Although its moniker refers to an ancient art form, London’s Frieze Art Fair, staging its sixth run in Regent’s Park from October 16 through 19, is a high-glam gathering of the world’s edgiest and most influential contemporary-art galleries. Along with a solid presence of American, European and Japanese exhibitors among the 150 dealers on hand, there is strong representation from the fast-expanding markets of Brazil, China, India and Russia.

Beijing’s Long March Space, one of nine newcomers, is bringing work by two Chinese artists: Lin Tianmiao, whose mannequinlike figures encased in luminescent materials sell for $80,000 and up, and Guo Fengyi, who draws complex compositions of historic sites and human biological systems that are priced at about $12,000 each. São Paulo’s Galeria Vermelho features the work of the Brazilian-born duo Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain, whose collaborative installations, objects and videos investigate the forms and systems of language and are priced from $5,000.

“The Frieze fair, with its devotion to living artists, has a real freshness to it,” says Alex Dodge, of New York’s CRG Gallery, which is displaying a mix of sculpture and photography by emerging artists Colby Bird, O Zhang and Mindy Shapero with price tags under $10,000. New color photographs by Cindy Sherman exploring notions of self-image and beauty— familiar themes for Sherman— are priced between $150,000 and $250,000 at the booth of New York’s Metro Pictures. The Cuban-born artist Wilfredo Prieto is Frieze’s 2008 Cartier Award winner. Known for installations that recontextualize everyday objects, Prieto has created a work for the fair composed of more than 100 oil drums. “Frieze is unique,” says David Tung, of Long March Space, “for its role as a marketplace not only for artworks but for ideas.”

"Frieze Frame" originally appeared in the October 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's October 2008 Table of Contents.