Eyewear brand AKONI focuses creative vision

Eva Langret

For Eva Langret, artistic director of Frieze London, the city’s largest
art fair is less one event than an entire ecosystem of representation
and exchange. “This is a moment where we gather curators, institutions, brands and the general public – and for the fair to be successful, every constituent needs to feel that they’re represented in what we do.” Langret’s kaleidoscopic lens on curation was honed during her time at Tiwani Contemporary, a gallery focusing on African and diasporic art, where questions of who is canonised and who is overlooked loomed large. At Frieze, Langret rebuffs the notion of any singular totalising narrative, instead identifying points of confluence between like-minded artists, while paying mind to broader global trends. Part of the excitement of Frieze comes from the art world’s sense of constant renewal: as the annual art calendar gets busier year on year, with new fairs launching and spaces opening, new ideas are constantly bubbling to the surface. Above all, Langret views curation as an act of storytelling, one that goes far beyond just the artworks themselves. From the lighting of the booth to the design of sculpture parks to the architecture of auditoriums, each detail is considered to allow for new engagements between audience and artwork. “It’s the act of being a conduit, helping facilitate the exchange of their message to the widest possible audience.”

Eva wears glasses by AKONI Eyewear, jacket and skirt by REJINA PYO and her own jewellery. 

We’ve seen a real growth in working with what’s there, not viewing architecture as a tabula rasa

Owen Watson

As a director of 6a architects, a practice working across arts, 
culture and heritage, Owen Watson sees his work as a form of 
listening: to place, to residents, to history itself. As he says, “You are taking in briefs from clients, the constraints of existing structures, and costs – and you’re trying to make this puzzle come together in a way that’s logical and beautiful.” Taking on renovations of extant spaces, like 6a’s forthcoming transformation of the listed James Stirling and Michael Wilford-designed Tate Liverpool building, requires a certain stewardship: embedding buildings more closely into their landscapes while respecting the architect’s original intentions. For Watson, space itself is a form of grammar, reflected through the practice’s use of large-scale models, which allow him to clearly communicate a building’s essence and practical concerns to clients and the wider public. The long-form nature of architecture as an art, where a decade might pass between a building’s planning and completion, means that expectations inevitably shift. Transparency and sustainability remain key concerns in meeting public expectations. “We’ve seen a real growth in working with what’s there, with available materials, not viewing architecture as a tabula rasa. What can we do with what we have?”

Owen wears glasses by AKONI Eyewear, jacket by Toogood and top by Derrick.

Surviving might be the goal, but being present is perhaps the important thing

Sophia Al-Maria

Sophia Al-Maria works from a decidedly post-individual 
artmaking philosophy, in which work is never really done alone. “I’m suspicious of forms that are too onanistic,” as she says: “I always try to open up whatever I’m doing to people whose opinions I trust.” Known for her multi-disciplinary ventures across cultural theory, fiction and television, collaboration forms an essential part of her practice, whether it be her ongoing dialogue with artist Lydia Ourahmane or her contribution to the band Moin’s most recent album, where on “Lift You” – a stirring riff on Etel Adnan’s poem “To Be in a Time of War” – her voice threads amongst angular post-rock architecture. Her writing considers how capitalism, colonial legacies and culture mould the present – be it through her much-misrepresented coinage of “Gulf Futurism” to describe the region’s uneasy embrace of hyper-capitalism – to her historical fiction, which has spanned 1950s Tangier, 11th-century Scotland, and the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula. In these works, fiction becomes a form of time travel, a way to examine, in her words, “the echoes and things that are repeating themselves.” All of her work, in whatever genre, is oriented around how we might orient ourselves most steadfastly in the world: “Surviving might be the goal, but being present is perhaps the important thing.” 

Sophia wears glasses by AKONI Eyewear and her clothes are by Miu Miu.

Styling by Eve Bailey. Owen and Sophia’s hair and make-up by Jinny Kim using Olaplex, Eva’s hair and make-up by Kate O’Reilly