Dynamic Presentations, Robust Sales and Record Attendance

Frieze New York was fresher than it’s ever been. Having the chance to see so many new galleries participate and the diversity of works on display was truly a phenomenal experience. I was especially thrilled with the Spotlight section, having the chance to see masters of art re-contextualized in a global contemporary art fair. This was the best Frieze New York yet. – Omar Kholeif, Manilow Senior Curator and Director of Global Initiatives, Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago

The seventh edition of Frieze New York closed on Sunday, May 6, bringing together 197 leading galleries from 30 countries and driving strong sales to leading institutions and collectors across a wide range of price points.

The fair’s two Preview Days convened a record number of top-tier collectors, curators, museum groups, and art enthusiasts from around the world – and fair enjoyed a record 44,000 visitors overall across its five day total run. Audiences responded enthusiastically to the quality and depth of the curated presentations, as well as the revealing juxtapositions of work by both newly discovered artists and the most influential figures of the 20th century, within the fair’s newly designed structure by Universal Design Studio.

Roberta Smith of the New York Times said: The new design allows the categories to be more concentrated... The unity of the Spotlight section, for example, is thrilling. You are surrounded by galleries presenting solos of little-known or underappreciated postwar artists, like a seminar in the flesh; and Jan Dalley, writing for the Financial Times also praised the redesigned tent for being super-comfortable within, giving even more space to the giant galleries and providing a convenient showcasing for smaller ones in what is effectively five interlocking tented spaces devised by Universal Design Studio.

Other innovations included the launch of Live, a platform for performances, installations and interactive projects throughout the fair curated by Adrienne Edwards, which included the program included Frieze New York’s first-ever long-term installation on Randall’s Island: Adam Pendleton’s monumental Black Dada Flag (Black Lives Matter) (2015-18) on view free to all visitors to Randall’s Island Park through November 1st, 2018. New initiatives were highlighted by international media, including Nadja Sayej in the Guardian who said: Adrienne Edwards’s vision “seems to cast a timely resonance over the entire show"; and Ted Loos's expansive feature in the International New York Times, entitled “As Frieze Expands, Its New York Fair Freshens Up".

Edwards additionally curated another 2018 launch, the Frieze Artist Award – an international open call for an emerging artist to realize a site-specific work supported by the Luma Foundation, which led to the commission of Kapwani Kiwanga’s interactive outdoor installation Shady (2018) in the Park grounds. The fair also featured its first-ever themed section, curated by Matthew Higgs (White Columns, New York), paying homage to Hudson’s Feature Inc. gallery in New York, which supported the careers of many pioneering artists in the 1980s and ’90s. 

Robust Sales

We are pleased to return and participate in this year’s edition of Frieze New York. The gallery saw strong sales across a number of gallery artists with significant support from our collector base. It is a joy to be a part of the enthusiastic community that comes out for Frieze. – Jack Shainman, Founder, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

As a vital platform for galleries at all levels of the market – from the emerging to the internationally established – Frieze New York saw strong sales throughout the week and galleries across the fair placing artworks with major private collections and international institutions.

Lehmann Maupin’s sale of several McArthur Binion works ranging from $50,000—$175,000 to trustees of two leading U.S. museums, as well as collectors new to the gallery, led gallery partner Rachel Lehmann to comment that sales were strong and we were pleased to place works with many museum trustees. I found the new layout an improvement and the quality of the fair overall to be elevated this year. Jacqueline Tran, Senior Director of Matthew Marks Gallery too felt that this year’s fair felt especially energized, observing attendance by a diverse group of collectors, who didn’t let record temperatures stop them from viewing and purchasing work including many U.S. collectors that we had not seen in some time.

Maureen Paley, Founder of the eponymous London gallery, also enjoyed collectors’ and curators’ interest in the whole of the gallery program, including works by Wolfgang Tillmans, Peter Hujar and newcomer Felipe Baeza, whom the gallery introduced at the fair for the first time. Frieze provides a unique setting in which all this is possible, Paley observed. Jack Shainman’s sales of recent work by Hank Willis Thomas included a major sculpture, a retroflective, and one of Thomas’ iconic flags in the Live section, alongside works by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Becky Suss, Enrique Martinez Celaya and Geoffrey Chadsey. Noting the significant support from the gallery’s collector base at the fair, gallery Founder Jack Shainman said it was ‘a joy to be part of the enthusiastic community that comes out for Frieze.’

Futher select significant sales included two works by George Baselitz in a range of c.$599,000-838,000 each, a Robert Rauschenberg work for $725,000, a Tony Cragg sculpture for c. $210,000, and a metal and wood piece by Jack Pierson for $190,000 at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac; David Kordansky selling old out its booth of photographs by Torbjørn Rødland in the range of $14,000- 28,000 each; Gallery Hyundai’s sale of a pair piece by Seung-taek Lee for $100,000-200,000 and two works by Minjung Kim for $40,000-100,000. With sales made on every day of the fair, PACE Gallery sold 38 works by David Hockney ranging from $26,000-40,000 each.

In Focus, Ghebaly sold out its booth of works by Farah Atassi for $24,000-35,000 each, and in the Frame section dedicated to emerging galleries: Galería PM8’s sold seven photographs by Algirdas Šeškus to a major New York City institution; and Cooper Cole, who also won the Frieze Frame Prize, reported a sold out booth of works by Tau Lewis, who, at 23 years old, was the youngest artist represented at this year’s fair. 

For the second year, the Brooklyn Museum acquired a work of art for the museum’s permanent collection through The LIFEWTR Fund, through which LIFEWTR contributed $100,000 to support the Brooklyn Museum’s acquisition purchased at Frieze New York. The Brooklyn Museum acquired the painting, Untitled by Ed Clark from Weiss Berlin Gallery, which presented a solo show of the artist’s paintings in the fair’s Spotlight section dedicated to 20th-century artistic pioneers. Elswhere in the section, Royale Projects saw sales of three Clinton Hill paintings at around $95,000 each to collectors from New York and California.

Record Audiences

From Spotlight to Frame and beyond, I was impressed to see the number of smaller galleries from across the globe bringing to the attention of the art world public artists from beyond the conventional scope of our experience. It is gratifying to see the fair actively participating in our collective efforts to develop a more global understanding of postwar art. I hope sincerely that this continues to be a characteristic of Frieze and indeed all art fairs. – Christopher Bedford, Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director, Baltimore Museum of Art

It was wonderful to see a representation of galleries and artists beyond the big names we all know and love... Highlights for me included Ed Clark at Weiss Berlin, Maria Nepomuceno at A Gentil Carioca, and Emma Amos at Ryan Lee. – Franklin Sirmans, Director, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)

With a total visitor tally of 44,000 across its five days, Frieze New York 2018 drew significant institutional attendance, welcoming more than 200 groups from leadership and stakeholders at leading art museums and institutions from around the world. 

More than 200 patron groups and leadership from museums around the world visited Frieze New York, including: Maria Balshaw (Tate), Richard Armstrong (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum), Caroline Bourgeois, (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessey Foundation) Glenn D. Lowry (MoMA), Michael Darling, (Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago), Elena Filipovic, (Kunsthalle Basel), and Diana Campbell Betancourt (Dhaka Art Summit); plus groups and leadership from the Andy Warhol Museum (The Warhol), USA, Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), USA, Contemporary Istanbul, Turkey, Centre Pompidou, France, Denver Art Museum (DAM), USA, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, USA, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), USA, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (ICA Boston), USA, Israel Museum, Israel, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), USA, Museo de Arte Latinamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Argentina, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France, Musée D’Orsay, France, Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), Brazil, Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo (MAM), Brazil, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA Chicago), USA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA LA), USA, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA Boston), USA, Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, USA, National Museu de Arte Moderna de Sao Paulo (MAM), Brazil, Museum of Denmark, Denmark, Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA, Pinakothek der Moderne, Germany, Seattle Art Museum (SAM), USA, Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, USA, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), United Kingdom, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, USA, and Walker Art Center, USA, among many others.

International museum directors and curators acquired works throughout the fair and lauded Frieze New York for convening an unparalleled collection of emerging and established galleries, and artists for a vibrant week of conversation and discovery.

Dynamic Presentations

We are so thrilled to have exhibited at Frieze New York for the first time. As the only Canadian gallery at the fair it is a huge honour to have been awarded the Frame Prize. It’s like coming in first place in the art olympics! We are really thrilled with the response to Tau Lewis’s sculptures. She has put a ton of hard work in to developing this body of work, so it has been amazing that the works have been so well received. We are really proud of Tau, and are happy to report that all her sculptures have found homes in some great private and institutional collections across the globe. – Simon Cole, Director, Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto

Jhaveri Contemporary, from Mumbai, was awarded the Frieze Stand Prize for their presentation on Mohan Samant in Spotlight, a section dedicated to 20th-century pioneers which expanded to 35 presentations this year with returning curator Toby Kamps (Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston). A jury – comprising Christopher Bedford (Baltimore Museum of Art), Omar Kholeif (Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago) and Suzanne Cotter (Mudam Luxembourg Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean) – commended the spirit of risk-taking by the gallery in its decision to present a historically important Indian artist not previously seen by a mainstream audience. They observed the artist was pushing the boundaries of Indian modern and contemporary art and the gallery presentation enabled his work to be introduced to an American and global audience at Frieze New York. 

For their Spotlight presentation of early works by Emma Amos, New York’s Ryan Lee from New York received an honorable mention from the jury, as did Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde, from Dubai, exhibiting in Focus.

Meanwhile, the overall Focus Stand Prize was awarded to Porto’s Nuno Centeno for a group presentation in Focus of works by Dan Rees, Adriano Amaral, Ana Cardoso, Adriano Costa and Gabriel Lima. The jury described the Nuno Centeno presentation as bold, showcasing the work of artists with an interesting dialogue, which was reflected in the poise and freshness of the stand.

Separately, a jury comprising Courtenay Finn (Aspen Art Museum), Elena Filipovic (Kunsthalle Basel), and Jamillah James (Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles) awarded Toronto gallery Cooper Cole the Frame Prize 2018, supported by Bulleit Frontier Whiskey. The prize acknowledged the gallery’s exceptional sculptural presentation by Tau Lewis in Frame, the section dedicated to 19 ambitious solo shows by emerging galleries, advised on by curators Andrew Bonacina (The Hepworth, Wakefield) and Ruba Katrib (MoMA PS1, New York) – handing over to Laura McLean-Ferris (Swiss Institute, New York).