How to Have a Perfect Day at Frieze New York
Make the most of your visit to the fair, with unmissable artist projects, performances, shows (and bars) – in Chelsea and across the city
Make the most of your visit to the fair, with unmissable artist projects, performances, shows (and bars) – in Chelsea and across the city
Lou Reed’s ‘Perfect Day’ in New York involved feeding zoo animals, going to a movie and drinking ‘sangria in the park’. A more exciting alternative is Frieze New York 2025. It’s the global art world in microcosm, a vitamin shot of local talent and international artists, unique performances and more. There’s also the fair’s Chelsea neighbourhood: New York’s vibrant galleryland, which is hosting outstanding exhibitions. On top of all that, there is NYC itself – a world centre of shopping, dining and the arts. The park and the zoo can wait. Here’s how to make the most of your time at Frieze New York 2025.
Morning: At the Fair
Start your day at The Shed, with four floors of exceptional galleries from NYC and across the world. For a curated experience, you can book a guided tour. And don’t forget that you can make a hit list of what to see in advance by browsing the Frieze Viewing Room online preview to the fair.
Local Talent
Gotham isn’t short of artists or art galleries, and both camps are handsomely represented at this year’s fair. New Yorker Hannah Levy (Casey Kaplan, Stand B11), is a must-see for her intricate and unsettling works referencing disability and prosthetics. Patricia Ayres (Matthew Brown, Stand D11), moved into sculpture from fashion. Her works invoke the body in extremis: compressed, distorted and restrained. Check out Frieze’s video of her shopping for materials in the Garment District and Canal Street.
Among many solo presentations art the fair, New York icon Jeff Koons has created an immersive booth with Gagosian gallery – dedicated to the figure of the Incredible Hulk, a shape-shifting figure representing both superhero and divine being. Koons explains, ‘Hulk Elvis represents for me both Western and Eastern cultures, a sense of a guardian, a protector, that at the same time is capable of bringing the house down.’
The Focus section for emerging talent, supported by Stone Island, is rich in NYC galleries and artists. These include Company (Stand F8), Gordon Robichaux showing the late and much lamented Jenni Crane (Stand F7), King’s Leap showing Audrey Gair (Stand F2) and Management with Tahir Karmali (Stand F3). In this piece, three Downtown gallerists explain the challenges of running a fledgling space in New York. Make sure you visit them!
International Stars
Just as New York is home to every nationality under the sun, so Frieze is a place where you can encounter artists and cultures from Antigua to Vietnam. Just a few highlights include Indonesian artist Citra Sasmita (at Yeo Workdshop, Stand F4), one of the few women ever allowed to practise the Balinese tradition of Kamasan painting; and 89-year-old Dr Esther Mahlangu, (Jenkins Johnson, B18), schooled in the Ndebele mural tradition by her grandmother and one of South Africa’s greatest cultural figureheads.
Painters drawing on their home landscapes from around the world include South Korea’s Kim Bohie whose intensely lush and psychologically charged pictures are inspired by Jeju island (The Modern Institute, A4); Londoner Mary Stephenson, with dreamlike paintings of architectural spaces (Chapter NY, C6); and Polish artist Karol Palczak’s paintings of his remote rural community (Emalin, C5).
Performances
Depending on which days you visit Frieze New York, make sure to catch this year’s performances from the Frieze Projects programme.
On Wednesday 7 May, Friday 9 May and Sunday 11 May encounter Pilvi Takala’s The Pin, a major new co-commission by High Line Art and Frieze and curated by Taylor Zakarin, associate curator, High Line Art. The Berlin-based artist is known for infiltrating and disrupting social and workplace structures. For this new work, actors roam the Shed and the High Line, identifiable only by a pin on their shirts. Approaching passersby, they improvise around a script written by Takala, the seemingly chance interactions exploring how we engage in public spaces.
On Thursday 8 May, throughout the day, Carlos Reyes’s Freestyle Hard will transform the Shed into a mysterious avian soundscape, with expert bird callers mimicking the dawn chorus, mating displays and more in the building’s public spaces.
On Saturday 10 May, from 11am to 2pm, you can join Asad Raza for a plant walk along the High Line as part of his new work Immortal Coil, created in collaboration with High Line Art. Working with the park’s botanists, Raza selected cuttings that will be on display at the Shed, before they set off on their journey with musical accompaniment. Sign up to take part here.
Eating & Drinking
Culture is exhausting (in a good way). Recharge with some food from Cedric’s Café in the lobby or eighth level of the Shed. Or maybe a coffee from the Illy Café, a glass of fizz from the Ruinart Bar, or a snifter from the Dobel Tequila Lounge (no judgement here).
Non-profits
Before you leave the fair, be sure to check out some of the non-profits at the Shed. The Artist Plate Project is once again raising funds for New York City’s homeless community with the sale of limited-edition artist plates (Level 2). The Frieze Library, an initiative started by Gordon Robichaux Gallery, also returns in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Level 8, within Cedric’s Café). And Printed Matter, Inc., the world’s leading non-profit organization dedicated to artists’ books is popping up at the fair, just inside the entrance to the Shed.
Afternoon: Chelsea and Beyond
Chelsea
In the afternoon, explore the artist projects on the High Line and head further into Chelsea to explore its amazing wealth of galleries, many of which programme their shows to coincide with Frieze New York.
Use this map to follow the High Line and meander your way down from Casey Kaplan on West 27th Street to Hauser & Wirth on West 18th Street. And check these highlights of the shows on in the neighbourhood during Frieze Week, from new wood works by 99-years-young sculptor Thaddeus Mosley at Karma (West 26th Street) to Willem de Kooning at Gagosian (West 24th Street) and Tomma Abts at David Zwirner (West 19th Street).
For a more personal and in-depth look at many of Chelsea’s galleries, watch this video guide led by Dia Art Foundation’s Jordan Carter. Carter also explores the High Line, graced this year by Iván Argote’s (literally) unmissable giant sculpture of a pigeon, Dinosaur. And for a gallerist’s-eye view of the neighbourhood, 303’s Lisa Spellman talks about her five decades of visiting and working in Chelsea.
Across Town (and Out of It)
If Frieze New York and the endless galleries of Chelsea haven’t completely exhausted you, there are some fantastically good institutional exhibitions on in New York City, coinciding with the fair. Standouts include ‘Jack Whitten: The Messenger’ at MoMA, an important career survey of the US artist; ‘All Day All Night’ by Christine Sun Kim at the Whitney – who is also showing at the fair with François Ghebaly (Stand D8); and Carolyn Lazard’s video work Two-way at Artists Space, the Tribeca institution which has nurtured artistic experimentation in New York City for five decades.
Also, don’t fail to visit the Frick Collection, recently reopened following an epic, five-year rejuvenation. Finally, if you fancy a trip out of town, Storm King Art Center in upstate New York – also newly reopened after a $50 million renovation – is showing Sonia Gomes (also presented at the fair by Mendes Wood DM, Stand B7).
Evening: Museums and Drinks
If you have any stamina left, many congratulations. Lots of New York’s finest museums are open late at the weekend, including The Met (until 9pm, Fridays and Saturdays), The Whitney (until 10pm, Fridays) and MoMA (until 8.30pm, Fridays),
Finish your long day in the time-honoured art-world way: in a bar. You’re not short of options in New York City, but may we suggest one of these stand-out – and extremely beautiful – watering holes, as shot by rising photography star Oskar Proctor. We’ll have a sangria, thanks.
Further Information
Find full visitor information, including fair opening times, accessibility and FAQs here.
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 in 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.
