In New York for Frieze? We’ve Planned Your Next Five Days

Along with the chartreuse pollen that lingers in the air and coats nearly every city surface in a fine, fertile dust, this week brings Frieze back to New York—returning for its 13th edition.

Beyond the fair itself, there’s a dizzying selection of museum and gallery shows from iconic artists—René Magritte, Willem de Kooning, Hilma af Klint, and Takashi Murakami, to name a few—and more than a few promising presentations from emerging names scattered throughout the city. 

There’s a disquietude about the art this year, alongside a studied interest in objects that speak for themselves, and a fantasy of making home as a sanctuary—whether real or imagined. It seems that artists, curators, and galleries alike are fighting for their future by imagining one that is maybe a little brighter, and certainly a lot more self-determined. 

How to experience this tense-yet-buoyant moment? Here’s your day-by-day guide to make the most of New York’s must-see exhibitions and events.

Nate Flagg, Cenec Affar Anettehen / Onward-Elapsing Circuit (2021). Coloured pencil and wax medium on tinted paper on medex panels. 26 3/4 x 87 1/2 inches. Courtesy Post Times.

Wednesday 7 May

ESTHER II art fair at the Estonian House brings together an eclectic collection of international and local galleries. Eye-catching presentations include Longtermhandstand’s showing of Gideon Horváth’s beeswax forms, Kogo gallery’s presentation of Līga Spunde’s pop culture amalgamations (coolly contrasting Eike Eplik’s natural forms), Post Times strong showing of Nate Flagg and Jeremy Deprez’s visual intricacies, and, of course, James Fuentes, featuring John McAllister‘s still lifes. ESTHER II (back for its second term) is open free of charge from 7 to 11 May.

Salman Toor‘s Wish Maker is now open at both Luhring Augustine locations. Drawing from his community, Toor cinematises intimate moments in the lives of queer men of colour with moody scenes rendered in saturated greens, yellows, and pinks. Toor’s work is also part of a group exhibition, Shifting Landscapes, now on view at the Whitney.

Company Gallery plays with themes of past and future in two shows: Museum Manu by the Women’s History Museum and DASH by Cajsa von Zeipel. In conjunction, the presentations evoke a futuristic imagination of the human form. The gallery will also co-present a booth at Frieze featuring the paintings of Bulgarian artist Stefania Batoeva, whose works construct dreamscapes of the autobiographical and the fantastic.

Anne Collier‘s dreamy aura portraits capture essences, not bodies, returning to the internal landscape. Now on view at Anton Kern Gallery, her work can also be seen at Frieze and at The Modern Institute in Glasgow—for travellers between the two.

Opening tonight at Kasmin Gallery, Theodora Allen‘s Oak is packed with luminescent paintings featuring charged symbols like hearts and infinity loops, drawn from mythology and medieval imagery.

Also opening today is Luxembourg + Co.‘s René Magritte: The Phantom Landscape, which focuses on the Belgian artist’s unconventional interpretation of landscape painting.

Thursday 8 May

Throughout the day at Frieze, artist Carlos Reyes activates the fair space with a performance, Freestyle Hard. Live bird calls performed by expert callers will ring through the transitory spaces at the Shed, calling to mind the migratory patterns and coded language of the attendants themselves.

Just a three-minute walk from Frieze, Future Fair collects a bounty of up-and-coming voices. Among some of the enticing booths are Harsh Collective, Tomato Mouse, LAS Contemporary, and Visionary Projects. The work on view from many of these emerging galleries draws attention to the personal and the internal, with artists crafting hypnagogic images of domesticity and intimacy.

While in Chelsea, be sure to visit Willem de Kooning: Endless Painting, up at Gagosian. This curation of de Kooning‘s work, by Cecilia Alemani, conveys an otherworldly experience of de Kooning’s iconic forms of women twisting and turning all around you in the space. Also on view (and exhibited indoors for the first time in nearly three decades) is Standing Figure, de Kooning’s octopus-like monumental bronze sculpture.

Openings are abundant this evening. Another at Gagosian: JAPONISME → Cognitive Revolution: Learning from Hiroshige. Looking to the future by reconfiguring iconic art-historical tropes, Takashi Murakami responds to Utagawa Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo with a series of new and recent works. Michael Armitage‘s Crucible also opens at David Zwirner—more on themes of migration, with poignant images undergirded with bright colours to draw the eye toward narratives of change.

Friday 9 May

If you’re starting your day off uptown, the Guggenheim offers a chance to view one of Faith Ringgold‘s most important quilt pieces, Woman on a Bridge #1 of 5: Tar Beach. The presentation, which is derived from the museum’s collection and open today, pays homage to the legendary artist and activist, who passed last year.

For another object-oriented encounter, Eun-Ha Paek‘s ceramic sculptures are fun to check out at HB381. The forms are a blend of vessels (cups, jars, and plates) stacked together to create human figures. Grounded in the material, Paek’s work evokes a sense of life within the object. In a playful, colourful vein, Hope Gangloff‘s whimsical depictions of her friends are also now on view at Susan Inglett Gallery. Another artist dealing with intimacies, Gangloff’s work extrapolates the warmth and brightness of personal relationships.

From 5-6PM at TEFAF, Artnet will be hosting a talk, The Thrill of the Chase, about what makes certain items almost magnetically desirable. As a witty complement, a new body of work from painter Anna Weyant—centred on jewellery—will be on display at Gagosian‘s booth. In her signature surreal style, Weyant depicts opulent pearls and glittery pendants with price tags and orange ‘sold’ stickers—perhaps a tongue-in-cheek nod to the attendants of the fair?

Saturday 10 May

In another of Frieze’s commissioned projects, today at 11AM artist Asad Raza engages fairgoers in a bit of ecological speed dating, by inviting participants who have signed up in advance to nurture a relationship with a plant or seedling by walking it along the length of the High Line (before taking it home to meet the family). A nature walk for commitment-phobes, Raza’s project is a good way to take in the Chelsea scenery (and to find a moment of peace before diving into a day of art).

While in Chelsea, be one of the first to view A Natural History of the Studio, William Kentridge‘s inaugural exhibition at Hauser & Wirth which features all of the Johannesburg-born artist’s drawings from his seminal work Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot. This immersive presentation covers two floors of the gallery’s 22nd Street building and extends to their 18th Street location.

Concurrently, at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, David Krut and Kalashnikovv gallery bring together more of the Johannesburg art scene, showcasing artists from the same workshop as Kentridge. Also at 1-54, Yossi Milo presents five artists whose practices interrogate traditions, migration, and identity within Africa and the African Diaspora. Yossi Milo will also be showing Alexa Guariglia’s debut solo exhibition of watercolour, gouache, and ink works that reinterpret scenes from her personal life into highly detailed pattern plays.

Later, at 3PM, join Andy Warhol’s famous right-hand man, Gerard Malanga, at Anthology Film Archives for a screening of three newly-restored works of 16 mm film. Malanga, one of Warhol’s primary collaborators at the Factory, will be present to sign his book, Gerard Malanga’s Secret Cinema, and for a poetry reading and Q&A after the screening.

Sunday 11 May

After a high-octane week, a quiet Sunday morning at MoMA might be just the right vibe. Swedish mystic Hilma af Klint‘s obsession with flowers will be on view starting today, with a perfect selection of serene paintings to draw this spring weekend to a close. Also on view is a 15-year retrospective of the “cinema materialist” herself—Italian conceptual artist Rosa Barba—with a new commission that examines the ecological and scientific properties of light. Barba’s work is also being presented by Vistamare gallery at the Independent Art Fair (which ends today, so be sure to stop by if you haven’t yet).

And, for those who’d love to spend an afternoon exploring one of New York’s most sleepy and charming Brooklyn neighbourhoods, Red Hook, Pioneer Works will host their Second Sundays on 11 May, inviting people into a workspace that seeks to integrate the fields of art and science. Throughout the three floors, there will be live music, Mother’s Day-themed programming, and art installations. Resident Yehwan Song‘s Are We Still (Surfing) stands out, posing poignant questions about our relationship to technology and surveillance. The artist will lead a walkthrough of her show from 2-3PM. —[O]