The Modern Institute explores otherworldly narratives at Frieze London 2023

Among the artists showing work at The Modern Institute’s Frieze London 2023 booth are Rachel Eulena Williams, who creates lyrical assemblages of material and colour using sculptural elements that she weaves, threads or glues together, and Alberta Whittle, who addresses the legacies of the slave trade, colonialism and institutional racism – two new paintings on show take inspiration from Caribbean Gothic narratives and have an otherworldly quality that whispers of ghosts, hauntings, madness and monsters. 

The gallery is also showing pieces by Jim Lambie – who often uses ubiquitous objects that nod to nightlife, punk and subcultural music’s material history, from record covers and clothes to mirrors and safety pins – as well as works by Hayley Tompkins, who paints on ordinary things, from mallets and sunglasses to chairs, in a fluid, mosaic-like style, using vibrant colours to energise the mundane, asking us to look and look again at the objects we wear, grasp, sit on. 

There are new pastel-on-canvases by Andrew Sim, who presents new variations on their signature motifs, such as werewolves and horses, mixing the archetypal with the autobiographical, the queer and folkloric. These motifs originate from Sim’s personal experience following a long period of gestation and thought, both making a lasting impact on the artist. As such, they are often repeated, twinned and reconfigured to create a series of connections and synchronicities either within or across works. Sim began painting horses in 2020 while on residency at the Villa Lena Foundation in Italy. This was a liberating time for Sim, giving them space to reflect on their gender presentation. A calmness is echoed in the imagery of the horses. They are serene, poised and elegant; they appear peaceful and unaware of any audience. For Sim, they have become symbolic of a meditative and metamorphic period. 

Sim’s work will also be presented by The Modern Institute in a solo exhibition during Frieze as part of the gallery’s ‘Beyond the Modern Institute’ series, at 1-4 Walker’s Court, Soho. Founded by Toby Webster in Glasgow in 1997, the gallery works with 45 internationally established and emerging artists, including Martin Boyce, Cathy Wilkes, Anne Collier and Jeremy Deller, and currently represents four Turner Prize winners, as well as three nominees.

The Modern Institute will be at Booth D3 at Frieze London from 11-15 October, frieze.com, themoderninstitute.com