ART

How artist Larr y Achiampong is recasting iconic videogame characters

For the past 20 years, Frieze London has been one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art fairs. Not somewhere you might expect to find videogames as a subject, then. But as an artist and committed player himself, Larry Achiampong incorporates the medium into his latest exhibition. Not just in the works – a series of portraits featuring reimaginings of iconic game characters – but in the space itself, which has been set up like a gaming room. “I wanted to make sure that it was interactive,” he explains, “so there’s actual games that you can play, and having those as references to the work as well.”

The small, square space of an art-fair booth feels almost perfect for Achiampong’s recreation of the council flats where he grew up. It’s a kind of physical autobiography, inviting visitors into a space with armchairs and two-seater sofas, classic consoles hooked up to CRTs. Piles of old music CDs provide a further glimpse into the tastes that shape his work. You might suggest this installation of sorts is superfluous to the portraits hanging on the walls, which are ultimately what is being sold, but for Achiampong it’s an intentionally leftfield move, to “push the boundaries of what an art fair isn’t and what an art fair could be.”