Paul Baker Prindle’s Top Picks from Frieze New York Viewing Room

Rotomi Fani-Kayode, Nothing to Lose XII (Bodies of Experience), 1989 

Archival chromogenic print, 61 × 51 cm. Edition of 10. Presented by Hales. POA

Fani-Kayode’s work is audacious, meeting homoerotic desire with unflinching clarity. His celebration of queer power – rooted in aberrance and defiance – was vital when these images were made and feels no less urgent today. As we face renewed oppression, I find myself turning to the lessons of our elders. Fani-Kayode’s photographs are fearless and exquisite, both ahead of their time and deeply of their moment. Their resonance today is profound. It’s a triumph to see this work included. 

Hannah Levy, Untitled, 2025

Stainless steel, glass, 113 × 102 × 91 cm. Presented by Casey Kaplan. $65k

This work offers everything I crave: material innovation, echoes of historical design, a charge of eroticism and the uncanny body. It’s delectable – inviting touch – yet edged with a palpable danger. The sculpture hums with frisson and tension, perfectly calibrated.

Gertrude Abercrombie, Owl for Emil, 1958 

Oil on masonite, 11 × 12 cm. Presented by Karma. $250 – $500k

This has been Abercrombie’s year, and it’s thrilling to see her long-overdue recognition. The winter exhibition at the Carnegie, and soon at the Milwaukee Art Museum, features a work from the museum I direct. Her small paintings are enchanting and ineffable. Abercrombie is a true atmosphere; her work opens on to many paths – music, dream studies, symbolism. Its enduring power lies in its openness: each viewer finds a different meaning, while the artist’s own remains elusive. That mystery is the source of its lasting appeal. 

Karma’s booth is exceptional, with standout works by Maja Ruznic, Tabboo! and Jeremy Frey. Tabboo!’s cityscape is a superb example of his vibrant vision. His life-as-art ethos recalls Abercrombie’s in its total commitment to creativity. It’s time more Americans recognized Tabboo!’s profound contributions to queer culture – and to American culture as a whole.

Roxanne Jackson, Lizard Brain, 2018 

Ceramic, glaze, lustre and faux fur, 43 × 25 × 20 cm. Presented by Anton Kern. $5,500 

Jackson is an artist to watch. Her rising visibility is well deserved. An extraordinary technician, she commands scale, glaze and form with a mastery that both honours and pushes the medium. Like Gertrude Abercrombie, Jackson is a world-builder: her sculptures conjure fantastical realms, transforming any space they enter. To stand before one is to be transported elsewhere – into another time, another dream. 

Johanna Unzueta, October 2022 Marfa, January Berlin 2025, 2025 

Wild berry dye, rosemary tint, pastel pencil, oil sticks, charcoal on pin-holed and hand-cut watercolour paper. 31 × 31 cm. Presented by Proyectos Ultravioleta. $13k

New to Johanna Unzueta’s practice, I find myself drawn to this 2025 work on paper. It extends her meditation on labour, the handmade, nature, and our place within it. As someone who finds renewal in gardening and the landscape, I am moved by the care evident in her small, deliberate interventions. The subtle dyeing and tactile surface reveal a sensual awareness that deepens our sense of connection to the earth and its systems. This is profoundly beautiful work.

Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi, Injury, 2025 

Oil on Belgian linen, 1.5 × 1.2m. Presented by Stevenson. $20k – $50k 

I’m especially compelled by the questions Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi poses at the intersection of abstraction and figuration. By withholding detail and simplifying the settings of her narrative moments, she allows the complexity of her subject matter to surface more fully. In elision, she finds depth. Here, facial expressions are absent, yet concern and pain saturate the image. The visual language of printmaking – with its historic ties to political agitation and liberated thought – further roots the work within Nkosi’s broader artistic priorities. 

About Paul Baker Prindle

Paul Baker Prindle is the Gabriele Haberland Director of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) and a practising artist. Prior to joining MMoCA, Baker Prindle curated ‘Drag Show’ (2023), a survey of queer artists associated with New York’s historic Pyramid Club, and Lee Krasner: Collage Paintings 1951–1955 (2023) for the museum at California State University Long Beach. Baker Prindle organized the first solo museum exhibitions for artists Clifford Prince King (‘Yesterday and Beyond’, 2023) and Dyani White Hawk (‘See Her’, 2019). His current projects, ‘José Lerma: Domestic in a Foreign Sense’ and the 2025 Wisconsin Triennial open this summer at MMoCA. 

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Open to all from 30 April – 16 May 2025, Frieze Viewing Room is the online catalogue for Frieze New York, giving global audiences access to gallery presentations at the fair. Visitors can search artworks by artist, price, date and medium, save favourite artworks and presentations, chat with galleries and much more.

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^{Main Image: Roxanne Jackson, Lizard Brain, 2018. Ceramic, glaze, lustre and faux fur, 43 × 25 × 20 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Anton Kern}