Frieze Art Fair a Success

The first edition of the highly anticipated fair Frieze New York closed Mon. May 7. Participating galleries are reporting successful runs with excellent sales throughout the market. Both participants in and visitors of the fair were pleased and impressed with the new fair, its structure and environment.

Participants in the inaugural edition of Frieze New York included more than 180 galleries from 30 countries; making it the largest event produced by Frieze. The fair was housed in a bespoke temporary structure, designed by Brooklyn architects SO – IL, on Randall’s Island, Manhattan.

Around 45,000 people visited the fair, which was sponsored by Deutsche Bank. It sold out both Saturday and Sunday. “It attracted an international spectrum of artists, collectors, curators and journalists who all remarked upon the quality of the material brought by the galleries and pleasant atmosphere of the fair as a whole,” remarked the official statement from the fair.  “We could not be happier with the reception to our first New York fair. Ahead of the fair we were confident that we had the right location, galleries and structure to make Frieze New York a success but those elements have worked together to make an instant international event that has surpassed our expectations. The quality of material brought by the galleries and the response from collectors throughout the entire duration of the fair that made it both a creative and a professional environment,” the statement continued.

Significant sales included: Galerie Gisela Capitain sold an untitled work by Martin Kippenberger to a US collector for over €1,000,000. David Zwirner’s significant sales included John McCracken Be (2004) for $750,000 and two works by Donald Judd, both priced in the region of $500,000; Xavier Hufkens reported selling all of his works by Sterling Ruby ranging from $50,000 to $200,000; Victoria Miro placed four ‘Infinity Net’ works by Yayoi Kusama priced at $535,000 each. Metro Pictures placed a Cindy Sherman photograph from 1977 for $950,000. David Kordansky sold all nine available paintings by Jon Pestoni for $14,000 to $22,000.