Here's What to See at Frieze New York 2024
Through Frieze Week 2024, New York’s art scene spotlights diverse arts communities around the multicultural city.
This spring, New York’s whirlwind of art fairs and cultural events kicks off with Frieze’s 2024 edition—its 12th—taking place May 1 through May 5 at The Shed in Hudson Yards, an unmissable modern building featuring an angular white roof that drapes over the glass structure like a blanket. With 68 exhibitors representing 25 countries, the contemporary art fair this year is particularly foregrounding “Focus,” a program dedicated to emerging talents.
This year’s roster, presented by Director Christine Messineo, runs an expansive gamut. Major galleries Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace, and David Zwirner show alongside Gladstone Gallery, 303 Gallery, and White Cube. Frieze draws from New York presences Matthew Marks Gallery and James Cohan to the multinational Sprüth Magers and Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala’s notable experimental gallery. Spanning abstract and conceptual art to figuration and sculpture, Frieze touts a vast stylistic range with appeal for every art connoisseur.
The highly anticipated “Focus” section highlights solo presentations from emerging artists, as well as galleries younger than 12 years. This year’s program debuts new Curatorial Director Lumi Tan—an independent writer and curator who in 2022 revived the world’s first art amusement park, Luna Luna in Los Angeles. Featuring 11 exhibitors, “Focus” promotes innovation and underrepresented talents. The 2024 program includes four new presenters: Central Galeria from São Paulo, New York’s Kapp Kapp, Madragoa of Lisbon, and Chicago-based Patron. Returning “Focus” exhibitors are Matthew Brown, Capsule Shanghai, Company Gallery, Cooper Cole, Mitre Galeria, Gordon Robichaux, and Tif Sigfrids.
Running concurrently with Frieze, the Future Fair hosts a broad mix of new and established galleries from around the world from May 2 through May 4, while the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) brings younger galleries to the forefront from May 2 through May 5. Additional art fairs around the city include the new Esther fair from May 1 through May 4; the Superfine Art Fair and the Clio “anti-fair,” both from May 2 through May 5; as well as the cheekily-titled Fridge Art Fair from May 2 through May 5. Then, the following week launches the Independent Art Fair’s
contemporary offerings and The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF New York) collection of 20th-century and contemporary artwork and design pieces from May 10 through May 12 and May 10 through May 14, respectively.
Standout arts events surrounding Frieze Week include the 81st Whitney Biennial—whose subtitle “Even Better the Real Thing” underscores the show’s themes of the body, identity, and AI. The Brooklyn Museum’s Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo (feat. Takashi Murakami) brings Hiroshige’s 19th-century views of Edo (later renamed Tokyo) in dialogue with contemporary master Takashi Murakami. At The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism explores Black artists’ portrayals of contemporaneous life in Harlem from the 1920s through the ’40s.
At the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Joan Jonas: Good Night Good Morning collects five decades of multidisciplinary work by the renowned performance artist, with themes ranging from technology to ecology. At MoMA PS1, the Pacita Abad retrospective traces more than 30 years of the artist’s work, spotlighting her signature quilted paintings that amplify the experiences of political refugees and oppressed people.
Additional openings include Petrit Halilaj’s Roof Garden Commission at The Met, with the artist’s site-specific installation tying to cultural and political turmoil in his native Kosovo. About 90 minutes north of Manhattan, Arlene Shechet: Girl Group opens at Storm King Art Center, with new large-scale sculptures that push the boundaries of color and materiality.
