Founded by the publishers of Frieze magazine, the annual Frieze Art Fair in London, now in its fourth year, cultivates an intellectual outlook even as its commercial success skyrockets. Last year's fair attracted 47,000 visitors and tallied around $63 million in sales. But rather than focus exclusively on commerce, founders Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover promote critical thinking about the fair by commissioning subversive art and organizing highbrow panels.

This year's Frieze Commissions include four conceptual projects addressing the event's physical space. Mike Nelson's labyrinthine installation steers visitors away from the gallery booths and into a darkroom filled with images of the fair's construction. Lara Almarcegui itemizes the materials used to build the booths, and Loris Gréaud presents nano sculptures only visible through microscopes. Off-site, Pablo Bronstein leads a daily bus tour of postmodern architecture in London. For the Artists Cinema, Frieze and LUX commissioned 35mm films from five artists; among them, Miguel Calderón fuses his trash aesthetic with narrative film, Phil Collins records a laughing competition, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul plays with the Thai national anthem. The Frieze Sculpture Park injects 11 sculptures into Regent's Park, including cheeky interventions by Peter Coffin and Sarah Lucas.

Daily Frieze Talks gather high-profile artists and critics to discuss themes of Taste, Performance, Criticality, and Architecture & Atmospherics. Liam Gillick lectures on the commercialization of culture, Marina Abramovic on contemporary performance, and Adrian Piper on criticality in art. French intellectual Jean Baudrillard makes a special appearance, speaking with literary theorist Sylvère Lotringer on "the end of art." Rounding out the events are performances by Sun 0))), Liars, and promotional speaker BARR (Brendan Fowler).

Although Mika Rottenberg, recipient of the new Cartier Prize, shines with a new video piece on longhaired farm girls, other artists get their share of the spotlight in the gallery booths. A total of 140 galleries fill the hall, with over 50 percent from the UK, US, and Germany. New York's Salon 94 premieres a new video from Aïda Ruilova along with Marilyn Minter's infamous porn paintings from the '80s and '90s. Also from New York, Postmasters shows new photographs from Antony Goicolea, and Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery highlights candy-colored paintings by Andrzej Zielinski. Of the many London galleries, Victoria Miro Gallery displays a kinetic light sculpture from Conrad Shawcross, and the Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd hands out 1,000 free artworks from Jeremy Deller asking "What Would Neil Young Do?" Galería Pepe Cobo from Madrid shows Gonzalo Puch's new photos, the Breeder from Athens picks drawings by Jannis Varelas, and Copenhagen's Anderson_s Contemporary highlights Olafur Eliasson.

If the Frieze festivities don't keep you busy, Scope London, the Zoo Art Fair, and the new Year_06 Art Projects compete for attention, offering younger galleries and emerging artists waiting to be discovered.

-BR