Frieze Sticks With A Winning Formula At The New York Cottage


At a time when the format and programs of art fairs are experiencing disruptions due to the pandemic, Frieze New York will remain relatively unchanged compared to last year.

The contemporary art fair, which will take place between Thursday and Sunday, will host approximately 65 dealers in the fair area. Shed In the Hudson Yards development in Manhattan, just as it was in 2021.

That number is roughly one-third of the dealer total from Frieze New York’s previous home on Randalls Island. Close to Chelsea’s art gallery hub, The Shed has won some fans among attendees and collectors alike, as has the more intimate feel of last year’s fair.

“I think it’s a huge relief about Shed’s location,” said Christine Messineo, Frieze’s new director of the New York and Los Angeles trade shows. (Frieze’s first show was in London and will also be in Seoul from September.)

Ms. Messineo, who started her job in November, saw the fairs by the dealers because she came to the organization after working in art galleries for years.

“I was an active participant at Frieze for many years,” he said, adding that the scale of the event is now “very manageable.”

“The visitor really benefits,” he said. “I think it encourages longer conversations.”

While exhibitors are largely American and European, galleries from around 17 countries are represented, including China, Guatemala, and Brazil.

“It will have a more international feel than last year,” said Ms. Messineo. However, he said, “We are a New York expo at heart.”

Like many fairs, Frieze New York has developed an online version during the pandemic, and this will continue.

“There is nothing like seeing the art in person,” said Ms. Messineo. “But we learned that people want to look at art even if they can’t go to a fair. Our viewing room remains a great option.”

This Frieze viewing room is currently live and has the same galleries. Ms. Messineo noted that this does not simply replace the physical fair, and the two can be experienced together.

The usability of the viewing room is part of a value judgment that Ms. Messineo hopes to spread widely: “Anybody can be a collector.”

The fair has a special tribute section each year, and this year’s event honors four nonprofits founded in the 1970s: AIR, Artists Space, Electronic Arts Intermix, and Printed Matter.

“The Frieze faith is often linked to nonprofits as they are the starting point of an artist’s career,” said Ms Messineo.

As for the dealers in the club, they have several reasons for preferring a particular event over others.

Founder Olivia Barrett Castle Castle In Los Angeles, in an email, Frieze said New York was influential “because of the focused scale and quality and volume of the curators involved.”

“Also,” he added, “you meet many collectors who are dedicated and serious, but not necessarily present on the wider fair circuit.”

Established in 2014, Château Shatto will exhibit around eight paintings completed this year by Emma McIntyre, who lives in Los Angeles and is known for what gallery founder Barrett calls “pyrotechnic abstraction.”

Directed by Leah Turner Esther Schipper One Berlin gallery said it was strategic to show just one artist.

“A solo booth helps you stand out in a crowded space,” said Ms. Turner.

Its gallery will feature around 10 works from Simon Fujiwara’s “Who the Baer” series focusing on a cartoon character of the same name. The series debuted at the Prada Foundation in Milan last year, and work on Frieze includes “Who’s Bigger Splash? (Half Immersion)” (2022), charcoal colored paper collage.

“We wanted to introduce Simon, who is well known in Asia and Europe, but has not been exhibited much in the US,” Turner said.

Who the Baer, ​​a character created during the 2020 pandemic quarantine has no gender, race or sexuality. “This status allows them to roam the world and consume whatever comes their way, in an endless and greedy and perhaps futile search for a self,” said Ms. Turner.

Gordon VeneKlasen, owner Michael Werner GalleryHe said that his booth will adopt the variety package approach with about 15 works by different artists.

Founded in Berlin by Michael Werner nearly 60 years ago, the gallery now has branches in that city as well as in New York; East Hampton, NY; Cologne, Germany; and London.

“We are trying to bring in younger artists for the frieze,” said Mr VeneKlasen. “The place to showcase it.”

“We are doing a September demonstration of his work and this is in preparation for that,” said Mr VeneKlasen. “One of the most sought after artists.”

“His focus is on everyday things,” said VeneKlasen, adding that he sometimes paints from auction catalogs, as in “Trash 2,” which shows discarded household items.

Other new works in the booth include Florian Krewer’s “Dog Songs” (2021) and Aaron Curry’s “Head Complex” (2021).

But Mr. VeneKlasen also included an eponymous oil painting by Francis Picabia in the late 1930s, which had a big name from an earlier era.

“I’m bringing a Picabia to shuffle and show the sites we work with,” said Mr. VeneKlasen.

GagosianA worldwide operation with 19 physical gallery locations, it still finds the need to show at Frieze in New York, a city with six such spaces. He will dedicate his stand to the German-born Swiss artist Albert Oehlen, with his four-colored eponymous painting he painted in 2014.

But Mr. Oehlen also has a surprise, one that will be appreciated by weary marketers looking at the sheer number of artworks from many dealers: There will be a vending machine at the stand distributing a beverage of his own creation. Developed with Aqua Monaco, called coffee. As the name suggests, it is a combination of coffee and tea.

Mr Oehlen has issued a warning about caffeine levels: “Don’t take too much. It really wakes you up.” (Visitors will be given free coins to use in the machine.)

He said the machine was “not a work of art,” but allowed for a thematic juxtaposition to his work.

“There is a connection with the pictures,” Mr. Oehlen said. “They refer to general commercialization.”

Images wider than eight feet were made with materials taken from advertisements. “I glued cutouts from supermarket supplies onto the canvas,” Mr. Oehlen said. “Advertisements for beer, toilet paper, and detergent.”

“The material has some poor quality and cheapness, but when I use it in a painting, it has a color-like effect. You’re taking an emotion away from him.”

Could it be valid for a fair like Frieze, where art and the market come together, to engage in commercial work?

Mr. Oehlen paused for a long time before saying, “I haven’t really thought about it, but probably, yes.”

But he won’t be at the cabin himself to explore the concept. “I haven’t walked around an art fair in a long time,” Mr. Oehlen added.



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