Current Issue – June/July/August 2024 – Issue 244

‘An artist’s book can be the work itself – simply current’

Dan Fox

In the summer issue of frieze, writer Dan Fox profiles Primary Information, a New York-based publisher of artists’ books and writing. Plus, a dossier highlighting four emerging galleries to watch in Tokyo, Japan.

Profile: Dan Fox on Primary Information

‘As younger creative people, as artists, we wanted to have access to this material.’ Dan Fox delves into the history and development of a storied artists’ book publisher that brought 1970s conceptual art into the hands of a new generation. 

Dossier: 4 Galleries to Watch in Tokyo

‘Exhibitions don’t always have to be so exclusive, I want everyone to see [them].’  A roundtable by Andrew Maerkle, Azby Brown, Andrew Durbin and Taro Nettleton examines whether the new generation of galleries, non-profits and artist-run spaces in Tokyo can embrace the city’s famous pop sensibility – and change one of Asia’s oldest contemporary art scenes.

Also featuring

Ahead of her show at London’s Cubitt Gallery, Marlene Smith speaks to friend Lubaina Himid about intimacy and experimentation. In ‘1,500 Words,’ Paul Chan revisits filmmaker Chris Marker’s Dialector, an unrealised chat programme developed from 1985–89. Plus, Rianna Jade Parker offers an extensive survey on Jamaica’s intuitive artists, a self-taught group who ushered in a national form of artmaking by mythologizing African traditions.

Columns: Built Environment

Giovanna Silva writes on photographing history through unexpected architectural interventions, Juliet Jacques asks why we obsess over unpeopled buildings, Lennart Wolff looks at the work of Koffi & Diabaté Architects, and Carson Chan revisits John Cage’s ‘Organ²/ASLSP’ in Halberstadt, an organ piece designed to play continuously for 639 years. Plus, on the occasion of the ‘Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence’ exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, Derin Fadina examines the architectural movement’s exclusionary narratives.

Finally, as Jana Euler’s solo exhibition opens at WIELS, Brussels, assistant editor Chloe Stead revisits her 2019 ‘Great White Fear’ series. Plus, Hanayo contributes to our series of artists’ ‘to-do’ lists, and the latest iteration of Walter Scott’s new cartoon series.