Frieze NY 2016 Highlights
Now in its fifth installment, Frieze came to New York with lively artworks and programming despite the depressing weather. With more than 200 galleries from 31 countries, this year’s fair dedicated itself to showcasing and expanding the art spectrum by including a diverse range of artists from across the globe, meeting for one week on Randall’s Island. The Frieze NY 2016 is compartmentalized in a user-friendly manner, enabling visitors to walk through without missing a thing.
Focus, a section of solo or curated presentations by young galleries conceived especially for the fair, debuting work that has never before been presented within an art fair context, exhibits much of the fair’s best work:
With an appearance reminiscent of a trade show, Sean Raspert’s Soylent at Société (A14) appears as if an aisle of a grocery store was dropped into a sea of galleries. A handful of refrigerators are completely filled with bottles of white liquid, described as containing “enough protein, natural sugars, vitamins, and minerals to replace any or all of a healthy individual’s three daily meals.” [1] Developed by tech entrepreneur Rob Rhinehart, Soylent aims to be the next wave in nutrition — if curiosity gets the best of you, help yourself to a complimentary drink.
Sean Raspert
Soylent
Martos Gallery (C31) presents a solo exhibition of Michel Auder’s work. A series of Polaroids grouped in 2×2 grids allows the viewer a peek into the subjects’ lives, often intimate and playful. Auder also collaborated with Ryan Foerester to create a print zine.
Michel Auder
Untitled (Screen Blue 2), 1978-82/2016
color Polaroids
20.63 x 16.88 inches (52.40 x 42.88 cm)
Michel Auder
Untitled (Self-portrait 1), 1978-82/2016
color Polaroids
20.63 x 16.88 inches (52.40 x 42.88 cm)
Michel Auder
Untitled (Drugs)
1978-82/2016
color Polaroids
20.63 x 16.88 inches (52.40 x 42.88 cm)
The Frame section features solo artist presentations by new galleries established less than eight years ago:
This compact and central space found in the middle of the fair is minimal and simple, a much needed space among the many galleries. One of the booths not to miss is Jeanine Hofland, showing work by Hannah Perry in Booth B20. The sound piece that accompanies the work is derived from Perry’s previous work, giving the installation an in-depth relationship with the artist.
Hannah Perry
I’d be lying if I said I was ok
2016
Triptych, Lacquer and silkscreen on aluminum board
72 x 48 x 1.5 inches
Untitled
2016
Mirrored lightbox with synchronized sound
26 x 72 x 5 inches
Spotlight, a section for solo artist presentations of 20th-century artwork, focuses on work made after 1960 that explores global positions beyond the Western tradition:
This section can be found towards the end of the fair. A must see is P420 Gallery (D33), exhibiting sonic paintings by Milan Grygar. Subtle and simple, the work offers a respite from the visual noise of the surrounding fair.
Milan Grygar
Acoustic drawings
Frieze Projects and Frieze Sounds, curated by Cecilia Alemani of High Line Art, is an annual program of new site-specific artworks, plus a creative tribute to a groundbreaking alternative space or artist project:
These projects were the real gems of the fair, animating the event with performances and installations. All the participating artists – including Eduardo Navarro & Heather Phillipson – have made works that take command of the fair and surprise the viewer. Eduardo Navarro’s Instruction from the Sky can be found at the entrance of the fair (P2) in which five performers are dressed in circular mirror disks that hang at their waist with a small circular mirror found on their head. The piece is in conversation with the clouds, with the performers’ movements reacting to the cloud’s position. Heather Philipson, a British artist and poet, has created a multimedia installation that is interspersed throughout the fair, using a chopped-up spinal cord as its structuring motif in what the artist describes as “a clash of nervous systems – dismembered, dissected and flung down on Randall’s Island.”
Eduardo Navarro
Heather Phillipson
Other galleries of note:
1. Hunt Kastner, A21
Basim Magdy
The Hollow Desire to Populate Imaginary Cities (detail)
2014
30 C-prints from chemically altered slides on metallic paper
2. Pilar Corrias, A2
Mary Reid Kelly
Masks from Priapus Agonistes
2013
3. Marianne Boesky Gallery, A29
Pier Paolo Calzolari
Untitled
1990
Salt, flannel, copper, cotton yran, egg, burnt wood, iron, paper, candle, lead
4. Stevenson, D11
Moshekwa Langa
Untitled II (Mapping text)
2009
Mixed media on paper
153 x 103 cm
image courtesy of Stevenson
5. dépendance, A26
Linder
Super Automatisme Grand Jeté IV
2015
enamel on book page
Linder
Superautomatisme Grand Jeté VI
2015
enamel on book page
[1] Press Release
Feature Grid Image:
Liam Gillick
When Do We Need More Tractors Five Plans, 1999
Wood, paper, text, trash, vodka, glitter, cloth, video copy of One Plus One by Jean-Luc Godard, fresh lemons Variable
Edition of 2 plus 1 artist’s proof
Exhibition view From 199C to 199D, MAGASIN, Grenoble, 2014
Courtesy: The artist and Esther Schipper, Berlin
Photos: © Blaise Adilon