In a stroke of great luck, I scored a pair tickets to the Mother-of-All- Art-Fairs, Frieze, and enjoyed a leisurely afternoon there on Saturday looking at lots of fun and provocative art! The fair has moved from its former remote location on Randal’s Island to The Shed in Hudson Yards — a fabulous modern space that allows the exhibitors to take over four entire floors! I’m sorry that I was so overcome by this hyper-realistic sculpture of a Corpse Flower that I neglected to note the name of the artist. I am sure that you’ll agree though that is quite impressive!
See More Photos From My Adventure at Frieze By Following Me on Instagram at @WorleyGigDotCom!
Lustre Contemporary Gallery of Canada Was Among the Exhibitors at the Fall ’21 AAF (All Photos By Gail)
While the NYC edition of our favorite biannual art event, the Affordable Art Fair, reemerged from its Covid-imposed hiatus in the springof this year, the fair’s fall edition (which took place over four days in late September) showed a significant return to form. Not only has the fair increased the number of exhibitors to again fill the second floor of their space at the Metropolitan Pavilion, but the sponsored open bar was back as well! Most importantly, the variety of unique artworks for sale has taken a step up. Let’s take a look at some of our favorite pieces!
Blush By Greg Creason, $1650 at Creason’s Fine Art Galleries (All Photos By Gail)
A sure sign that the vaccine rollout is working — and Covid is finally on the wane — was the in-person return of the semi-annual Affordable Art Fair, which arrived at NYC’s Metropolitan Pavilion on May 20th for four fun days of art and socializing, at long last!
Art By Inkyeong Baek (Left, Center) and Ardan Ozmenoglu (Right) at Fremin Gallery, NYC
While the Fair has been restaged to allow for better traffic flow and social distancing –which means many of our favorite vendors were absent (Tag Fine Arts, you were missed) — there was still lots of cool art to see, familiar faces and new exhibitors whose artworks we are excited to bring you in this post. Let’s take a look at the triumphant return of the Affordable Art Fair!
Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus Garden Sculpture/Installation Paired With Chris Ofili’s Painting To Take and To Give (All Photo By Gail)
On a very rainy Sunday in NYC, the ideal indoor activity turned out be a ferry ride over to Randall’s Island for the Frieze Art Fair! Because what’s a little mud on your shoes compared to the joy of browsing for hours through thousands of prohibitively expensive artworks?
It Isn’t an Art Fair Without Yayoi Kusama!
Looking back through the digital archives, it appears that my previously most recent Frieze recap dates all the way back to 2015 — wow — for reasons that take too long to talk about. One thing that is abundantly clear though is that my skills as a photographer have improved greatly in the last four years! Let’s take look around this year’s Frieze Art Fair and check out a selection of my favorite art!
Carlotta (2017) is monumental 3D-effect stiles steel sculpture by Juame Pensa, found at Richard Grey Gallery. That’s an Alex Katz abstract painting at the left.
It didn’t take me long get distract by shiny things, because I neglected to note the artist of this installation of Colored Spherical Shaped Mirrors, which is just fantastic.
It might look like a weed has sprouted up though a crack in the wall at the booth for the Marlborough Gallery, but that weed is actually a metal sculpture. Clever!
Quartz Eroded Newspaper Machine (2019) by Daniel Arsham.
Here’s the view of another side: Coffee Cup included! Spotted at Perrotin Gallery.
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Two colorful, feathered bears wrestle playfully in this sculpture by Paola Pivi entitled You Drive Me Crazy, also at Perrotin Gallery.
You know how it is when you have to wait so long for all of the people to clear out of the shot that your forget to make note of what you were photographing? This is one of those times.
Untitled (After John Singleton Copley) By Ewa Juszkiewicz
Mermaid Sculptures by Olivia Erlanger at And Now Gallery sell for $8,000 each!
Back and Forth (2016) By Marilyn Lerner at Kate Werble Gallery
Alyson Shotz created this iridescent suspended soft sculpture made from interlinked, dichroic-dyed aluminum discs, found at Derek Eller Gallery. Check out two detail views of this work, below.
Surface of Discs. Exterior.
Surface of Discs, Interior.
Here’s a unique blown-glass work by Gabriele Beveridge called True Bone. It’s so lovely I am compelled to offer a side view from which you can see how the glass ‘weeps’ over the chromed Steele frame, or bone.
Men Who Cannot Cry (2018) Neon Sculpture by Alfredo Jaar.
Mark Thomas Gibson, The Snowman (2018) at Fredericks and Freiser.
Stainless Steel and Urethane Vinyl Sculptures and Drawings by Seung-Taek Lee at Gallery Hyundai.
Alex Da Corte, Orb Weaver Weft (2019) at Karma Gallery.
Indigo Illusions (1991) By Betye Saar at Roberts Projects.
Empowered Women (2019) By Andrea Bowers at Andrew Kreps Gallery
This neon sign switched up its timely message by having the “ed” in “Empowered” flicker off and on. Nice.
Metaphysical Leg Pull (1976) By Duggie Fields, at The Modern Institute / Toby Webster Ltd.
You Should Be Dancing (2018) By Jim Lambie
This reflective wall sculpture made from the lenses of sunglasses was also spotted at the both for at The Modern Institute / Toby Webster Ltd.
Mirror Balloons By Jeppe Hein (2019) at 303 Gallery of New York.
Colorful Acrylic Sculptures By Marta Chilindron (Above and Below).
My Life As A Tree By Edouard Duval-Carrie (2019) at Lyle OReitzel Gallery.
Shiatsu (2019) By Max Hooper Schneider
Now here’s a modern sculpture that has everything! Max Hooper Schneider’s Shiatsu takes a custom acyclic vitrine — that an observer might easily mistake for an ordinary household aquarium — and creates a surreal habitat filled with hand tools scattered among the lush terrarium plant life and accented with a vintage neon sign! Let’s take a closer look.
Spectacular! Hooper Schneider’s work is represented by Maureen Paley Gallery of London.
Avid readers of The ‘Gig might recognize this freeform abstract sculpture as the work of sculptor Tony Cragg from This Post, though the one above, entitled Gate (2017) is of a much, much smaller scale!
Look Up: It’s one of Nick Cave’s Sound Suits!
Raked Leaves (Apparition) (2019) by Patrick Jacobs is a tiny diorama that was embedded into the wall of the booth for Pierogi Gallery of New York.
Check out this fabulous silk flower and bead-embellished hoodie sculpture, February (2018) by Devan Shimoyama. I would wear it.
Well that about wraps up this year’s Frieze coverage. If you dig the photos in this post please share the love and share the link on your social media! Art!
The 2017 edition of the annual Frieze Art Fair on New York’s Randall’s Island Park was a huge disappointment compared to previous years, or even to the Context Art Fair at the pier just one day earlier. The weather was the suck and most of the art was complete garbage. That said, I did get to see a handful of artworks that moved me. One of those is this large, egg shaped and wall-mounted cast polyurethane sculpture, To Be Titled (2017) by legendary artist Lynda Benglis.
