Tiffany & Co’s artist mentorship at Frieze London puts creative exchange centre stage

Discovering new artists to love is easily the best part of Frieze, something that can occasionally get lost in the chaos. For the last couple of years, Frieze has underscored its importance with the brilliant Artist-to-Artist initiative, which sees established artists highlight their emerging or overlooked peers at their own solo exhibitions at the fair.

Now in its third year, the section has for the first time announced a partnership, with Tiffany & Co working alongside the art fair to provide Artist-to-Artist with support and funding which will see the six participating galleries receive direct financial assistance. This year’s solo presentations - Ilana Harris-Babou (Dreamsong), selected by Camille Henrot; Katherine Hubbard (Company Gallery), selected by Nicole Eisenman; Ana Segovia (Kurimanzutto), selected by Abraham Cruzvillegas; Neal Tait (Lungley Gallery), selected by Chris Ofili; René Treviño (Erin Cluley Gallery), selected by Amy Sherald; and T. Venkanna (Gallery Maskara), selected by Bharti Kher - will benefit from the initiative’s new direction.

‘Tiffany & Co.’s support allows us to expand the impact of Artist-to-Artist, a section that celebrates artistic community and exchange,’ says Eva Langret, Director of EMEA, Frieze. ‘By enabling direct funding to participating galleries, this partnership helps ensure that the artists’ visions are brought to life and seen by a global audience.’

For the six artists chosen this year, a mentorship opens up the possibility of new audiences and inspirations. Here, American and Senegalese contemporary artist Ilana Harris-Babou, chosen by Camille Henrot, tell us what showing her work at Frieze means to her.

Ilana Harris-Babou on Artist-to-Artist at Frieze

Your work, spanning mediums, resists easy classification. What draws you to a specific mode of expression?

My choice of medium is driven by the specific qualities that best serve an idea and my desire to connect with an audience. The immediacy of video, the tactility of sculpture, and time spent in community are all central to my practice.

When I’m in the studio, I’m often hopping between different modes of creation. I find that many of my initial ideas resist language and need to be worked through materially before I can fully understand what I’m trying to do. The color of a certain clay might surface memories of a particular intersection in my neighborhood. I’ll think of a song I heard someone playing from their car at that location and realize that the lyrics are deeply related to the sentiments in a video I’m editing. This cycle of rediscovery can only play out across materials.

Viewers discovering your work through familiar popular culture tropes and viral trends may be unprepared for the gentle subversion they are treated to. It is a juxtaposition, which runs throughout your works - what fascinates you about it?

I’m interested in exploring the messy moments when we can’t fully conform to systems of consumption. When our bodies feel unwieldy, or when they’re forced to rest, break down, or quit altogether. I investigate how we might misuse these systems in generative ways.

My ideas are shaped by the scale shift from domestic space to the public sphere. In my work, humour acts like the sugary coating on a Tylenol table: sweetening difficult discourse and helping to digest painful realities. I try to offer as many points of entry as possible to my audience. I seek to make art that is generous, challenging viewers while always giving more than it takes.

Can you tell us a bit about what you will be presenting at Frieze London?

For Frieze, I’m presenting the first experiment in what will hopefully become a broader body of work.

My work here takes Audre Lorde's poem, "A Litany for Survival," as a starting point to explore the friction and connection found in urban democratic spaces like subways, beaches, and parks. The centerpiece is a three-channel video, Njambat (Litany), which I shot in New York, London, and Senegal. It's modeled after the digital advertisements in the NYC subway, and the soundtrack features a reading of Lorde’s poem translated by my father into his native Wolof language.

Alongside the video are mosaic wall reliefs inspired by the subway system. One piece, Index, is a large relief made of hundreds of cast ceramic fingerprints and swipe gestures. The work explores the ways we move together in spite of fear. It is a celebration of the city and the improvisatory gestures of the people within it, seeking out moments of ephemeral expression and solidarity.

I was initially hesitant to show a video so personal and experimental in an art fair context. Now I’m excited to share the work with an international audience, to get feedback, and to continue the evolution of my ideas.

Frieze London from 15 - 19 October