One of New York’s most stylish art fairs has returned for its fourth edition, now through Sunday. Frieze New York boasts nearly 200 galleries, hailing from as far away as Los Angeles, London, Johannesburg, Seoul, and Beijing. It all goes down under a custom tent on Randall’s Island, in New York’s East River. The fair’s distinctive housing is one of the few to have its own Twitter, @FriezeTent.
Among the newcomers this year are blue-chip Manhattan galleries like Acquavella and Pace as well as JTT, from New York’s Lower East Side, which has been open a mere three years (see See What Top Dealers Are Bringing to Frieze New York).
We took a look around the Wednesday afternoon preview, where senior writer Brian Boucher found some works that are pretty cool. This is the second in a series of videos that started this spring (see What’s Really Cool at the Armory Show 2015? Brian Boucher Points it Out). You won’t want to miss the ponchos (see Frieze VIPs Go Wild For Pia Camil’s Free Ponchos).
Among the key features this year is a new section called Spotlight, organized by Adriana Pedrosa, artistic director of São Paulo’s MASP—Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand. Outside the tent, as well as inside and even underneath, Cecilia Alemani, High Line Arts curator, has placed various works by the likes of Korakrit Arunanondchai and Samara Golden, among others. Alemani has also curated a program of sound art featuring Alicja Kwade, Xaviera Simmons and Sergei Tcherepnin.
In addition to the regular festivities, Tom Eccles, CCS Bard College director, has cooked up a program of talks along with Christy Lange, frieze magazine associate editor. Stars include Thelma Golden, director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, artist Paul McCarthy, and Jerry Saltz, the New York magazine critic who was famously banned from Facebook, among others.