{"id":1934089,"date":"2026-05-13T22:19:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1934089"},"modified":"2026-05-13T22:19:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:19:05","slug":"frieze-new-york-kicks-off-with-seven-figure-sales-and-high-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1934089","title":{"rendered":"Frieze New York Kicks Off with Seven-Figure Sales and High Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Joe_Bradley_David_Zwirner.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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Editor\u2019s Note:<\/strong>\u00a0This story originally appeared in\u00a0On Balance,\u00a0<\/em>the ARTnews\u00a0newsletter about the art market and beyond.\u00a0Sign up here<\/em>\u00a0to receive it every Wednesday.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n\tA high level of energy was palpable at the preview day of the Frieze New York art fair on Wednesday. Many attendees at the Shed, on Manhattan\u2019s West Side, were fresh off a return trip from Italy, where the Venice Biennale opened to the public on Saturday, and many were still comparing notes on best national pavilions and most heated protests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut the order of the day was art sales, and for some of the 65 or so international galleries exhibiting, they were in full swing before the paintings were even hung on the walls and the doors opened to VIPs at 11 a.m. Tif Sigfrids, of New York\u2019s Canada gallery, told ARTnews<\/em> that presales had already been good the week leading up to the fair. Over coffee and pastries at the 10 a.m. breakfast event, advisor Lowell Pettit saidthat he had already placed a Stephen Shore photograph from New York\u2019s 303 Gallery, and had heard\u2014correctly as it turned out\u2014that New York\u2019s James Cohan Gallery had just about sold out of its booth of paintings by Kelly Sinnapah Mary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNot long ago, there was understandable consternation\u201d about the state of the art market, said Pettit, but in a week when Freize, TEFAF, Independent, NADA, and Esther are all kicking off, he said, \u201cit\u2019s amazing that the appetite is where it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re selling a bunch of things,\u201d said New York dealer Andrew Kreps later in the day. \u201cThe energy feels good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter two rocky years, the art market\u2019s energy appears to have changed. Frieze director for Americas Christine Messineo, in a video chat ahead of the fair, pointed out the successful recent editions of Frieze Los Angeles and Expo Chicago, now under the Frieze umbrella. Sotheby\u2019s and Christie\u2019s both posted increases in sales in 2025, and consignors are confident enough to bring to the block no fewer than three artworks estimated around $100 million at the marquee sales this week and next.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe appetite Pettit alluded to showed up in spades all over the fair. By 4 p.m., globe-spanning blue-chip gallery White Cube had placed two El Anatsui sculptures, LuwVor I<\/em> and\u00a0 MivEvi III <\/em>(both 2025) for $2.2 million and $1.9 million respectively, as well as Antony Gormley\u2019s sculpture SET VII <\/em>(2024) for \u00a3450,000 ($608,555), and Howardena Pindell\u2019s mixed-medium painting Deep Space #4 <\/em>(2025) for $275,000, along with pieces at more modest levels by Julie Curtiss, Sara Flores, Louise Giovanelli, Marguerite Humeau, and others.<\/p>\n

\n\tA-list celebrities were in attendance, such as newsman Anderson Cooper and bushy-bearded REM frontman Michael Stipe\u2014looking, one attendee joked, \u201ca bit like David Letterman\u201d\u2014as well as collectors Beth Rudin DeWoody and Miami\u2019s Rubell family. Megacollector Leonardo DiCaprio was spotted by mid-afternoon, in a black baseball cap and a black facemask, on the arm of advisor Ralph DeLuca. Actor Sharon Stone also made the scene.<\/p>\n

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Rachel Youn, Loves me, loves me not<\/em> (2026).<\/span>Courtesy G Gallery, Seoul.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tCollectors Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall, known to their social media followers as the Icy Gays, recently moved house from North Dakota to Virginia, and are collecting again after a pause. They talked to ARTnews <\/em>while admiring sexy, kinetic sculptures incorporating massage machines and flowers by Korean-American artist Rachel Youn at G Gallery, in town from Seoul. They are priced between $6,500 and $8,000. \u201cShe\u2019s a discovery for us,\u201d Rob said, adding that they had placed one piece on hold. \u201cIt feels like everything is coming back online,\u201d he added, alluding to the upbeat atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re making sales,\u201d said G Gallery\u2019s Jane Lee, adding, of Youn, \u201cThere\u2019s a surprising level of interest for a young artist making kinetic sculptures.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tInstitutions were also making purchases. In the inaugural year of the Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund, the Brooklyn Museum acquired two works from New York gallery Ulrik by Bettina, who lived for decades in the Chelsea Hotel and died in 2021; the award is presented posthumously to support the documentation and preservation of her work. The Baltimore Museum of Art acquired works by Reika Takebayashi from Public Gallery, Seba Calfuqueo from W-galer\u00eda, and by Joanne Burke from Soft Opening. Each artist receives an unrestricted $5,000 award.<\/p>\n

\n\tGlobe-spanning Swiss megagallery Hauser & Wirth leaned into an all-women presentation that paired historical heavyweights with fresh material from major contemporary artists. The booth mixed subdued works by Lorna Simpson, who currently has a solo presentation at the Pinault Collection\u2019s Venice outpost, Punta della Dogana, and Louise Bourgeois with a suite of brightly colored new photographs by Cindy Sherman, each priced between $175,000 and $195,000 in editions of six.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tChristopher Canizares, a senior director at the gallery who will soon be opening a boutique artist agency called Artist Legacy Bureau, told ARTnews<\/em> that the Sherman works grew out of a recent commission for The Face<\/em> magazine and saw the artist revisiting some of the character types and personas that have defined her career for decades. \u201cShe effectively mined her own history of character creation,\u201d he said, pointing to references that evoked Sherman\u2019s society portraits and earlier staged identities. At 1 p.m., gallery president Marc Payot said it was still too early in the day to draw firm conclusions about sales, but described the fair\u2019s opening hours as highly encouraging. \u201cThe level and quality of collectors, curators, and museum directors is at least as high, if not higher, than in previous years,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Georg Baselitz, Piet M.<\/em> (2018).<\/span>Courtesy Thaddaeus Ropac gallery, London \u00b7 Paris \u00b7 Salzburg \u00b7 Milan \u00b7 Seoul.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tJust down the corridor at Thaddaeus Ropac, early sales spanned both postwar blue-chip names and newer work fresh from artists\u2019 studios. The gallery sold Georg Baselitz\u2019s Stunde der Nachtigall<\/em> (2012) for \u20ac1.4 million ($1.6 million), alongside Robert Rauschenberg\u2019s Bog Song (Salvage)<\/em> (1984) for $825,000 and a new floral painting by Alex Katz, Black Roses 3 <\/em>(2025), for $600,000. Additional placements included two works by Martha Jungwirth at \u20ac320,000 ($375,000) and \u20ac75,000 ($87,800) respectively, as well as Joan Snyder\u2019s Buds & Blossoms<\/em> (2025), which sold for $150,000.<\/p>\n

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Joan Snyder, Buds & Blossoms<\/em> (2025).<\/span>Photo: Adam Reich<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tNearby, London-based Victoria Miro opted for a tightly curated booth built entirely around figurative paintings shown in pairs and \u201ccouples.\u201d The presentation brought together works by artists including Ali Banisadr, Mar\u00eda Berr\u00edo, Saskia Colwell, Paula Rego, and Emil Sands, that echoed and played off one another formally and emotionally. One pairing, on the left hand corner of the booth, juxtaposed a painting by Alice Neel with a work by Chantal Joffe, an admirer of Neel\u2019s. The conversation there, with both the Neel and the Joffe featuring couples, and the fact that the two artists can be seen as a couple, was a highlight of the fair.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Victoria Miro\u2019s presentation at Frieze New York 2026.<\/span>All works \u00a9 the artists. Courtesy Victoria Miro<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tOther pairings were subtler, more playful, and even sometimes erotic. One picture by Saskia Colwell showed overlapping limbs and shadows creating the illusion of a woman masturbating but in fact was a painting of intertwined bodies, one leg gracefully draped over the lap of a woman in stockings. \u201cWe realized we had certain things that would work very well together,\u201d said the gallery\u2019s president, Glenn Scott Wright, adding that he thought of the booth less as a conventional fair offering than as a tightly hung group exhibition focused on contemporary figuration and visual dialogue between artists. While the gallery is among those who prefers not to share prices, one source familiar with the booth said multiple works had sold by the late afternoon for between $30,000 to $300,000.<\/p>\n

\n\tGagosian, which has a reputation for not sharing prices, said it had sold works by Derrick Adams, Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler, Cy Gavin, Rick Lowe, Tyler Mitchell, Sabine Moritz, Gerhard Richter, Adriana Varej\u00e3o, Stanley Whitney, and Francesca Woodman. According to one source, a large Sarah Sze work was on hold towards the end of the day.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year, Pace brought only two artists to the fair, Maya Lin and Leo Villareal, both of whom are unveiling new public art commissions in the US this year. The Villareal sculptures come from his \u201cGolden Game\u201d series, though rendered in a new size, and a new silver sculpture by Lin titled Silver Yellowstone<\/em> (2026). Most of the works, priced between $100,00 and $200,000, sold by the end of the first VIP day, sources told ARTnews<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the younger galleries drawing steady traffic was a shared booth by Chapter NY and Carlos\/Ishikawa, partners at Frieze since 2021 who first shared a booth back in 2017 at Independent. Chapter NY\u2019s presentation brought together new and recent works by Erin Jane Nelson, Antonia Kuo, Alix Vernet, and Mary Stephenson, tying the booth closely to the broader institutional energy across New York this month. Nelson is currently included in the Whitney Biennial, while Stephenson\u2019s solo exhibition at the gallery recently sold out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe presentation ranged from Kuo\u2019s layered photochemical works and Vernet\u2019s fragmented urban sculptures to Nelson\u2019s ceramic cameras and Stephenson\u2019s psychologically charged interiors. Nicole Russo of Chapter NY said the gallery approached the fair strategically, thinking not only about sales but about \u201clongevity\u201d and building momentum around artists already gaining institutional attention. Prices ranged from $3,500 to $30,000, with the gallery reporting seven sales by early afternoon. \u201cIt\u2019s not 2021,\u201d Russo said. \u201cNo one feels like they need to buy something right that second.\u201d Still, she added, collectors were circling back after leaving the booth, a sign that buyers remained engaged even if the pace had become more measured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThroughout the morning and early afternoon the pace was steadier and more deliberate than even a few years ago, when speculative frenzy defined the market and collectors tripped over each other to make it to a booth first. \u201cPeople have the luxury of taking their time,\u201d adviser Meredith Darrow, who has built a formidable reputation building collections for a few of the collectors involved with the Aspen Art Museum, told ARTnews<\/em>. Both this season and last, she said, the market was filled with active buyers who are moving \u201cat a more normal and less frantic pace than in the past.\u201d Darrow pointed to strong material across the fair, ranging from blue-chip names like James Turrell at Almine Rech to younger artists like Haley Barker, whose solo presentation at Night Gallery had become an early talking point. \u201cIt\u2019s important that there is such high quality at both the high and the low end of the market,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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James\u00a0Turrell,\u00a0Thought as Thing<\/em> (2025).<\/span>\u00a9 James Turrell \u2013 Courtesy of the artist and Almine Rech. Photo: Dan Bradica.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tBy day\u2019s end, Almine Rech reported that the Turrell, valued at $900,000 to $1 million, had been sold. Managing partner Paul de Froment reported \u201can exceptional response\u201d on day one, including multiple other early sales.<\/p>\n

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Kelly Sinnapah Mary, The Sacred Garden<\/em> (2026).<\/span>Dan Bradica Studio<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tNight Gallery\u2019s Haley Barker solo booth was, as it happens, one of the fair\u2019s early breakout successes. By midday the solo booth of atmospheric Southwestern landscapes priced sold out, with the works ranging from $24,000 to $175,000. The booth drew inspiration from Barker\u2019s recent trip through New Mexico, including visits to sites associated with Georgia O\u2019Keeffe, and transformed at least one sliver of the Shed into something closer to a desert retreat, complete with glowing sunlit trees, porches, and mountain views rendered in hazy, sensual layers of paint. \u201cBy midday, everything was gone,\u201d gallery founder Davida Nemeroff said, adding that demand had built steadily ahead of the fair given the time-intensive nature of Barker\u2019s paintings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Hayley Barker, Guapito<\/em> (2026).<\/span>Courtesy of the artist and Night Gallery, Los Angeles. Photography by Nik Massey.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAdditional sales continued to roll in throughout the afternoon. At Tina Kim Gallery, the gallery reported placing works across a wide range of price points, led by a painting by Ha Chong-Hyun for $180,000 and a painting by Kim Tschang-Yeul priced between $120,000 and $140,000. Other sales included works by Maia Ruth Lee, Lee ShinJa, Suki Seokyeong Kang, Davide Balliano, Pio Abad, Jane Yang D\u2019Haene, and Livien Yin, with prices ranging from roughly $20,000 to $80,000.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe rough global news, of military conflict and economic upheaval, wasn\u2019t completely absent from everyone\u2019s mind. Two galleries are at the Shed straight out of the broad conflict zone in the Middle East, namely Dastan, from Tehran, and Lawrie Shabibi, from Dubai.<\/p>\n

\n\tJose Kuri of Kurimanzutto gallery (New York and Mexico City) reported that the fair was going very well, with works by a range of artists on offer, including Leonor Antunes, Nairy Baghramian, Gabriel Kuri, and Haegue Yang. \u201cWe\u2019re very happy to have placed all of Wangshui\u2019s work,\u201d he said. Nearby was an old-fashioned telephone hooked up to John Giorno\u2019s Dial-a-Poem<\/em>, where listeners can hear poetry from an array of writers. \u201cThat\u2019s on hold for a couple of institutions,\u201d he said. The piece resonates in Giorno\u2019s home town, he said, especially since attention to the artist and his legacy has been so well stewarded at GPS, his former home in New York, now an art space run by Anthony Huberman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOn a more challenging note, artist Jer\u00f3nimo L\u00f3pez, aka Dr Lakra, would have been at the fair, said Kuri, but his visa didn\u2019t come through.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe general mood day-to-day is that it\u2019s the apocalypse,\u201d said 303 founder Lisa Spellman, who is offering works by artists including Doug Aitken, Sam Falls, Mary Heilmann, Alicja Kwade, and Sue Williams, priced from $90,000 to $350,000. \u201cAnd then you come to a fair and it\u2019s a fiesta,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to reconcile. But I\u2019ll take it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Joe_Bradley_David_Zwirner.jpg?w=1024″] Editor\u2019s Note:\u00a0This story originally appeared in\u00a0On Balance,\u00a0the ARTnews\u00a0newsletter about the art market and beyond.\u00a0Sign up here\u00a0to receive it every Wednesday. A high level of energy was palpable at the preview day of the Frieze New York art fair on Wednesday. Many attendees at the Shed, on Manhattan\u2019s West Side, were fresh off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1934089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1934089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1934089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1934089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1934089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1934089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}