On May 18-22, Frieze Art Fair returns to the Shed at Hudson Yards in New York to present its 10th-anniversary edition. The upcoming art show will run under the leadership of its new director Christine Messineo. As the opening day approaches, let’s turn back the clock and look at ten years of Frieze New York to keep fingers at the pulse of time.
Frieze New York: 10 Years in the Making
Frieze was originally a magazine founded by Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover in 1991. The first art edition of the fair was launched in London in 2003. The event was visited by roughly 27,000 people – two times less than the regular 60,000 visits now.
As for Frieze New York, it was announced alongside Frieze Masters in 2011, with the launch editions in 2012. Back then, Frieze took place on Randall’s Island. The snake-shaped tent of the venue, mapping 250,000 square feet, made it to the Guinness World Book of Records for the largest temporary stage in the world and largest single-unit marquee.
With each year since its foundation, Frieze New York managed to impress the insatiable visitors of the fair with something new.
- In 2013, it was the art installation “Balloon Dog” created by the provocative LA artist Paul McCarthy. The artwork was actually a playful parody of Jeff Koons’s balloon dogs series. While Koons’s sculptures were made of mirror-polished stainless-steel, McCarthy’s ones were simply inflatable.
- In 2014, the American conceptual artist Allen Ruppersberg recreated his Sunset Boulevard hotel project. The pop-up installation allowed visitors of the show to stay the night at the “hotel” that was actually built inside of the venue.
- In 2015, the American photographer Richard Prince presented his viral Instagram series, including 38 real-life inkjet-printed canvases depicting people’s real pictures from their original Instagram pages.
- In 2016, the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan brought a 15-year-old donkey to Frieze New York. The self-explanatory title of the exhibition says it all. Check it out by yourself.
- In 2017, you could meet three copies of Leonardo Di Caprio wandering the halls of the venue. Three iconic movie characters were recreated to immerse visitors in a disjointed reality.
- In 2018, Frieze presented its first-ever LIVE program where they brought together artworks exploring the themes of protest, revolution, and historical justice.
- In 2019, many visitors were amazed by Victoria Miro’s booth that combined an iteration of Yayoi Kusama’s “Narcissus Garden” and Chris Ofili’s large-scale canvas “to take and to give.”
- In 2020, Frieze went online with its new project called “Frieze Viewing Room.” It was an answer to growing challenges caused by COVID-19.
The year 2021 was marked by the relocation of Frieze New York to the Shed, an arts center in Manhattan. The show was a success, with several booths sold out completely.
On May 18-22, Frieze will return to the Shed to rethink its history and present a wide range of innovative projects again. If you plan to be at the event and buy some artworks, it’s best to think about art moving services in advance. Fine Art Shippers is a Manhattan-based art logistics company that will deliver art across the US safely and securely.