There are works with stories to tell at a wide variety of price points, from $14,000 to $3 million.
The smallest of the Frieze franchises is New York, where 60 participating galleries set up shop inside The Shed in Hudson Yards. The fair’s 11th edition, which opened to VIPs on Wednesday and runs through Sunday, May 21, is a tightly edited affair—perhaps surprisingly, given that it takes place in the global art market’s capital. Also snug? The aisles during the VIP preview. A crowd of well-heeled collectors and advisors jostled through the booths as they pointed and named their reserves. No New York Art Week fatigue here.
Sprinkled across The Shed’s eight floors are works from in-demand young guns, like Lauren Halsey at David Kordansky (all sold), Naudline Pierre at James Cohan (all sold, topping out at $130,000), and Ilana Savdie at White Cube (one sold for $45,000), as well as the latest wave of older artists receiving delayed recognition, like Mary Lovelace O’Neal at Jenkins Johnson (priced at just under $1 million) and Pacita Abad at Tina Kim (Irawan went for around $300,000 to a private collection).
By the evening hours, sales were well underway. Were they skyrockets in flight? For some artists, yes—like Nan Goldin at Gagosian (more on that below). But some market jitters were evident as even big-ticket names at top-tier operations remained conspicuously available despite the growing tendancy to pre-sell before the doors open.
