The Frieze New York international contemporary art fair launched its inaugural United States presence this past weekend. The fair has been a staple of the London art scene for many years now, and has been lauded as a presence that will forever change the New York art fair scene. This year’s initial presentation included over 170 of the world’s leading galleries, in conjunction with many commissioned works, panel discussions, and artist talks – to name just a selection of the extensive on and off-site programming available over the four days of the fair. Like Frieze London, Frieze New York was housed in a bespoke temporary structure – this time designed by Brooklyn-based architecture firm Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu (SO – IL). The tent defied the typical convention-center model that many art fairs employ, and was filled with natural light, pop-up versions of several fine New York eateries, and even a temporary Soho House. The fair was located on Randall’s Island just off of Manhattan.
Paddle8 fair highlights include:
Bureau displayed work by Justin Matherly, who has an upcoming summer project with the Public Art Fund called Common Ground, which is a group exhibition combining a range of approaches to public art’s civic function in sculpture and performance.
Friedrich Petzel Gallery had an exceptionally strong booth, with select works by such Paddle8 favorites as Sarah Morris, Seth Price and Christian Jankowski.
Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery also had a great presence at Frieze NY with a fascinating piece by Mika Rottenberg and Jon Kessler called SEVEN.
Cheim & Reid had a beautiful Pat Steir work titled Silver and Gold that was definitely eye-catching! Be sure to check out last week’s blog post on a mural project that Steir worked on in the Lower East Side.
Just inside the Frieze VIP entrance, European gallery Sprüth Magers had a large piece by Barbara Kruger – Too Big to Fail, 2012, – that added an ironic note to the fair experience.
For the first time in its more than eight-year history, the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) hosted a fair in New York City, known as NADA NYC, which took place from May 4th through May 7th in Chelsea in the former Dia space at 548 W 22nd Street. The fair showcased over 60 international galleries from 24 cities, representing 11 countries. In addition to the diverse selection of art, NADA New York also offered a beautiful roofdeck area with a pop-up store from Paddle8 partner Phaidon.
Paddle8 fair highlights include:
We loved the American Contemporary‘s presentation of Paddle8 friend Mariah Robertson, in which they made quite a small both entrance that created a very immersive experience – be sure to check out our studio visit with Robertson on Paddle8TV!
London-based Ibid Projects shared a booth with New York-based gallery Untitled to present works by David Adamo, who was featured in our 2011 exhibition #04 Immaterial curated by Marina Abramovic.
Gallery Parisa Kind from Frankfurt displayed a selection of beautiful works by David Miko and Richard Jackson.
In reference to salon-style hanging, Derek Eller Gallery presented a robust selection of figurative paintings crowded into the booth in a striking way that created an enclosed environment that brought the viewer directly into work.
We also really enjoyed seeing Parisian Galerie Hussenot’s presentation of works by Agathe Snow!
Another Paddle8 member gallery was Vogt Gallery, with a strong selection of paintings from Mernet Larsen and abstracted reliefs by Sadie Benning.
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