Daniel S. Palmer’s Top 5 Picks from Frieze New York Viewing Room 2024

Abel Rodríguez, El árbol de la vida y la abundancia, 2023

Ink on paper, 1.4 × 1.4 m. Presented by Instituto de Visión. $ 40,000

I'm always moved by the meticulous drawings of “Don Abel,” which communicate his myriad personal insights and ancestral knowledge of the Amazon basin’s trees and land. His artworks serve as an invitation for us all to remember our rootedness and to reconnect with the awe-inspiring boundlessness of our own surroundings too.

Holly Hendry, Weather Vein, 2024

Jesmonite, glass, steel, timber, lead and paint, 95 × 285 × 80 cm. Presented by Stephen Friedman Gallery. $20-50k

Holly Hendry’s American debut this year has been a tour de force. Her great presentation at Frieze New York follows on the heels of our “Watermarks” exhibition – four site-specific installations filling the archways on the facade of the SCAD Museum of Art. This punny Weather Vein work and its diagrammatic dynamism showcase her whimsical approach to sculpted form. It offers all of the elements that have captivated me since I first discovered her work years ago.

Guan Xiao, Rōnin by the fields, 2024

Brass, aluminum, motorcycle parts, and acrylic, 118 × 83 × 43 cm. Presented by David Kordansky Gallery. $55,000

I got to see this brilliant, funky work by Guan Xiao in her Beijing studio before it shipped to New York, and was struck by how circling its complex form was almost akin to a cinematic experience. It abounds with detail and dynamism. Her strangely anthropomorphic sculptures are in dialogue with global art history, traditional Chinese art, the natural world (bronze castings of knotted roots) and global commodity exchange (motorcycle handlebars), as well as even the vibrancy of contemporary fashion’s most experimental avant garde designers. She has remained one of the freshest young voices from China for a number of years now and still defies classification.

Ann Craven, Portrait of a Dove (Sitting, Gazing, After Picabia), 2024, 2024

Oil on canvas, 1.5 × 1.2 m. Presented by Karma. $100-250k

Is there anything better and more joyous than a painting by Ann Craven? Birds, like this serene dove, moons (a personal favorite motif), or anything else she creates – they’re all so delightful, poetic and thoughtful. For me, her lush paintings embody a truly hopeful outlook on the world and exemplify art’s power to transcend the mundane and bleak parts of life. I’m always grateful when I get to spend time in the presence of one of her works.

Kelly Akashi, Foraged Life Forms, 2024

Lost-wax cast bronze, 20 × 14 × 14 cm. Presented by Tanya Bonakdar Gallery. $20-50k

Gosh, this little sculpture is just mind-blowing, as are all of Kelly Akashi’s cunningly small, almost mischievously compact bronze works. There is such a strangely appealing alchemy in the way she combines disembodied hands with organic forms. The mushroom specimen she’s included here is particularly enticing but makes me equally skeptical  – I’ll leave it to someone more knowledgeable to decide if their source is delicious or a delightful way to lose one’s mind.

About Daniel S. Palmer

Daniel S. Palmer is chief curator at the SCAD Museum of Art where he has curated numerous exhibitions including "Awol Erizku: X" (2024), "Holly Hendry: Watermarks" (2024), "Yu Hong: Night Walk" (2023), "Tyler Mitchell: Domestic Imaginaries" (2023), "Erwin Wurm: Hot" (2023), "Nevin Aladag: Refraction" (2023), "Chase Hall: The Close of Day" (2023), "Ann Craven: Twelve Moons" (2023), "Anna Park: Last Call" (2022), among others. Previously, he was curator at Public Art Fund, New York, where he organized 20 exhibitions including "Bharti Kher: Ancestor" (2022), "Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days" (2021), "Awol Erizku: New Visions for Iris" (2021), "Carmen Herrera: Estructuras Monumentales" (2019), "Harold Ancart: Subliminal Standard" (2019), "Tony Oursler: Tear of the Cloud" (2018) and "Liz Glynn: Open House" (2017), among others. Prior to his role at Public Art Fund, he served as the Leon Levy Assistant Curator at the Jewish Museum and Curatorial Research Assistant at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Palmer has curated numerous exhibitions independently and has contributed writing to many artist monographs, publications, and journals including ARTnews, The New York Times, Mousse, and Kaleidoscope, among others. He holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil in art history from the CUNY Graduate Center and a B.A. from Rutgers University. 

About Frieze Viewing Room

Open to all from April 24–May 10, Frieze Viewing Room is the online catalog for the fair that gives global audiences access to gallery presentations coming to Frieze New York 2024. Visitors can search artworks by artist, price, date and medium, save favorite artworks and presentations, chat with galleries and much more.

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^{Main Image: Holly Hendry, Weather Vein, 2024. Jesmonite, glass, steel, timber, lead and paint, 95 × 285 × 80 cm. Courtesy of Stephen Friedman Gallery}