The 20 Best Booths at Frieze New York

With the fifth edition of Frieze New York in full swing, we scoured the over 200 galleries on view at Randall’s Island to highlight 20 booths you shouldn’t miss.  

CANADA

Main Section, Booth B4

With works by Katherine Bernhardt, Todd Bienvenu, Josh Blackwell, Elizabeth Ferry, Gerasimos Floratos, Bella Foster, Jess Fuller, Alicia Gibson, Billy Grant, Marcus Jahmal, Youssef Jdia, Elisabeth Kley, Sadie Laska, Joanna Malinowska, JJ Manford, Luke Murphy, Annie Pearlman, Tyson Reeder, Adrianne Rubenstein, Bill Saylor, Jason Stopa, Katie Stout, Michael Williams

Given a larger booth than they had expected at this year’s Frieze New York, CANADA’s owners turned to New York-based artist Katherine Bernhardt to help fill the space. Bernhardt chose a tightly knit circle of artists to show at the fair. Some are represented by the gallery, others friends and fellow artists she admires. Together, she and CANADA curated a warm, living room-like setting replete with plush Moroccan carpets, a whimsical Katie Stout lounge chair, and dozens of paintings and sculptures. Highlights include a vessel by Elisabeth Kley, shaped MDF paintings of blue jeans and lips by Sadie Laska, small paintings of interiors by Marcus Jahmal, and embroidered plastic bags by Josh Blackwell.

blank projects

Focus, Booth B25

With works by Igshaan Adams

Coming off of a very successful showing at The Armory Show in March, Cape Town gallery blank projects brings a refreshing new series of works by South African artist Igshaan Adams to Frieze this year. Adams creates intricate tapestries made from banal materials such as rope, beads, and textiles depicting Kufic calligraphy and other iconographies of Islamic culture, as well as remnants of Apartheid South Africa. Evoking the work of master El Anatsui, Adams’s richly layered pieces, hung simply on the walls of the otherwise sparse booth, draw you in and command introspection, calm, and careful consideration amongst the cacophony of the art fair surrounds. 

Salon 94

Main Section, Booth B17

With works by Marina Adams, Huma Bhabha, Judy Chicago, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Sylvie Fleury, Hanna Liden, Laurie Simmons, Lorna Simpson, Betty Woodman

Among a strong overall showing of female artists, Salon 94 presents Betty Woodman’s eight-tiered installation Aeolian Pyramid (2001-06), undoubtedly one of the major highlights of the fair. The work is comprised of 44 glazed earthenware vessels, and it has not been shown since appearing in the artist’s 2006 exhibition at the Met. The gallery also shows drawings and a 1983 spray-paint-on-fabric work by Judy Chicago, lush, colorful paintings by Marina Adams, and two large-scale pieces by African and Arab Modernism master Ibrahim El-Salahi.

Gagosian Gallery

Main Section, Booth B61

With works by Damien Hirst

Following last month’s announcement that Damien Hirst had returned to Gagosian’s roster (after a four-year hiatus), the gallery has thrown him a festive homecoming, or rather a mini-retrospective, in its Frieze booth. In this blast-from-the-past booth are prime examples of Hirst’s greatest hits, from a gold-horned black sheep suspended in blue formaldehyde (Black Sheep with Golden Horns, 2009), to a canvas covered in a technicolored vortex of butterflies (Covenant, 2007), to a pristine stainless steel cabinet filled with neat, sterile rows of medical equipment (Naked, 1994). 

Andrea Rosen Gallery

Main Section, Booth C29

With works by David Altmejd, Hayden Dunham, Simon Fujiwara, Josiah McElheny, Josephine Meckseper, Matthew Ritchie, Mika Rottenberg, Ryan Trecartin

Before even entering Andrea Rosen’s booth, you encounter Ryan Trecartin’s confounding new video Mark Trade (2016) (which debuted at his March show at the gallery) or the cheeky installations of Mika Rottenberg, including a tiny video playing within a pair of red waxy lips. Inside, vapor emits from Hayden Dunham’s enigmatic fountain-cum-humidifier, RACT|RESS (2016), surrounded by monochromes dusted with makeup and cast sculptures by Simon Fujiwara, but the standout work is the stunning mirrored glass installation by David Altmejd that sits in a dark enclosed space nearby. Debuted at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal last year, Le désert et la semence (2015) demonstrates a cycle of transformation.

Marian Goodman Gallery

Main Section, Booth C9

With works by William Kentridge

New York powerhouse Marian Goodman has managed to take fairgoers out of the fair and into the theater with a sprawling solo booth devoted to South African artist (and opera director) William Kentridge. On the heels of Kentridge’s November opening of “Lulu” at the Metropolitan Opera, the booth plucks elements from the set, including over two dozen Indian ink drawings on paper constructed from the remnants of an Oxford English dictionary—all tacked salon-style on one of the towering walls of the booth. Elements of Kentridge’s sets from his production of “Refuse the Hour” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music are also on view, as well as studies from his 1,800-foot-long, 33-foot-high frieze Triumphs and Laments: A Project for the City of Rome along the Tiber River. As with the gallery’s showing of 15-foot-tall sculptures by Giuseppe Penone last year, the presentation manages to transport the viewer beyond the tent. 

Rachel Uffner

Focus, Booth D20

With works by Leonhard Hurzlmeier and Pam Lins

While playing to insatiable market trends, Rachel Uffner’s smart two-person show of figurative paintings and ceramics offers a fresh pairing of contemporary artists who share in common an affinity for clean lines and modern art. In his enticing paintings of women, made up of crisp planes of color, Leonhard Hurzlmeier emphasizes his subjects’ curvaceous forms, inflecting the works with hints of playful voyeurism, while also making nods to his Cubist forebears. Meanwhile, intimately sized sculptures by Pam Lins are conceptual recreations of architectural models pictured in photographs of classrooms at the 1920s-era Moscow art and architecture school VKhUTEMAS. Evidencing the school’s Constructivist leanings, the geometric forms are only partially glazed. The artist places color glaze only onto the backsides of the sculptures, adding her personal touches to the parts not visible in the original photographs from VKhUTEMAS.

Taro Nasu

Main Section, Booth C26

With works by Simon Fujiwara

The Tokyo gallery brings a subtly exciting booth of brand-new works by British-Japanese artist Simon Fujiwara to Frieze New York. The group of works spans from readymades using grandfather clocks to “paintings” constructed out of fur coats neatly patchworked into mesmerizing canvases. They evoke the setting of one of Fujiwara’s intensely autobiographical-meets-fictional performances or installations that fairgoers may have seen over the past few years at Tate St. Ives, the Palais de Tokyo, or the Venice Biennale. 

Van Doren Waxter

SPOTLIGHT, BOOTH D25

WITH WORKS BY ALAN SHIELDS

Making an artist’s artist like Alan Shields shine at a shiny art fair is difficult, but the gallery has pulled it off elegantly with a display of the late artist’s work. It shows his hand-crafted and richly colored three-dimensional paintings, reminiscent of spiritual tents, and two-dimensional watercolors and drawings. Shields, who was a prominent artist in the 1970s New York art scene, had largely gone absent in the wake of 1980s Neo-Expressionism. However, a recent exhibition of his work at the Parrish Art Museum and posthumous collaboration with dance company Stephen Petronio has brought his work to life again—as exemplified in this booth.

Venus

Spotlight, Booth C50

With works by H.C. Westermann

Venus’s display of H.C. Westermann lays out three decades of work by the art-world eccentric. The artist falls in the fringe of outsider art while also touching on aspects of minimalism, Neo-Dada, and Pop Art. The booth pulled its offer from the collection of the artist’s longtime dealer Allan Frumkin, including a series of Kippenberger-like illustrated letters and a tabletop of quirky sculptures such as a pair of polished military boots housed in an elegant vitrine. The presentation demonstrates his adept skill as a draftsman and carpenter, his innate sense of humor, and his influence on the work of such essential artists as Raymond Pettibon, Ed Ruscha, and Jeff Koons. 

Sprüth Magers

Main Section, Booth C8

With works by Bernd & Hilla Becher, Thea Djordjadze, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Pamela Rosenkranz, Kaari Upson

While certain other blue-chip galleries missed the wow-mark this year, Sprüth hit the nail on the head with a museum-quality display of works by Bernd & Hilla Becher, Thea Djordjadze, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Jean-Luc Mylayne, Pamela Rosenkranz, and Kaari Upson. The booth draws viewers in with a wall of richly-colored Fischli/Weiss floral photographs, which are included in the concurrent retrospective of the artists’ work at the Guggenheim. Those are flanked by two full walls of the Bechers’ stark but rich black-and-white photographs of water towers and industrial architecture—36 photographs total, 18 on each side. The pairing would stop any fair-goer in his or her tracks and leads them into two smaller gallery-like settings: on one side three pillowy large-scale sculptures from Upson’s ongoing “Larry Project” that evoke the work of predecessors like Lynda Benglis. On the other side is a series of minimalist sculptures and installation by Berlin-based artist Djordjadze, whose mentor and collaborator, renowned feminist artist Rosemarie Trockel, has clearly influenced her practice.

Jhaveri Contemporary

Spotlight, Booth C47

With works by Zahoor ul Akhlaq

For their quietly impressive booth in the Spotlight section, Mumbai gallery Jhaveri Contemporary collaborated with the estate of Zahoor ul Akhlaq to show the late pioneering Pakistani artist’s paintings and a sculpture. The artist is a major influence on miniature painting and contemporary Pakistani artists. Zahoor’s paintings on view, from the late 1980s and ’90s, evidence a confluence of the traditions of 17th-century Mughal and Persian paintings, which he studied while in school in London in the 1960s, with the leading western art movements happening that time—namely pop art and color field painting. This is perhaps seen best in works from the artist’s “Still Still Life” series, like a 1995 diptych picturing a pair of lemons. The elegant 1984 sculpture on view—a small shelf filled with reflective glass prisms—displays the artist’s affinity for grids, inspired by both Islamic art and modernism.

David Nolan Gallery

Main Section, Booth A30

With works by Richard Artschwager, William N. Copley, Carroll Dunham, Hermann Finsterlin, Julia Fish, Neil Gall, George Grosz, David Hartt, Mel Kendrick, Martin Kippenberger, Barry Le Va, Wardell Milan, Jim Nutt, Christina Ramberg, Alexander Ross, Gavin Turk, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, Jorinde Voigt, Ray Yoshida

Following a stellar display of Barry Le Va at The Art Show in March, Nolan features a pair of large-scale black-and-white drawings by the New York artist at Frieze New York. The works are paired with a large-scale and richly colored cut-out relief by Mel Kendrick. Opposite the old school, Nolan features lighter work with no less gravitas. A vibrant drawing by Jorinde Voigt (who opened a show at the gallery this week), features a hue of pink that surges from the paper. A work by Sandra Vásquez de la Horra takes the artist’s luscious wax-covered paper into three-dimensional form. And a 2013 work by Wardell Milan collapses time and space into one vivid, dioramic piece that appropriates images of everyone from Naomi Campbell to his own parents, makes references to Cartier-Bresson and Guy Bourdin, and ties together his background in painting and photography.

Société

Focus, Booth A14

With works by Sean Raspet

How do you feed an overpopulated planet in a sustainable way? It’s a question you might not expect to find an answer to at an art fair, until now. Berlin’s Société has handed over its booth to artist Sean Raspet, and the Los Angeles-based company Soylent. It’s chock-full of the latter’s product: a much-buzzed-about meal substitute beverage that rings in at 400 calories per bottle and is part of a complete food replacement regimen. (Contrary to its namesake, the drink is not people.) Raspet was hired by the company in 2014 to become a flavorist, tasked with aiding Soylent in broadening its consumer appeal. At the fair, grinning Soylent employees in grey jumpsuits sing their potion’s praises and distribute enough Soylent to satiate the fair’s attendees. Gavin Brown and Mark Ruffalo’s sausage-based protest to fracking might have been a tastier form of relational aesthetics at Frieze New York’s inaugural edition. But Raspet’s integration of the “life-hacking” community and post-agrarian solutions into the art world is a timely nod to our uncertain present (read: Trumpocalypse).

Fortes Vilaça

Main Section, Booth C18

With works by Los Carpinteros, Simon Evans, Agnieszka Kurant, Mauro Restiffe, Luiz Zerbini

Punctuating the Brazilian gallery’s expansive booth are the giant rusty nails of Cuban artist duo Los Carpinteros. The playful-yet-elegant sculptures arrived straight from the artist’s studio in Madrid. The sculptures draw from the duo’s 2013 “Clavos Torcidos” series and cleverly cohere the range of works on view. Lining the back wall are paintings by Rio artist Adriana Varejão—exacting tondos resembling color wheels filled with skin tones. Derived from the artist’s “Polvo” series, in which she studied miscegenation in her homeland, the works were on view last year at Dallas Contemporary. Don’t miss the strange silvery sculpture by Agnieszka Kurant at the booth’s edge: It’s the cast inversion of a termite mound.

White Cube

Main Section, Booth C57

With works by Larry Bell, Theaster Gates, Mona Hatoum, Damien Hirst, Imi Knoebel, Jac Leirner, Josiah McElheny, Sarah Morris

The British blue-chip gallery has chosen as its centerpiece Dr. Caligari (2016), a vibrant wall painting by Sarah Morris, a key component of her new “Abu Dhabi” series that continues her established tradition of site-specific works. (The work’s title is drawn from the German Expressionist silent film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.) Across from it, a Jac Leirner installation is a strong contrast. Spanning the wall are 120 lengths of handmade cords in bright color combinations. Theaster Gates fronts the booth with a 2015 work from his “Ground Rules” series, made from the dismantled wood panels of a school gymnasium (a series he showed at the London gallery last May), which reflects on Chicago’s failing public education system.

Seventeen

FOCUS, BOOTH B45

WITH WORKS BY SACHIN KAELEY, JON RAFMAN, MEGAN ROONEY 

The London gallery, which is is growing up fast, features a new suite of works by king among internet artists Jon Rafman. It includes a massage chair installation that invites tired fair-goers to take a seat, put on headphones, and enter Rafman’s dreams. Similarly, the gallery offers viewers a trip into the past with two Discman players featuring the voice and words of young Canadian artist Megan Rooney, setting the environment for which to view her large-scale canvas of figures and gestures with cleverly titled Doggy breath, finger deaf, mute, winking. A wink she could only do with the right eye (2015). As ever, it’s fun to see what mixed-media lure the gallery will use to subtly disrupt the fairgoing experience.

Supportico Lopez

Main Section, Booth C37

With works by Athena Papadopoulos

The Berlin gallery’s small corner booth is tightly curated with a cycle of new paintings and recent sculptures by the young London-based Canadian artist Athena Papadopoulos (who had her first solo with the gallery last May). The artist’s facility with a range of media and unexpected materials is on full view, as are the personal narratives that she embeds in her works. Her electric pink and green paintings are canvases covered in bed sheets and saturated with hair dye, bleach, makeup, intricate drawings, doodles, and image transfers of personal photographs. On the floor and leaning on one wall, giant plush high-heeled legs complement these works, steeped in tinctures like iodine, red wine, and self-tanner, while a salmon pink curtain ties the booth together, making us feel as though we’ve stepped into an angsty teenage girl’s bedroom.

Hauser & Wirth

Main Section, Booth B7

With works by Paul McCarthy, Philip Guston, Roni Horn

A scatter of Roni Horn glass sculptures are drawing crowds into the Hauser & Wirth booth, where they’ll also find a slice of erotic madness courtesy of Paul McCarthy, and rare gems by Philip Guston—a trio of American artists who are shaping younger generations. Horn’s four new shallow cylindrical sculptures in shades of pale blue embody the artist’s mastery of infusing her works with dualities—the works appear light and liquid-like, despite their solid constitutions and enormous weight (1,700 pounds each!). New sketches by McCarthy offer a rare look into the artist’s process. (He seldom lets such works leave the studio.) The artist’s neon-red sculpture SC Western Red River, Red (2016) gives a taste of his latest series, “Stagecoach,” an eroticized take on the 1939 John Wayne movie of the same name.

James Fuentes

Focus, Booth D23

With works by Benjamin Senior