Frieze Art Fair

So...er...Frieze...

Frieze anyone? Londons premier Arts Fair?

wait...what happened to Frieze? Does anyone care? I seem to recall it used to be a contender, but all I can see from the opening is a low-grade art (trade) show lig-fest. Hmmm...oh well...at least it's a "great excuse to watch people", according to London's struggling Evening Standard freepaper (indeed a glowing beacon of cultural commentary).

Move along art lovers, nothing to see here...

In my deeply opinionated opinion, it doesn't warrant more than a feeble paragraph next to the two best London Exhibitions of 2009 so far, both of which shared an opening week: this and this.

Black Powers! (Swiss Cottage Gallery)

I'm only a cursory comic enthusiast, but I do count a number of Graphic Novels amongst some of my favorite pieces of contemporary literature. I feel that the sheer scale of invention, imagination and subversion across some of the best mainstream and independent writers deserves as much attention and recognition as our more traditional arts and literature receives.

Additionally - with luminaries including Moore, Gaiman, Millar, Ennis and many others - UK graphic novelists a have been wildly successful, critically and commercially, on an international scale - far in advance of the influence of the country in most other creative media. There are many discussions elsewhere as to why this may be, but the one thing we can be certain of - it is not as a result of the media being supported, embraced or respected by our cultural establishment.

This is why I am very interested in the Black Powers exhibition - a part of the 2009 Black History Season - opening at the Swiss Cottage Library and Gallery later this month. The exhibition will focus on English language comic book representations of the African and African-Caribbean characters over the last 100 years and dissect whether these depictions throughout the years have reinforced the prevalent black stereotypes of the day.

The collection coheres around black representations through the imagery and language of the comic book medium: representation as markers of both historical and contemporary struggles. The theme is developed through archival works from the 1930’s to the present-day and culminates with a display of the singular comic art of Patrice and John Aggs, Paul Peart-Smith, Woodrow Phoenix and Lance Tooks.

This is exactly the kind of serious curatorial project that advocates for the importance of the medium - my only disappointment is that we haven't seen an equivalent retrospective at one of our larger institutions to date! In the post Summer exhibition slump, here is the opportunity to explore the interesting and exciting fringes of the London art scene and this little show might just be an ideal opportunity to entertain a little more diversity.

Black Powers!

Oct 9th to Nov 5th

The Gallery @ Swiss Cottage Library

88 Avenue Road

Swiss Cottage

London

NW3 3HA

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