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Frieze New York Opens Strong, But the Real Test Is Just Beginning

The fair delivered early sales across price points, from seven-figure placements to more modest Focus section discoveries, though the rhythm this year is far from bombastic.

Frieze New York opened yesterday (May 13), part of an expanding ecosystem of more than six fairs taking place across the city and heralding the May auctions, which are expected to bring in more than $1 billion between this week and next. It’s a grueling test of endurance for art enthusiasts, but even more so for the art market. When Observer spoke with the fair’s director, Christine Messineo, ahead of the opening, she was optimistic that the growing constellation of fairs around Frieze would amplify, rather than diminish, its impact. New York, she said, is such a large, geographically complex city that there is plenty of room for other fairs: “We all have different visions, we encounter different audiences, and we have different galleries participating. I think it all supports a larger ecosystem around culture and art in the city.”

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Returning to the Shed in the heart of Chelsea, Frieze is hosting 67 exhibiting galleries from 26 countries, with a strong presence from South America, particularly Brazil, alongside international blue-chip names and both returning and debuting New York galleries. The floor was crowded from the early hours, with most VIPs appearing to be American, with some visitors from South America and Asia but almost none from Europe. Dealers reported first-day sales across lower, middle and seven-digit price points, though the rhythm this year is far from bombastic. Perhaps due to the convergence of multiple biennials and general market recalibration, buyers seemed more attuned to artists with true institutional profiles, real support, actual CVs and established names.

Among the blue-chip galleries on the main floor, Gagosian reported a successful opening day, selling works by multiple artists across its roster, including Derrick Adams, Helen Frankenthaler, Gerhard Richter, Adriana Varejão, Stanley Whitney and Francesca Woodman. Meanwhile, Hauser & Wirth staged an all-woman booth featuring seven artists whose work has challenged and reshaped the terms of representation, embodiment and subjectivity in contemporary art. Anchored by a full sequence of Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills addressing stereotypes in female media representation, the booth also had works by Nairy Baghramian, Louise Bourgeois, Lee Bul, Jenny Holzer and Avery Singer, as well as more meditative, deep-blue pieces by Lorna Simpson in conjunction with her current show at Punta della Dogana, one of the highlights for anyone in Venice last week.

Both David Zwirner and Pace opted for tightly focused presentations this year. Zwirner presented a solo booth of Joe Bradley’s expansive abstractions, while Pace staged a conversation between Maya Lin and Leo Villareal, both of whom are preparing to unveil new public art commissions in the U.S. this year. Part of Villareal’s Golden Game series, recently shown in Tokyo, the work created the illusion of depth and space through light and was paired with a new silver sculpture by Lin. Most works, priced between $110,000 and $160,000, had sold by the end of the first VIP day. Meanwhile, White Cube sold multiple pieces, including two works by El Anatsui, an Antony Gormley for £450,000 and a beautiful abstract constellation by Howardena Pindell, Deep Space #4 (2025), for $275,000. Other female artists with solid markets and institutional CVs also found early buyers, including a new painting by Marina Rheingantz, which sold for $250,000; a new sculpture by Marguerite Humeau, priced at £60,000; Louise Giovanelli’s Kohl (2025), which sold for £38,000; and a work on paper by Julie Curtiss, which sold for $35,000. Also in the booth were spiritually charged, labyrinthine cartographies connecting micro and macrocosmos by Shipibo artist Sara Flores, fresh from the unveiling of her Peru Pavilion in Venice; her painting Untitled (Maya Kené, 2021) sold for $65,000.

Perrotin’s booth features a solo presentation of work by Genesis Belanger, whose surreal, fantastical world of objects and eerily animate presences comes to life ahead of her first public exhibition with Public Art Fund, opening June 2 in City Hall Park. This new work explores Belanger’s interest in humanity’s increasingly distant relationship with nature. “As a society, we are progressing quickly in the direction of Artificial Intelligence, so there has become a prevailing nostalgia for these symbols of outdated technology,” the gallery’s senior director, Valentine Blondel, told Observer. “On the other hand, the impulse to use nature to adorn our spaces through textiles and art becomes more essential, which Genesis references in her geometric mosaics and the metal tree Eclipse, which will also be on view in City Hall Park.” The booth also has new works by gallery mainstays Daniel Arsham, Jean-Michel Othoniel and Bernard Frize. On the top floor, Almine Rech is showing a poetic work by modern artist Marie Laurencin alongside contemporary figures Dustin Yellin and Keita Morimoto. Managing partner Paul de Froment said the gallery had an exceptional response on the first day, reporting multiple early sales led by the placement of a significant James Turrell light piece at around........

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