Frieze Art Fair (which shares its name with contemporary art magazine, Frieze) is held annually each October in Regent’s Park, London. This year, over 150 leading contemporary art galleries from around the world are represented on site – allowing the visitor to both view and purchase contemporary art. The Frieze Fair also hosts a curatorial program of newly commissioned artworks, a talks program and an artist-led educational program under the direction of the (non-profit) Frieze Foundation – all of which add depth and variety to the market-driven focus of the fair.

This year’s Frieze Projects is curated by Neville Wakefield with the aim, in his words, to ‘create aesthetic opportunity out of the uncertainty that has become the hallmark of our troubled times.’ But what is most apparent is that the works commissioned each engage either the actual exhibition space or the concept of the mega-art fair, which at its most essential level facilitates market exchange. Artists included are Mike Bouchet, duo Kim Coleman and Jenny Hogarth, Ruth Ewan, Ryan Gander, Per-Oskar Leu, Monika Sosnowska (pictured below), and Stephanie Syjuco. Arte Contempo (Lisbon) and Contemporary Art Centre (Vilnius) each contribute their own curated projects as well.

British, London-based artist Ryan Gander’s work We are Constant is worth noting for the way it forces the Frieze visitor to take note of the presence of ‘consumption’ and ’spectacle’ at the fair. Gander’s installation work is placed prominently at the entrance to the fair. It consists of photographic portraits of visitors alongside their choice of art work found at the fair. These portraits are added to the installation throughout the duration of the fair.

This year’s Frieze Film commission features a new film by the Danish artist collective, Superflex (excerpt video above). Superflex which has chosen to take the present economic crisis as its subject. Fittingly for the art market, which is a microcosm of our larger world economy, Financial Crisis (Session I-IV) addresses the recent and current economic troubles that have been felt worldwide. The four parts, entitled The Invisible Hand, George Soros, You and Old Friends each feature visually spare frames of a respectable-looking middle aged man against a black background. The man looks directly out at the viewer as he calmly and deliberately speaks on the topic of the financial crisis. As the Frieze site states, Superflex chooses to approach the ‘economic crisis as a psychosis to be treated therapeutically, hypnosis is used to relive the stages of financial meltdown.’

The Frieze Foundation’s Cartier Award, which supports emerging artists from outside of the UK was given to Jordan Wolfson. An American artist based in Berlin and New York, Wolfson will also present a site specific work at Frieze.

The 2009 Frieze Art Fair takes place in London from 15-18 October in Regent Park.

The Guild Art Gallery in Mumbai and Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City have partnered to present Blood and Spit, an exhibition of new paintings by artist T.V. Santhosh. The exhibition, which opened yesterday, includes five large-scale hyper-color figurative paintings and eight monochromatic watercolor paintings. The source images of the paintings have a familiar quality, as many of them are sourced from or reference current media and contemporary events. At times, the images can be aggressive, political and deep humanistic. Santhosh creates deeply psychological paintings that call into questions ideas of war, terrorism and violence.

The artist is a prominent figure of the Indian art community and has developed an international reputation. He has exhibited recently with Grosvenor Vadehra Gallery, in London, Avanthay Contemporary in Zurich, and Aicon Gallery in New York City.

Nightology is the title of a new exhibition by Swiss artist Stefan a Wengen. Currently on view at Black and While Gallery in New York City, the exhibition marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States, and includes a new series of paintings that continue his interest in isolation and the cloak of the night. The subdued images are punctuated with electric color, seducing the viewer into various mysterious landscapes. Each painting contains a central object that acts to “trigger collective memory” and which builds a psychology within the image that makes it distantly familiar, yet still out of place.

a Wengen is a graduate of the School of Design, Basel, Switzerland and currently lives and works in Dusseldorf, Germany. The artist has completed several international exhibitions, including recent shows at Felix Ringel Galerie in Dusseldorf, Kunstmuseum zur alten Post, and Galerie Romerapotheke in Zurich. Nightology is accompanied by a hardcover catalog, and will remain on view through November 21.

Currently exhibiting at the N2 Gallery in Barcelona, Spain are the works of Spanish artist Aurelia Munoz. The works on display are delicate, yet formidable, sculptures made of materials ranging from handmade paper to textile fibers. The piece Entre Social, 1976, is a large-scale macrame sculpture that serves as testimony to Munoz’s ability to beautifully marry geometry and abstraction with natural textiles, creating an entirely new three-dimensional artistic vocabulary. Mandala con flores, 1988, gives new meaning to the term “work on paper”. Made from tiny pieces of handmade paper, suspended on tiny strips of flax linen, Munoz successfully straddles the two and three-dimensional planes, capturing the ever-elusive medium of shadow. This exhibition, which will be on view through November, marks the first gallery exhibition for the 83 year-old in nearly thirty years, as her work primarily is shown in museums.

Aurelia Munoz was born in 1926 in Barcelona, Spain. Her works are included in many museum collections worldwide such as the Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Stedelijk van Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh, Scotland; Museum of Contemporary Art Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain and theMuseum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona, Spain just to name a few.

Kathy Aoki is currently presenting a solo show at Oakland’s Swarm Gallery entitled The Museum of Historical Makeovers. In her faux-museum exhibition, Aoki takes on the role of a curator from the year 3011 at a cultural history museum. The exhibition specifically follows Gwen Stefani as if humanity has uncovered artifacts from her clothing lines and accepted them as culturally significant. The museum consists of several sculptural works in the vein of egyptian artifacts, (canopic jars, maps of burial sites), as well as etchings and illustrations detailing modern makeover processes including Brazilian waxings and anal bleaching. Finally, the museum hosts a tomb room of Stefani burial artifacts that is “temporarily closed” due to vandalism, allowing only a small peep-hole-style viewer for museum patrons. As is evident with this exhibit’s tongue-in-cheek portrayal of feminine social standings, Aoki considers herself a “sneaky feminist,” inserting subtle statements of accepted female beauty “norms” into her work concerning feminine gender roles.

Kathy Aoki received her MFA in printmaking from Washington University in 1994 and currently lives and works in Santa Clara, California where she is an assistant professor at Santa Clara University. She has shown at a large variety of galleries, including San Jose Museum of Art, Smith Anderson Editions, as well as participating in San Fransisco Arts Commission’s Market St. Kiosks in 2004. The Museum of Historical Makeovers runs until October 25th, and is accompanied by an artist talk on October 14th with Aoki playing the role of the Museum curator.

Here at DailyServing, we are always interested in learning more about the art that excites you and/or the art that you make. Anyone can submit an artist or exhibition to DailyServing for consideration at any time. Accepted submissions will be featured on DailyServing.com for one full day, and then archived indefinitely for public access.

To submit yourself or another artist for consideration, simply email us at info(at)dailyserving(dot)com with a website URL containing images of current work and resume.

Artists and exhibitions are submitted for consideration only; there are no guarantees of posting… but we promise to look at every single one.

(Due to the high volume of submissions we are not be able to respond to all senders.)

Currently on view at Ambach and Rice Gallery in Seattle is the exhibition, From Whence the Rainbow Came. The exhibition features new works by acclaimed Seattle-based artists Jeffry Mitchell, Joe Park, Dan Webb and Claude Zervas. The collection of works defy the standard structure of a curated exhibition or the trend to have several small solo groupings presented under one roof. Instead the artists, who are all friends and colleagues, have moved away from the normal strains of producing works for a commercial venue and decided to “celebrate the freedom they feel inside their friendship and endeavor to operate on their own terms, finding consequence outside of the preset norms and expectations of group exhibitions.”

Artist Claude Zeras has created deceptively reductive sculptures that appear to be ordinary pieces of cut wood leaning against the gallery walls. Upon closer inspection, the materials are understood to be pigment prints bonded to the simple geometric forms. Zeras has completed recent exhibitions with James Harris Gallery in Seattle and Susan Hobbs Gallery in Toronto.

Joseph Park is exhibiting several recent figurative and landscape paintings. The small to mid-sized works synthesize art historical painting elements from both Cubist and Futurist movements, while also creating a dialogue with contemporary painting construction. The resulting forms are activated by flat and geometric shapes which are laid over otherwise static and traditionally painted surfaces. Park is represented by Rena Bransten Gallery in San Francisco and has recently exhibited at Cornish College of the Arts and the Portland Art Museum.

Jeffry Mitchell presents White Weeds, a sculpture that is made of wood, plaster, paper, porcelain, light bulbs, plexiglass, gouache, pencil and epoxy enamel. White Weeds marks a slight departure from Mitchell’s most classic material, ceramic, but continues to embody his use of art historical references, fusing elements from multiple art historical periods together to create a wider dialogue within a singular piece. Mitchell’s recent exhibitions were hosted at James Harris Gallery, Pulliam Gallery and the Walker Art Center.

Dan Webb presents two new figurative sculptures made from carved ceder or raw hide. Each of the strikingly realistic pieces attempt to hide or cloak the figure in some way, either through fabric draping or though mock armor. Webb has recently exhibited with Acuna-Hansen Gallery, Bellevue Art Museum and Western Bridge.

From Whence The Rainbow Came will be on view at Ambach and Rice until October, 18th.