After the success of its 2010 debut SUNDAY Art Fair is back to challenge the hegemony of the Sharp-Slotover Frieze machine.
Frieze’s most dangerous rival, SUNDAY Art Fair has returned to Ambika P3, Baker Street’s 14,000 square foot, triple height warehouse, where last year it received more than 5,000 visitors in just 3 days.
Unlike Frieze, SUNDAY is free and open to all, aiming to provide ‘an easy going and accessible temporary platform for young galleries’. These galleries have brought together work by the artists they believe to be ‘at the fore of emerging talent’, including Ryan Gander, Christian Jankowski, Jessica Warboys, and Sean Edwards.
Walking around the cavernous Ambika P3, SUNDAY is instantly casual and affecting in its light-hearted playfulness. At the entrance, for instance, The Zabludowicz Collection, presents us with a new work by David Blandy, ‘Duel of Dualities’ – a mod-version of the vintage arcade game Street Fighter, in which the viewer/gamer must play as various Blandy alter-ego-avatars in a battle for the artist’s soul. Tomorrow Blandy himself will be challenging visitors to a tournament, and there is even an accompanying limited edition Blandy action figure for sale at a wholly affordable £100.
Ryan Gander has equally thrown himself into the carnival spirit by creating a cocktail recipe book, the fruits of which will be served at SUNDAY’s Bryan’s Bar for the duration of the fair; in a similar vein, the late night opening on Friday will witness an Art Pub Quiz hosted by the artist Bedwyr Williams. And, adding to SUNDAY’s general sense of camaraderie, there is a notable absence of booths or divisions between this year’s exhibiting galleries, beyond minimal lines of black tape.
SUNDAY, fun as it may be, is also, of course, a serious art fair, with wholly serious work on display. A Kassen’s piece ‘Equalise’ is one definite and discombobulating highlight, consisting of a streetlamp lying on the ground, cut in half and off set, next to an image of the lamp – apparently unsevered but situated within a landscape where all else has been dissected and shifted along the post’s real-life fault line.
Of similar quality, is the work of Simon Fujiwara, the artist currently contributing to Rivington Place’s ‘Entanglement’. The piece ‘Like Father Like Son’, for instance, comprises two clay plates made by the British artist and his Japanese father, presented to us as museum cabinet pieces: an ironically hyperbolic study of ‘Anglo-Japanese relations’, it is also an intimate and tender exploration of the artist’s cultural identity.
Through the organisational efforts of three of the participating galleries (Berlin’s Croy Nielsen, London’s Limoncello, and Brussels’ Tulips & Roses), and sponsorship by the Zabludowicz Collection, SUNDAY has successfully set itself up as the hipper, edgier counterpart to the Frieze art supermarket. Regent’s Park has is perks; but the true art connoisseur will surely be living for the weekend.
Watch Sunday Art Fair Video Below
Words: Thomas Keane / Photo: Ishbel Mull / Video: Mike Philo © 2011 ArtLyst
Artists displaying at SUNDAY include: Caroline Achaintre, Dove Allouche, Bianca Brunner, Brody Condon, Matt Connors, Tim Davies, Sean Edwards, Debo Eilers, Robin Footitt, Aurélien Froment, Simon Fujiwara, Ryan Gander, Ian Homerston, Taka Izumi, Christian Jankowski, A Kassen, Franziska Lantz, Oliver Laric, Pierre Leguillon, Raimundas Malašauskas, Kate Newby, Joshua Petherick, Dan Rees, Florian Roithmayr, Hugh Scott-Douglas, Francesco Simeti, Zin Taylor, Allyson Vieira, Jessica Warboys, Susanne M. Winterling, and Maria Zahle
Exhibiting galleries include: ARCADE (London), BolteLang (Zürich), Cole (London), Croy Nielsen (Berlin), Gaudel de Stampa (Paris), Laurel Gitlen (New York) Hopkinson Cundy (Auckland), Tanya Leighton (Berlin), Limoncello (London), Lüttgenmeijer (Berlin), Francesca Minini (Milan), Motive Gallery (Amsterdam), MOTINTERNATIONAL (London/Brussels), TARO NASU (Tokyo), Neue Alte Brücke (Frankfurt), New Galerie (Paris) On Stellar Rays (New York), Proyectos Monclova (Mexico), Supportico Lopez (Berlin) and Tulips & Roses (Brussels).