Frieze New York is hotter than ever

But during the preview on May 7—the official kick-off to Art Week 2025—any sign of existential dread was drowned out by the scene itself. The Shed was buzzing with global languages and street style, from architectural eyewear to pressed-linen pajama suits. Air kisses flew across the aisles.

More surprising, though, was the energy pulsing through the 65 booths. The art was fun. Really fun—in a way it hasn’t been for years. I thought last year’s edition might mark the start of a comeback, but this one felt genuinely different, in a really good way. 

Everything was on the table: ceramic snakes, wax-dripped canvases, sculpted leather, video installations, charred wood, glazed ceramics. Donald Moffett’s weird orange birdhouse made with found antelope horns and deer antlers (and pecans). A decaying early 1980s Panasonic boombox cut from marble by Matt Johnson. Roe Ethridge’s adorable Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Sprout immortalized in print. The Incredible Hulk turned into “inflatables” by Jeff Koons. 

There wasn’t a dominant aesthetic or theme—which felt ragtag in the best way. No two booths carried similar artists. One gallery even installed Jim Lambie’s wavy silver vinyl tape on the floor, turning their booth into a makeshift funhouse. And there was little trace of the overly mannered figuration or immersive digital gloss that’s dominated recent editions.

Instead, one of the most memorable solo presentations came from Paris’s Mor Charpentier, where French artist Malo Chapuy uses medieval religious iconography to depict post-apocalyptic themes. His scenes—of hazmat-suited, gas-masked figures engaged in rites, often with gilded halos—were eerie, beautiful, and transfixing. “This is so bold to bring to a contemporary art fair,” one attendee whispered, as a crowd formed in the booth.

Elsewhere, works from the 1980s hung alongside the 2020s. Sunil Gupta’s powerful photographs of male intimacy in India and Wanda Koop’s landscape paintings on plywood reminded viewers that “contemporary art” doesn’t always mean “new, right now.” In the race to present what’s next, it’s easy to forget that this category actually spans decades.

Maybe the market’s wobble is giving everyone permission to loosen up. Maybe the shakeup at the top will open space for new kinds of risk. Time will tell. But for right now, this week, this edition of Frieze is a marvelous place to linger, not just pass through on the way to the next art fair.

Frieze New York runs through Sunday, May 11 at The Shed, 545 West 30th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. It’s one of several art fairs taking place in NYC this week.