- By
- Kevin Greenberg
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 2015 FRIEZE ART FAIR
The annual spring thaw brings with it the return of Frieze, New York’s own “destination” art fair. Situated on relatively remote Randall’s Island, the fair invites New Yorkers to take a ferry in fair weather to wander the booths of a broad range of dealers and galleries from all over the world. Grassy enclaves surrounding the fair create an idyllic setting, while inside, general madness reigns, as serious buyers and casual spectators rub shoulders amidst an overwhelming spectacle of market extravagance, artisanal food consumption (this year there were even more opportunities to sample the wares of Brooklyn-based favorites like Marlow & Sons and Roberta’s than in years past), and first-rate people watching. What follows are a very few highlights (and lowlights) from this year’s installment.
Miguel Abreu, reliably one of Manhattan’s most iconoclastic and conceptually interesting outposts, presents a broad range of pieces by a number of its established artists, as well as a few newcomers: the sublimely subtle gradients of Scott Lyall’s Nude and Black Glass were highlights (if maybe a little too on-trend), as were selections from Rey Akdogan‘s “Episode” series. Gradients and moirés were widespread at the fair, often laid over tight patterns or textures (call it the last gasp of the Tauba effect) and Lyall’s canvases, unadorned and splendid in their subtlety, were some of the best.
Shelagh Wakely’s spare, watery abstractions for London-based Richard Saltoun recall classic Cy Twombly and also the bruises and coagulations of a teenage self-scarification.
Elsewhere, Los Angeles-based David Kordansky showcases a quintet of typically lovely paintings by Lesley Vance, here operating in an especially graphic mode: the precise delineations and tunneling depth of her compositions, occasionally rendered in pastels if not bold racing hues, mark a departure from the Spanish still life influences of the work that helped her earn her reputation as one of America’s most talented young abstractionists.
Los Angeles-based Blum & Poe, which also operates satellites in New York and Tokyo, gives its booth over to a suite of unabashedly pretty compositions by Theodora Allen, rendered in deep indigo hues and ghostly, paler blues.
Lisa Cooley gives her booth over to Andy Coolquitt, one of her heaviest hitters, who presents a triptych of beautifully jumbled assemblages that simultaneously recall Kandinsky and the dusty corners of the Salvation Army.
Sadly, some of the fair’s most high-profile installations fall flat, like Richard Prince’s inkjet Instagram prints at Gagosian, which seem like a desperate bid for relevancy by an artist who doesn’t really need to stoop. Prince should stick to what he does best and leave this kind of chatter to other Richards who are happy to take a less high-minded approach to their work (Kern, for example).
Unsurprisingly, the internet and its vernacular loom large at Frieze this year. Besides Prince’s Instagrams, Gabriele de Santis’ Can’t Take My Eyes Off You at Frutta, an installation featuring a pair of sunbathing emojis, is an eye-roller, and other examples abound at other booths. Hopefully MyIdol, the creepy Chinese simulacrum generator that recently went viral, will be old news before any of this year’s participating artists have a chance to delve into its potential as an art-making tool.
Other apparent crowd pleasers, like Jonathan Horowitz’s “collective” piece for Gavin Brown, also rankle. Visitors to the booth are given a brush and some black paint and invited to contribute one square of a hundred in a series of pieces that, once assembled into a grid, will be sold for a hundred thousand dollars apiece. Plainly meant to be a winking nod to the excess of the contemporary art market and the inherently subjective value of any artwork, the piece still carries an unsavory whiff of old-school Dickensian exploitation of the lower (in this case, non-gallery-showing artist) classes. And while it might seem mystifying that anyone would volunteer five minutes of their own time to make one thousand dollars for Gavin Brown, most of the chairs at the painting tables were nonetheless full when I passed by, and Leonardo DiCaprio had apparently already expressed interest in acquiring one example of the work.
Frieze Art Fair New York runs through Sunday at Randall’s Island Park, New York.