Art Fair Round-Up: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fairs

by Whitney Kimball on May 7, 2013 Art Fair + Events

Jennifer Rubell's Nutcracker at last year's Frieze. Image courtesy of NOWNESS.com

Art fair round-ups used to pain my sensitive art heart. Getting excited about art in a suite of cubicles, and describing 10 different trade shows, over and over, was a challenge to identify 100 shades of beige in a desert landscape. It was a week that sucked my soul. But all that’s about to change; this year, we have a booth.

FRIEZE

Randall’s Island

Frieze is all about access. In a teaser video sent exclusively to the members of OPEC last week, Marina Abramovic officially opened the fair to the Elite Platinum level of fairgoer, which explains the steady chop of helicopter blades we’ve been hearing over the East River. Their enormous tent stretches the length of three football fields, large enough to accommodate the masses. Frieze is about people.

And they host top-notch panels on social welfare, activism, and forward-thinkingness. Not to be missed this year: a panel discussion Saturday on what the future will look like in the future, hosted by famed Swiss/Albanian curator/accounts receivable supervisor Musette Dijon. Also, on Friday, activist, writer, and artist Suzanne Lacy speaks with Nato Thompson. On Monday, activist and critic Douglas Crimp will give us a preview of his memoir.
One day: $42
Student: $26
One day + catalogue: $75
Friday, May 10: 11am–7pm
Saturday, May 11: 11am–7pm
Sunday, May 12 : 11am–7pm
Monday, May 13: 11am–6pm

NADA

55–59 Chrystie Street
Suite 310

If you’ve been reading AFC for longer than five minutes—and our advertisers would prefer you did—you’ll know we love NADA. This year, we’ve decided we love it so much we’ll marry it; AFC’s got a booth, and we’ll be selling the best art ever made.

Look for AFC staffer Rhett Jones, who will be selling a portfolio of limited-edition work by Anthony Antonellis, Jacob Ciocci, Paul B. Davis, Rollin Leonard, Sara Ludy, Lorna Mills, Shana Moulton, Jon Rafman, Rafael Rozendaal, Bunny Rogers and Nicolas Sassoon– all on a sapphire, Mobiado USB drive.

NADA is also the only big fair that’s free, unfortunately, which won’t help keep out the riff-raff.
Friday, May 10: 2-8PM
Saturday, May 11: 10AM-8PM
Sunday, May 12: 10AM-5PM
Admission is free and open to the public

SEVEN

The Boiler,
191 North 14th Street, Brooklyn

A year down the line, it’s unusual to remember works and artists from a fair beyond, say, one. This is not the case for the month-long Seven fair, where seven of our favorite mid-sized galleries– Postmasters, P.P.O.W., Winkleman, BravinLee, Pierogi, Hales, Ronald Feldman– come together to co-curate a show of seven artists, and the result is that we actually get to look at some art. Seven rotates some of its exhibitors for variety, and this year they’ve swapped out Winkleman and Hales Gallery for Feature Inc (Mamie Holst) and Momenta Art (Yoko Inoue).  Their consistent focus on difficult work by emerging artists only further drives the point home that this is the fair for good taste.
Friday, May 10th– Sunday, June 9th
Opening Party: Friday, May 10th, 6-9pm

PULSE

The Metropolitan Pavilion
125 West 18th Street

Having partnered with the Hester Street Fair vendors, Pulse will prove a vanguard in the lunch department this year. They’re featuring new video work for “Pulse Play” (among them Jani Ruscica, as seen on MTV as part of “Art Breaks”) and now they’re hatching a social media campaign, whatever that may be. This year, the fair has promised to deliver us work by Adam Parker Smith, our Bushwick Basel favorite last year. If he can pull another foam ass and vagina, well, that’s wonderful! And we’re pretty thrilled about the transportation perks, running a free shuttle bus from the Frieze boat to Pulse Thursday – Saturday 11 AM – 8 PM.
Multipass (4-day entry) $25
General Admission $20
Students/Seniors with valid ID $15
Group Discount
Free admission with PULSE VIP card or FRIEZE VIP card.
A complimentary shuttle bus will run between PULSE and the Frieze ferry stop from Thursday, May 9 through Saturday, May 11 at 11 am – 8 pm daily.
(Sunday, May 12 until 7pm).

CUTLOG

The Clemente 107 Suffolk St
New York, NY 10002

Cutlog is an art fair import from France promising host approximately 45 cutting edge galleries. Between Bushwick’s Microscope Gallery, the online culture magazine Seymour Projects, and Queen’s Fragmental Museum for site-specific installations, visitors may find something a little different here. Certainly, they’ll find The Hole, which is probably the fair’s best and largest participating gallery.
$15 adults, $10 students & seniors
Tuesday, May 9th: Opening 5 – 9 PM
Friday, May 10th – Sunday, May 12th: 10 AM – 8 PM
Monday, May 13th: 10 AM – 6 PM

JEFF KOONS

Jeff Koons, "Gazing Ball" (Image courtesy of David Zwirner)

Gazing Ball, David Zwirner

525 & 533 West 19th Street
May 8th – June 29th

New Paintings and Sculpture, Gagosian Gallery
555 West 24th Street
May 9th – June 29th

Through July, Jeff Koons is now officially yours, mine, and every one else’s daddy. An enormous profile in New York Magazine yesterday asked “What Does the Art World Have Against Jeff Koons?”and then served as a giant billboard for a double-feature at David Zwirner and Gagosian. And the more we hear about him, the more we remember that his work is not so bad.

JACK GOLDSTEIN

Jack Goldstein X 10,000, Jewish Museum
May 10, 2013 – September 29, 2013
1109 5th Ave at 92nd St

MOCA passed on the big Jack Goldstein retrospective in 2010, but it only made us want it more. After the show travelled to California’s Orange County Museum, and Venus Over Manhattan held its own comeback “Where Is Jack Goldstein,” the Jewish Museum now opens the show.

As the story goes, Goldstein was kicked to the gutter by the art world when he stopped making films for more salable paintings. He was seen as a sell-out. Of course, since the sales of his Pictures Generation contemporaries were and still are doing quite well, the sell-out criticism doesn’t stick.

More importantly, you can find Goldstein’s strategies in the work of any number of artists today; the press release does not exaggerate when it states: “Given Goldstein’s legacy and his increasing relevance to younger artists, this long overdue retrospective is essential to a larger re-evaluation of post-1960s American art.”

Parsons Festival

66 West 12th Street
Through May 22nd

Parsons is holding a month-long series of workshops, talks, and openings, mostly related to its MFA and BFA programs. We recommend the MFA shows, but go at your own risk.

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