Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
“The purpose of the Focus section has always been to promote a sense of discovery,” says the writer and curator Lumi Tan. For the second year, Tan is overseeing Frieze New York’s Focus section, which features galleries that have been active 12 years or less, staging solo presentations of under-known or emerging artists. “Fairs are familiar now, often with similar exhibitors presenting similar artists each time,” says Tan. “When you step into the Focus section, I want there to be a shift in perspective that jolts you out of the automatic way you’ve been treading through the fair.”
Subsidised by Frieze and the clothing brand Stone Island to cover up to one-third of each exhibitor’s booth cost, the section affords younger galleries a global platform. Here are three of the most exciting at this year’s fair.
Gordon Robichaux
New York gallery Gordon Robichaux was founded in 2017 by artists Sam Gordon and Jacob Robichaux. It has become known for its support of under-recognised artists, many of whom are self-taught and have been working for decades, but haven’t had major success. “Gordon Robichaux acts more like curatorial advisers, helping artists make their way and learn to live while also making a career out of their art,” says Lumi Tan.
For Frieze, the gallery is showcasing sculptures, photographs and a painting by Jenni Crain, an artist and curator who died of Covid-19 complications at the age of 30. Crain’s works on view, such as minimalist wood cubes with glass, explore perception and emotion.
“Jenni was a rigorous thinker deeply involved with the curatorial community and is of a generation of artists who are now in major shows like the Whitney Biennial,” says Gordon. “Part of showing Jenni at Frieze is to put her in the ongoing dialogue of contemporary art, where she belongs.”
Concurrent with the fair, Gordon Robichaux is organising an exhibition in its gallery featuring a site-responsive sculpture by Crain — the final work she developed before her death — alongside a group exhibition of artists she championed. “Jenni’s work deserves to be seen,” says Gordon. “She deserves to be in shows. If not her own artwork, then an unrealised curatorial project. It’s Jenni’s turn.”
Mitre Galeria
Brazil’s Mitre Galeria, originally known as Galeria Periscópio, was founded in 2015 to amplify diverse voices with a focus on Brazilian and Black artists.
“In Brazil, there are few galleries with as specific a programme as Mitre’s,” says Flávia Cardoso Suzuki, assistant director. “Working with artists who are socially and politically engaged can be a challenge and most of the gallery’s artists are Black. Racism is still very present in Brazil.”
Mitre Galeria is showcasing Luana Vitra, a 30-year-old artist who explores ecological destruction caused by mining in her home state of Minas Gerais. With prices ranging from $5,000 to $32,000, the booth will feature drawings related to mining operations and mixed-media sculptures comprised of materials including iron ore. With her work, Vitra challenges the need for iron extraction. “If recycled, what has already been extracted is enough to meet our needs,” she says. “That’s why I tell the story of this place — largely so we can rethink the choices humanity continues to make.”
Outside the fair, Vitra has a solo show at New York’s SculptureCenter (May 1-July 28), institutional support the gallery believes can broaden Vitra’s audience. “Complex installations are not easy to engage with on the market,” says Júlia Maria, Mitre’s artistic director. “But Luana has a lot of momentum in Brazil and we think she will do well with American and European collectors.”
G Gallery
A newcomer to this year’s Frieze New York is Seoul’s G Gallery, which supports experimental, emerging and mid-career artists and aims to connect the Korean art scene with international audiences.
G Gallery is exhibiting a large-scale installation by Yehwan Song, who also has a solo show at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn (to May 11). Song’s Frieze presentation features digital projections of internet spaces on cardboard forms inspired by clusters of barnacles, as well as rotating iPads with similar imagery. The work highlights invisible systems embedded within technology and “critiques how internet users become passive and homogenous, shaped by algorithms”, says Dakyung Lee, director at G Gallery. “Yehwan Song asks whether we are in control of technology or part of a system.”
Song, who has a background in user-experience design, says technology was created for certain groups, such as English speakers. Those who don’t speak the language may still have to work in English to generate things such as usernames. “People who don’t fit into these main groups usually end up feeling discomfort in a space that wasn’t made for them,” Song explains. Rather than “surfing” the web, users come up against immobile “barnacles”. “By making this hidden discomfort more visible, we can question how narrow and exclusive the internet really is — and find ways to build a more open and welcoming one.”
The gallery hopes New York museums in particular will be interested in Song’s work, which ranges from $10,000 to $20,000, “but we also just want visitors to know her”, Lee says. “I hope visitors can expand their perspective of Asian art . . . we have an opportunity to show art that is great, is by an Asian artist, and isn’t a painting or sculpture.”
May 7-11, frieze.com
Find out about our latest stories first — follow FT Weekend on Instagram and X, and sign up to receive the FT Weekend newsletter every Saturday morning
