One of the world's great art cities, with something worth seeing every single week. From Frieze to First Thursdays, blue-chip to grassroots — here's what's happening in London right now.
During this project, The Koppel Project's ANNEX gallery in Elephant & Castle will be made available to the resident artists working within their studios for Untitled Assembly, a temporary, collectively occupied exhibition.
With hundreds of artists working across a wide range of disciplines, the studios provides the context for an experiment in exhibition-making that begins with a simple proposition: what happens when artists are given access to a gallery without a prescribed theme, a selection process or a curatorial framework?
For four days, the ANNEX will function as an open space in which artists can install, alter, accumulate, remove and respond to work. Painting, sculpture, photography, moving image, sound, text, performance and other forms of practice may coexist within the gallery. Contributions can be temporary or remain throughout the project; artists may work independently or in response to one another. The exhibition will develop over time, with no fixed arrangement or predetermined outcome.
Untitled Assembly considers the conditions through which artistic work is exhibited, circulated and made visible. Within a sector in which access to space, resources and professional networks can shape an artist’s opportunities, the project temporarily suspends the conventional distinction between those selected to exhibit and those who are not.
Rather than presenting a curated representation of the building’s artistic community, this initiative makes the exhibition space itself available as a shared resource.
There will be no opening reception or private view. The public is invited to visit and encounter the gallery in whatever state it occupies. Works may appear, disappear, overlap or be replaced; documentation will record moments in the exhibition’s development without attempting to establish a definitive version.
The gallery may also be entirely empty. There is no guarantee of a particular number of participants, a minimum amount of work, or a continuous exhibition in the conventional sense. Its presence, density and activity will depend entirely on the artists who choose to take part and the decisions they make throughout the week.
Untitled Assembly resists defining in advance what the exhibition should become. An assembly may be a gathering, an arrangement of separate parts or a collective act. Here, it describes a space whose form and meaning will be determined by the artists who occupy it.
The result may be an exhibition, a conversation, an accumulation of unrelated gestures or a temporary disruption of the gallery’s usual function. Its direction remains open.
Orozco and curator Briony Fer launch Chronotopic, a book on three decades of his practice; talk at 4pm, signing and cocktails 5–7pm. Entry: At capacity — registration closed.
ROOM 13 is delighted to invite you to register interest* to join us at a magnificent location, where in classic ROOM 13 fashion we will feed you oh so well, have you gasp in delight over the little surprises we prepared and bring everyone together ahead of Frieze so we can compare calendars and make sure the week ahead will be stunning success for all.
Dresscode: At the Stables**
**as we will be in former stables we want to see you in high boots, possibly carrying a crop or a little chic riding coat. Or dress up as a unicorn, in rainbow hues and a plush tail. Anything goes! We all got a pony girl/boy in us somewhere. Let them out to play!
* the easiest way to ensure entry is the membership of course. Head to ROOM 13 to join!
Manning's first London solo show: new paintings that mix Thames silt and London clay into the pigment. Runs 13 Oct–14 Nov. Entry: Reception; show free.
Ligon's sixth show with the gallery sets earlier and new works against each other, including his 'AMERICA' neons and the templates behind them. Runs 13 Oct–19 Dec. Entry: Private view; show free.
Premiere of Pfeiffer's new video installation, filmed at a bull-breeding farm near Seville and a historic Bilbao bullring. Runs 13 Oct–19 Dec. Entry: Private view; show free.
Wang talks with senior curator Natasha Hoare about Being Poetic Ruins Life, her first UK institutional show. The exhibition is open beforehand. Entry: Ticketed.
An exclusive evening at Phillips celebrating modern & contemporary art. Enjoy drinks and a private view of exceptional pieces by masters of the 20th and 21st centuries – ahead of Phillips’ auction on October 15th.
The New York artist stages an improvised performance on group complaint, alongside her ICA solo show I Can't Complain. A second performance follows on Thu 15 Oct. Entry: Ticketed.
