
Frieze New York 2021 is not only back, but tickets are sold out! Need a way in? Join Frieze 91 to get special access to the fair with a guest, or check out the Frieze Viewing Room. This years venue, held at The Shed in Hudson Yards, will bring together over 60 galleries from all over the world. Let’s take a look at what will be on tap during Frieze New York’s 10th edition, from May 3-9, and beyond, online.
The Shed will open its doors to 60 galleries and artists from around the world, and continue one of our favorite platform’s for galleries ~ Fame ~ galleries that have been active for ten-years or less. This platform allows the galleries to dedicate space for a solo artist presentation for new and emerging artists. First-time Frieze New York exhibitors in 2021 include:
Featured artists and galleries in this section will be: Galeria Bruno Múrias presenting work by Henrique Pavão and Wilding Cran Gallery with Karon Davis. The Frame section will also see participants including, Barro who will show work by Agustina Woodgate, Château Shatto presenting Zeinab Saleh, Clima showing Dana Lok, Company with a booth of work by WangShui, Bridget Donahue and Hannah Hoffman showing a joint booth by Olga Balema, Helena Anrather and Capsule Shanghai showing Douglas Rieger, and Microscope Gallery presenting Ina Archer.
All of the Fame participating galleries are:
Helena Anrather / Capsule Shanghai : Douglas Rieger ~ Barro: Agustina Woodgate ~ Château Shatto: Zeinab Saleh ~ Clima: Dana Lok ~ Company Gallery: WangShui ~ Bridget Donahue / Hannah Hoffman: Olga Balema ~ Gordon Robichaux: Otis Houston Jr. ~ Instituto de Visión: Wilson Díaz ~ Microscope Gallery: Ina Archer ~ Galeria Bruno Múrias: Henrique Pavão ~ Wilding Cran Gallery: Karon Davis.

The Looking Glass curated by Acute Art’s artistic director Daniel Birnbaum and The Shed’s chief curator Emma Enderby, is a large exhibition of augmented reality works presented in The Shed and the public area surrounding the building.

The first chapter of this expanding exhibition, which opens on May 5 in collaboration with Frieze New York, premieres works by artists Precious Okoyomon, Cao Fei and KAWS. The works in this show are no doubt real, but not in the sense of tangible objects. Invisible to the naked eye, they come to life in your phone when you arrive at the right spot. Once caught on camera they appear as real as the environment around them.

Precious Okoyomon presents two large animated flowers that read poetry. Cao Fei’s RMB City AR is a futuristic urban fantasy. KAWS’ COMPANION 2020 (expanded) floats horizontally in the air seemingly pressed against an imaginary glass. Through the juxtaposition of physical and virtual worlds, the artworks in The Looking Glass, all visible through the free Acute Art app, convey a sense of surprise and wonder.
New York-based artist, Precious Okoyomon has been announced as the winner of the 2021 Frieze Artist Award. At Frieze New York, Okoyomon will realise a major new commission, supported by Luma Foundation.
Also inside The Shed, look for Massimo De Carlo, who will show Sanford Biggers’ Cipher at the gallery’s booth.This works is part of Sanford Biggers’s ongoing series entitled ‘Chimeras’. These works are figurative sculptures created by combining various African and European masks, busts and figures that explore historical depictions of the body and their subsequent myths, narratives, perceptions and power.
The Shed and Acute Art will expand the exhibition with additional works on The Shed’s plaza in July. Details to be announced. Download the Acute Art app for free and see the show.

Responding to ‘How are the arts responsible for disrupting, complicating, or shifting narratives of visual representation in the public realm?’ Frieze New York 2021 and all participating galleries and artists pay a tribute to the Vision & Justice Project and its founder, Sarah Elizabeth Lewis.

(2020); Courtesy of For Freedoms and the artist.
The Project is an educational and cultural initiative that aims to expand visual literacy and explore the connection between race, citizenship, and image-making. Inspired by the most photographed man of the 19th century, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who best understood the transformative power of pictures to create a new vision for the nation, Vision & Justice amplifies the essential rose of images in today’s society to establish a sense of belonging.

The tribute will include new Carrie Mae Weems and Hank Willis Thomas commissions; Wynton Marsalis, Ava DuVernay, Franklin Leonard, and Theaster Gates discussing black cultural leadership in an online panel moderated by Professor Lewis; and the new Vision & Justice Book Series, co-edited by Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, Leigh Raiford, and Deborah Willis, published by Aperture with the Ford Foundation’s lead support.

Vision&Justice, Hank Willis Thomas; Caption: Untitled 2010. Photo credit: Deborah Willis
While The Viewing Room is by invitation only on May 5th, and Frieze Members only on May 6th, the site will have free access to all on Friday, May 7 from 11am to Friday, May 14th at midnight.
One of the many treasurers to find in The Viewing Room will be a presentation by Galeria Nara Roesler, entitled ‘Surpassing Margins,’ an online presentation of artists JR and Virginia de Medeiros, who have consistently worked towards empowering marginalised communities. Both artists have regularly lived and worked with impoverished and socially neglected groups, including women living in favelas, homeless communities, striving to increase visibility and awareness.

Also in the Viewing Room, October Gallery will show Alexis Peskine’s Sequita. This work is named after Sequita Thompson the grandmother of 22 year old Stephon Clarke, an African-American shot and killed by police in Sacramento. California, in March 2018.
The Frieze New York Talks line-up includes American Artist and Robin D.G. Kelley; Joni Murphy and Ulrike Müller; Akwaeke Emezi &Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze; and Richard Prince & Rachel Kushner.
There is a lot to see off-site. Here are a few suggestions:
Public Art Fund together with Alexander Gray Associates will host a socially distanced walk-through of ‘Melvin Edwards: Brighter Days’ at City Hall Park, opening May 4th.

Public Art Fund, in partnership with The Cooper Union, will present a free virtual conversation between Awol Erizku and Curator Daniel S. Palmer on May 10th to accompany the artist’s current Public Art Fund exhibition ‘New Visions for Iris’. On view at 350JCDecaux bus shelters across New York City and Chicago, the show creates a new visual vernacular reflecting the artist’s deeply personal interpretation of how art can act as a site to process challenging times and spark conversation. Erizku’s Untitled (Forces of Nature #1) (2014) graced the cover of the award-winning ‘Vision & Justice’ issue of Aperture magazine.
Ebecho Muslimov’s Scenes in the Sublevel will be on view at The Drawing Center through May 23, 2021.

Salon Zürcher: 11 Women of Spirit will be on view from May 2-9th at Zürcher Gallery, 33 Bleecker Street, NYC (above image, the work of French sculptor artist Anne de Villeméjane)
Visit Leslie-Lohmann Museum for a look back on Laura Aguilar’s pioneering vision ~ a retrospective of the late artists’ photography and video works that celebrate Latinx, Lesbian and working-class communities. The exhibition, Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell will be on view through June 27, 2021.
Follow Frieze New York 2021 on Twitter.
While you’re there, see the sites from beginning of The High Line, including The Plinth, to The Vessel and The Edge. Take a walk down The High Line and view the progress on Pier 55: Little Island and Dave Hammons permanent installation, Days End, in Hudson River Park at Pier 51. Don’t miss the current exhibitions at The Whitney, at the southern end of The High Line.
Get home by way of MTA’s colorful #7 subway station.
Did you know that the Javits Center has the largest green roof in New York City? The Javits Center will host The Armory Show from September 9-12, 2021.
While you’re in New York, check out GothamToGo, the May Roundup of Installations, Events & Exhibitions to add to your list.
#FriezeNewYork2021