About the Fair - Frieze New York

It’s been more than a hot minute since the art world has attended an in-person art fair. Personally, my last in-person fair was last February in Mexico City at Zonamaco. 

Frieze New York welcomed the art world back with open arms given individuals either were fully vaccinated for at least 14 days or had a negative covid test. Restrictions were sharply enforced, and a limited number of individuals were granted access to the fair at any given time. You had to buy tickets for a designated time slot (mine, Friday, 1:30-3) and you were given a 2 hour time limit. While the administrative aspect of it wasn’t enjoyable, it made for a safe and satisfying experience. 

Another key difference was the location. Frieze New York normally takes place in their signature white tent at Randall’s Island, but this year the fair moved indoors to The Shed in Hudson Yards. I will say the location was preferable for a number of reasons, the simplest being it’s much easier to get to. 

The fair spanned floors 8, 6, 4 and 2 of the Shed, with floor two being the largest exhibition space. Roughly 60 galleries had booths and about twice that amount had a presence in the Frieze online viewing room. This is probably a controversial statement, but while I do enjoy the in-person experience more, the inventory in the online viewing room was much better than what was shown at the fair. I’m not sure if this is due to galleries being hesitant about the fair happening at all and not having adequate time to plan, but given the caliber of exhibits I’ve seen over the past year I was a little surprised with what galleries brought to the table. 

However, there were still some gems that I’m going to share with you starting with some of my favorite individual artworks/artists, then my favorite overall booths. 

Video Walkthrough

My favorite Artworks

 My favorite thing about art fairs is discovering new artists. These artworks are ones that really stood out to me as I wondered through Frieze.

My favorite booths

Here are some of my favorite booth's from Frieze.

Gagosian Gallery

Gagosian’s booth featured two female artists, Rachel Feinstein & Ewa Juszkiewicz.

James Cohen Gallery

James Cohen Gallery had a solo booth featuring works by Trenton Doyle Hancock

“Recently, in my comics and paintings, I’ve used the Klansman to represent America’s contract with White Supremacy, especially how that contract is negotiated with Black Americans. I’ve paired the volatile klansman symbol with my own Black superhero, Torpedoboy, in order to highlight the “exchange” or dialogue that Black Americans are forced into daily.” - Trenton Doyle Hancock

David Zwirner

David Zwirner's booth featured works by their newly represented artist Dana Schutz.

Stephen Friedman Gallery

Stephen Friedman Gallery featured works by the British artist Sarah Ball.

Wilding Cran Gallery

Wilding Cran Gallery featured works by Karon Davis.

Marian Goodman Gallery

Marian Goodman Gallery’s booth featuring works by Annette Messager.

Marinaro Gallery

Marinaro Gallery featured paintings by Ridley Howard and sculptures by Johannes Vanderbeek.

Canada Gallery

Canada featured works by Katherine Bernhardt, Luke Murphy and Rachel Eulena Williams.

Hauser & Wirth Gallery

Hauser & Wirth featured works by Günther Förg, Henry Taylor, Rashid Johnson, Simone Leigh, George Condo, and Paul McCarthy (to name a few).

Nara Roesler

Nara Roesler’s booth that features works by three Brazilian artists: Cristina Canale, Carlito Carvalhosa, and Amelia Toledo. I think my favorites were by Cristina Canale.

Barro

Barro featured a very cheeky exhibit by Agustina Woodgate.

"Loaded with a stack of eroded US Dollar banknotes, ADM invites the client to withdraw the work directly with their bank card. The booth becomes a space for self-service and convenience. Where the ATM automated the teller, ADM automates the dealer. ATMs, or Automated Teller Machines, had a profound influence not only on the financial industry but also on security and verification technologies." (source)