All the fun of the fair ... Frieze art fair 2006. Photograph: Linda Nylind
It may be only mid-August but many in the art world are already looking forward to October. It's been a year for weather-related action and reflection, and artist couple Heather and Ivan Morison are doubtless alive to the prospect of how much nature has recently impacted on our lives. Wildlife, flowers and animals dominate their oftentimes bizarre yet grown-up multimedia narratives about the interrelation between people and ecology. Al Gore would be proud of this subtle allotment- activism-as-art.
Come October (amid, presumably, more rain), the pair have their biggest British outing to date at London's County Hall. As part of the Year 07 Art Fair, Danielle Arnaud Contemporary Art is showing the couple's new work, Dark Star during London's heavily touted "art week". Is Year 07 going to afford them a stepping stone to notoriety?
In a matter of months, London is going to go crackers for new artists. Joining Frieze and Zoo art fairs, Year 07 (now in its second year) claims it will deliver a show of "anti-hierarchical policy and curatorial freedom", and deliver up an alternative roster of international talent. Should buyers be making a beeline here, rather than Frieze?
If we deconstruct the fatuous spin, at Year 07 we can probably expect no curatorial theme (a good thing), and a range of artists chosen on merit, not reputation (better still). Compare this to the Venice Biennale, with its nonsense thesis of Think with the Senses, Feel with the Mind, and superstar Tracey Emin representing Britain: most critics dismissed it as boring.
Could Year 07 succeed where Venice did not, and get the magic formula right? In a town filled with artists, as London is, it shouldn't be that hard. For its showcase in Regent's Park, Frieze may catch the cream of the elite international galleries representing art's most fiercely backed, hottest property. But this leaves the Year 07 organisers - who also run the Keith Talent Gallery in east London's heartland of artist-run spaces - free to invite more oddball presentations from galleries lower down the food chain.
From London's gallery network there's also Bischoff Weiss, Man&Eve, and Carter and Gallagher, which all turn out daring stuff. Altogether, the 58 galleries taking part in Year 07 hail from many interesting cities, among them Leipzig, New York, Zurich, Paris and Newcastle.
So what should we expect to see? A show claiming curatorial freedom should offer a genuine diversity of mediums. Art nowadays is anything and everything, and there should be no fear of what will or won't sell. With no big names to latch on to, it's going to be down to personal reactions, based on unfamiliar terrain. Isn't this a more pulse-racing prospect than seeing who happens to attract Saatchi's chequebook?
Whether it will produce good art remains the ultimate question though. More shows like Year 07 can only be a positive thing, if they give the next generation the incentive to make risk-taking, challenging work. Then again, it could generate a load of money for old rope. We'll have to wait and see.
