Tag: Alex Katz

48 Hours of Art in Chicago: CXW, Museums and Monuments to Come

Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate, better known as the Bean. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

I was going to kick this off with a fun anecdote about my daughter walking into my office to ask whether I knew there was a guy trapped inside the Bean, followed by my inevitable dive into the Man in Bean movement (including Sarah Cascone’s wild dissection). Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate is the kind of artwork people love to hate while still lining up to slap their greasy palms on it to get the same warped selfie everyone takes. And while I usually enjoy a good dunk on that sort of thing, it feels a little tone-deaf given what’s happening in the Windy City right now—from ICE patrols to the arrival of National Guard troops.

The idea that Trump could deploy those troops in Chicago—invoking the Insurrection Act in the process—feels dystopian and doesn’t track with my experience of the city at all. Does Chicago have crime? Yes, Chicago has crime. So does every city. More people, more problems. Is Chicago, as the president has claimed, the “world’s most dangerous city”? Please. Not even close. It’s just a city—and from everything I saw during a trip that took me from the Loop to Streeterville, from East Village to Washington Park and the Fulton Market District—it’s a pretty chill one. Sure, I only saw a sliver, but to echo the words of U.S. District Judge April Perry, I saw nothing resembling a “danger of rebellion.”

What I do see while I’m here for Chicago Exhibition Weekend (CXW) is beautiful in the way most urban places are beautiful—full of hard edges paired with softness and united by the widely held conviction that art is the solution to a range of challenges. Chicago’s artists—and their champions, from patrons to gallerists to curators—are as open as they are unfiltered. When I ask Scott Speh, founder of Western Exhibitions, what makes the Chicago art scene different from, say, New York or L.A., he’s quick to tell me how much he hates that question, then launches into a perfectly clear-eyed answer: “I think everywhere, people want to put on good shows. It doesn’t matter what city they’re in, they want to put forward interesting artists.”

Alexander Calder, Flying Dragon, 1975. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

That’s what he’s been doing for 21 years (“Chicago would be a far less interesting art city if Scott wasn’t doing what he was doing,” artist Stan Shellabarger told The Chicago Reader in 2024), and he’s in good company. Speh might resist boiling it all down, but if I had to try, I’d say Chicago’s is a scene grounded in and by the people who are in the thick of it. “In Chicago, there’s a really good ecosystem because it’s not too small and it’s not too big either,” Sibylle Friche, Document gallery partner, tells me. “You don’t get bored—there’s always enough going on.”

Enough, and then some—as is the case with Chicago Exhibition Weekend, now in its third year. Around 50 galleries and creative spaces citywide mounted shows and everything from panel discussions and artist meet-and-greets to collector tours and an art-and-tennis mixer. The whole thing is the brainchild of Abby Pucker, Gertie founder and Pritzker family scion—yes, that Pritzker family. But despite her association with big bucks and big names (Illinois Governor JB Pritzker is a cousin), Pucker is—as I find out in conversation after conversation, including with the woman herself—simultaneously down-to-earth and committed to lifting others up.

I’m here for CXW, of course, but also to figure out what makes Chicago’s art world tick. Pucker deserves serious credit for rallying next-gen patrons and collectors through Gertie’s EarlyWork program of curated cultural events. Still, she’s one voice in a glorious chorus of artists, curators and civic-minded supporters—all of whom, it seems, are ready to invite outsiders like me in.

Day 0

It’s just around lunchtime when I touch down at O’Hare, but I’m thrilled to find my room at Chicago Athletic Association already ready when I arrive after an uneventful ride on the Blue Line. I can see Cloud Gate from here, or at least glints of it between the leaves of Millennium Park’s many trees, which means I’m also near Jaume Plensa’s ever-smiling crowd-pleaser, Crown Fountain. It’s hours before I need to be anywhere, and my home base is just steps from the Art Institute of Chicago (the second-largest art museum in the United States, after New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art), which feels like the perfect way to start an unfamiliar city fling with art.

The Stephen Alesch painting in my hotel room. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

In the elevator, someone cheerfully asks if I’m headed out to see the Bean. “Sure am,” I answer—and I guess I’m just that suggestible because suddenly I feel compelled to make that my first stop. Close up, it’s filthy, covered in smeary handprints and streaks, but from a distance, framed by the city skyline, it’s pure sculpture drama. I take selfies from afar but resist the urge to touch it since I left my sanitizer back in the room—rookie mistake.

Marc Chagall’s America Windows at the Art Institute of Chicago. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

On a normal trip, I’d budget at least five hours for the Art Institute, but this isn’t a normal trip, so I decide to focus on the heavy hitters: Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. Van Gogh’s The Bedroom. Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Grant Wood’s American Gothic. My all-time favorite Cézanne, Basket of Apples. I’m waylaid early on by the Elizabeth Catlett show, “A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies,” a fantastic career survey on view through early next year and absolutely worth the flight alone. In Gallery 262, everyone is clustered around Nighthawks, which is probably among the least interesting paintings there—though it’s definitely bigger than you’d expect. Far more captivating are Peter Blume’s weirdly brilliant The Rock (commissioned for Fallingwater but rejected for being too big) and Kay Sage’s deliciously desolate In the Third Sleep. There’s even an early cubist-expressionist Pollock, which feels like spotting a celebrity before their glow-up.

Kay Sage, In the Third Sleep, 1944. Oil on canvas. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

And so it goes. The Art Institute of Chicago is home to paintings we’ve all seen a hundred times on mugs, tote bags and in movies—you can absolutely have your Ferris Bueller moment in front of the Seurat—but it’s the lesser-known gems that really sparkle. There’s a stellar selection of Georgia O’Keeffe’s works (Ballet Skirt or Electric Light is a standout) and Alma Thomas’ Starry Night with the Astronauts. Other highlights: William Zorach’s Summer, Marsden Hartley’s Movement, Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones’ Shop Girls and Mary Cassatt’s The Child’s Bath.

Elizabeth Catlett, Head of a Negro Woman, 1946. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

Time-bound as I am, I feel like I’m jogging through the galleries. (Fun fact: Large as the museum is, less than 20 percent of the collection is on display at any given time.) I pause for a late lunch at the café—great food—and sit in the garden for a charming little reset before diving back in. Monet’s stacks of wheat remind me what repetition can achieve. There are Van Goghs here you haven’t seen on a million mugs, but don’t skip the Pissarros. I breeze through the Greek, Etruscan, Roman and Egyptian galleries but somehow miss the entire Asian art collection. I cap off my visit at Marc Chagall’s America Windows and leave feeling artistically overfed yet hungry for more.

Andi Crist’s Precautionary Measures. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

After a stop back at the hotel, where I freshen up and check out Andi Crist’s Precautionary Measures, a site-specific installation that transforms symbols of caution and containment into a new visual language (then installed at Chicago Athletic Association), I hop on the train toward 400 N. Peoria. It’s the hub of CXW and the site of “Over My Head: Encounters with Conceptual Art in a Flyover City, 1984–2015,” a special exhibition curated by Gareth Kaye and Iris Colburn and presented by Abby Pucker’s Gertie.

The weather is perfection—so close to ideal it’s practically invisible. But I’m off to an inauspicious start. My GPS goes haywire, and I’m spinning around River North in a mild panic, trying to figure out where the hell I am. And once I do, I’m unfashionably early—as in, they’re-still-setting-up-the-bar early. But someone lets me in, and the bartenders take pity on me, which is how I score a private preview of the show. I spend an embarrassingly long time standing in the room where Jordan Wolfson’s hypnotic Perfect Lover (2007), one of my favorite works, is playing on a loop.

An installation view of “Over My Head: Encounters with Conceptual Art in a Flyover City, 1984–2015 ” at 400 N. Peoria. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

As the gallery fills, I’m still feeling untethered. I spot Tony Karman. I eavesdrop on conversations, playing a game of Artist, Collector or Scenester? I linger by Wendy Jacob’s Untitled (1988), watching it breathe, then lose myself in Rashid Johnson’s Remembering D.B. Cooper (2013), until Ellen Kaulig, chief of staff at the Chicago Reader, saves me from myself by introducing me to Pucker. In a relatively quiet spot under the stairs, she tells me how Chicago Exhibition Weekend evolved over three years and where the idea for “Over My Head” came from.

“It’s a bit of a double entendre—being a flyover city, right? People don’t often attribute movements like conceptual art to Chicago, but it is an amazing nerve center of that,” she says, calling the planning phase a whirlwind. “We talked to these absolute icons. People like Karsten Lund, Helen Goldenberg, Laura Paulson, John Corbett and Jim Dempsey… just people who have been integral to this area for so many years.” Chicago’s art elite were, she said, excited to share, and the resulting show collected work from Molly Zuckerman-Hartung, Dara Birnbaum, Rosemarie Trockel, Martin Puryear, Tony Lewis and others.

“They don’t think so highly of themselves that they’re detached from reality,” she adds. “They’re around. I think sometimes that might work to our detriment, because it’s hard to brand something as cool when it’s so inviting—but it’s fucking cool to be invited.”

Rashid Johnson‍, Remembering D.B. Cooper, 2013. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

That word—invited—comes up again when I talk to Chanelle Lacy, Gertie’s director of art initiatives, about the crossover between CXW and EarlyWork: “We want to lower barriers to entry. We try to demystify things because once you actually get into it, it’s not that scary. The art world just looks a little intimidating from the outside. We want to expose people to the finer side of things and be a lifeline. And everything is very serious—it’s just about making it more approachable, so people feel invited into the experience.”

The exhibition dinner is where I meet Friche, along with Carla Acevedo-Yates (if the name’s familiar, it’s because she’s on the documenta 16 curatorial team), several dealers and a cadre of arts-friendly businesspeople and politicians. I stay and schmooze for as long as I can before exhaustion sets in.

Molly Zuckerman-Hartung‍, Notley, 2013. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

Day 1

I’d planned to follow one of the curated routes that the CXW team had Chicago artists, gallerists and creatives put together, but last night Friche hand-drew me a one-of-a-kind mapped itinerary—and really, how could I possibly say no to that? But Chicago’s art museums don’t open until 10 a.m., and the galleries open even later, so I decide to wander toward Lake Michigan. I get sidetracked by the absolute unit of a fountain in the distance—it’s Clarence F. Buckingham Memorial Fountain—and I start heading that way, thinking it can’t be too far. And it’s not, technically, but its sheer scale plays tricks on your senses. I know I’m close when I pass Turtle Boy and Dove Girl and the North Rose Garden, which must be stunning at the height of summer, and then I keep going for a quick peek at Magdalena Abakanowicz’s leggy Agora.

Clarence F. Buckingham Memorial Fountain. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

I haven’t even officially started my day, but I’ve already clocked more than a mile—according to Friche’s map, in the wrong direction. After an about-face, I get plenty of lake views on my three-mile walk to the MCA Chicago, which is showing “City In A Garden: Queer Art and Activism” and “Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me,” along with “Collection in Conversation with Pablo Helguera” across all three floors of the museum’s stairwell galleries. Like the Art Institute, MCA Chicago is a feast, but a much more digestible one. You can see everything in a couple of hours, which is ideal because my weekend itinerary is threatening to become an endurance sport.

Nick Cave’s Sound Suit (2008) in “City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago” at MCA Chicago. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

First stop: Patron Gallery for Bethany Collins’s “DUSK,” which is nuanced but underwhelming as presented—or maybe I’m just too overstimulated post-museum to process it properly. Next up: Western Exhibitions, Document, Volume Gallery and David Salkin Creative, which all share a floor at 1709 West Chicago Avenue. Friche is in, and she tells me the neighborhood is a hub for emerging contemporary art, but you’ll also find heavy-hitters like Mariane Ibrahim Gallery and Corbett vs. Dempsey. “It definitely concentrates a lot of the scene,” she says. “And it feels pretty supportive—we each have our own identity. I think it’s hard to find programs in Chicago that resemble each other. I’m not saying anything negative about New York, but sometimes you go to Chelsea and see the same kind of painting shows over and over. I feel like here, you don’t have that.”

Journie Cirdain’s Chandelier Dewdrops (2025), part of “The Gloaming” at Western Exhibitions gallery. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

Unlike Scott Speh, she’s more than happy to talk about what makes Chicago’s art scene unique: “Because our overhead is manageable, it’s more accessible to open spaces and experiment. Eventually, you get a bit more constrained by the commercial aspects—if you want longevity, you do need to sell some art. That affects your choices. But there’s still a bit more breathing room here than in the coastal cities, given how unaffordable things have become in San Francisco and New York.”

Kiah Celeste’s Four Shores (2025) at Document. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

I linger over Kiah Celeste and Gordon Hall’s work at Document and Journie Cirdain’s “The Gloaming” at Western Exhibitions before briefly popping into “Porfirio Gutiérrez: Modernism” at Volume Gallery. Then I’m back out on the streets, where I’m spoiled for choice but already flirting with art fatigue. Sadly, Monica Meloche gallery isn’t opening its Luke Agada and Braxton Garneau show until tomorrow, so I make my way to Mariane Ibrahim for “Yukimasa Ida: Flaming Memory.” It is, in a word, transcendent. I stand for a long time in front of each painting, hypnotized by the massive brushstrokes and thick layers of paint that blur into half-remembered faces—like fragments of a dream fading faster than I can hold on.

I think about squeezing in a few more galleries, but once again, I’ve grossly underestimated Chicago’s distances—and I’m hitting the wall. In a way, it’s a happy accident: I return to my hotel to the news that the iconic Agnes Gund has passed away, and her obit is waiting in my production queue. I edit, publish and then dash out to gape at the Chicago Picasso before hopping on the train to yet another neighborhood: Washington Park.

Darius Dennis, SEEN. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

I’m here to see a different side of the art scene and join the large crowd gathered at the Green Line Performing Arts Center for a tour of the imagined Washington Park Public Art Corridor. In several batches, a trolley ferries us to Amanda Williams’ Other Washingtons at 51st and S. King Drive, the future site of Breath, Form & Freedom, created by the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Foundation to honor victims of police torture, and Arts + Public Life’s Arts Lawn for a preview of Yvette Mayorga’s City Lovers in Paradise. I learn more about Chicago’s recent history in a few hours than I could’ve gleaned from a week of reading—and not all of it’s pretty. Back at the arts center, there’s live music, dance and collaborative art-making with artist and teacher William Estrada, who’s brought his Mobile Street Art Cart Project to the Art Lawn.

When I ask Estrada about the art scene, he’s frank. “There are a lot of spaces where not everyone is welcome, and that’s the worst part of it,” he says. “But the best part is that there’s a lot of art in Chicago, and you can see it across 77 neighborhoods. That’s the part I get really excited about—because you get to experience different art in different communities, and actually engage in conversations about what that art means and who made it with the folks who are being affected by it or get to experience it directly.”

Jaume Plensa’s Crown Fountain. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

And that’s exactly why I’m here—not just for CXW (which is fantastic) or the city’s world-class museums (also fantastic) but to understand what makes Chicago’s art pulse so distinct. Back in the Loop, I stroll around Millennium Park waiting for a text from Wilma’s letting me know my barbecue is ready. The evening is gorgeous—warm, breezy and humming with life. Kids are splashing in Crown Fountain, musicians are playing on the sidewalks, and the whole scene radiates that beautiful combination of grit and charm. I can see why so many people love it here.

Day 2

If you have limited time in Chicago—say, you’re breezing in for a weekend of art and, like me, you’ll be operating without wheels—you need to think hyper-locally. This is a city of neighborhoods, each with its own cultural flavor and art offerings. Hyde Park has the Smart Museum of Art, the Renaissance Society, Hyde Park Art Center and the Logan Center Gallery (plus the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum and the DuSable Black History Museum in nearby Washington Park). Lincoln Park has the DePaul Art Museum and Wrightwood 659. Ukrainian Village and West Town boast a cluster of commercial galleries, along with the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art and Intuit Art Museum.

The Chicago Picasso. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

If there are specific museums or galleries you’re determined to hit, book a spot somewhere central. Because if you’re coming from New York and assuming you’ll just zip between neighborhoods like you’re downtown, you’re in for a rude awakening. Chicago is about ten times the size of Manhattan in terms of land area—which is why, during my final hours in town, I’m speedwalking the South Loop’s Wabash Arts Corridor. (Sidenote: I consider myself a hotel gym connoisseur, but I racked up so many steps during my two-day stay that I never once made it to the Chicago Athletic Association gym. No regrets.)

Crisscrossing streets so eerily empty of cars they feel post-apocalyptic, I admire murals not just on walls but also on doors, alleyways and parking lots. Initiated by Columbia College Chicago in 2013, the Wabash Arts Corridor project has brought more than 100 murals to the neighborhood, including We Own the Future by Shepard Fairey. I’m especially charmed by Marina Zumi’s Impossible Meeting and the candy-colored Moose Bubblegum Bubble by Jacob Watts, and wish I had more time to wander—but I need to get back to Chicago Athletic Association for my final art experience of the trip: the “City as Platform” breakfast conversation.

Jacob Watts’s Bubblegum Moose Bubble, one of the Wabash Art Corridor Murals. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

On my straight-line power walk back to my hotel, I marvel at Chicago’s abundant parking—a downright shocking sight for a New Yorker—and pause to peer into the windows of Elephant Room Gallery, one of many I didn’t make it to, which is showing Darin Latimer’s solo exhibition “Rhinoceros.” Other things I don’t do in Chicago: participate in the “Throw your phone into a body of water!” activation by Weatherproof, which invited art lovers to toss their phones into any handy body of water on September 19, 20 or 21 whenever the numbers on a clock added up to four in military time (e.g. 0400 or 2200)—though I was sorely tempted. Attend the Improvised Sound Making at The Franklin. See “Alex Katz: White Lotus” at GRAY. Visit the National Museum of Mexican Art and the National Veterans Art Museum.

Cheri Lee Charlton’s Curious Bunny. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

Before the talk—an engaging conversation between Kate Sierzputowski (artistic director of EXPO CHICAGO), Nora Daley (co-chair of the Chicago Architecture Biennial), Christine Messineo (Frieze director of Americas) and, no surprise, Abby Pucker, who greets me warmly, by name, when I check in. As Sierzputowski notes when the convo kicks off, the panel “reflects the best of what Chicago has to offer: collaboration across sectors, deep civic commitment and a shared mission to place the city’s cultural work on a global stage.” Daley calls CXW a “cultural palooza” and declares that “Chicago shows up,” which is something I see in action, over and over, during my short time here. “I think it’s who’s in the room at these dinners is what makes this work,” Sierzputowski agrees—whether that’s gallerists, artists, curators, museum directors and civic leaders or, as Pucker reminds us, engaged corporate entities committed to supporting the arts in Chicago.

“City as Platform,” one of the Chicago Exhibition Weekend talks. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

“The creative economy contributes massively to city revenues, yet the people in power often don’t see or understand it,” she says. “We’ve seen perception hurt Chicago. Every city has problems—but if the media only amplifies those, we lose people. Art and culture can bring them back.”

Ironically, the end of the conversation marks the close of my 48 hours of art in Chicago. As I ride the Blue Line back to O’Hare, mulling over everything I’ve experienced, it hits me: as thrilling as it is to be here during Chicago Exhibition Weekend, there’s just too much on the CXW agenda and not enough time to do it. What I experienced in two days was barely a teaser of what this city has to offer. So with that in mind, Abby, if you’re reading this, I have three words for you: Chicago Exhibition Week. Think about it.

Strreet art by Doc Mosher. Photo: Christa Terry for Observer

Christa Terry

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October 21, 2025
A Brisk Start to the Armory Show Suggests Optimism as the Market Adapts to New Rhythms

The Armory Show 2025 opened with a VIP preview on September 4 and runs through September 7. Casey Kelbaugh/CKA

American collectors seem to have taken the back-to-school spirit seriously this year, with several dealers reporting a brisk and buoyant first day at the Armory Show. The New York fair—one of the city’s most established and historic—opened yesterday, September 4, at the Javits Center and quickly surpassed expectations across price ranges, leaving dealers cautiously hopeful that this season might mark the start of a healthier moment, at least for the U.S. market.

“People are excited to be ‘back to school’—both dealers and collectors,” New York dealer David Nolan told Observer. By early afternoon, his booth had already sold well to existing clients and some new ones. “Many serious collectors are in from out of town to get in on the fun,” he noted. “Not to be hyperbolic, but things are flying off the wall.” Nolan’s booth was strategically conceived to offer something for everyone—one hundred works on paper spanning 1944 to the present, embracing a range of styles and narratives and, most importantly, different price points.

Reflecting on the market, Nolan added that in his experience, the art world operates in cyclical patterns. “I have seen several waves of change since I opened my gallery, and they are good and necessary.” On the fair floor yesterday, there was no room for gloom and doom—only optimism. “I’m not afraid to be a pessimist, but there’s just no place for it at the moment!”

David Nolan. Photo: Marc Selwyn

Some international professionals at the fair were more critical, lamenting that The Armory Show no longer attracts many of the major galleries that once participated. “The Armory is stuck in the middle,” art market expert and thought leader Magnus Resch told Observer. “It has a strong team and a prime venue, but it’s held back by unfortunate timing, the absence of top galleries and direct competition from Frieze Seoul.”

Optimism and early sales nonetheless offered immediate relief—and hope—to younger dealers, particularly those in the fair’s Present section, dedicated to galleries under ten years old and featuring the largest number of participants in Armory’s history. As director Kyla McMillan told Observer in an interview ahead of the fair, for her first edition, she wanted the event not only to appeal to seasoned collectors and institutional players but also to engage a broader, younger audience. The Armory Show is, after all, one of the longest-running fairs in the U.S. and a cornerstone of New York’s cultural scene—and often, for many New Yorkers, the first or only art fair they attend.

One standout this year in the Present section was the alchemical cosmologies translated into glazed ceramic vessels by Mexican artist Alejandro Garcia Contreras, presented by Swivel Gallery in its Armory debut. Following Contreras’s sold-out debut at NADA New York two years ago and a solo exhibition, his new works once again captivated visitors with their mysterious, symbolic, archetypal language, merging mythological visions with pop culture to grapple with the mysteries of the universe. Four vessels and a ceramic mirror sold within the first hours of the fair, priced between $11,000 and $20,000, with an additional $12,000 vessel placed by evening.

The gallery is also presenting in Platform, the section dedicated to large-scale installations, a new work by Jamaican-born artist Simon Benjamin, Tidalectic No. 1, 2025—a 700-pound iteration of his sand-barrel works, transmuting sediment and shoreline into vessels of memory. The piece exposes a geology and maritime history embedded in colonial pasts, engaged in the present and gesturing toward imagined futures.

Swivel Gallery presenting the work of Alejandro García Contreras. Photo: Cary D Whittier

The solo booth of British abstract artist Jo Dennis, presented by Mexico City- and New York-based gallery JO-HS, also attracted plenty of attention. On opening day, the gallery placed one of Dennis’s sculptures made from used military tent fabrics, where dense layers of intuitive marks and gestures accumulate as a psycho-emotional and poetic record of past memories and new bodily and identitarian awareness. By evening, several of her dynamic paintings were on hold with both existing and new collectors.

Returning to Armory this year, Mrs. Gallery is showing a solo presentation of Molly Bounds’s intimate and psychologically nuanced paintings that place undefined and often archetypal subjects in liminal, contemplative and suspended states that resonate emotionally beyond any individuality. By evening, the gallery had placed at least two works, priced at $7,000 and $4,000, respectively.

Also in Present, DINIM Gallery mounted a solo booth of evocative works by Emily Coan. By evening, the gallery had sold at least five pieces, captivating collectors with their imaginative, magical atmosphere inspired by fairy tales and myths. “There’s a tremendous amount of excitement and buzz,” Robert Dinim told Observer, noting the strong institutional presence with curators from museums across the U.S. and a large number of private collectors and advisors out with multiple clients. For him, the first-day atmosphere suggested the possible beginning of a market shift.

An Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka work presented by Patel Brown. Courtesy of Patel Brown

Toronto-based Patel Brown similarly reported a strong first day in the same section, selling six works from their solo presentation of Canadian-Japanese artist Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, all priced under the $25,000 threshold. Combining tradition and innovation, nature and human creation, Hatanaka works on traditional Japanese washi paper with printmaking and ink, shaping her practice as a way to reattune to the organic rhythms of nature. Her process embraces transformation and the alchemical power of materials to create seemingly abstract compositions that move beyond human-centered perception and expression, while reflecting the fragility of environments and the delicacy of entire ecosystems disrupted by human activity.

Meanwhile, for its inaugural participation in the Armory, Miami-based gallery Andrew Reed featured a solo presentation by Cornelius Tulloch, reporting sales of multiple works in the range of $4,000 to $6,000. Moving within a largely symbolic and allegorical realm, Tulloch explores themes of migration, masquerade and Afro-Indigenous rituals in paintings that evoke both the mystery and vitality of the tropical South Florida and Caribbean landscapes.

Also making its Armory debut, the dynamic Chicago-based Povos Gallery presented a solo booth of Mexican multidisciplinary artist Leopoldo Gout, following his sold-out show at the gallery last year. Gout’s ever-expanding creativity traverses mediums and themes, weaving stories about human nature in relation to the natural world and emphasizing the power of collective imagination. The gallery reported strong interest and promising conversations likely to lead to additional sales in the coming days.

In the Focus section, one of the most anticipated highlights was the solo booth of vibrantly colored ceramics by Miami artist Joel Gaitan, presented by The Pit, which went on to win the $10,000 SAUER Art Prize.

In the main section, Brazilian dealer Nara Roesler saw positive interest in both the Brazilian artists central to her program and international names. By evening, the gallery had placed a linen-and-wool work by Sheila Hicks for $87,000, a print edition by Vik Muniz for $50,000, and works by Marcelo Silveira ($18,000), Manoela Medeiros ($20,000) and Bruno Dunely ($8,000). “We are happy to be back at the Armory with such a strong group of galleries. The mood is still high,” senior director Patrícia Pericas told Observer. “We have been particularly pleased with the increased interest from advisors requesting works by Brazilian artists for their clients.”

Nara Rosler. CHARLES ROUSSEL

In the main section, Marc Straus featured a group presentation of leading names from his roster, with a clear emphasis on the handmade and on legacies of craftsmanship reimagined through contemporary material approaches. The booth included Jeffrey Gibson’s Like a Hammer—the title piece of his landmark touring museum survey that began in 2014—alongside works by Abdulnasser Gharem, Folkert de Jong, Hermann Nitsch, Ozioma Onuzulike, Anne Samat, Antonio Santín, Renée Stout and Marie Watt. “We had a tremendous first day, with five works sold within the first few hours and both new and returning collectors visiting our booth,” Straus told Observer. “I believe our strong sales came from bringing the very best works by each artist and, as always, keeping our prices fair.” First-day sales for the gallery included oils by Antonio Santín.

A range of abstract works dominated James Fuentes’s booth, including pieces by John McAllister and Pat Lipsky, anticipating their fall exhibitions at the gallery. Fuentes had already sold Lipsky’s Winter Landscape (1971) ahead of the fair for $180,000. The artist’s upcoming show and renewed market attention coincide with the release of her book Brightening Glance: Recollections of a New York Painter (University of Iowa Press).

Among the highest-priced sales on opening day, Galleria Lorcan O’Neill placed works by Tracey Emin, Kiki Smith and Rachel Whiteread in the range of $15,000 to $1,000,000, while Sean Kelly sold a painting by Kehinde Wiley for $265,000.

By day’s end, the other major-ticket work at the fair—a $1.2 million Alex Katz anchoring Peter Blum’s booth—remained available. Nonetheless, Blum reported several other sales, including works by Martha Tuttle and Nicholas Galanin, who continues to enjoy a strong institutional presence this year, both in the U.S. and in biennials and museums worldwide.

The fair’s opening day reinforced the resilience of the art market. Photo by Casey Kelbaugh. Courtesy of The Armory Show and CKA.

James Cohan Gallery placed a sculpture by Kennedy Yanko in the first hours for $150,000. Yanko only recently joined the gallery’s roster, following her solo presentation with Cohan at Frieze London and a nearly sold-out double exhibition staged jointly with Salon 94 last September. The gallery reported a number of first-day placements for other in-demand artists on its roster, including two paintings by Naudline Pierre at $25,000 and $12,000, a painting by Mernet Larsen ($12,000), two sculptures by Tuan Andrew Nguyen at $95,000 each (following his solo booth at Frieze New York in May) and two works by Trenton Doyle Hancock ($85,000 and $40,000). On the textile front, the gallery placed two appliqué works by Christopher Myers ($45,000 and $37,000) and a woven piece by Claudia Alarcón & Silät ($25,000).

Returning to the Armory this year—and participating in both the New York and Seoul fairs this week—White Cube sold several works from its solo presentation dedicated to the Croatian artist duo TARWUK, with paintings ranging from $65,000 to $100,000. Coming of age amid the dissolution of socialist Yugoslavia, the trauma of war and the collapse of familiar social structures, TARWUK’s work carries a bleak, decadent aesthetic that evokes the lost splendor of the region’s golden age while hauntingly resonating with the present—particularly Europe’s fraught role in global geopolitics. The gallery also sold a mixed-media work by Emmi Whitehorse for $150,000, following her first solo with White Cube last September at its Paris space and a surge of interest sparked by her inclusion in the recent Venice Biennale. Additional sales included a painting by Tunji Adeniyi-Jones for $85,000 and a bronze by the always fair-popular Tracey Emin for £60,000, among others.

White Cube presenting TARWUK. © the artist. Photo © White Cube (Monroe Dinos-Kaufman).

Also participating in the season’s restart on both sides of the globe—New York and Seoul—was Tang Contemporary, which reported multiple sales, including Ai Weiwei’s sculpture Toilet Paper for $150,000-180,000. Elsewhere, overlooked-talent-scouting gallery Berry Campbell saw strong interest, closing a 1952 painting by Perle Fine on the first day for $125,000, with additional conversations expected to unfold in the coming days.

It was a successful “back to school” for Nicodim as well. “The energy was high, outfits chic and sales brisk,” gallery partner and global director Ben Lee Ritchie Handler told Observer. On the first day, the gallery placed works by Isabelle Albuquerque, Angeles Agrela, Samantha Joy Groff, Rae Klein and Teresa Murta, with promising holds on major pieces by Devin B. Johnson, Agnieszka Nienartowicz and Moffat Takadiwa—all priced between $12,000 and $65,000.

The Armory Show brings together more than 230 galleries for its 2025 edition. Casey Kelbaugh/CKA

Proving that the under $50,000 price range may be the most dynamic and fast-moving in today’s environment, Uffner & Liu sold several works on the first day in the main section. Sales included a piece by Sheree Hovsepian for $28,000, two paintings by Sarah Martin-Nuss for $22,000 and $15,000 and a cabinet and two paintings by Anne Buckwalter for $11,000, $14,000 and $10,000, respectively. By evening, the gallery had crossed that “sweet” threshold, placing a sculpture by Hovsepian for $75,000. L.A. mainstay Vielmetter reported selling most of the works they brought to the fair—ranging from $8,000 to $50,000—by the end of the first day, while Anat Ebgi moved quickly to place works by some of their most promising young talents, many recently presented in their new Tribeca spaces. Sales included pieces by Marisa Adesman ($35,000), Tammi Campbell ($50,000), two paintings by Sigrid Sandström ($32,000 and $25,000), Janet Werner ($28,000), Jemima Murphy ($23,000), Ileana García Magoda ($22,000) and two glazed stoneware works by Olive Diamond ($7,500 each).

Meanwhile, another New York staple, Lyles & King, sold multiple works by Brazilian artist Fernanda Galvão, including a $36,000 diptych and a painting for $24,000. Drawing from science fiction and biology, literature and cinematography, Galvão reflects on the construction and manipulation of fictional landscapes, proposing alternative universes with new rules, spatial dynamics and temporal logic. Though already widely exhibited in Europe and South America, this well-received presentation marked something of a debut for the artist in the U.S.

In her first year as director, Kyla McMillan has focused on curatorial strength, U.S. market leadership and New York’s central role in the global art market. Photo by Casey Kelbaugh. Courtesy of The Armory Show and CKA.

Overall, the mood on Armory’s opening day was positive, offering hope for a stronger season ahead for both U.S. and international dealers and for a recovery of the American art market to a “new normal”—though still far from the pace and levels galleries had grown used to. Yet, as dealer and advisor Henri Neuendorf observed, galleries are simply tired of the steady drip of negative news about the state of the market. “We all know sales have been stronger in years past, but the negativity can become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” he commented. “My sense was that dealers and buyers seem cautiously optimistic and ready to turn the page.”

Art advisor Angelica Semmelbauer echoed Neuendorf’s take, noting the fair featured strong presentations from both galleries and artists—even if some leaned toward the safe side. “What felt especially uplifting was seeing sales happening despite all the uncertainty in the art market, which has been a current topic, and the larger world right now that’s weighing on clients,” Semmelbauer said. “I’m still a big believer that artists will keep creating meaningful work and clients will be there to support their practice and acquire the work, to keep the art ecosystem moving forward in a purposeful way!”

Ultimately, it’s a matter of readjusting expectations, refining strategy and adapting to a new rhythm. As yesterday’s Armory opening showed, the important thing is that American collectors—the fair’s core audience this year—are still buying and supporting the ecosystem as this next cycle begins.

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Elisa Carollo

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September 5, 2025
Frieze and Kiaf SEOUL Scale Back in Spectacle While Still Securing Sales

Kiaf SEOUL and Frieze Seoul each opened at the COEX Center with a VIP preview on September 3. Courtesy of Kiaf SEOUL

For those who’ve attended Seoul’s art week since Frieze arrived in 2021, the contrast this year was unmistakable. The chaotic entrance lines at Kiaf SEOUL and the overcrowded aisles of last year’s Frieze are gone. Attendance feels lighter, and the booths more subdued, though major brands like Adidas, BMW, Ruinart and American Express still held prime positions at the entrance—a clear indication that the fair’s popularity is now firmly rooted in Korean society four years after its debut.

At the opening of Frieze Seoul on Wednesday, September 3, the mood was distinctly more muted and contained—a reflection of the art world adjusting to a new chapter in South Korea’s post-boom market. Slightly more lively in the afternoon was the historical Korean fair Kiaf, where collectors remain loyal to longstanding traditions and their local dealers.

This year marks the 4th edition of Frieze Seoul. Courtesy of Frieze and Wecap Studio

Blue-chip gallerists like Larry Gagosian and Emmanuel Perrotin skipped the trip this year, leaving their booths staffed solely by regional teams during the preview—a stark contrast to previous editions, when they flew in with much of their global staff. When gallery owners or lead partners from spaces focused on Korean artists, such as Gladstone and Mennour, did attend, it signaled that international galleries have already recognized the need to tailor their offerings to a local audience attuned to the market’s slower collecting pace and shifting attitude.

While Korean collectors remain engaged with the international art circuit, this has undeniably been a turbulent year for the country. With President Yoon Suk-yeol ousted after attempting to declare martial law and an economy still reeling from the effects of U.S. tariffs, Korean collectors are understandably more cautious in their buying.

This year, Frieze Seoul hosted over 120 galleries. Courtesy of Frieze and Wecap Studio.

Private buyers and institutions remain active, but spending habits have shifted, as Observer gathered from early press preview conversations. The once-rampant appetite for ultra-contemporary works has given way to a more measured approach, focusing on institutional-grade pieces and blue-chip artists. Speaking with resigned pragmatism, dealers noted that this trend extends beyond South Korea, echoing across Asia and the global market.

So what’s the new mantra for galleries? Cultivate your own relationships in the place you show. Those who have spent years building ties in South Korea can still make it work, as can local players. But for newcomers, entering the market now may feel like they’re arriving just as the music stopped.

That was not the case for the dynamic Los Angeles gallery Make Room, which marked its first appearance in Frieze Seoul’s main section with a shared booth alongside Apalazzo and a celebrity-filled dinner party steeped in a witchy atmosphere. Between drinks and bites of Korean fried chicken, K-pop and K-drama stars made appearances that set social media alight—including SUHO from EXO, actor Lomon Park, Tony Hong and members of the girl group Lovelyz.

Make Room hosted a K-pop and K-drama star-filled dinner on Tuesday night. Courtesy Make Room | Photo: Studio Monday Naked

Park Seo-Bo, a foundational figure in postwar Korean abstraction and the father of Dansaekhwa, was one of the names resonating most strongly at Kiaf and Frieze this year, following his recent passing. At Frieze, LG OLED honored his legacy in collaboration with the artist’s foundation, dedicating an entire booth to rarely seen later Écriture paintings from the estate, paired with ultra high-resolution video works that captured the textures in striking detail. The sharp contrast between the digital reinterpretations on screen and the tactile surfaces of the paintings underscored how, in his later years, Seo-Bo was already reflecting on the role of painting in a world saturated by screens and shaped by emerging digital realms that influence perception and aesthetics. As he once described it, standing on a “cliff edge” in the early 2000s, Seo-Bo confronted the question of how painting could evolve as the boundaries between different worlds began to blur.

Dynamic lower tiers and Focus Asia offer opportunities for discovery

Noteworthy results at both Frieze and Kiaf weren’t limited to the highest price points. Lindseed from Shanghai quickly sold out works by Chinese-born, Paris-based visionary Fu Liang at the Focus Asia sector, with prices ranging from $6,500 to $34,000. Similarly, Hong Kong-based gallery Kiang Malingue, which recently opened a space in New York, nearly sold out its solo booth of work by Taiwanese talent Tseng Chien Ying, priced between $15,000 and $25,000—a current sweet spot for collectors.

Returning to Seoul from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s leading contemporary gallery, Galerie Quynh, took a bold step with a solo presentation in the main section, showcasing the layered work of Lien Truong, a Vietnamese-born artist based in North Carolina. Her intricate canvases—exploring the intersection of body, identity and environment through the lens of diasporic trauma and societal pressure—drew early interest from collectors.

Galerie Quynh presenting Lien Truong, Booth B21, Frieze Seoul 2025. Courtesy Galerie Quynh

Seoul gallery Cylinder made a striking debut in the main section, securing multiple sales, including a work by Jennifer Carvalho ($9,000), three works by Sunwon Chan ($2,500-4,800), two works by Eunsil Lee ($12,000 and $5,000) and two works by Jongwhan Lee ($2,200 and $5,000). Next for the fast-growing gallery is its debut at Frieze London with a solo booth by Rim Park.

Equally successful, the young and dynamic Seoul gallery G Gallery sold six works by Choi Yoonhee on the first day ($2,400-19,000), a work by Moon Isaac for $12,000 and a piece by Cindy Ji Hye Kim for $10,000.

Another first-time exhibitor in Focus Asia was Shanghai- and Beijing-based Hive Contemporary, which showcased emerging names including Yuan Fang, Xia Yu, Zhang Mingxuang and Tan Yongqing, drawing a strong response: by evening, the gallery had sold 18 paintings and one sculpture priced between $20,000 and $100,000.

Timoteus Anggawan Kusno was presented by the Kohesi Initiative at Frieze Seoul Focus Asia. Photo: Elisa Carollo

Despite this year’s reduced footprint—and tucked into a narrow corridor wedged between the main booths—the Focus Asia section at Frieze offered some of the most compelling opportunities for regional discoveries inside the COEX.

Jakarta-based gallery Kohesi Initiatives presented Indonesian filmmaker and multimedia artist Timoteus Anggawan Kusno, whose work revisits censored narratives from 1960s films to explore liminality and historical erasure, examining the blurred lines between fact and fiction. Rooted in post-colonial and post-dictatorship Indonesia, Kusno’s practice reflects the country’s ongoing unrest and protests, shaped by the long-term consequences of the very issues his work confronts.

Parcel (F3) at Frieze Seoul, Focus Asia. Courtesy of Frieze Seoul

Tokyo-based PARCEL is presenting the multilayered practice of Side Core, a Japanese collective that critiques forced urbanization and restless public development through thoughtful multimedia guerrilla interventions. The works on view confront contradictions in public funding for the Tokyo Olympics and the broader paradoxes of Japan’s rapid urban expansion. Among them, the Rode Work series—launched in 2017 in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture—juxtaposes post-disaster reconstruction landscapes with the repetitive motions of skateboarding, highlighting the enduring bond between land and people. In the film, flashing lights and hazard signs guide drivers to a skate park built on a damaged industrial site, where skaters in high-visibility jerseys grind a half-pipe—subtly revealing how grassroots creativity can emerge from destruction and corruption.

Another standout in the section is PTT Space, presenting the sharp satire of Taiwanese American artist Christine Tien Wang, who explores millennial diaspora anxieties and the recent volatility of the bitcoin bubble through one of the most diffuse yet persistent forms of contemporary ephemera: memes. Her Tiger series addresses diasporic anxiety and societal mobility within Asian communities, while her Bitcoin series critiques the NFT apocalypse and the fleeting nature of digital culture, transforming the disposable aesthetics of memes into what the artist calls “historical paintings,” reflective of our time and its contradictions. Working at the intersection of institutional critique, politics and popular culture, Tien Wang is gaining international recognition, with acquisitions by LACMA and exhibitions at both Night Gallery and Naxos Draxler.

Christine Tien Wang’s “BDSM (Bitcoin Daddies Seek Memes),” presented by PTT Space in Frieze Seoul’s Focus Asia section. Courtesy of PTT Space

Korean and international galleries stake a claim on Kiaf’s first-day buzz

When comparing Kiaf with Frieze, several Korean dealers appeared to place even more emphasis on their presentations, spotlighting the top names in their rosters. On the lower level of the historic Korean fair, Kukje Gallery reported a complete sell-out of Ugo Rondinone’s work (the artist also has a show at Gladstone this week), along with an iconic green Kapoor piece (£550,000-660,000) and a later work by Park Seo-Bo ($250,000-300,000). Known as a leading gallery for Korean art, Johyun Gallery made a strong showing with artists like Lee Bae and Park Seo-Bo, reporting early sales directly from the floor. Blue-chip names also anchored Gana Art’s presentation, which included works by Alex Katz, Chiharu Shiota and Yayoi Kusama.

Seoul-based EM Gallery drew attention with Moonassi, the Korean artist recognized for his black-and-white existential compositions. The gallery sold out pieces priced between $20,000 and $32,000—Moonassi’s works have remained in high demand since his last presentation, often with waiting lists.

The oldest work on view at Kiaf this year was a painting by Palma Il Vecchio, dated 1525-1528, presented by Die Galerie alongside drawings and sculptures by Marino Marini and works on paper and lithographs by Picasso. The historic canvas drew attention on the floor with a price tag of €750,000, standing out amid the fair’s modern and contemporary offerings. Long part of the gallery owner’s personal collection, the masterpiece was originally acquired from a nobleman in Hungary, and now everyone’s wondering whether it will find a new home this edition.

The oldest work on view at Kiaf this year was a Palma Il Vecchio painting from 1525-1528, presented by Die Galerie. Courtesy of Die Galerie

In general, however, a pop aesthetic and lower price points seemed to be the winning formula for maintaining Kiaf’s floral energy on the first day. Gallery Delaive reported early sales of several works by Ayako Rokkaku, priced between €50,000 and €200,000.

Among the standout presentations of new names, Space Willing N Dealing showcased quietly contemplative scenes of human interaction and exchange, all priced between $2,500 and $3,500. Busan-based gallery Nara Cho Busan presented Anomalisa, an exploration of love and entanglement through thread, with works priced at $7,800-12,000. Intimacy and suspended atmospheres—rendered through soft, delicate paint—also defined the work of Japanese painter Shimpei Yoshida, shown by Shibuya-based Hide Gallery. Thanks to very accessible pricing under $1,500, several pieces had sold or were on hold by day’s end.

KORNFELD, participating in its fifth Kiaf, also reported a strong start. Works by Korean artists Wonhae Hwang and Seong Joon Hong found new collectors on day one, totaling €10,000, while a major piece by Etsu Egami sold within the first hour to a new Korean collector for €22,000. “After participating at Kiaf for more than five years, we are very pleased with the successful start of this edition and the positive response from collectors and institutions,” gallery owner Alfred Kornfeld told Observer.

Returning to Kiaf with a strong grasp of the rhythm and habits of Korean collectors, the Milan-based Cassina Project had a particularly promising first day—even with just one confirmed sale. “We had good conversations. From our experience in past years, the following days are usually more intense—clients who show interest often return, and the final days are when deals close,” Irene Cassina told Observer.

Kiaf SEOUL runs through September 7. Courtesy Kiaf SEOUL

Among the additional sales reported by dealers at Kiaf by the start of the second day, Gallery Palzo sold Byeong Hyeon Jeong’s Ambiguous Inclination 25008 for $5,250 and two works by Lee Daecheon—Berg, Wasser (산, 수) for $3,000 and Gardener for $450—along with two paintings by Haru. K, each sold for $675. Galerie PICI placed two works by Dukhee Kim: Gold Desire-Bag for $4,000 and Keep Going (pump) for $2,000. SAN Gallery sold Jenkun Yeh’s Back and Forth I for $2,085 and Huihsuan Hsu’s Chasing a Lush Cave for $1,875. SH Art reported a complete sell-out of works by Backside—a street artist from Fukuoka, Japan, whose true identity remains anonymous—including VIVA, PINEAPPLE, SMILE, VINYL and QUIET, each priced at $17,250.

Frieze and Kiaf SEOUL continue through Sunday, September 7, at the COEX Center.

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Elisa Carollo

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September 4, 2025
Frieze Brings Glitter and Gloss to New York But Takes Few Risks

Paintings from Sterling Ruby’s TURBINE series presented by Gagosian. Casey Kelbaugh

Frieze New York has arrived with all its “I’m the art fair” glory. Expect long, awkward lineups snaking around poorly placed escalators and a general three-story mall vibe. I hate to say it, but it’s much easier to peruse art in a venue like the Javits Center because there’s just so much more space. Here, too many galleries are packed across three floors, and even getting through the double doors can be a squeeze.

But this May art fair does offer up a much-needed splash of color for spring—mainly in the form of sparkles galore, iridescent Plexiglas and gradients that seem perfectly aligned with our screen-based lives (even the offline feels online). Led by director Christine Messineo, this Frieze edition features displays from more than sixty galleries, along with solo booths featuring Alex Katz (paintings of trunks and branches), Sterling Ruby (splatters of muddy, manpower colors) and childlike paintings by Hiroshi Sugito, among others.

A series of new paintings by Alex Katz. Casey Kelbaugh

My favorites are those colorful and unpretentious works that speak to the fact that spring has finally sprung in the city. That includes untitled paintings from 2024 by Chris Martin (not the singer of Coldplay, but the New York-based artist) with Anton Kern Gallery, filled with sequins and glitter. More of the artist’s glitter-infused paintings are on view at David Kordansky Gallery’s booth, where Martin shows some of his latest pieces like Morpheus and Magenta Burst. Honestly, this is the only part of Frieze that feels like a party. The rest is comfortably numb, and even corporate, but Martin brings a breath of fresh air, and I’m grateful for that.

Another highlight is the glossy abstract paintings by Hasani Sahlehe, which are on view at both the Canada Gallery booth and at Tif Sigfrids, a gallery from Athens. Clearly a rising star, broad swaths of color are brought together in a poetic way that doesn’t feel like it’s imitating anything else with its own brushstroke.

Glossy abstracts by Hasani Sahlehe. Casey Kelbaugh

Sleek, glossy abstraction continues in the Matthew Marks Gallery booth, which has a painting called The Dreaming (2023) by Gary Hume. It’s enamel paint on aluminum, and technically has a few animal figures in the piece, but still represents a type of abstraction we’re seeing more of. It’s also very anti-1990s, as we’re in a time of FaceTune, glossing over details with the swipe of a finger.

Everything is clean and flawless, not only our selfies, but in art, too. That cleaned-up vibe can be found in the illustrative pieces by Matthew Brannon at Milan’s Gio Marconi booth. His silkscreen Reassuringly Expensive creates a montage for modern luxury, something that has become a mirage for the money-hungry on Instagram. It’s done elegantly, though, through the window of an airplane seat, surrounded by luxury objects.

‘Foam SB 103/17p’ by Tomas Saraceno. Casey Kelbaugh

Iridescent hues are a lasting trend, especially in sculpture. Tanya Bonakdar Gallery has Foam SB 103/17p, a hanging geometric sculpture by Tomas Saraceno made of steel and iridescent Plexiglas. Apparently, it ties into climate change, but it also just looks cool. Speaking of optical illusions, the gallery also has Olafur Eliasson’s The Dewdrop Agora, a 2024 sculpture of glass spheres and 24-karat gold leaf, which is part of the artist’s “exploration of optical devices, mirrors and lenses.”

Olafur Eliasson’s ‘The Dewdrop Agora.’ Casey Kelbaugh

Carpets are in. Tina Kim Gallery has Seoul artist Suki Seokyeong Kang’s carpet-made wall piece Day #24-75, made of dyed wool and thread on a wooden frame. It’s so rare for an artist to be able to pull off such a domestic material, but Kang has given an old medium new meaning. Meanwhile, a set of gradient paintings by Rob Pruitt—A Month Of Sunsets (February 2024)—is on view at Massimodecarlo gallery, tapping into our need for the fresh, and almost, the empty.

But the third floor is worth avoiding altogether. The “Partner Activations” likely funded the fair but feel like too much of an exercise in logos and branding. And sadly, that’s the direction things are going overall. I expected more from the Focus presentations, too, which felt predictable and not very cutting edge.

Choosing the safe route—i.e., what will sell—instead of what is fresh feels very 2024. This year’s edition of Frieze New York proves we are indeed in a recession, and that the arts aren’t exempt from snipped budgets and a real thirst for sales. Overall, it’s risk-averse, though there were those gallerists who took a risk on what truly stands out and cuts through the noise. Hopefully things will change soon, but until they do, consider this yet another example of what it takes to keep art alive in hazy, uncertain times.

Frieze New York 2024 runs through May 5 at The Shed.

Nadja Sayej

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May 2, 2024
The Impact of Art Gallery Closures on Artists and Collectors

Artist Maggi Hambling at an exhibition at Marlborough Gallery in London in 2020. Photo by Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images

Businesses open and close all the time, and art galleries are no exception. Dealers retire, others close up shop when bankruptcy looms, some die with no succession plan and still others simply decide, for a host of reasons, to exit the scene. In New York, Cheim & Read said its goodbyes in December and Helena Anrather shut its doors in March. The Fortnite Institute ceased operations earlier this week, and Betty Cuningham Gallery in the Lower East Side will end its two-decade run later this year. Yesterday (April 4), the 78-year-old blue-chip Marlborough Gallery, which has spaces in London, New York, Barcelona and Madrid, made headlines when it announced it would be closing in June.

Art galleries often run on slim margins to begin with, and the pandemic was tough on businesses across the board. Other recent NYC gallery closures: JTT, Foxy Productions, Queer Thoughts and Denny Gallery. London has seen a similar spate of closures as the local market has contracted. It’s not unusual for gallery owners to land on their feet—Jasmin Tsou, founder of JTT, became a director at Lisson Gallery. But for the artists represented by galleries that close and for the patrons who worked closely with said gallery owners to build art collections, the disruption can range from nuisance to traumatic.

Sculptor and installation artist Judy Pfaff could not have guessed that she would be without a New York City gallery for a very long time when legendary art dealer André Emmerich retired in 1997, but she waited seven years before she was brought into the Ameringer|McEnery|Yohe fold in 2004. “A few people talked to some dealers about taking me on, but they didn’t want to touch me,” she told Observer. “Then, it hit me that the art world has no memory; it doesn’t owe me anything; there’s no one knocking on the door. I better hold onto my teaching job and figure things out. It was a total reality check.”

But artists can and do up and leave their dealers—usually for reasons involving the advancement of their careers, but not always. Terry Dintenfass “never paid me, or it took forever to get her to pay me,” said painter Nancy Hagin. Sculptor William King left Dintenfass after she refused to give his then-girlfriend a show. “Robert Miller just wasn’t nice to me,” said painter Janet Fish. “Staff would roll their eyes when I walked through the door, as though they’re sorry to see me.” Alex Katz felt Pace Gallery “had low energy when it came to my work.” Pfaff left the Holly Solomon Gallery after thirteen years, when the dealer moved from a more spacious downtown address to a fifth-floor location on 57th Street “where I couldn’t get things in and out. There was only a passenger elevator.”

The point is that artists generally have choices. “There are some I worked with for forty years,” veteran dealer Betty Cuningham told Observer, “and I have been trying to get them situated with other dealers.”

She sees the closing of an art gallery as “harder for collectors than for the artists.” An engaged art dealer provides long-standing buyers with information on up-and-coming artists, as well as first dibs on artworks, and the insider access that potentially took years to develop isn’t easy to replicate elsewhere. Galleries also help their buyers sell. Cuningham is now returning work she took on consignment to collectors, though she wanted to make it clear she’s not completely retiring from the art world. “I can’t just store them,” she said of the consigned pieces but added that she and some of these consignors “might set up a separate arrangement” in which she looks for prospective buyers on their behalf.

Meanwhile, Cheim & Read director Maria Bueno planned to work with the gallery’s consignors and patrons in her “new venture Bueno & Co., which is a private fine art dealership and artist management service. Bueno & Co will open a private showroom in New York later this year.”

SEE ALSO: Yayoi Kusama Was the Top Selling Contemporary Artist of 2023

Given the bleak headlines, collectors might wonder what exactly one is to do if one’s preferred art gallery goes belly up. “When a gallery closes for good,” Thomas C. Danziger, a New York City attorney who specializes in art law, told Observer, “the question becomes: Who owns the art?”

That question is easier to answer when artists consign their work to galleries—at least in New York. The state’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Law decrees that, should an art gallery become subject to a lien from a bank or face bankruptcy, consigned artwork can’t be taken by a creditor in payment of a debt but must be returned to the artist or their heirs, in the case of deceased artists. That law also requires dealers to place proceeds from sales of consigned artwork “in trust” for the artist, meaning galleries can’t use that money for any other purpose than paying the consignor. California and twenty-nine other states have similar legal protections for artists who consign artworks to galleries.

While those laws don’t apply to nonartist collectors who consign artworks to galleries, art collectors can protect themselves by filing a UCC-1 form for works on consignment. The form announces publicly that the consignor has a prior lien on their artworks, so in the event a gallery declares bankruptcy or a dealer disappears in the face of numerous creditors, leaving a warehouse full of art, the consignor has a legal right to take back their work. Ideally, the UCC-1 filing should occur at the time of consignment, but consignors would still be protected if they file in advance of a bankruptcy.

It’s a simple fix—the form is typically available online or the filing cost is nominal, usually $25—but many high-end consignors are reluctant to file the form, even when advised to do so by their lawyers. “They don’t want to announce publicly that they are looking to sell something, which a UCC-1 does,” New York City art lawyer William Pearlstein told Observer. “Some would rather stay private than disclose. Myself, I would rather be protected than private.”

Another less public protective measure art collectors can pursue is drawing up a consignment agreement with the gallery owner or dealer that explicitly states the artwork is the property of the collector rather than of the gallery.

That leaves one final question, which is whether there’s an epidemic of art galleries facing financial distress. Commentary on the state of the art market tends to be mixed, with art fair sales figures and the annual UBS market report generating pessimism and optimism in equal measure.

“There’s barely any credit and lending in the gallery sector and businesses are already heavily burdened with rents, so many don’t have spare funds to ride it out,” Dr. Clare McAndrew, a cultural economist and founder for the Dundrum, Ireland-based Arts Economics research firm, told Observer. She added that after the worldwide financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, “many businesses were only starting to do well again in the last few years” and may not have the resources to weather this storm.

So, how can one know if a particular gallery might be in financial distress? Insiders, such as art advisors, art lawyers or other dealers, may have an inkling. Pearlstein said that offers of “huge discounts of expensive artworks or firing most of the staff” might suggest a gallery is in trouble. One also could conduct a UCC search to see if a particular gallery owes money to multiple lenders and if there are any tax liens (by the IRS or otherwise) or judgments based on a failure to pay rent or repay loans. The filings won’t tell a complete story, but for collectors who are feeling anxious, they’re a place to start.

Daniel Grant

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April 6, 2024
Beyond Frieze: An Insider’s Guide to What’s On in the Los Angeles Art Scene

Frieze L.A. in 2023. Photo by River Callaway/WWD via Getty Images

Los Angeles continues to solidify its place as a cultural hub, attracting prominent artists, museums and New York-based galleries drawn in by its gravitational pull—not to mention Southern California’s enviable climate and relaxed atmosphere. While L.A.’s art scene has experienced pivotal bursts of growth and evolution, the changes happening now are setting a different tone and pace with some art experts referring to this period as the Los Angeles’ golden era of art. What’s beyond doubt is that the city has firmly staked its position as a destination for art aficionados, boasting headline-grabbing gallery and museum exhibitions, revered art fairs and a coordinated push to keep highlighting talented, historically under-represented artists.

The Obvious Must-See: Frieze L.A.

If you’re currently in Los Angeles, you don’t want to miss this standout March art fair. Inspired by the acclaimed annual Frieze Art Fair in London, Frieze L.A. now draws gallerists and collectors from far and wide who come to see the vibrant artwork and attend the associated cultural events that enliven this city. This year, Frieze Los Angeles will take place from February 29 through March 3 at the Santa Monica Airport, which will host 95 gallery showcases.

One must-see booth is Sean Kelly Gallery’s solo presentation of L.A.-based conceptual artist Awol Erizku (stand A18). Erizku confronts traditional Eurocentric interpretations of beauty, tapping into varied inspirations ranging from Ancient Egypt to hip-hop, using mediums such as neon work, photographs, lightbox and silkscreen with an accompanying musical playlist. Visitors should also look for the site-specific artworks dotting the fair and inspired by the unique history of Santa Monica Airport, where Hollywood set designers in the early 1940s created an entire mock suburb to camouflage WWII operations. These pieces are part of The Art Production Fund’s “Set Seen” exhibition.

Other L.A. art happenings worth checking out

‘Coca Cola Girl 1’ (2019). Lococo Fine Art Publishing

First, head across town to Felix Art Fair—another must-see Los Angeles art fair, which runs concurrently with Frieze. This unique fair, located in the iconic Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, ingeniously fills guest rooms with artwork from galleries both well-known and emerging, creating an exciting, Spring Break atmosphere. Some exhibition rooms open right onto the pool, making the fair not only a great Hollywood hangout but also a true breath of fresh air. Felix’s set-up always introduces me to new and exciting artists, which is why it’s an event I attend every year.

Next on my must-see list is this month’s debut of Destination Crenshaw, an open-air museum that spans more than a mile and celebrates Black artists with connections to L.A., where you can see pieces by Kehinde Wiley, Artis Lane, Maren Hassinger and others.

Beyond that are two gallery exhibitions that visitors and L.A. natives and transplants should make time to see.

David Kordansky Gallery presents Sam Gilliam’s “The Last Five Years”

This exhibition celebrates trailblazing artist Sam Gilliam with three bodies of work from his last five years: watercolors, drapes and tondos. To me, Gilliam’s drapes (made from washi, a handmade Japanese paper soaked in both watercolor and acrylic paint) embody the genius in material experimentation that cemented his name in the art world. The vibrant yet translucent drapes are pleasantly haunting, suspended from the ceiling, they immerse us in his art.

Marian Goodman Gallery presents Tavares Strachan’s “Magnificent Darkness”

From groundbreaking, MacArthur Prize-winning artist Tavares Strachan, this six-environment show is epic in size and scope, with site-specific work that utilizes mediums including ceramic, bronze, marble, hair, painting, neon and sound. The newly built Seward Gallery space has been transformed: a vast clay earthen floor challenges visitors’ expectations and contextualizes life-sized ceramic sculptures depicting notable African American figures and themes of aspiration and hidden histories.

Rounding out my list of must-see art in L.A. is the Getty Center’s new exhibition, “First Came a Friendship: Sidney B. Felsen and the Artists at Gemini G.E.L.” For those fascinated with the relationships between artists and their processes, this exhibition delivers context and celebrates the art world’s seminal late-20th-century pioneers as well as prominent 21st-century artists.

Finally, make time to stop by Santa Monica’s iconic Shutters on the Beach hotel. Perched on the Pacific coast, the resort invited me to curate an art collection that would blend the novel with the familiar. I selected pieces that evoked an upbeat, relaxed, oceanside vibe, including Ellsworth Kelly’s celebrated leaves (Cyclamen II, Cyclamen IV and Camellia III), John Baldessari’s depiction of fish (Blueberry Soup, and Carrot Soup) and David Hockney’s whimsical land and seascapes—many of which are readily viewable while dining or relaxing at the hotel.

My most recent acquisition for the resort is Coca Cola Girl 1 by pop artist Alex Katz, a nostalgic lithograph hung in the lobby area, a stone’s throw away from Claes Oldenburg’s Slicing Strawberry Shortcake—an etching of a large slice of strawberry-topped cake leisurely floating down a river. Feel free to get in touch with me, as for a limited time during Frieze, I’ll be giving private tours of the property’s collection as part of the resort’s Culture on the Coast package.

Art advisor Cynthia Greenwald (l.) and Alex Couri at the Art Los Angeles Contemporary Reception at the home of Gail and Stanley Hollander. Photo by Jesse Grant/WireImage

Cynthia Greenwald

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February 28, 2024