This week, Frieze staged its 11th edition in New York, hosting 68 galleries, for the third time at The Shed in Hudson Yards.
While the fair is not the largest in terms of exhibitors to take place in New York this May (Independent and TEFAF feature more galleries), it is still viewed as the city’s staple event of the spring, during these two weeks in May when auctions, openings, and art fairs coalesce.
While opinions are divided on whether the Big Apple has too many art events taking place during this period, footfall at Frieze’s VIP preview on Wednesday was proof that collectors’ appetites remain whetted. A fresher approach seemed to be favored by galleries at the fair: A vast majority displayed artworks from 2023 as opposed to more historical pieces, and several booths also used the fair as a stage to debut newly represented artists.
Notable attendees included fashion designer Jonathan Anderson; curators Cecilia Alemani, Ian Alteveer, Naomi Beckwith, Klaus Biesenbach, Johanna Burton, Erin Christovale, and Massimiliano Gioni, among others; and plenty of major collectors and patrons, including Aggie Gund, the Rubells, the Horts, the Rachofskys, and Komal Shah.
An impressive slate of opening-day sales included White Cube’s sale of a Doris Salcedo piece for $1.25 million; Pace’s sold-out booth of Robert Nava works, priced at $30,000–$80,000 per piece; Thaddaeus Ropac’s sale of Robert Longo’s Study of Cotton Field (2022) for $900,000; Casey Kaplan’s $300,000 sale of the mesmerizing Matthew Ronay sculpture that was the sole focus of its booth; Goodman Gallery’s sale of a William Kentridge bronze for $500,000; and Xavier Hufkens’s sale of Milton Avery’s Autumn Trees and Goat for $600,000. Check back on Monday for our full sales recap.
Here, we present our 10 favorite booths from Frieze New York 2023.
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Tina Kim Gallery
Booth A9
With works by Pacita Abad, Ghada Amer, Davide Balliano, Ha Chong-Hyun, Suki Seokyeong Kang, Maia Ruth Lee, Mire Lee, and Minouk Lim
Several threads run through Tina Kim’s vibrant group presentation on The Shed’s ground floor concourse, which features a range of artists across the New York gallery’s program.
“These are all women artists from different regions and they are all concerned and dealing with cross-cultural, global tensions,” Tina Kim, the gallery’s founder, told Artsy. The booth also features several artists who have been—or are set to be—a part of major museum moments. Filipino artist Pacita Abad has a major retrospective currently at the Walker Art Center (and has a solo show opening at the gallery in Chelsea today); South Korean artist Mire Lee has an upcoming solo show at the New Museum; and Mexican artist Tania Pérez Córdova had a recent solo exhibition at the Museo Tamayo.
Abad’s energetic batik and printed cloth, Put a Lime in My Coconut (2002), created late in her career, is an exultant abstract work that showcases why the artist is deserving of the renewed attention she is currently receiving. That work is complemented nicely by Lee’s earthy works of concrete and wood—Look, I’m a fountain of filth raving mad with love; tunnel sculpture I (2022) is another eye-catching highlight (keep an eye out for the soft tentacles).
—A.K.
