The rain that has been covering New York City for the past week cleared up in time for the VIP opening of Frieze New York on Wednesday morning. Attendees in springwear choked the entrance and the escalators before being released onto the main floors. The question on most gallerists’ minds was if they would be in a buying mood.
“We know Frieze Los Angeles went really well, and it was an indicator for the strength of the art market at the beginning of the year,” says Christine Messineo, the director of Frieze’s fairs in the Americas. But a lot has happened since February.
When President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on 2 April (the so-called “Liberation Day”), the stock market took a plunge that rivalled some of Covid-19’s earliest, darkest days. The market has since begun to recover as tariff plans have been rolled back. But instability has become the norm during Trump’s second term, and gallerists are unsure of what to expect.
But, Messineo adds, Frieze New York benefits from its connections to the city’s many art institutions and cohort of elite collectors. “The strength of this city and this fair is how interconnected the institutional shows going on around the city are with the work that is represented here,” she says. “Every museum director in the city is here today.”
VIP day sales
Tina Kim Gallery sold a work by Lee ShinJa for $200,000 and a textile work by PACITA ABADfor $150,000.
—Shanti Escalante-De Mattei
