Frieze Frame: Day 2 Sales

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EDITORS NOTE: ArtInfo has a team of reporters in London covering the Frieze fair. Here is Judd Tullys report from Day 2 of the fair.

LONDON, Oct. 12, 2006Manhattan real estate magnate Aby Rosen, clad in blue jeans and a crisp T-shirt, peered admiringly down at Tom Friedmans stringy floor piece, Yarn Dog with Thread (2006) at the Stephen Friedman Gallery (London).

Im crazy about his work, hes brilliant, gushed Rosen, acknowledging he already owned some Friedman sculptures and was intent on commissioning the artist to create an installation in the lobby of Lever House in Manhattan, one of Rosens trophy properties.

Occasional sightings of heavy-duty American collectors buoyed spirits among various dealers at Frieze following the professional views on Wednesday.

Still, buying was primarily being done by Europeans, as was the case at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. (New York).

Mark Bradfords grandly scaled mixed-media collage on paper, Whore in the Church House (2006), measuring 102 by 144 inches, sold for $100,000; New York painter Amy Sillmans Bed, also fresh from the studio, sold for $65,000.

(Bradford is one of the featired artists in the "USA Today: New American Art from the Saatchi Gallery" show on view at the Royal Academy of Arts through Nov. 4.)

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Annely Juda Fine Art

British-made art was selling briskly at Annely Juda Fine Art (London) as Chance and Order 18 (Black) and Order and Change (Black I), a pair of Kenneth Martins geometric abstractions from the mid-1970s cast in the tight mold of Mondrian, sold at £35,000 apiece.

David Nashs totem-like, carved sculpture, Cuts Up Cuts Down, in charred beech from 2002, sold for £33,000, and Nigel Halls polished-wood ovoids, In the Bergell (Shadow) from 2006 went for £21,000.

But the biggest surprize for gallerist David Juda (the son of the late gallery founder Annely Juda) was the stirring reception for the 28-year-old Swedish-born and London-bred artist Sigrid Holmwood. Three of her four lively figurative paintings sold at a modest £2,000 each.

Blending 16th-century-era pigments mixed with fluorescent egg temperas, Holmwoods interior scenes of Tudor Society, such as Preparing Food, Two Dairy Maids and Common Land, project a homey yet decidedly hip blend of past and present.

Frieze is her first significant outing in the contemporary market terrain.

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Victoria Miro Gallery

A veritable slew of work by young artists were scooped up Hoover fashion at many of the stands, including at the venerable Victoria Miro Gallery (London).

Hernan Bas brashly executed and slightly cartoonish oil paintings from 2006, Jenna, The August Witch in Her Field and In the Future, Crystals Will Mean Everything, sold at $20,000 each.

Suling Wangs color-charged and large-scale abstraction Black Mountain Break In (2006) sold for £14,500.

On the mid-career front, Inka Essenhighs proto-surreal composition, Dance Party, in oil on linen from 2006, sold for a more grown-up $50,000. (Essenhigh is also included in the "USA Today" show at the Royal Academy, which many Frieze visitors have high on their must-see list while in London.)

Estate work, such as posthumous black-and-white prints originally photographed in the 1970s by the now iconic American artist Francesca Woodman, also sold briskly at $3,000 to $5,000. Woodmans eerie depictions of female nudes, often in self-portrait reflection, continue to draw new admirers.

But the biggest hit at Miros hopping stand was a limited-edition series of an animation piece by Jacco Olivier on DVD. All five of the pint-sized works, titled Calling, sold at €8,000.