The 20 Best Booths at Frieze London

From immersive installations by biennial darlings, like Hans Op de Beeck and Philippe Parreno, to new work by artists on the rise, like Ouyang Chun and Lloyd Corporation, this year’s Frieze London covers a lot of ground. Here are 20 booths that, employing a myriad of mediums and playing to a variety of tastes, will make for a rich fair-going experience.

Timothy Taylor
Main, Booth B17
With works by Eddie Martinez
Why you should stop
Take the vibrant colors and textures of the large-scale paintings that Eddie Martinez has become known for, scale them down, and make them 3D. That’s what’s on view at Timothy Taylor’s booth, where you’ll be drawn in by your desire to touch the New York-based artist’s tactile sculptures and the intimate glimpses they give into his handling of color and form.

P.P.O.W.
Main, Booth B19
With works by Portia Munson, Erin M. Riley, Aurel Schmidt, Carolee Schneemann, Betty Tompkins, Carrie Mae Weems, Martin Wong
Why you should stop
The highlight of P.P.O.W.’s booth is certainly Portia Munson’s 1994/2016 Pink Project: Table, in which the artist collected hundreds of pink, plastic items—dolls, My Little Ponies, makeup receptacles, hair accessories, and mirrors among them—marketed at young girls and women. The table is not just a feast for the eyes, but also a trip down memory lane and a potent reminder of consumerism’s influence on children.

Simon Lee Gallery
Main, Booth E6
With works by Sarah Crowner, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Paulina Olowska
Why you should stop
We all know galleries swap out works throughout the course of an art fair, but for once a gallery is actually owning it. Simon Lee is devoting specific days of the fair to three painters: Hans-Peter Feldmann (Oct. 5), who often appropriates and modifies historic oil paintings, primarily portraits; the figurative collages of Paulina Olowska (Oct. 6 and 7); and sculptural ceramic tile paintings from Sarah Crowner (Oct. 8 and 9) in an elegant presentation. Now which will you pick?

Pilar Corrias Gallery
Main, Booth B1
With works by Philippe Parreno, Shahzia Sikander
One would be hard-pressed to not stop at this booth. The playful pairing of Paris-based Philippe Parreno’s balloons—Speech Bubbles (Transparent Orange) (2016)—and blue carpet with New York-based Shahzia Sikander’s mesmerizing Singing Suns (2016) video animation feels like a collaboration in the making. (You should also make sure to visit Parreno’s Turbine Hall installation at the Tate Modern.)

Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle
Main, B21
With works by Goshka Macuga, Mira Calix
Why you should stop
Depending on what time you’re walking the fair, you may run into Goshka Macuga and Mira Calix’s ode to the International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation, the former advisory board for the League of Nations that aimed to foster discussions amongst the world’s scientists, teachers, and thinkers. The two artists have resurrected the spirit of the Co-operation by inviting scientists, economists, politicians, and non-art-world thinkers into the fair to discuss major issues that the world is currently facing. The artists write in their manifesto: “2016 has been the most dramatic and for some, quite virulent of years and we feel compelled to create an active reconsideration of the existing order of society.” If you don’t make it for one of the discussions, you will certainly admire the setting: a concrete tent and table featuring busts of figures like Einstein, Marx, and Pussy Riot, which also serve as vases—bringing these voices (or at least their spirits) to the table.

Galerie Buchholz / Buchholz & Buchholz
The Nineties, Booth N2
With works by Wolfgang Tillmans
Why you should stop
Recreating a 1993 exhibition at Galerie Daniel Buchholz’s 3-by-3-meter ancillary space (called Buchholz & Buchholz), the booth resurrects the work that inspired Wolfgang Tillmans’s cult following: images that candidly captured 1990s youth culture. Featuring unframed c-prints alongside photocopies of the artist’s work for i-D magazine, the showing offers a purview of the German artist’s breakout photographs.

Southard Reid
Focus, Booth G22
With works by Celia Hempton
Why you should stop
Want to walk inside a painting? A booth filled with work by the young British painter Celia Hempton aims to let you do just that. The gallery has given its booth walls to Hempton to use as a canvas, which she’s covered in swaths of paint. Inside, you can see individual paintings by Hempton, who has become known for her stylistic paintings of male members.

Rampa
Main, Booth H6
With works by Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin, Hera Buyuktasciyan, Michael Rakowitz
Why you should stop
Hüseyin Bahri Alptekin’s hotel signs illuminate the aisle, drawing fairgoers in, but inside this booth a strong collection of works, many by artists of Middle Eastern descent, is one of the few showings of Middle Eastern art at the fair. American artist Michael Rakowitz’s wry take on the region’s history plays out in his work The Breakup Series: John (Egypt), Ringo (Jordan), Paul (Palestine), George (Iraq) ( 2010–2012), which is certainly worth a look, for music and history buffs alike.

Hauser & Wirth
Main, Booth D8
With works by artists including Hans Arp, Louise Bourgeois, Ellen Gallagher, Allan Kaprow, Fausto Melotti
Why you should stop
Hauser & Wirth ups its game this year by turning its booth into a fictional artist’s studio. Nevermind that this imaginary artist is a prolific collector—he or she is also an eclectic maker. Featuring upwards of 47 artists’ works (nearly the gallery’s entire roster), the booth brims with artwork but also features elements such as the artist’s desk, painting easel, and work table. While the concept isn’t brand new (lest we forget Helly Nahmad Gallery’s 2014 recreation of a 1960s art collector’s Paris flat at Frieze Masters), it’s nevertheless well-produced.

Marianne Boesky Gallery
Main, Booth B11
With works by Hans Op de Beeck
Why you should stop
If you couldn’t wait on the line for Hans Op de Beeck’s The Collector’s House (2016) at Art Basel Unlimited this summer, here’s your second chance. The Belgian artist expands on that work at Frieze London with The Silent Library (2016), an immersive installation that takes you into his soft, white, plaster-coated world. There, a library complete with books, plants, framed paintings, figures, and animals will, if only momentarily, transport you far away from the fair.

Kate MacGarry
Main, Booth A3
With works by Francis Upritchard
Why you should stop
You won’t have a choice but to stop in your tracks when you come across Francis Upritchard’s dreamy, pastel-colored installation. The booth features the New Zealand-born, London-based artist’s signature shamanistic figures dressed in clothes as fabulous as the people you’ll be spotting at the fair; one wears a purple and blue tie-dyed shirt featuring the rock band KISS’s iconic logo. No wonder designer Peter Pilotto has been looking to Upritchard for inspiration—you want to dress like her figures.

ShanghART
Main, Booth A14
With works by Ouyang Chun
Why you should stop
The solo booth by China’s newest It-artist Ouyang Chun features a few of his most recent paintings—playful figurative compositions made with thickly-applied oil paint. One recent sculptural work is made from several of the artist’s older paintings, scaled to identical dimensions and stitched together as a new piece. The booth also features a new work in the artist’s “Infinity Column” series (a hat-tip to Brancusi) made from household items collected from the public; this one features a blanket, globe, pinball machine, bust, and a Nike sneaker, amongst other objects.

Seventeen
Focus, Booth G24
With works by Jon Rafman
Why you should stop
The London-based Seventeen has become known for championing artists who are experimenting in new media. This emphasis was on full display at Frieze, where its booth featured a brand-new VR work, Transdimensional Serpent (2016), by Jon Rafman, which takes fairgoers inside a world constructed by the artist where myth meets prehistory (think trolls, serpents, wispy forests, starry skies, and bonfires). The experience was already gaining buzz among fairgoers, as a lengthy queue of eager viewers formed.

Koppe Astner
Focus, Booth H15
With works by Laura Aldridge, Grace Weaver
Why you should stop
This lighthearted booth from Koppe Astner in Frieze’s Focus section brings together the sculptures of Laura Aldridge—ceramic urns placed on textural plinths striped with golds and tie-dyed patterns—and Grace Weaver’s brightly colored and patterned paintings. Simple in its presentation, this perfect pairing of two artists is guaranteed to grab your attention.

CANADA
Main, Booth H9
With works by Samara Golden, Willy Le Maitre, Xylor Jane
Why you should stop
Step into Samara Golden’s “sixth dimension,” which the artist considers a intersection of pasts, presents, and futures. Materializing at the fair as dining tables—complete with table cloths and elaborate meals—the works create the illusion of an alternate reality. Pair that with Xylor Jane’s graphic paintings and drawings, as well as Willy Le Maitre’s lenticular prints, and you’re in for a trippy experience.

Martos Gallery
Focus, Booth H29
With works by Alex Chaves
Why you should stop
After a lauded (and sold-out) solo show at Martos Gallery in New York this spring, 28-year-old painter Alex Chaves’s new portraits and still lifes stand out amongst the figurative work at the fair, not only for their boldly colored patterns—such as camouflage and florals—but for the suggestive meaning behind them. One work features a wall with three “glory holes” emblazoned with Chaves’s hand, as well as a drawing that reads “SECRET” and works on paper that create an intimate vignette that’s unexpected in the booth of an art fair. This Thursday, the artist will be giving readings at the booth: one taking place at 12:10pm and the other at 2:10pm.

Pace
Main, Booth B4
With works by John Hoyland, Prabahavathi Meppayil, Kohei Nawa, Robert Rauschenberg, teamLab, Lee Ufan, Leo Villareal, Brent Wadden
Why you should stop
Leo Villareal’s dazzling sculpture will draw you into this booth, but teamLab’s immersive, four-panel computer-generated piece will keep you there. The combination of Villareal (a veteran in working with LEDs, but a new artist to the gallery’s roster) and the young Japanese collective (proteges of Takashi Murakami) makes for a refreshing showing from Pace.

Carlos/Ishikawa
Live, Booth L3
With works by Lloyd Corporation
Why you should stop
You’ll stop more than once for Carlos/Ishikawa’s presentation of British-based collaborative Lloyd Corporation, who enlist actors to play street vendors—a nod to the characters who typically set up shop on the fringes of major events, not inside them. Shown as part of Frieze’s Live programming and developed from a commission for the Hayward Gallery’s 2014 exhibition “MIRRORCITY,” the booth takes the form of a dodgy internet cafe, while a knockoff handbag vendor and other similar street “shops” pop up in other locations across the fair.

The Box
Main, Booth G4
With works by Judith Bernstein, Simone Forti, Wally Hedrick
Why you should stop
Responding to the current political environment, L.A. gallery The Box highlights the work of American protest artists. The booth features Wally Hedrick’s black paintings, a series in which the artist painted over existing paintings in black paint every time the U.S. invaded another country, culminating in The War Room, an installation he made in the late 1960s; preliminary drawings from performance artist Simone Forti’s “News Animations” series, her way of understanding and dealing with world news (one drawing reads “Reason, fear, hatred, compassion, survival” drawn on a figure); and Judith Bernstein’s phallic sculptures and 2D works, including a modified American flag topped with phallic balloons contained in glass-covered frames.

Goodman Gallery
Main, Booth B10
With works by Candice Breitz, Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Kendell Geers, David Goldblatt, Alfredo Jaar, William Kentridge, Shirin Neshat, Tracey Rose, Mikhael Subotzky, Sue Williamson
Why you should stop
Johannesburg-based Tracey Rose’s one-channel video Die Wit Man (2015), translated from Afrikaans as “The White Man,” is what draws you in. Tracing the sordid colonial history between Belgium and the Congo, the piece is an homage to Congolese independence leader Patrice Émery Lumumba. Rose’s work is a gateway to the rest of the booth, which brings together a strong selection of work with a political bent, including Broomberg & Chanarin’s Genesis (2013), a bible defaced with archival photographs of conflicts, and Shirin Neshat’s arresting black-and-white print from her 1999 Soliloquy Series.