What’s on in Chelsea During Frieze Week
Manhattan’s gallery district comes alive during Frieze New York. Plan your visit with these exhibition listings and local tips
Manhattan’s gallery district comes alive during Frieze New York. Plan your visit with these exhibition listings and local tips
Casey Kaplan, 121 West 27th Street | ‘Igshaan Adams’ | 8 May – 25 July 25
South African artist Igshaan Adams presents new tapestries and sculptures. These organic, delicate, ethereal works have an unexpected, quiet power, continuing Adams’s exploration of the body as a vessel for memory and the healing potential of movement.
Karma, 549 West 26th Street | ‘Thaddeus Mosley: Proximity’ | Until 24 May
Explore the latest wood works from the 99-year-old Pittsburgh-based master. Carved directly into local salvaged timber, Mosley’s majestic sculptures resonate with the far-ranging influences of jazz, Isamu Noguchi, Constantin Brâncuși and African art.
This is dorky, but Kremer Pigments at 247 West 29th Street is a weird, freaky store. It makes the Harry Potter store look like shit. If I was going to lift one pigment in there? It would be lapis lazuli. It’s basically blue. But a banger.
Pace, 508 and 510 West 25th Street | ‘Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales’ | 7 May – 15 August
Polish-German artist Alicja Kwade, whose ambitious public installations appear around the world, presents new large-scale sculptures marrying organic with human-made, hard-edged forms.
Pace, 540 West 25th Street | ‘Robert Indiana: The American Dream’ and ‘Robert Mangold: Pentagons and Folded Space’ | May 9 – August 15
From the 1960s onward, Robert Indiana embarked on an exploration of US identity. With loans from prominent institutions, ‘The American Dream’ brings together paintings and sculptures, connecting his personal history and the cultural and political realities of postwar America.
A concurrent exhibition features the latest paintings and drawings from octogenarian minimalist Robert Mangold. The master of monochrome’s latest canvases are all variations on polygons.
Gagosian, 555 West 24th Street | ‘Willem de Kooning: Endless Painting’ | Until 14 June
Curated by Cecilia Alemani, ‘Willem de Kooning: Endless Painting’ examines the artist’s approach to figuration, abstraction and colour. Focusing on the 1980s alongside important earlier works, Alemani charts connections within De Kooning’s oeuvre and considers his enduring impact.
The best place to find a chic wardrobe item that will quickly become an endlessly complimented staple: Lucky Selectism at 346 West 14th Street.
Hauser & Wirth, 542 West 22nd Street | ‘Francis Picabia: Éternel recommencement/Eternal Beginning’ | Until 25 July
First shown at Hauser & Wirth Paris, ‘Francis Picabia: Éternel recommencement/Eternal Beginning’ focuses on the artist’s final period of 1945–53. Following a career marked by abrupt shifts in style, these last paintings show the development of his own language of abstraction.
Hauser & Wirth, 542 West 22nd Street and 443 West 18th Street | ‘William Kentridge: A Natural History of the Studio’ | Until 1 August
In an immersive installation across two floors of the West 22nd Street gallery, William Kentridge presents the nine-episode film series ‘Self-Portrait as a Coffee Pot’, alongside sculptures and drawings created during the making of the film. At the West 18th Street gallery, Kentridge presents prints from the last two decades.
Nara Roesler, 511 West 21st Street | ‘Marco A. Castillo: From the Circle to the Star’ | Until 5 June
Marco A. Castillo, who works as both an individual and as one of the founding members of the collective Los Carpinteros, presents his first solo show in New York. He brings his own brand of Cuban modernism to town with new wall and floor-based sculptures.
Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, 521 West 21st Street | ‘Laura Lima: Balé Literal’ and ‘Dana Powell: The Moon Is Still Free’ | Until 30 May
Originally a one-off event on the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Laura Lima’s Balé Literal (Literal Ballet) is now on to its fourth iteration, with ‘ballerinas’ hanging from a pulley system dancing through the space, powered by a performer pedaling a modified bicycle.
In ‘The Moon Is Still Free’, North Carolina-based Dana Powell presents her latest small-scale oil paintings of moonscapes, still lifes and landscapes peppered with powerlines and trash that celebrate the beauty of the earth and reveal our lack of respect for it.
Chelsea Tip
I lived on 10th Avenue & 18th Street a while ago. I loved walking up and down the river in the park, getting takeout from Bottino and browsing 192 Books. Even though I was living next door to the galleries, I somehow still missed exhibitions.
Gagosian, 522 West 21st Street | ‘Takashi Murakami’ | 8 May – 12 July
Takashi Murakami’s paintings responding to Hiroshige’s ‘100 Famous Views of Edo’ return to New York, where they appeared last year at the Brooklyn Museum. They are shown alongside intricately detailed new paintings presenting the artist’s own spin on Japonisme.
Tina Kim Gallery, 525 West 21st Street | ‘The Making of Modern Korean Art: The Letters of Kim Tschang-Yeul, Kim Whanki, Lee Ufan and Park Seo-Bo, 1961–1982’ | Until 21 June
This exhibition, pinned to the publication of previously unseen correspondence from the 1960s to the 1980s between four major figures of 20th-century Korean art, offers a fascinating insight into the evolution of the country’s modernism. Major works by the artists are presented alongside archival materials.
303 Gallery, 555 West 21st Street | ‘Jeppe Hein: Expect a Miracle’ and ‘Mary Heilmann: Breaking Waves’ | Until 31 May
Expect playful minimalism from Berlin-based Dane Jeppe Hein, whose new work continues to draw on his fascination with the sea – its reflective qualities, movement and constantly mutating forms. Mary Heilmann is famed for her upbeat, bold minimalism. The New York-based artist, now in her 80s, always brings the sunshine of her native West Coast, seen here across paintings, ceramics and furniture.
kurimanzutto, 516 West 20th Street | ‘Miguel Calderón: Neurotics Anonymous’ | Until 7 June
Mexican artist Miguel Calderón examines – through photographs, sculptures, found objects and a new video – his anxieties and reflections on the art world and the world at large.
Hales, 547 West 20th Street | ‘Jordan Ann Craig’ | Until 7 June
Grounded in museum and archival research into Indigenous material culture, New Mexico-based Jordan Ann Craig explores her Northern Cheyenne heritage through bold geometric abstractions.
Chelsea Tip
I enjoy going to the Frenchette bakery at the Whitney, where I get the jambon beurre: delicious. The other thing I do religiously is go to Intelligentsia at the High Line Hotel, a really handsome period building that was originally a monastery; I get an iced matcha or a cortado with oat milk and take it into the garden at the back.
David Zwirner, 525 West 19th Street | ‘Tomma Abts’ | Until 14 June
The Turner Prize-winning artist continues her exploration of process and form, in a marriage of geometric and organic abstraction for the 21st century.
David Zwirner, 533 West 19th Street | ‘Michael Armitage: Crucible’ | 8 May – 27 June
Zwirner inaugurates its new Chelsea building with an exhibition of paintings and teak panels reflecting on the theme of migration by British Kenyan artist Michael Armitage.
This article first appeared in Frieze Week New York magazine with the title ‘Chelsea (Art) Market’.
Further Information
Frieze New York, The Shed, 7 – 11 May, 2025. Tickets are on sale – don’t miss out, buy yours now. Alternatively, become a member to enjoy premier access, exclusive guided tours and more.
A dedicated online Frieze Viewing Room will open the week before the fair, offering audiences a first look at the presentations and the opportunity to engage with the fair remotely.
Frieze New York is supported by global lead partner Deutsche Bank, continuing its legacy of celebrating artistic excellence on an international scale.
Main image: Hauser & Wirth, 542 West 22nd Street. Courtesy: Selldorf Architects; photograph: Nicholas Venezia
