London’s Frieze week kicked off properly on Wednesday 12 October with the preview for Frieze Art Fair in Regent’s Park. AM has long been a Frieze enthusiast. The calibre of its exhibitors and their booths makes most other contemporary art fairs look provincial in comparison. Conscious of the international spotlight, the big fish bring out the big guns and do whatever else they can to retain their dominance, while the ambitious smaller galleries pull out the stops to try raising the bar even higher for themselves.

Frieze is vast — and we’re only able to take in so many paintings, photos, sculptures and installations in a single visit before our eyes begin to glaze over from art fatigue — so we’ll be returning before the fair closes on Sunday. However, what AM’s already seen of this year’s event hasn’t disappointed. Galerie Eigen + Art (Berlin and Leipzig) at Booth G8 made the strongest impression on us thus far with a confident display for the most part focusing on works by Carsten Nicolai. Special mention also goes to Casey Kaplan (New York City) at Booth B5 with its serene and quirky solo presentation (bar one collaboration) of recent work by Matthew Brannon.

See more images and text after the jump.

Left: Anish Kapoor: 'Untitled'. 2011. Stainless steel; Centre: Ai Weiwei: 'Divina Proportione'. 2010. Huali wood. Lisson Gallery, London

Marc Quinn: 'Zombie Boy (Rick)'. 2011. Orbital-sanded and flap-wheeled lacquered bronze. White Cube, London

Works by Gert & Uwe Tobias. Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin

Left: Ryan McGinley: 'Kite Dunes'. 2011. C-print; Right: Banks Violette: 'I'd Rather Be Killing My Family'. 2011. Graphite on paper mounted to aluminium. Team Gallery, New York City

Dawn Mellor's 2011 oil and marker pen works on canvas. Left: 'South African gallerist Kristin Scott Thomas is showing neo-institutional critique works by Zurich based artist Chaz Bono'; Right: 'Helen Mirren, the 'grande dame' of British painting is showing works from the estate of Gary Cooper'. Team Gallery, New York City

Installation of works by Carsten Nicolai, including 'battery random dot' in the foreground. 2011. Duraclear prints, glass plates and rubber cubes. Galerie Eigen + Art, Berlin and Leipzig

Carsten Nicolai: 'tension loop' series. 2011. Metal strip loops in acrylic boxes

Of particular note is Carsten Nicolai’s new tension loop series, consisting of metal strips inserted into acrylic boxes to create randomly-formed loop structures. None of the loops are affixed: each holds its shape simply by the tension exerted on it from the others.

Works by Marine Hugonnier. Max Wigram Gallery, London

Cornelia Parker: From the installation ’30 Pieces of Silver (with reflections)’. Frith Street Gallery, London

Forground: Kaws: 'Companion'. 2011. Fibreglass and rubberised paint. Right: JR: '28 Millimetres, Women Are Heroes, Swimming Pool, Intercontinental Hotel, Monrovia, Liberia'. 2009. Colour photograph, plexiglass, aluminium, wood. Galerie Perrotin, Paris

Installation of works by Matthew Brannon. Casey Kaplan, New York

Antony Gormley: 'Clutch VI'. 2011. 8 mm key steel, 61 kg. Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris and Salzburg

Bemused onlookers as a woman starts screaming at the end of Wednesday's preview

Wednesday evening ended with an unofficial performance-art piece (or possibly a spaz attack) by one of the guests at the preview. She began screaming at the top of her lungs as the fair was closing and people were making their way to the exits. We rated her performance 6/10. Although her timing ensured a quasi-captive audience, if the act had been carried out at the start of the night — while the drinks were still flowing and there was more at stake in promptly getting kicked out by security — it would have guaranteed an 8/10.

Text and photographs by Patrick Nguyen.