Lo and behold, Frieze New York has once again returned to Randall’s Island and, as ever, the annual art-world staple is bringing out blue-chip galleries and frenzied fanfare.

In its 8th edition, the fair is introducing a few new elements to its programming, including the newly minted Diálogos section, which will highlight the works of Latinx and Latin American artists, and Possibilities of Creation, the fair’s first VR exhibition. With over 150 galleries participating, there’s more than enough to see over the four-day event. Before you leave the island, here a few booths you shouldn’t miss. 

Aicon Gallery

Rachid Koraichi, A Nation in Exile (1984). Courtesy of Aicon Gallery.

The New York-based Aicon Gallery is giving over its entire Frieze presentation to the Algerian artist Rachid Koraïchi, whose background as a transcriber of Quranic texts provides the intellectual foundation of his work. In large-scale installations as well as in works on paper and woven textiles, Koraïchi literally and figuratively translates Arabic words into images, using the shapes of calligraphic letters and words to transcend their meaning.

Booth S2

Richard Saltoun Gallery

Greta Schödl, Untitled (1980). Courtesy of Richard Saltoun Gallery.

Of late, museums and galleries have been intently focused on retrieving the legacies of formerly overlooked women artists. In this vein, London’s Richard Saltoun Gallery returns this year with a solo presentation of Austrian artist Greta Schödl, who has been creating poesia visiva (visual poetry) since the 1960s in a range of mythical compositions.

Booth S7

 

Galleria Alfonso Artiaco

Juan Usle, Africano (2018). Courtesy of Galleria Alfonso Artiaco.

Galleria Alfonso Artiaco is presenting two artists at Frieze: the Belgian-born sculptor Ann Veronica Janssens, and Spanish-born Juan Uslé. Usle’s colorful abstractions evoke the colors and textiles of his childhood in Northern Spain, while at once alluding to the rapid energy and constant movements of New York City, his adopted home. Ann Veronica Janssens’s sculptures, meanwhile, employ Minimalist and Light and Space aesthetics to dazzling effect.

Booth B15

Galería Nora Fisch

Claudia Fontes, Foreigner (2019). Courtesy Galería Nora Fisch.

Argentine artist Claudia Fontes has lived and worked in England for the past decade, and this year, Galería Nora Fisch will be presenting a selection of small porcelain sculptures from the artist’s Foreigners series. These faceless figures are rendered in a range of positions: alone, in couples, and embracing in groups. At once distinctly human and biographic, these delicate sculptures call to mind sea sponges, and implicitly convey people’s continuity with the natural world.

Pi Artworks

Susan Hefuna, Untitled (1999). Courtesy of Pi Artworks.

The London gallery Pi Artworks is hopping across the pond to mark their first-ever participation in the New York outpost of Frieze, with a solo presentation of artist Susan Hefuna. Hefuna’s familial history includes both Egyptian and German heritage which influences her work in sculpture, film, painting, and photography. In the works on view, thick graphic lines are drawn in black, with gray shading that evoke layers, like an x-ray.

George Adams Gallery

Joan Brown, Homage to Akhenaton (1983). Courtesy of George Adams Gallery.

Throughout her career, California artist Joan Brown devoured art history, absorbing influences from ancient cultures to the Old Masters. The culmination of these studies were her 1983 series of Homage paintings, four of which are on view for the first time together here. Each of these monumentally scaled works (each measuring 6 feet x 10 feet)  is dedicated to the symbolism and visual language of a culture that inspired Brown.

Sean Kelly Gallery

Jose Dávila, Los Límites de lo Posible VII (2019). Courtesy of Sean Kelly Gallery.

Encompassing a range of media including photography, painting, and sculpture, the artworks on view with Sean Kelly Gallery are tied together by a shared intellectual rigor and meticulousness. The poetic large-scale color photographs of Alec Soth, the subject of the gallery’s most recent exhibition, will be on view alongside works by Jose Dávila, Antony Gormley, Shahzia Sikander, among others.

Richard Gray Gallery

Jaume Plensa, Carlota (2017). Courtesy of Richard Gray Gallery.

A group of artists working across media will come together to represent the Chicago-based Richard Gray Gallery. Contemporary artists including Bethany Collins, Jim Dine, Alex Katz, Rashid Johnson, and Theaster Gates will have their work on display at Randall’s Island, while over at Rockefeller Center, Jaume Plensa’s large stainless steel sculpture Carlota holds court in the debut presentation of Frieze Sculpture.

Booth A02

Frieze New York will take place on Randall’s Island, May 2–5; Wednesday May 1, VIP Preview, invitation only; Thursday May 2, 11 a.m.–7 p.m. with private view 4 p.m.–7 p.m.; Friday May 3, 11 a.m.–7 p.m.; Saturday May 4 and Sunday May 5, 11 a.m.–6 p.m.