Frieze Art Fair Opens In London Amid Recession

RAPHAEL G. SATTER

LONDON (AP) — The British capital's cutting-edge art sale kicks off Thursday, but cautious collectors may be cutting back.

Although London's annual Frieze Art Fair has all the usual weirdness — works include a ghostly white tree, molten red computer mice and garlands with breast-shaped balloons — exhibitors say the fair has lost much of its former frenzy.

"It's a different style of spending," said Javier Peres, of the Peres Projects gallery, which has locations in Berlin and Los Angeles. "It's a much more thoughtful process of acquiring works."

Frieze is one of the biggest events in the world of contemporary art — along with Art Basel in Switzerland, Art Basel Miami Beach and the Parisian art fair FIAC, which begins next week.

Gallery owners shell out serious money for a stall at the fair — largely seen as "a sign of recognition," according to Andreiana Mihail, whose eponymous Romanian gallery is displaying at Frieze for the first time.

The fair also generates a motley assortment of off-venue events and parties, ranging from the Zoo Art Fair — which tends to draw younger galleries — to the Free Art Fair, where artists give their work away to members of the public. Auctioneers are also capitalizing on the crowd of collectors flocking to Frieze by holding lucrative contemporary art sales.