The high inflation in the United States has had a significant impact on the profitability of large corporations, leading to wave after wave of layoffs. This has directly affected the art market. In an effort to stimulate sales, there is hope that the New York Frieze Art Fair can provide a boost in demand.
The exhibition will feature many highly anticipated global major galleries, including the "Big Four" galleries: Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace, and David Zwirner, as well as several top local galleries in New York. Frieze New York is the smallest in scale among the Frieze series, with over 120 booths at Frieze Los Angeles and more than 100 booths at the inaugural Frieze Seoul. In addition to the physical exhibition, each gallery's presentation will also be showcased online through the Frieze Viewing Room, running from May 10th to May 22nd, according to local time. The New York edition of Frieze coincides with the busiest period of the May art market in New York, including important spring auctions by Tefaf New York, Christie's, and Sotheby's. From the main fair to various gallery events, artist showcases, and city-wide activities, the entire Frieze Week in New York is filled with vibrant energy. Notably, significant exhibitions are also taking place at major local art institutions, making the month of May in New York truly bustling.
Here are some outstanding artists selected from the galleries:
The Goodman Gallery from the UK brings the works of William Kentridge to Frieze New York. Born in 1955 in South Africa, William Kentridge has gained international acclaim for his paintings, films, and operas. While his practice is fundamentally expressionistic and rooted in drawing, his approach combines studio-based work and collaborative practices, creating art that is grounded in politics, science, literature, and history while leaving room for contradictions and uncertainties. William Kentridge has participated in multiple Documenta exhibitions and Venice Biennales, and his works have been showcased in major museums and galleries worldwide.
The local New York gallery, Andrew Kreps Gallery, presents the works of American artist Roe Ethridge. Roe Ethridge blurs the boundaries between commercial photography and art, creating images that are both universal and intimate. His works often hover between humor and cynicism, focusing on the individual while expanding their capacity to convey collective experiences. His works are permanently held in various art institutions, including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Carnegie Museum of Art.
Belgian gallery Xavier Hufkens presents the works of American sculptor John Chamberlain. He transforms crushed and crumpled scrap steel into subjective and brilliant artworks, pursuing unconstrained aesthetics and ambiguous forms. In his works, he employs casting and modeling techniques to allow the materials to exhibit their pliability without interfering with the lines and shapes, resulting in natural yet subjectively artistic distortions. John Chamberlain does not overly control the extent of concavity in his works, aiming for his art to remain unrestricted by predetermined objectives or specific tasks.
Meanwhile, Karma Gallery showcases the works of two artists, Marley Freeman and Reggie Burrows Hodges. Marley Freeman, hailing from New York, combines abstract and figurative painting, utilizing materials such as hand-mixed plaster, acrylic, and oil to create intricate and psychologically vibrant realms. Through this technical process, she explores the ways in which painting can be expressed and discovers the unique properties of pigments. Her works are permanently collected by the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Artist Reggie Burrows Hodges' work reveals universal themes such as identity, community, truth, and memory, often drawing inspiration from his childhood spent in Compton. Through blurred and misty brushstrokes, he portrays faceless black figures in his artworks, unfolding the scenes. His works explore a focus on not only the individuals but also the influence of their surrounding environment on perception. The soft brushstrokes delve into the uncertainty of memory and examine the possibility of how we are affected by our environment. His works are publicly collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
As one of the globally renowned major galleries, David Zwirner presents the artwork of artist Suzan Frecon. Suzan Frecon is known for her abstract oil paintings and works on paper. In her works, composition serves as the foundational structure, incorporating elements such as color, materials, and light, with asymmetric balance within precise spatial and proportional relationships. She skillfully blends different proportions of powdered pigments and oil to achieve different effects in color application. The contrast between matte and glossy surfaces enhances the visual experience, with variations in density and reflectivity across colors and surfaces, often transitioning between darkness and light in different areas of her compositions. Suzan Frecon enjoys widespread recognition in the United States and internationally, with her artwork being collected by numerous important art institutions, including MoMA, SFMOMA, the National Gallery of Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Top Photo：Blank and Proyectos Ultravioleta, Frieze New York 2023.Photo by Alex Staniloff / CKA. Courtesy of Frieze.
Photo2 Top left：The Shed’s Bloomberg Building, September 2020. Photo: Brett Beyer. Project Design Credit: Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Lead Architect, and Rockwell Group, Collaborating Architect.
Photo2 left-center：John Chamberlain/ Xavier Hufkens，Freze New York viewing room
Photo2 bottom left：Frieze New York 2023. Photo by Alex Staniloff / CKA. Courtesy of Frieze.
Photo2 Top right：Canada, Frieze New York 2023Photo by Alex Staniloff / CKA. Courtesy of Frieze.
Photo 2 bottom right：Kukje Gallery, Frieze New York 2023. Photo by Alex Staniloff / CKA. Courtesy of Frieze.
