Eight Unmissable Solo Shows at Frieze New York 2024

Many galleries at Frieze New York are staging ambitious solo shows by their most globally renowned and experimental artists. This year sees work that expands conventions of painting, and explores themes of Black corporeality, consumerist desire and abstraction.

Sterling Ruby at Gagosian, B6

Sterling Ruby reveals new work at Gagosian, including four paintings in his “TURBINE” series (2021–) and a selection of collages from “DRFTRS” (2012–). Evoking speed and self-destruction, Ruby saturates his “TURBINE” paintings in colour, pounding pigment into their surface and arranging them on his studio floor to be subjected to frenzied motion. This layering is mirrored in “DRIFTRS,” for which Ruby collages photographs of spores, plants, particles and stars over washes of paint. Drawing his titles from William Blake, Shakespeare and Greek mythology, Ruby addresses contemporary concerns with a broad range of literary and historical references.

Haegue Yang at Kukje Gallery, B16

Frieze New York marks the first time that Haegue Yang’s “Mesmerizing Mesh” (2021–) is shown in the United States, presented by Kukje Gallery. In this ongoing series, Yang expands her interest in the connection between spirit and matter into an experiment with the shamanistic ritual of blowing a soul into fragile material, such as a sheet of paper. Yang folds, cuts and perforates hanji (a paper made from mulberry tree bark) to imbue the material with spiritual desire and intercessory purpose.

Dewey Crumpler at Jenkins Johnson, B19

Jenkins Johnson offers a sweeping insight into Dewey Crumpler’s three-decade-long exploration of Black oppression and subjugation. Crumpler’s discovery of a photograph of an African slave collar in the 1990s prompted him to begin “Metta,” a series that examines the violent detachment of the collar from its origins. Crumpler embarked on “Tulip” at the same time, linking the commercial history of this flower with the economic and cultural commodification of the Black body. 

Sylvie Fleury at Karma International and Sprüth Magers, D5

Karma International and Sprüth Magers are dedicating their shared space to Sylvie Fleury, whose scrutiny of contemporary culture and male-centric art history sparks a seductive collision of art and consumerism. The presentation features Fleury’s iconic neon works, alongside sculptures, paintings and video. With subjects ranging from luxe fashion to Andy Warhol, Fleury’s vision offers both biting satire and sensual vulnerability, with contradiction at the core of her practice.

Kaveri Raina at Casey Kaplan, B12

New York-based Kaveri Raina draws on inherited histories and memories in her latest series of paintings on burlap, presented by Casey Kaplan. Raina’s forms assemble and fragment narratives: their texture is gritty, resulting from her blend of acrylic, oil pastel and graphite, while their depth of color is achieved by soaking paint through the reverse of the canvas.

Hiroshi Sugito at Tomio Koyama Gallery, D11

Tomio Koyama Gallery sets a selection of large-scale paintings by Hiroshi Sugito alongside unseen drafts the artist made at the very beginning of his career. Building realms of color, dream and melody, Sugito conceives each work as an independent space in which art and architecture encounter. In colour tree 3 (1994/2024), Sugito returns to one of these works on paper 30 years later to layer and develop it with acrylic and pigment.

Leo Valledor at Silverlens, B2

Silverlens celebrates the artistic legacy of Leo Valledor, a trailblazing figure of the 1960s Manhattan art scene. The exhibition features four paintings from the last decade of Valledor’s life, which represent the culmination of his experimentation in shaped, color field and geometric abstraction. Two unseen preparatory drawings offer an insight into Valledor’s process and his contribution to the development of minimalism.

Read more: New York According to Katey Acquaro of Silverlens

Lee Bae at Perrotin, B4

Lee Bae is the subject of a focused presentation at Perrotin, which features a selection of the artist’s paintings, drawings and sculptures. In 1990, as an art student in Paris, Bae turned to charcoal out of necessity, purchasing it cheaply from a gas station. In the 34 years since, Bae’s practice has become an intense and immersive study of charcoal’s color and materiality. The nature of the charcoal changes as Bae engages it across different media: for his “Issu du Feu” series, charcoal shards are sanded and polished to reflect light and reveal a spectrum of luminous blacks and grays, while for his “Brushstroke” paintings Bae uses diluted charcoal ink, allowing minimal gestures to create depth on a flat surface.  

Further Information

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Frieze New York is supported by global lead partner Deutsche Bank, continuing over two decades of a shared commitment to artistic excellence.

^{Main Image: Sterling Ruby, DRFTRS (8613), 2024. Collage and glue on paper, 29 × 29 cm ©︎ Sterling Ruby. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian}