Forma

Adham Faramawy | Frieze Artist Award 2023


Frieze Artist Award 2023

Adham Faramawy
October 2023

We are thrilled to announce Adham Faramawy as the winner of the Frieze Artist Award 2023, realised in partnership with Frieze for the fifth consecutive year. The Artist Award provides an artist with the opportunity to debut an ambitious new commission at Frieze London at a formative moment in their career. As part of the fair’s anchor programme of special initiatives and collaborations, the accolade has been a cornerstone of Frieze’s artist-led projects over the past two decades and seen recipients such as Simon Fujiwara (2010), Himali Singh Soin (2019), Alberta Whittle (2020), Sung Tieu (2021) and Abbas Zahedi (2022).


About the Commission

Titled And these deceitful waters, Faramawy’s video and sculptural assemblage will examine the history of the Thames, its underground tributaries and the plants along its banks as a way of exploring the river as a colonial artery and a site of ecological collapse. Employing a three-person dance performance with music and spoken word, the winning commission will tell the migration stories of the river and its flora, surveying how they build national identity and can construct, reinforce and dissolve borders. The work will weave tales together, illustrating how land becomes tangled into projects of nation building, colonisation, ecological collapse, toxicity and migration. Faramawy’s project will be installed at the entrance to Frieze London tent.

The winning commission was selected by a jury of leading industry figures, comprising Andrew Bonacina (Independent Curator), Carmen Juliá (Curator, Spike Island), Eva Langret (Director of Frieze London), Chris Rawcliffe (Artistic Director, Forma) and Abbas Zahedi (Winner of the Frieze London Artist Award 2022).


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And these deceitful waters

The Frieze Artist Award 2023

11-15 October 2023
Regents Park

The Frieze Artist Award 2023 is commissioned and produced by Forma and Frieze.


Frieze Artist Award 2023

Adham Faramawy
October 2023

We are thrilled to announce Adham Faramawy as the winner of the Frieze Artist Award 2023, realised in partnership with Frieze for the fifth consecutive year. The Artist Award provides an artist with the opportunity to debut an ambitious new commission at Frieze London at a formative moment in their career. As part of the fair’s anchor programme of special initiatives and collaborations, the accolade has been a cornerstone of Frieze’s artist-led projects over the past two decades and seen recipients such as Simon Fujiwara (2010), Himali Singh Soin (2019), Alberta Whittle (2020), Sung Tieu (2021) and Abbas Zahedi (2022).


About the Commission

Titled And these deceitful waters, Faramawy’s video and sculptural assemblage will examine the history of the Thames, its underground tributaries and the plants along its banks as a way of exploring the river as a colonial artery and a site of ecological collapse. Employing a three-person dance performance with music and spoken word, the winning commission will tell the migration stories of the river and its flora, surveying how they build national identity and can construct, reinforce and dissolve borders. The work will weave tales together, illustrating how land becomes tangled into projects of nation building, colonisation, ecological collapse, toxicity and migration. Faramawy’s project will be installed at the entrance to Frieze London tent.

The winning commission was selected by a jury of leading industry figures, comprising Andrew Bonacina (Independent Curator), Carmen Juliá (Curator, Spike Island), Eva Langret (Director of Frieze London), Chris Rawcliffe (Artistic Director, Forma) and Abbas Zahedi (Winner of the Frieze London Artist Award 2022).

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Adham Faramawy, And these deceitful waters, 2023. Installation view: Frieze London, October 2023. Co-commissioned by Frieze and Forma for the Frieze Artist Award 2023. © Adham Faramawy. Courtesy Niru Ratman. Photo: Dominique Cronshaw

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Adham Faramawy, And these deceitful waters, 2023. Installation view: Frieze London, October 2023. Co-commissioned by Frieze and Forma for the Frieze Artist Award 2023. © Adham Faramawy. Courtesy Niru Ratman. Photo: Dominique Cronshaw

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Chris Rawcliffe, Artistic Director, Forma, said:

2023 marks the fifth iteration of Forma’s collaboration on the Frieze Artist Award. To date, each of the artists we’ve worked with on the award has seen significant shifts in their national and international standing — contributing to the development of artistic careers at pivotal moments in their practice. This year, Forma are thrilled to continue our Frieze partnership, co-commissioning and co-producing a new work by Adham Faramawy. Faramawy’s practice is greatly deserving of the platform that the Frieze Artist Award provides, and we are excited to be working with an artist so politically astute and poetically sensitive. We look forward to supporting the realisation of Faramawy’s new commission and securing its legacy.

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Adham Faramawy, ‘And these deceitful waters’, 2023. Commissioned and produced by Forma and Frieze for the Frieze Artist Award 2023. Installation view: Creamcake, Berlin as part of ‘Is it cold in the water’, Images: Ink Agop, courtesy the artist and Creamcake.

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Adham Faramawy, ‘And these deceitful waters’, 2023. Commissioned and produced by Forma and Frieze for the Frieze Artist Award 2023. Installation view: Creamcake, Berlin as part of ‘Is it cold in the water’, Images: Ink Agop, courtesy the artist and Creamcake.

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Adham Faramawy, ‘And these deceitful waters’, 2023. Commissioned and produced by Forma and Frieze for the Frieze Artist Award 2023. Installation view: Creamcake, Berlin as part of ‘Is it cold in the water’, Images: Ink Agop, courtesy the artist and Creamcake.

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Adham Faramawy, ‘And these deceitful waters’, 2023. Commissioned and produced by Forma and Frieze for the Frieze Artist Award 2023. Installation view: Creamcake, Berlin as part of ‘Is it cold in the water’, Images: Ink Agop, courtesy the artist and Creamcake.

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‘And these deceitful waters’, 2024. Installation view: Focal Point Gallery, Southend. Courtesy of the artist, Niru Ratnam Gallery and Focal Point Gallery. Co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma. Photograph: Anna Lukala.

https://forma.org.uk/assets/_large/FPG_Andthesedeceitfulwaters_ALUKALA_1.jpg

‘And these deceitful waters’, 2024. Installation view: Focal Point Gallery, Southend. Courtesy of the artist, Niru Ratnam Gallery and Focal Point Gallery. Co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma. Photograph: Anna Lukala.

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Welcome the newcomers i and Welcome the newcomers ii

As an extension of their Frieze Artist Award commission, Faramawy has made two print editions, Welcome the newcomersi and Welcome the newcomers ii. All proceeds from their sales will be donated to the Southwark Day Centre for Asylum Seekers, a charity supporting refugees and asylum seekers in South London. Available now via Frieze.

Details:
Adham Faramawy
Welcome the newcomers (i & ii), 2023*

Colour Print on 350gsm Natural White Matt Hahnemühle Museum Etching Paper
42 cm x 29.7cm
Unframed
*The editions can be purchased separately or as a pair.

About Adham Faramawy

Adham Faramawy is an artist of Egyptian descent based in London. Their work spans media including moving image, sculptural installation, photography, print and painting engaging with concerns of materiality, touch, the body and toxicity to question ideas of the natural in relation to marginalised communities.

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Press

— Adham Faramawy receives Frieze London Artist Award 2023 (FAD Magazine, 29 June 2023)
— Adham Faramawy Announced as Winner of 2023 Frieze London Artist Award (Frieze, 29 June 2023)

Lead Image:

Adham Faramawy, And these deceitful waters, 2023. Film still. Co-commissioned and co-produced by Frieze and Forma. © Adham Faramawy. Image courtesy of Adham Faramawy.

The Frieze Artist Award 2023

11-15 October 2023
Regents Park

The Frieze Artist Award 2023 is commissioned and produced by Forma and Frieze.