Frieze London | Booth A5 | 12 - 16 October 2022

For the 2022 edition of Frieze London, Hales is excited to present a selection of works by artists Martyn Cross, Trenton Doyle Hancock, John Hoyland, Hew Locke, Ebony G. Patterson, Maja Ruznic, Carolee Schneemann, Anwar Jalal Shemza, Richard Slee and Gray Wielebinski. All artists reflecting the vision and programming of the gallery.

Martyn Cross (b. 1975 UK) lives and works in Bristol, UK. Cross is primarily a painter, creating works that speak to ancient and mythic lands. Applying thin layers of dry-brush pigment, the paintings are reminiscent of unearthed artifacts. Drawing on a myriad of concepts from mythology and the medieval, Cross' works personify the landscape. Figures, eyes and solitary limbs emerge from clouds and rivers, speaking to an alternate fiction. Ambiguous narratives are formed in reoccurring scenes and motifs, creating an immersive world. In 2021, Cross had a solo exhibition at Ratio 3, San Francisco, CA. His artworks were recently included in  A Thought Sublime, a group exhibition at Marianne Boesky Gallery, NY (2021) and Ratio 3's Summer Sessions group exhibition in Los Angeles, CA (2021). Cross will have a solo exhibition at Hales London in November 2022.

Trenton Doyle Hancock (b. 1974, Oklahoma City, USA) has, since childhood, been interested in issues of morality and ethics. He grew up in an all-American household governed by Christian ideals and over a lifetime has developed his own parallel (sometimes contradictory) value system. What began simply in his youth necessitated by a desire to manage a seemingly endless amount of resources, questions and life information, has continued as a grand narrative into adult life, pulling in a deepening understanding of life's thematic complexities, current events and existential conundrums which have come to form the complex narrative basis for Hancock's paintings, drawings, murals, theatrical performances and film. Hancock's work is in many permanent collections including Dallas Museum of Art, TX; The Museum of Modern Art, NY; The Metropolitan Museum, NY; The Studio Museum Harlem, NY and il Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea, Trento, Italy.

John Hoyland (b.1934 Sheffield, UK - d.2011 London, UK) was one of the most inventive and dynamic abstract painters of the post-war period. Over the span of more than a half-century his art and attitudes constantly evolved. A distinctive artistic personality emerged, concerned with colour, painterly drama, with both excess and control, with grandeur and above all, with the vehement communication of feeling. Hoyland's work in included in many prestigious collections including the Royal Academy of Arts, UK; Tate, UK; Arts Council Collection, UK; Museum of Modern Art, NY, USA and Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, CT amongst many.

Hew Locke RA (b. Edinburgh, UK, 1959) spent his formative years (1966-80) in Guyana before returning to the UK to complete an MA in sculpture at the Royal College of Art (1994) and was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2022. Locke explores the languages of colonial and post-colonial power, how different cultures fashion their identities through visual symbols of authority, and how these representations are altered by the passage of time. These explorations have led Locke to a wide range of subject matters, imagery and media, assembling sources across time and space in his deeply layered artworks. Locke's work is currently included in the renowned group exhibition In the Black Fantastic at the Hayward Gallery in London; and his breath-taking Duveen Galleries commission The Procession is on view at Tate Britain, London. The artist has also been selected for the Met Museum Façade Commission which will is currently on view through May 2023 in New York.

Ebony G. Patterson (b. 1981 Kingston, Jamaica) received a BFA in painting at Edna Manley College, Kingston, Jamaica in 2004 before completing an MFA at Sam Fox College, Washington University in St. Louis, MO in 2006. She lives and works in Kingston, Jamaica and Chicago, IL, USA.  Patterson's expansive practice addresses visibility and invisibility, through explorations of class, race, gender, youth culture, pageantry and acts of violence in the context of "postcolonial" spaces. With the strong sensibility of a painter, Patterson works across multiple media, united by her consistent visual language and intention. The artist has recently been included in ICA Watershed's group show Revival: Materials and Monumental Forms, Boston, USA, and in 2021 she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Washington University in St Louis, an important recognition for her significant achievements.

Maja Ruznic (b. 1983 Bosnia & Hercegovina) immigrated to the United States in 1995 due to the Bosnian war. Ruznic went on to study at the University of California, Berkley (2005), later receiving an MFA from the California College of Arts (2009). Ruznic currently lives and works in New Mexico, USA. Ruznic is predominantly a painter, drawing on personal and collective memories to create works that deeply connect with human psyche. She deftly weaves themes of trauma and suffering with mythology and healing, softening the darker subject matter in her work. Ruznic's upcoming solo show with Hales London opens in Spring 2023.

Carolee Schneemann (b. 1939, Fox Chase, PA - d. 2019, New Paltz, NY, USA) was a seminal, trailblazing artist with a far-reaching oeuvre spanning sixty years. Rooted in painting, her experimental practice extended to assemblage, performance and film. Schneemann received a BA from Bard College, NY, and an MFA from the University of Illinois. She held an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts and Maine College of Art. In 2017, Schneemann was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 57th Venice Biennale. Her work is currently on view in Barbican's Body Politics the first major survey of Schneemann's work in the UK, as well as at Hales London in an exhibition of the artist's early works Carolee Schneemann: 1955 - 1959.

Anwar Jalal Shemza (b.1928 - d.1985) was born in Simla, India to Kashmiri and Punjabi parents. Shemza attended Mayo School of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, graduating in 1947. In 1956, already an established artist and writer in his homeland, he relocated to England to study at the Slade School of Fine Art. His diasporic perspective allowed him to explore modernism through the double prism of Islamic and Western aesthetics. Throughout his career, Shemza's visual vocabulary drew on an array of deeply studied and lived experience, from carpet patterns and calligraphic forms to the environments around him: Mughal architecture from Lahore and the rural landscapes of Stafford, England. His work was recently included in Tate Liverpool's Radical Landscapes as well as in Postwar Modern: New Art in Britain 1945-1965 at the Barbican Centre, London.

Richard Slee (b. Cumbria, UK, 1946) studied at Carlisle College of Art & Design (1964-65) and studied ceramics at the Central School of Art & Design (1965-70). He graduated with an MA at the Royal College of Art (1988). Slee lives and works in London. As one of Britain's most important contemporary ceramic artists, Slee's work attempts to challenge every conventional notion in ceramic art, transcending its utilitarian roots, whilst also sidestepping the self-indulgent aspects of the studio tradition that became ubiquitous in the late twentieth century. His works lie in contemporary debate and reference the current positioning of material specialisations within visual creativity. Slee's upcoming solo exhibition will open at Hales London in 2023.

Gray Wielebinski (b. 1991 Dallas, TX, USA) received a BA from Pomona College, Claremont CA, USA  in 2014 before completing an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK in 2018. He lives and works in both London, UK and Los Angeles, CA, USA. In Wielebinski's expansive practice, incorporating video, performance, collage, installation, sculpture, and more, he explores the intersections of mythology, identity, gender, nationhood, and memory. Reconfiguring and transforming iconography and visual codes, his work seeks to navigate and question society's frameworks and belief systems. Wielebinski deftly confronts realities in order to imagine and propose alternatives. Wielebinski's work was recently included in Love at Bold Tendencies, London, UK.