Frieze New York 2021 Seems Poised to Revitalize Passion for Art Fairs

This year’s Frieze New York fair will take place at the Shed at Hudson Yards. John Smith/VIEWpress

We all know what happened last year: virtually every massive art fair on the global circuit was shut down due to the coronavirus, leaving parent companies and organizers to scramble to put together online replacements for the bustling, in-person events that traditionally result in gallerists, collectors, spectators and everyone in between clustered together, cooing over freshly-unveiled pieces. Mercifully, the tenth edition of the Frieze New York art fair will take place in person this year. Enthusiasm for the event, which runs from May 5th through May 9th, appears to be so high that tickets to the physical fair have already sold out.

In keeping with the passionate relief many in the art world seem to be feeling regarding a return to semi-normalcy, this year’s Frieze is packed with highlights. Performance artist Marina Abramović will be giving a talk in collaboration with Art:LIVE, augmented reality artworks by KAWS, Precious Okoyomon and Cao Fei will be presented in a special exhibition in collaboration with Acute Art and the Shed and over 60 galleries in total will be presenting in-person.

Untitled (after Joseph Karl Stieler), (2021) by Ewa Juszkiewicz. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian

In terms of gallery highlights, David Zwirner is poised to show new work by Dana Schutz, an artist whose calamitous canvases and move from Petzel gallery to Zwirner have both captured recent fervent attention. Goodman Gallery will be showing work by Hank Willis Thomas, who turned the the US Department of Justice Building into a backdrop for his work last summer, and Gagosian Gallery will bring sculptures by Rachel Feinstein and paintings by Ewa Juszkiewicz.

Frieze will also be maintaining the presentation of the Frieze Viewing Room, the online space that functioned as the remote version of the fair last year. Over 160 exhibitors will be included in the Frieze Viewing Room this year, which will be accessible until May 14th, so if you didn’t manage to score a ticket for an IRL visit this year, don’t despair; you have options.