Amid Political and Financial Turmoil, Frieze New York Kicks Off With With Robust Sales
After days of simultaneously damp and drizzly weather, Frieze New York opened its doors to a warm, bright, and energetic morning on Wednesday. Compared to last year's spring art week, this year's is especially jam-packed, with Frieze and TEFAF's US edition separated by just 24 hours instead of a week. And so, the sales floor was animated throughout the VIP day.
On top of the bevy of fairs, there are a multitude of gallery shows, museum exhibitions, and art fairs opening or already on view this week. In a market where collectors are choosing to take things more slowly when it comes to spending their time—and their money—than in previous years, that is seemingly a good thing.
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But there's more in the air than talk about the market. The aisles buzzed with conversations of the financial and political state of the world.
'This week will set the tone for how the global market will behave in the coming months,' London-based adviser Arianne Piper told ARTnews. 'The unfortunate truth is that the political situation has disrupted that. It's not so much the current economic situation but the fear of the economic consequences of that situation.' That said, Piper added that the people who made it out to the Frieze on Wednesday are buying. 'It's not about the money. It's about the bandwidth.'
Notably, Gagosian had a solo presentation of three sculptures by Jeff Koons, the artist's first collaboration since departing the mega-gallery's roster in 2021. This trio 'Hulk' works—Hulk (Organ), Hulk (Tubas), and Hulk (Dragon and Turtle)—came from Koons's personal collection and were installed in front of a custom vinyl backdrop, derived from his 2007 painting Triple Hulk Elvis III.
'The fair is off to a great start and the response to our booth has been phenomenal,' Gagosian senior director Millicent Wilner said in a statement, which noted that Hulk (Tubas) had already sold. When ARTnews asked about the price of each of the three mixed-media works, the gallery declined to comment, but well-places sources tell ARTnews that Hulk (Tubas) sold for $3 million.
Thaddaeus Ropac, which currently has spaces in three European cities and Seoul, reported a strong start at Frieze New York, with a slower but more deliberate pace of sales despite strong attendance. 'People are taking their time and being really considered,' he said, adding that the gallery remains 'cautiously optimistic' about overall results.
Early sales include Liza Lou's Zeugma (2024) for $225,000; Joan Snyder's mixed-media Float (2015) for $210,000; David Salle's Bow Tie (2024) for $130,000 to a US-based collector; a Martha Jungwirth painting for €85,000; and a Robert Longo drawing for $65,000. Two small works by Megan Rooney sold for £18,000 each, with a larger painting, priced at £75,000, currently on hold. Georg Baselitz's Motto: sexuelle Niete sagt Heidegger sagt Celan is also on reserve for €1 million.
Pace Gallery kept things sharp at Frieze New York with a two-artist presentation pairing Adam Pendleton and Lynda Benglis. Pendleton himself curated the booth, which features four 'Black Dada' paintings from 2024 and two 'Movement' paintings from 2025. For her part, Benglis has six bronze sculptures, completed between 2021 and 2024, that play off Pendleton's canvases, showcasing their different approaches to abstraction. All six of Pendleton's paintings found buyers within the first couple of hours of the fair for between $165,000 and $425,000, while multiple works by Benglis sold for between $275,000 and $300,000.
New York dealer Andrew Kreps described the first day of the fair as going 'really well' with great energy for Jes Fan's 2023 sculpture Cross Section (Right Leg Muscle II) selling for $26,000; Harold Stevenson's 1967 painting Untitled (Hand sign language) going for $70,000; and Hadi Falapishi's Professional Painter in a Dream (2025) for $25,000.
The gallery also sold four editions of Roe Ethridge's UV-cured pigment print, Ranunculus in Copper Pot at Hermes, 24 rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré Rooftop (2023), for $16,000 each, and Ernie Barnes's 1995 Study II for The Dream Unfolds was also on hold. Interest came 'across the board,' Kreps said, primarily from collectors in New York and Miami.
When ARTnews asked if he was concerned about sales at Frieze during what many consider a cooling interest in contemporary art, Kreps replied that it helped that his prices were in the low-to-mid range. 'Today, I felt there would be a lot of enthusiasm, and I think people are wanting to get out there and think about art,' he told ARTnews
For its booth, Casey Kaplan Gallery had a solo presentation of glass and stainless steel sculptures by Hannah Levy, with several works, priced between $45,000 and $80,000, selling to US-based collectors during the first day.
'It's been good energy,' senior director Emily Epelbaum-Bush told ARTnews, noting new collectors and curators dropping by the booth. 'We've seen people we haven't seen in some time. We're really excited about the beginning of the fair.'
Goodman Gallery, which has locations in Johannesburg and Cape Town, as well as New York and London, had a group display highlighting artists who have had important international spotlights over the past year. A large-scale painting by Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, fresh from her solo exhibition last year at the Barbican in London, sold for $90,000 to 'a seminal New York collection,' the gallery said. Additionally, a work by Carrie Mae Weems, from her 2021 series 'Painting the Town,' sold for $100,000 to a Dutch collector. Both works were sold with the promise that they would be donated to institutions in the future, according to the gallery. Their presentation also includes works by William Kentridge, Shirin Neshat, and Ravelle Pillay, alongside new pieces by Yinka Shonibare and Kapwani Kiwanga.
'Obviously, you know, it's an intriguing time to be in the United States—if not the world,' said Anthony Dawson, director of the gallery's Cape Town location. 'It's wonderful to see that people are still so committed to the production of contemporary art.'
Karma also reported a successful first day at Frieze New York, led by the $350,000 sale of Owl for Emil (1958), a modestly sized painting by Gertrude Abercrombie, who is currently the subject of a major retrospective at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Other noteworthy sales include Richard Mayhew's Mountain Mindscape (1969) for $350,000, Manoucher Yektai's Blue Table (1960) for $275,000, and Reggie Burrows Hodges's Referees: To The House (2021) for $175,000.
Tina Kim, who brought to the fair a range of works from the women artists in their program, sold works by Lee ShinJa, Ghada Amer, Pacita Abad, and Suki Seokyeong Kang for between $80,000 and $200,000.
It's not surprising that there was a great deal of interest in the future of Frieze, which as of last week has a new owner (if only tangentially). Earlier this month, Endeavor Group Holdings sold Frieze, along with its magazine and global portfolio of fairs, to its Ari Emmanuel, Endeavor's former CEO, and a consortium of investors for a reported $200 million. That sale was the spark of speculation among more than a handful of VIP day attendees, though few were willing to speculate or give Frieze's new owners advice.
'There's an opportunity here, to really increase the revenue stream and come up with a new, innovative business model,' author and art market observer Magnus Resch told ARTnews. 'The simple business model of real estate arbitrage isn't working anymore. You can't just open new locations.'
For Resch, the future of art fairs would involve variable pricing models for the galleries that participate and an expanded offering: watches and collectibles, something Resch admits might alienate existing patrons. He added, 'Frieze has a chance to become the leading player in the art world. They just have to stop living in the past.'
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