The Frieze Art Fair Hits London: 2012 Event Is Busiest One Yet

Possibly the coolest place to be in London, when it comes around, The Frieze Art Fair 2012 has attracted the biggest collectors, the greatest galleries and most prominent stars, and it’s currently in full swing.

The more extravagant pieces, designed to stop and shock are seemingly out, with a new brand of honest art underlying this year’s fair. Crafted pieces, both classic in style but with a contemporary twist are the flavour, it seems, and they’re certainly the items for which the most cash has been handed over, with Matthias Merkel Hess’ glazed porcelain oil cans selling big. Perhaps the change in mood can be exemplified thus: last year’s centrepiece - a "superyacht", which cost €65m to buy as boat, and €75m to buy as an artwork, authenticated by the German artist Christian Jankowski, is this year usurped in profile by Chinese artist collective: The Yangjiang Group, who have teamed up with Cambrian organization Grizedale Arts to erect ‘Coliseum of the Consumed’, a plywood scaffold for food stalls and performances. This simple construction works on the predication that art should be useful, and represents comfortably the changing functionality of modern art.

Frieze Art Fair 2012 continues until Sunday, October 14 in Regents Park, London, and early reports suggest that this is has been the busiest incarnation of the fair so far.