FRIEZE FRAME: WHAT TO SEE THIS WEEK
Frieze New York is only in its second year, but the mega-art fair, which opens to the public on Friday, already feels like an institution. And like most of the city’s traditions, this one has built-in pageantry: a weeklong blur of deals, dinners, parties, and of course, splashy openings. To lure the big-fish collectors and international artelligentsia in town, galleries have pulled out the big guns—Koons, Kelly, McCarthy. Here are a few blue-chip shows to see and be seen at this week.
America’s richest, most successful artist opens not one but two major shows simultaneously, with none other than New York’s most powerful rival gallerists. Breathe, art world. Breathe.
Abstraction’s eminence grise turns 90 this month, and he’s still at it. Kelly has upcoming tribute shows at the Pompidou, Tate Modern, and MoMA, but he isn’t ready to take his victory lap just yet—his exhibition at Matthew Marks features new paintings and sculptures made over the past two years.
The raunchy jester of the West Coast is throwing a really big party all over town. His fairy tale-perverting sculptures are the subject of two solo shows, at Hauser & Wirth’s uptown and Chelsea galleries, and can be seen in public art installations along the Hudson River and on Randall’s Island during the fair. It’s the kickoff to what his dealers are marketing as the Season of McCarthy.
Her layered, abstract etchings and paintings depict cities and societies seemingly in decay or under attack. In Mehretu’s first show at Marian Goodman’s New York gallery, she turns her historical eye upon Cairo after the Arab Spring.
If you have a little one in tow, count on Hawkinson to enchant both the hardened art critic and her three-year old. A rare artist with the imagination of a child and the brain of an engineer, Hawkinson makes magic out of everyday scavenged materials.
