Current Issue – June/July/August 2023 – Issue 236

‘What we call breathing, what we call tender, what we call life.’ – Torkwase Dyson
In the summer issue of frieze, Travis Diehl profiles artist Gary Simmons to coincide with major shows in London and Chicago. Plus, ahead of biennial appearances in Liverpool and São Paulo, artist Torkwase Dyson is in discussion with writer Christina Sharpe. 
Profile: Gary Simmons
‘The work has gone from a bone-rattling explosion to a slow, ruthless burn.’ An artist of grand gestures and living histories reassesses his past – and future – with a mid-career survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and a solo show at Hauser & Wirth, London.
Conversation: Torkwase Dyson and Christina Sharpe
‘It means something not to be lost in the face of terror but to move through it. Because how else did we move?’ Torkwase Dyson speaks with writer and collaborator Christina Sharpe about how they both engage with the legacies of slavery and Blackness in their work. 
Also featuring  
In anticipation of Senga Nengudi’s forthcoming book, we share a selection of notes, scribbles, statements and poems from the artist and her alter ego. In ‘1,500 Words’, poet Simone White considers Carrie Mae Weems’s Mirror, Mirror (1987–88). Plus, we profile four galleries and project spaces across Ghana, from Tamale in the north to the capital of Accra, that support artists producing and exhibiting innovative work: Gallery 1957, Nubuke Foundation, Nuku Studio and Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art.
Columns: After Dark
Zahra Bundakji on the all-women dance parties rising in the Arab world; Edna Bonhomme examines how DJ and writer Paul Purgas amplifies the many musical histories of nightlife; CAConrad pens a poem for your dreams; Cassie Packard on how Joey Terrill’s collages celebrate queer Chicano culture; Chloe Aridjis on the inspiration that comes when you cannot go to sleep.  
Finally, on the heels of the centenary of Richard Avedon’s birth and a celebratory exhibition at Gagosian, New York, Brian Dillon looks closely at the photographer’s outtake of his portrait of William Casby. Plus, Going Up, Going Down charts what’s hot and what’s not in the global art world, and we bring you the latest iteration of our Lonely Arts column.