

At the artist’s exhibition at David Zwirner in London, conventional concerns of portraiture become richly complex when combined with such enigmatic subjects

At Galerie Karin Günther, Hamburg, the artist’s minimal works embrace a phenomenological approach to artmaking

BY Oriane Durand |

Dreamlike landscapes and eerie memories weave together, forming a captivating blend of the past and present at London’s GRIMM Gallery

BY Tom Morton |

At Bernheim, Zurich, the artist’s alter-ego, Fatebe, confidently splits herself between time zones, cities and hemispheres

BY Krzysztof Kościuczuk |

At The Brant Foundation in New York, the artist’s installation is like a fever dream that can’t be switched off

BY Chris Murtha |

The artist’s debut solo exhibition at Lisson Gallery in London features a compelling mix of objects, tapestries and installations, creating ritualistic compositions from an array of material

BY Vaishna Surjid |

At Ulrik, New York, despatialized scenes question the nature of perception

BY Drew Zeiba |

At Den Frie, Copenhagen, the artist deconstructs the genre’s archetypes to disarming effect

BY Alice Godwin |

At Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, the artist challenges views of history as clear, singular and conclusive

BY Jennifer Piejko |

At Fondation Pernod Ricard in Paris, David Douard curates a show featuring 13 artists that frames collective practice as something sticky and uneasy

BY Dylan Huw |

At the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, the artist critiques moral panics around childhood

BY Grace Byron |

At Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, crystal-encrusted structures highlight organic transformation

BY Jessica Simmons-Reid |

At the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, the artist creates a constellation of living memory for her first solo institutional show in Brazil

BY Terence Trouillot |

At carlier | gebauer, Berlin, the artist’s solo exhibition requires viewer’s attentive engagement

BY Louisa Elderton |

At Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna, the artist draws a line from the plantation to the stage

BY Max L. Feldman |

At Maxwell Graham, New York, the artist's new videos focus on stories just outside the frame

BY Madeleine Seidel |

At Empty Gallery, Hong Kong, a group show reinscribes readings of contemporary art through traditional Chinese aesthetic

BY Stephanie Bailey |

In her new exhibition at Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, the artist inflects pastoral environments with raucous action

BY Claudia Ross |

The show at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris is filled with motifs of choreographed movement and figures created from slashed lines

BY Andrew Hodgson |

‘In Real Time’ at NYUAD Art Gallery, Abu Dhabi, presents art works that evolve over the course of the exhibition

BY Nadine Khalil |

An exhibition at Hauser & Wirth, New York, assembles the late artist’s sculptural work marked by a slow-burning strangeness that resists the potentially dampening effects of art-historical discourse

BY Cassie Packard |

At Lenbachhaus, Munich, the artist’s survey exhibition quickly shifts from utopia to dystopia

BY Emily McDermott |

The artist’s latest project, recently installed at Laboratorio Arte Alameda in Mexico City, simulates the damage that a debt-driven financial system can wreak on the environment

BY Evan Moffitt |

An exhibition of the artist’s new work at Cubitt in London raises ethical questions about documenting intimate moments and memories

BY Sam Moore |

The artist’s films at Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, foreground trans and non-binary concerns while appealing to an audience beyond the community

BY Juliet Jacques |