Breguet Launches New Artistic Collaboration for its Partnership with Frieze Art Fair 2024
For the third year of its partnership with Frieze Art Fair, Breguet launches a new artistic collaboration with curator Jenn Ellis. The first exhibition will be showcased during Frieze New York between May 1- 5, 2024.
After the recent buzz of the 60th Venice Biennale opening week, Frieze New York 2024 returns to steal the spotlight from across the pond. The 12th edition of the acclaimed international art fair opens at The Shed in Hudson Yards, running from May 1-5, 2024.
For the third year of its partnership with Frieze Art Fair, luxury watchmaker Breguet launches a new artistic collaboration with curator Jenn Ellis. Ellis, a curator with roots in Switzerland and Colombia, is passionate about exploring the interplay of art, space and context. As founder of the curatorial studio APSARA, she has gained critical recognition for meaningful projects connecting artists, galleries and institutions globally.
After visiting Breguet's manufacture in the Vallée de Joux to discover the brand's savoir-faire, Ellis was impressed by the artisans' passion and rich tradition. "It was incredible to not just understand but feel the emotion, care, and technical skill that goes into making each Breguet piece," she said. "There is a profound respect for heritage and finding the balance between historical articulation and innovation."
For Frieze New York 2024, Ellis has chosen to collaborate with Singaporean artist Dawn Ng, whose work resonates with geographical and topographical interpretations of deep time. The inaugural exhibition "An Atlas of Us" features Ng's articulation of time through colour, shape, form and emotive associations.
Working with ephemeral ice blocks in her studio, Ng creates stratified, near-geological formations by layering pigments, watercolours, acrylics and dyes. Her pieces, including moving image, lightboxes, photography and painting, speak to the Earth's topography where time is read through ancient formations shaped by gravitational forces — an important concept in watchmaking design. "In my work, I explore time through the ultimate ephemeral material: ice," explained Ng. "Collaborating with Breguet prompts me to think about what predates us — land, topography, geological formations... How time comes, goes and evolves cyclically."
The 2024-25 Breguet x Frieze partnership explores evolutionary change through Ng's solo exhibition at Frieze New York, followed by additional curatorial projects by Ellis throughout the year. With its founder's avant-garde spirit, Breguet has long appreciated art, exemplified by its engraving, enamelling and guilloche workshops continuing the tradition of Swiss watchmaking expertise.
