Xu Zhen/Made In, New (Hercules) and New (Marsyas) at Shangart. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
“It’s a bunch of white upper class people in a feeding frenzy,” commented one of the VIPs on Randall’s Island shortly before Frieze New York opened its doors May 4 at 11:00 a.m.
While the entry queue didn’t turn into a Black Friday-level stampede from the first round of well-heeled guests, it was still a wild day at the fair, full of the expected selection of blue-chip contemporary art (including the Hirst/Gagosian reunion), but also a live donkey, mimes, and performances, not to mention a futuristic Solylent meal-replacement drink from Sean Raspet at Berlin’s Gallery Société.
Maurizio Cattelan, Warning! Enter at your own risk. Do not touch, do not feed, no smoking, no photographs, no dogs, thank you. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Also on hand were plenty of celebrities, from noted collector Swizz Beatz and newly-minted celebrity artist Adrian Brody, who stopped by the big tent on a break from Art New York, where he has work on view, to the paparazzi-dodging Leonardo DiCaprio. artnet News spotted the Academy Award-winner speaking to gallery owner Tony Shafrazi in the back of the VIP lounge; he was characteristically unwilling to talk to the press.
Leonardo DiCaprio talks to Tony Shafrazi at the Frieze New York VIP Lounge. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Celebrity chef Bobby Flay was also spotted roaming the aisles, in the hopes of starting an art collection. “I don’t know much about art at all,” Flay admitted to artnet News, “so I’m here on an educational expedition.”
More seasoned art experts were also on hand, of course, from dealer Jeffrey Deitch and Studio Museum in Harlem director Thelma Golden. For art fair veterans, the international circuit can admittedly get repetitive, but that doesn’t mean new discoveries aren’t just around the corner.
Chuck Close at Acquavella at Frieze New York. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
“The stuff I like best is stuff I already know,” artist Chuck Close told artnet News. “I’m just getting started though, and I’m an eternal optimist.”
See more of artnet News’s photos of Frieze New York below.
Work by John M. Armleder at Almine Rech Gallery. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Work by Angelo Plessas and Jannis Varelas at the Breeder. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Betty Woodman, Aeolian Pyramid at Salon 94. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Celebrity chef Bobby Flay in front of Nick Cave’s To Be Titled at Jack Shainman Gallery at Frieze New York. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Idris Khan, Overture (2015) at Sean Kelly. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Work by Josh Brand at Misako & Rosen. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
The joint booth for Esther Schipper and Johnen Galerie. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Ryan Gander, Group Portrait – Four lads from Chester and one lad from Swinton drinking Espresso Martini’s, Gorilla, Manchester, 2nd of July 2014, following the opening of the exhibition Make every show like it’s your last, Manchester Art Gallery (2016) at Lisson Gallery. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Heather Phillipson, 100% Other Fibers. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Yayoi Kusama, The Moment of Regeneration at Victoria Miro. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Studio Museum in Harlem director Thelma Golden with Jeppe Hein’s Double Focus at Konig Galerie. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Heather Phillipson, 100% Other Fibers. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys, I Piccoli Pupazzi Sporchi di Pruppá (The Small Dirty Puppets from Pruppa) 2015. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
David Altmejd, Le Désert et la semence at Andrea Rosen. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Works by William Kentridge at Marian Goodman. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Mai Thu Perret, 2016 (neon) and Les guérillères X (figure) at David Kordansky Gallery. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Work by Beatriz Milhazes at James Cohan Gallery. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Work by David Wojnarowicz at PPOW. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Visitors to Frieze New York at Gagosian Gallery’s Damien Hirst booth. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Anthea Hamilton, Kara-Sutra (After Mario Bellini). Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Untitled works by Roni Horn at Hauser & Wirth. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Brussels’s Rodolphe Janssen departs from the “white cube” art fair model. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Liam Gillick, When do we need more tractors. Five Plans at Johnen Galerie. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
The Armory’s Deborah Harris and former artnet News Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Genocchio (drinking Sean Raspet’s Soylent) at Frieze New York. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Eduardo Navarro, Instructions from the Sky. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.
Ryan Gander, Group Portrait – Four lads from Chester and one lad from Swinton drinking Espresso Martini’s, Gorilla, Manchester, 2nd of July 2014, following the opening of the exhibition Make every show like it’s your last, Manchester Art Gallery (2016), detail, at Lisson Gallery. Courtesy of Sarah Cascone.