Sawt Falasteen - London's Frieze art fair goes potty for ceramics

And it was a Latin America gallery that picked up this year's Frieze Gallery Stand Prize. The Guatemala City gallery won for its Proyectos Ultravioleta, featuring work by Guatemalan artists Edgar Calel and Rosa Elena Curruchich.

Some 60,000 gallery owners, collectors, influencers and visitors are expected in the British capital until Sunday for the annual event

One of the world's biggest and most prestigious contemporary art fairs, it offers visitors the chance to see works by both big names and emerging artists.

The ceramics showcase was the brainchild of Pablo Jose Ramirez, curator of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.

Entitled "Smoke" -- a reference to the process of drying out clay in a kiln -- the section features the work of 11 indigenous or diaspora artists, mainly from Central and South America.

It aims to give "visibility to artists who probably otherwise would not be represented in an international art fair", said the Guatemala-born curator.

- 'Ancestral stories' -

"Work on ceramics and on clay has been around us forever but it is not until recently that it was somehow kind of recognised as a form of art," he said.

The section also unites artists who navigate between several worlds -- "indigenous, ancestral stories" and globalised contemporary art, he said.

Lucia Pizzani, an artist "in exile" who arrived in London in 2007, said she was one of millions of Venezuelans who left the country because of a long political and economic crisis.

Her totems are made of black clay imprinted with Latin American plants such as corn or eucalyptus -- a link to "my personal history of migration", she said.

Her other terracotta ceramics were made in the pottery community of El Cercado on the Venezuelan island of Margarita.

The clay collected from the mountains with the works finished over an open fire is a traditional technique passed down through the generations.

Running alongside the 21st Frieze London -- for which some 160 galleries from 43 countries have reserved space -- exhibitions, auctions and private parties will also take place each day across London.

Visitors will be able to discover the latest Francis Bacon exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery; works by Tracey Emin at the White Cube gallery; or Yayoi Kusama at the Victoria Miro exhibition space.

- 'Dynamic' -

After an upbeat period in the wake of the Covid pandemic, this latest Frieze London opens against a more gloomy backdrop.

The global art market's sales slowed by four percent in 2023, according to a report from the bank UBS and Art Basel.

Cooled by economic uncertainties and geopolitical tensions, buyers are now more reluctant to bet on contemporary works whose value can often fluctuate.

The UK, however, remains an art stronghold, with 17 percent of the global market share in 2023, according to UBS and Art Basel.

Even so, it has lost some of its shine since Brexit due to extra red tape and tax, and was overtaken for the first time by China (19 percent) last year.

First held in London in 2003 before expanding to New York, Los Angeles and Seoul, Frieze also faces competition from Art Basel Paris being held in the French capital in October.

Frieze London director Eva Langret, however, remains confident of London's pulling power.

"We have many young galleries opening in London, many of those have participated in the fair in the last few years," she said.

"It's been a very dynamic sector... there is a lot of excitement, and London is still London," she added.

"Frieze is about getting the entire art community together, we have collectors who have travelled across the world to be here... so many galleries with incredible presentations," told AFP.

"Great sales are already happening."

L.AbuTayeh--SF-PST