NEW YORK, NY.- The third edition of Frieze New York closed on Monday 12 May with overwhelming praise from visitors, collectors, curators and galleries alike. With 192 galleries from 28 different territories, exhibitors at all levels of the market reported strong sales and reached new audiences. Participants remarked upon the volume of international visitors and the number of presentations specially conceived for the fair with a high number of curated and solo booths. The speed at which the fair has integrated into the cultural economy of the city was another point of discussion, with The New York Times describing it as ‘a dumbfounding display of human creative industry.’

With visitor numbers in the region of 40,000 and attendance from collectors and curators from across the US and internationally, visitor tickets sold out on the Saturday and Sunday of the fair.

Frieze New York took place 9–12 May in bespoke temporary structure on Randall’s Island, Manhattan. Frieze New York is sponsored by Deutsche Bank.

Gallery Response
David Zwirner said of his participation: ‘This fair is gaining some serious momentum, and this year’s experience was even better than last year’s. We had an incredibly positive response to our two-artist booth of Kusama and Judd, which ended up being one of our most successful fair presentations over the past year.’

Daniela Gareh of White Cube (London) said: ‘We have participated in the fair since it started, and are once again pleased with the results. We placed several of Damien Hirst’s new scalpel paintings on the opening day and sales were strong across the board for all our artists.’

Tanya Bonakdar (New York): ‘The fair has grown tremendously over the past three years and this edition was exceptional, the best. Everything from the selection of galleries and booth presentations to the audience turnout have continued to improve, and we’re thrilled to have such a great fair in New York.’

A high number of participating galleries put together special presentations either highlighting one artist or working with curators at the fair. One included Hauser and Wirth (London & Zurich), with Iwan Wirth commenting: ‘The caliber of people in attendance was very, very high and our stand’s curated exhibition – a show organized by Gianni Jetzer, called “On the Fabric of the Human Body” - attracted attention not only from collectors from New York, across the US, and internationally, but also museum directors and curators. We had major sales for each of our artists on view. All three of the works in our stand by Isa Genzken were sold, as was The Family (2008), a wall of 36 gouaches by Louise Bourgeois; Paul McCarthy’s diptych The Head of W.S. and The Head of W.P. (2014); and Rita Ackermann’s recent large “Fire By Days” paintings.’

Another special presentation was made by Anton Kern (New York) who also had success with the approach. Kern said: ‘The response to our booth was incredible and sales were very good. It was the first time we asked a designer to do our stand, Martino Gamper who happens to be married to Francis Upritchard, a sculptor we show. It was a great and invigorating experience for us, the collectors and the general public alike.’

Fergus McCaffrey (New York) added: ‘It was a genuine pleasure to participate in Frieze New York again. We almost sold out our entire booth, and the critical response to Motonaga’s late works was overwhelming. We look forward to next year.’

Akio Aoki of Vermelho Gallery (Sao Paulo) said: ‘We are very happy, this year we saw many more international visitors and clients from all over the world. On the first day we presented large-scale paintings by Dora Longo Bahia and it was a huge success, we rehung the booth three times during the fair as we had such a great response from both museums and collectors.’

Sikkema Jenkins (New York) was another gallery that chose to make a special presentation. Brent Sikkema said of his approach to the presentation ‘I was interested in focusing on Erin Shirreff and Kara Walker because Kara is a veteran of our program and Erin is the most recent member of our program. Both women focus on very different issues but are similar in the muscular nature of their work and the rigorous intelligence they bring to their practice. The response was tremendous for both with numerous sales to museums as well as private collections in Latin America, Europe and the U.S.’

Frame and Focus
Younger galleries in the Frame and Focus sections of the fair also met with success, particularly garnering institutional interest.

José García Torres, Director of Proyectos Monclova (Mexico City) was a first time exhibitor at Frieze New York: ‘I loved the fair, on the first day there were just the right people around and we did very good business. I really like the atmosphere and location of Frieze New York, it really feels like the right place for an art fair.’

Another new exhibitor Guillaume Rouchon founder of Tempo Rubato (Tel Aviv) described his experience: ‘We made a decision to bring Pop Art to New York but by an artist that is largely unknown. It’s quite a different mood to some of the other booths but that risk has paid off as we’ve found a great audience for the work at Frieze New York. We’ve seen an international consensus with high profile international curators who immediately responded to the work and saw an immediate connection with some of their current projects. This work has been gaining momentum but here has been fully embraced.’

Chris Perez of Ratio 3 (San Francisco) said: Focus was a great platform for our gallery to debut an ambitious project. Editions of Takeshi Murata’s Melter 3-D were placed in significant private collections and there has been institutional interest in both this project and Murata’s broader practice. The response to the piece was incredibly overwhelming; after sharing the work with thousands of visitors, our favorite reaction to the piece remains “It changes you.”’

James Fuentes (New York) was another success in the Focus section of the fair, commenting: ‘Frieze continues to be the fair that we look forward to most all year. Our experience was the best yet, we featured solo project by a historically significant artist, our presentation not only resonated those with a predisposition to the work but also opened doors to an entirely new audience for it. We were delighted with the outcome of the fair.’

Stand Prize
The winner of the Stand Prize 2014, presented by Champagne Pommery, is greengrassi, London. Greengrassi, London was has been judged the most interesting gallery stand at the fair, receiving a prize supported by Champagne Pommery. The prize of $15,000 was judged by an international panel of curators: Pablo León de la Barra, Curator, Guggenheim UBS MAP, Latin America; James Rondeau, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Art Institute of Chicago and Ali Subotnick, Curator, The Hammer Museum at UCLA.

Cornelia Grassi said of her approach to her prize-winning booth: ‘Rather than ask artists I represent to give me new work for the fair, I chose to collaborate with Joshua Mack on a grouping of little seen representational work from the last 60 years made by five Japanese artists who were interested in popular culture and progressive politics. I would like to imagine that this exercise could be repeated when an equally exciting opportunity arises to show work little seen in the contemporary art fair context.’

Museum Groups
With 100 museum groups from the world’s major museums, the fair had strong institutional attendance. Visiting museum groups included: AGO Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada; Albright Knox, Buffalo, USA; Art Institute of Chicago (ARTIC), USA; Aspen Art Museum, USA; Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, USA; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Cleveland Museum of Art, USA; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, USA; ICA Boston, USA; MCA Chicago, USA; MFA Boston, USA; MoMA, NY, USA; Museum of Moderna Art of São Paulo, Brazil; National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, USA; Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil; Seattle Art Museum, USA; Serpentine Americas Foundation, USA; Serpentine Galler- ies, London, UK; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; Tate Americas Foundation, USA; Tate, London, UK; The Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, USA; Walker Art Museum, Minneapolis, USA.

Education and Talks
This year the Frieze Education program expanded to include workshops for high school students with visiting groups of school children. Included in this year’s program were school groups from: Banana Kelly High School, Frank Sinatra High School, Pablo Neruda Academy, Bronxwood High School, High School of Art and Design and Bronx High School for the Visual Arts. Also visiting the fair will be Teen Project Studio, an intensive art program that engages local Bronx teens and this year focuses on the use of digital technology to reach new audiences for art.