{"id":230668,"date":"2026-05-13T23:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/230668\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T23:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:21:10","slug":"at-frieze-new-york-business-plunks-along-leonardo-dicaprio-alights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/230668\/","title":{"rendered":"At Frieze New York, Business Plunks Along, Leonardo DiCaprio Alights"},"content":{"rendered":"

At Frieze New York\u2019s VIP opening on Wednesday morning, collectors were present but rarely looked enthusiastic. Presentations by the nearly 70 galleries were modest and studied. The pace of sales was sensible, sedate.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s be clear: Business has improved since last year, and the mood at the Shed was buoyed by the knowledge that top-tier works are heading to auction over the next week. \u201cWhen you bring great material to market, it lifts everything,\u201d Thaddaeus Ropac told me just after the doors opened.<\/p>\n

Ropac confirmed four sales within the first few minutes of the fair, presumably finishing deals that had been coming together in prior days. These included a large 2012 George Baselitz canvas for \u20ac1.4 million (about $1.6 million), a semi-abstract black-and-white Alex Katz work for $400,000, and Joan Snyder\u2019s Buds & Blossoms (2025) for $150,000.<\/p>\n

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Alex Katz, Black Roses 3, 2025. Photo: Daniel Greer.<\/p>\n

One of the Ropac\u2019s directors rattled off the sales as Ropac and I chatted. \u201cOh, well that\u2019s even better then,\u201d he said, clearly pleased.<\/p>\n

Even as works were moving, there was an undeniable sense that the New York fair, now in its 14th year, has become a dutiful event. There is little urgency or sense of discovery, and its sterile venue is universally lamented. (\u201cNobody likes this shit,\u201d one veteran dealer said, of the building, while navigating the aisles.) Does New York still need Frieze?<\/p>\n

Ahead of the fair, New York advisor Megan Fox Kelly told me that some of her clients weren\u2019t planning to be in town this time. Many collectors, she added, opt to browse<\/a>. Erica Samuels, another advisor, said that she wouldn\u2019t necessarily call Frieze New York a \u201cmust-see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, they agreed that the fair remains an important stop. \u201cYou see something you\u2019d scrolled past and suddenly it clicks for a client,\u201d Fox Kelly told me after she\u2019d done the rounds at the fair on Wednesday. \u201cOr you stand in front of a work and think of an artist you hadn\u2019t considered before for them.\u201d The fair, she said, is still where \u201cconnections happen, even when you think you already know what\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samuels echoed that sentiment. \u201cI\u2019m in my conversation era,\u201d she said by phone as she exited. \u201cThe fair is not as commerce-forward as years past, but I think there is more discourse happening.\u201d The days of chasing wet paint are over, she said, and dealers are starting to move away from the reassessment and rediscovery angle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Cindy Sherman, Untitled #686 (2025), presented by Hauser & Wirth. \u00a9 2026 Cindy Sherman \/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Sarah Muehlbauer<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m seeing is a return to heritage painting,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re not changing the course of art history with what\u2019s on view, but there\u2019s a historical consciousness there.\u201d She pointed to Hayley Barker\u2019s arresting paintings at Night Gallery, which pay homage to Georgia O\u2019Keeffe.<\/p>\n

Sales were, in a word, predictable. David Zwirner\u2019s booth\u2014full of brand-new, large-scale Joe Bradley paintings\u2014was one of the buzziest, with prices going from $550,000 to $750,000. All were on hold by the early afternoon.<\/p>\n

Four new photographs, each an edition of six, by the inimitable Cindy Sherman at Hauser & Wirth\u2019s booth were priced between $175,000 and $195,000. By the afternoon, some had sold; third editions were still available, although it will take at least five weeks to get them. (Only the first editions have been printed so far.) Leonardo DiCaprio made a couple visits.<\/p>\n

Kelly Sinnapa Mary\u2019s lush paintings were arresting in person at James Cohan Gallery\u2019s booth. Priced at $25,000 to $130,000, all six had sold by the afternoon, the largest to a museum.<\/p>\n

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Kelly Sinnapah Mary at James Cohan\u2019s Frieze New York booth, 2026. Courtesy of James Cohan.<\/p>\n

The traditional adage may be \u201csee in Venice, buy in Basel,\u201d but Larry Gagosian said: Why not Frieze New York? The mega dealer had a collage version of Derrick Adams\u2019s mural tribute to the late curator Koyo Kouoh, unveiled<\/a> during the Venice Biennale\u2019s opening last week, at his booth. It sold for under $100,000, according to a gallery rep.<\/p>\n

Almine Rech placed James Turrell\u2019s Thought as Thing (2025) for between $900,000 and $1 million, one of the most expensive works to sell, bested only by Ropac\u2019s Baselitz.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Tina Kim Gallery sold a gorgeous blue Ha Chong-Hyun painting that was hanging in the back of its booth for $180,000. (A larger, red painting is priced at $390,000, and for now, is available.) San Francisco\u2019s Asian Art Museum will host the Dansaekhwa artist\u2019s first North American retrospective this September. (The museum\u2019s director, Soyoung Lee, was making the circuit around the fair earlier in the day.)<\/p>\n

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Installation view of Tina Kim Gallery at Frieze New York 2026. Courtesy of Tina Kim Gallery. Photo: Hyunjung
Rhee.<\/p>\n

Though the fair may not be a must-see, it\u2019s still a place to be seen, and notables were on hand on the opening day. Other museum leaders included Melissa Chiu, the newly annointed<\/a>\u00a0Guggenheim New York director; Sunjung Kim, the artistic director of the Art Sonje Center in Seoul; Amy Smith-Stewart, chief curator of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut; and Jessica Morgan, the director of the Dia Art Foundation.<\/p>\n

Collectors on the scene included Jill and Peter Kraus<\/a>; the venerable Beth Rudin Dewoody, who was in the aisles with her curator Maynard Monrow; Glenn Fuhrman, the founder of the Flag Art Foundation; and Michi Jigarjian, the owner of the Rockaway Hotel. Celebrity news anchor and noted collector<\/a> Anderson Cooper was seen with Klaus Biesenbach, the director of the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.<\/p>\n

Advisors were also out in force at the fair, which runs through Sunday, including Allan Schwartzman, who was chopping it up with Frieze\u2019s Americas director Christine Messineo in the opening minutes; Heather Flow; Benjamin Godsill; Bona Yoo; and the mustachioed Jeff Magid, who\u2019s won attention for his unfiltered Instagram reel vlogs.<\/p>\n

Perhaps New York doesn\u2019t need Frieze, but Frieze still needs New York.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At Frieze New York\u2019s VIP opening on Wednesday morning, collectors were present but rarely looked enthusiastic. Presentations by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[50811,8363,25517,90560,77094,90559,3455,40212,28541,90558,9,11,10,53843],"class_list":["post-230668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-art-fairs","tag-art-news","tag-art-sales","tag-artnet-pro","tag-artnet-news","tag-artnet-news-pro","tag-contemporary-art","tag-david-zwirner","tag-frieze","tag-frieze-new-york-sales","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-thaddaeus-ropac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}