Held on occasion of the upcoming edition of the Frieze Masters fair (14-18 October 2026), the panel discussion will offer the opportunity to discover some of the highlights of this year’s Spotlight section. With a particular emphasis on art from across the Global South, the section will be the largest to date since its inception in 2012.
The curated section will bring together solo presentations of artists working in the 20th century, with a focus on pioneering artists active in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, North and West Africa and across Asia. Spotlight will explore new research into these figures and showcase works produced between the 1950s and the late 1970s. While some artists have become established figures in their places of work, their art remains rarely seen in London.
The event will begin with an introduction to Frieze Masters by director Emanuela Tarizzo, followed by presentations by Spotlight section curators Sofia Gotti and Devika Singh. We will conclude with a conversation exploring the challenges and opportunities of presenting pioneering international artists within the context of an art fair. Among the questions that will be considered are: how do art historical and curatorial frameworks help address disparities of knowledge about artists? How can art fairs function as sites of research, knowledge exchange and critical inquiry? And how can they be part of broader ecologies of support among artists, scholars, curators, and galleries?
Organised by Dr Sofia Gotti, Lecturer in Curating, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ and Dr Devika Singh, Senior Lecturer in Curating, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ
Speakers
Emanuela Tarizzo is Director of Frieze Masters. Trained as an art historian at the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Institute of Art (BA 2009, MA 2010), she is also an experienced advisor with a focus on early-modern art. Formerly Gallery Director at Tomasso in London, she has worked with collectors and institutions on acquisitions, research, and strategy.
Devika Singh is Senior Lecturer in Curating at the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ, where she co-leads the MA Curating programme. She was previously Curator, International Art at Tate Modern. She curated exhibitions and collection displays at the Dhaka Art Summit, CSMVS (Mumbai), Dubai Design District, Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge), Tate Modern and Paris Photo. She is a joint editor of the Oxford Art Journal and is the author of International Departures: Art in India after Independence (Reaktion Books, 2023).
Sofia Gotti co-leads the MA Curating at the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Institute. She specializes in modern and contemporary art with a focus on South America, and she has worked on exhibitions held at institutions including La Biennale di Venezia, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museums, Tate Modern and Castello di Rivoli, and at commercial galleries internationally. Before joining the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ she held a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship at the University of Cambridge.
