Highlights of Frieze New York 2018

by Paul Laster

At the booth of Boers-Li Gallery (Beijing and New York), MIAO YING’s mixed-media sculptural installation Satie Bought Seven Identical Velvet Suits Complete With Matching Hats That He Wore Uninterruptedly, For Seven Years (2018) featured printed images of Nicolas Cage morphing into Donald Trump, and an astronaut. All photographs by Paul Laster for ArtAsiaPacific.

Frieze New York has returned for its seventh edition, bringing around 190 galleries from 30 countries to its customary venue at Randall’s Island Park. The fair has a new layout thanks to London-based Universal Design Studio—which has also been behind the design of Frieze London for the past four years—replacing its previous format of one massive white tent with five smaller adjacent structures, totaling 28,000 square meters, in an effort to make the large exhibition space feel more intimate.

In addition to the redesign, Frieze New York introduced new programming this year. English artist and curator Matthew Higgs helmed the first-ever themed section, “For Your Infotainment,” which celebrates the legacy of the deceased New York and Chicago art dealer Hudson and his gallery, Feature Inc. The fair also has a new “Live” section, focused on performances, installations and interactive art, curated by Adrienne Edwards, curator of performance at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Additionally, the 2018 edition sees the New York launch of the Frieze Artist Award, for a site-specific installation created by an emerging artist and unveiled at the fair. Following an international open call, Paris-based artist Kapwani Kiwanga was selected as this year’s winner for her open-air installation Shady, featuring porous shade cloths in black, dark green, bright red and sky blue stretched across a black steel frame.

Asian artists were strongly represented at this year’s Frieze New York, with a record 28 exhibitors, including galleries from China, Japan, Korea and India. Highlights include early paintings and sculptures by Takashi Murakami at Gagosian’s booth in the “For Your Infotainment” section (Murakami had his first New York solo exhibition at Hudson’s Feature, Inc.); a solo show of late paintings by Gutai master Atsuko Tanaka at Sakurado Fine Arts in “Spotlight,” a section dedicated to 20th-century pioneers; and emerging artist Jacqueline Kiyomi Gordon’s sound and sculptural installation at Empty Gallery’s booth in the “Frame” section, for galleries aged eight years or younger. These and many more are shown below.

BARTI KHER’s framed mandala Algorithm for Loving Well (2017), made with bindis on a painted board, and Kali (2018), consisting of a sari wrapped around a fiberglass figure, at Perrotin (Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo)’s booth.

Kaikai Kiki Gallery (Tokyo) presented (clockwise from foreground left) AUSTIN LEE‘s bronze sculpture Big Head (2017); a 2018 mural by DIEGO; MR’s anime-style painting of a girl, Marie (2018); MADSAKI ’s untitled 2018 “LOVE” sculpture that appropriates Robert Indiana’s Pop Art icon; TENGA ’s untitled 2018 paintings of cartoon characters and graffiti; and OTANI WORKSHOP’s bronze seated figure Squat (2018).

SUBODH GUPTA’s sculptures Lyra and Orion (both 2016), consisting of compressed cooking pots and kitchen rags sealed in resin, at Nature Morte (New Delhi)’s booth.

Three of TAKASHI MURAKAMI’s painted fiberglass “Miss ko2” figures in front of his four-part painting, May Satsuki (1998) at the booth of Gagosian (New York, London, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Athens, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Hong Kong).

Axel Vervoordt Gallery (Wijnegem and Hong Kong) showcased TSUYOSHI MAEKAWA’s untitled sewn and painted monochromatic paintings on burlap (2016 and 2017).

EIJI UEMATSU’s polychromed clay installation Karuta (1986), and raw clay sculptures Harvest (1996), Shape That Supports (ca. 1995) and From a Single Grain (1996) at Gallery 38 (Tokyo)’s booth.

HASSAN SHARIF’s painted cardboard and papier-mâché installation Boxes (2016) and VIKRAM DIVECHA’s small canvases (all 2018), made with reflective glass and thermoplastic paint that’s commonly used for painting pavement markings, exhibited at the booth of Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde (Dubai).

Empty Gallery (Hong Kong) presented a sound and sculptural installation by JACQUELINE KIYOMI GORDON, which incorporated wool, felt, hair, cast cement, paint, speakers and digital elements, and featured her sound pieces Sound Blanket No. 2, Cold World Cycles Warm – Line Array, Sound Panel No. 4, and Sound Blanket No. 4 – Jacket (all 2018), among others.

MIKA TAJIMA’s painting on thermoformed acrylic, Art d’Ameublement – Mogadishu (2018); a carved-walnut sculpture with stainless steel jacuzzi jets, Pranayama F (2017); and woven abstraction Negative Entropy – Argraf Rapida, Black, Quad (2018) at Taro Nasu (Tokyo)’s booth.

The Third Line (Dubai) showcased SOPHIA AL-MARIA’s photographs, Ziru #3, Shreds Galaxies – Jalajasu You Iwakat (2018) and Ziru #4, Murder Stars – Outunainru Shilwara Sutuma (2018).

SIMON FUJIWARA’s multimedia installation at Esther Schipper (Berlin)’s booth, Anne Frank’s Birthday Cake (2018), is part of an ongoing series of works from his life-sized reconstruction of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, with models of a cake, flowers, vintage tableware, photographic equipment and LCD monitors.

XU ZHEN’s I Believe the Sun is the Center of the Universe (2017)—featuring words and phrases written with metal chains on mirrored stainless steel—and bronze sculpture Eternity-Painted Terracotta Statue of Heavenly Guardian, Sleeping Muse (2016) at James Cohan (New York)’s booth.

Blum & Poe (Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo) presented YUN HYONG_KEUN’s painting Burnt Umber & Ultramarine (1972), HA CHONG-HYUN’s painting Conjunction 81-11 (1981), NOBUO SEKINE’s bronze Phase of Nothingness – Earth Circle (1975), and ZHU JINSHI’s painting Living Seclusion at Tiantongyuan No. 1 (2012).

CODY CHOI’s painting Episteme Sabotage – Bolony (2014), which appropriates a Van Gogh canvas with text sewn on a cloth, and neon light sculpture Power of Bluff – Free Orgasm (2017) at the PKM (Seoul) booth.

ATSUKO TANAKA’s colorful Gutai canvases, 2000C (2000), 99b (1999) and 99c (1999), at the booth of Sakurado Fine Arts (Tokyo and Paris).

Paul Laster is a New York desk editor of ArtAsiaPacific.

Frieze New York is at Randall’s Island Park, New York, until May 6, 2018.

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