The best of October’s international art fairs

All eyes are on the capital this October as Frieze Week returns and with it a huge range of stellar gallery exhibitions, which run alongside Frieze London and Frieze Masters (5–8 October). Among the satellite events worth visiting are Moniker and The Other Art Fair at the Old Truman Brewery, as well as the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair at Somerset House (5–8 October). Now in its fifth edition, 1:54 features 41 galleries from 18 countries, drawing attention to more than 130 artists from Africa and across the diaspora. Look out for the eight solo exhibitions which include presentations by Nidhal Chamekh (Selma Feriani Gallery), Ndikhumbule Ngqinambi (Barnard Gallery) and Safaa Erruas (L’Atelier 21). The special projects this year include a solo exhibition of the British-Moroccan photographer Hassan Hajjaj (5 October–7 January 2018), and a sound installation by Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh. As always, the fair is accompanied by an impressive talks programme, curated by Koyo Kouoh.

Michael Garnette Sittin’. © Hassan Hajjaj. Special Projects, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair

In the centre of town, BADA partners with one of the finest London hotels to host an event for collectors, curators and interior designers (6–8 October). At BADA Collection at The Lanesborough, 13 dealers display a variety of objects dating across 11 centuries, from fine art and furniture to antique boxes and jewellery. Highlights include a limestone waterspout dated around 1150–1250 (Beedham Antiques Ltd), a demi-lune commode by the Parisian ébéniste François Linke from around 1890 (Adrian Alan), and a Tang dynasty Changsha ewer (J.A.N. Fine Art).

Green Man waterspout (c. 1150–1250), Anglo-Norman, Caen. Beedham Antiques Ltd at BADA Collection at The Lanesborough

In Paris, FIAC – Foire internationale d’art contemporain returns to the Grand Palais from 19–22 October. For its 44th edition, the fair brings together over 190 galleries from across 30 countries – including an impressive 40 new exhibitors. The event remains committed to emerging art – through the Lafayette sector, in which 10 young galleries stage work by one or two artists – as well as performance-based work. Parades for FIAC, organised in association with the Musée du Louvre, features 18 artists, including Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Trisha Brown Dance Company and Jeremiah Day. Following its launch last year, the On Site sector stages around 40 sculptures and installations at the Petit Palais and on the Avenue Winston Churchill (look out for works by Ida Ekblad, Falke Pisano, and Antoni Tàpies), while American artist Oscar Tuazon has been invited to create a project on Place Vendôme. This year’s fair also sees the reintroduction of a design sector featuring five leading French galleries, among them Eric Philippe and Patrick Seguin.

In Germany, HIGHLIGHTS International Art Fair Munich is at the impressive Munich Residenz from 25–29 October. The fair, now in its eighth edition, welcomes around 40 international dealers offering works from the Middle Ages to the present day. Returning exhibitors include Galerie Thomas and Wienerroither & Kohlbacher, which shows a selection of Viennese secessionist works. Among the newcomers are Galerie Luzán, which brings a lively geometric composition by Max Ackermann, and Senger Bamberg Kunsthandel. The latter brings a polychrome limewood Madonna and Child dated to around 1420, while another Bamberg-based exhibitor, Christian Eduard Franke Kunsthandel, offers a pair of globes by John and William Cary. Painting is well represented too: Kunsthandel Giese & Schweiger from Vienna presents a 1935 snowscape by Alfons Walde, while a verdant landscape by Kirchner is offered by Wienerroither & Kohlbacher.

Further afield, New York welcomes back the 26th edition of the celebrated International Art Fair for Prints & Editions (IFPDA Print Fair), which moves from the Park Avenue Armory to a larger venue, the River Pavilion at the Javits Center (26–29 October). Part of New York Print Week, 81 dealers (including five making their debut) offer everything from Old Master prints to contemporary works. Among the UK participants are Alan Cristea Gallery, Paul Stolpe, and Sims Reed.

Five-fold screen (c. 1880), French. Butchoff Antiques at San Francisco Fall Art & Antiques Show

On the West Coast, the 36th edition of the San Francisco Fall Art & Antiques Show takes over Fort Mason Center and hosts 50 international dealers offering a broad range of works (25–29 October). This year’s theme, ‘Flower Power: Floral Imagery in Art, Antiques & Design’, celebrates the 50th anniversary of San Francisco’s Summer of Love, and sees a display of work that draws on the iconography of flowers – be it in jewellery, ceramics or paintings. The theme is beautifully illustrated by a five-fold screen at Butchoff Antiques, decorated in the early Romantic manner with a series of painted fête galante scenes, and a Davenport ironstone vase and cover, dated to around 1820, on the stand of Janice Paull. For painting, head to Trinity House, which offers Tranquility by John William Godward, a disciple of Lawrence Alma-Tadema, while a more abstract take on the theme can be found at Foster-Gwin, which offers a vibrant, gestural composition by the Abstract Expressionist painter, James Kelly.

From the October 2017 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.