Soyoung’s Favourite 5 Works on Frieze Viewing Room

Peter Alexander 

0/21/16 (Brilliant Blue Black Leaner), 2016 

Urethane 

Presented by Parrasch Heijnen

I really like the Light and Space Movement artists who worked in California in the 1960s and 1970s. Peter Alexander is one of them. His work beautifully captures California's light and color. 

Betye Saar

Black Hand w/ Yellow Planets, 2021

Watercolor on paper

Presented By Roberts Projects Gallery

I first saw Betty Sarr's work in a book titled Art For Life when I was a master's student in art education about 16 years ago. At that time, I was not an art collector, but a master's student at an art university. I recall being so excited that I had found such a great artist that I looked for another work of hers for a long time. She is a beautiful artist that we must remember. I already have a work by her daughter Lezley Saar in my collection, and I really want to have a work by Beyte Saar someday as well. 

Hyun-Sook Song

Brushstrokes - Diagram, 2019

Tempera on canvas

Presented by Zeno X Gallery

When I first saw artist Song Hyun-sook's work by chance, I thought it was incredibly sophisticated. She was one of the many Korean nurses sent to Germany during the 1970s, but she eventually became an artist, as she had long-harbored such dreams. 

Song Hyun-sook paints using tempera. Tempera is a Western invention, used particularly widely from the ancient and medieval times through to the early Renaissance. It is a painting medium which mixes pigments with a solvent consisting of eggs or fig tree sap. 

Through this method, the artist paints dark green, soil, and white colors to create a deep, matte image. The most peculiar thing about her is that she uses a traditional Korean Gwiyal brush. So her works are doubly rough and soft. I think this duality is what makes her paintings so attractive. 

Mcarthur Binion

dna:work, 2022

Oil paint stick, ink and paper on board 

Presented by MASSIMODECARLO

I am a person who believes that 'records' are quite important. So I have consistently recorded my favorite things, my daily life, and people who are precious to me on blogs, YouTube, and Instagram. Only those who record can understand the true nature of McArthur Binion's work. 

His abstract works use as its basic materials phone books with which he communicated in the 1970s to the 1990s. His works feel like a diary that penetrates his life, giving it a very human touch. 

Simon Fattal 

Centaur, 2004 

Stoneware 

Presented by kaufmann repetto

It was thanks to Etel Adnan that I first got to know Simone Fattal. And as time passed, I saw a lot of her works through exhibitions at MoMA PS1. Her primitive and natural sculptures seemed to contain ancient truths. I still believe that art is the most sincere and beautiful when it tends to be primitive. And that's why I love Simone Fatale's works. 

About Soyoung Lee

Soyoung Lee is an art educator and essayist. She is also a founder of the International contemporary art education association (ICEA) and operates a number of educational institutions to inspire people to collect art. 

About Frieze Viewing Room

Frieze Viewing Room is a free digital platform, connecting global audiences with Frieze's galleries and artists.  

Opening to all from February 15 – 20, the Viewing Room offers fair visitors a preview of the wealth of gallery presentations coming to Frieze Los Angeles 2022, as well as the chance for audiences around the world to experience and acquire the artwork on show.

Create your free account and "Sign the Book" on the competition page between February 15-20, 2022, for the chance to win a limited-edition print by Kate Costello worth $500.