Randall's Island, a small islet on New York City's East River, has historically been a place for outsiders - once home to an orphanage, asylum, and a reform school - however this weekend, the island was very much a destination for the inside. Boat-loads of art lovers descended on the island for the Frieze art fair's inaugural New York edition, where a 250,000 sq ft serpentine-shaped tent, designed by SO-IL (Solid Objectives - Idenburg Liu), held pop-up booths for 180 of the world's top galleries.
The expected blue chip gang were in attendance, and appropriately situated near one another: at London's Victoria Miro, generations of talented female artists were represented, including Alice Neel and Yayoi Kusama, and Sarah Sze; while White Cube gallery dominated in the British male lot, offering up a Hirst case filled with fish in formaldehyde; Antony Gormley's concrete Room II sculpture, and a glass paint-on-aluminium 'painting' by Gary Hume.
Across the corridor at Sprüth Magers, Barbara Kruger's 2012 work 'Too big to Fail' seemed to be a nod to the fair itself while a quartet of Astrid Klein collages from the 1980s recalled a freewheeling past. Meanwhile, New York's David Zwirner Gallery devoted the entire booth to Minimalism, with works by Fred Sandback, John McCracken, and Donald Judd, among others.
On the other end of the tent, big guns Hauser & Wirth and Lisson Gallery were on form: in Hauser & Wirth's immaculate booth (featuring works by Matthew Day Jackson, Subodh Gupta, Roni Horn, and more) a bright blue dwarf by Paul McCarthy giggled at passer-bys, while across the corridor, a beguiling and monumental yellow Anish Kapoor disc at the Lisson Gallery stand kept the uplifting colour scheme going.
While big galleries brought out their best, it was some of the smaller galleries that stole the spotlight: works by Gillian Wearing, Dirk Stewen, and David Salle made Maureen Paley gallery a draw; cow-hide loveseats by Richard Artschwager and intricate drawings by recent Guerlain Drawing Prize-winner Jorinde Voigt had Mayor Bloomberg lingering at David Nolan Gallery's booth; and a space-station like geometric sculpture by Buster Graybill at Jack Hanley Gallery had adults and children alike enthralled.
'Untitled 2012' by Rirkrit Tiravanija, at Gavin Brown's Enterprise booth,courtesy of Frieze
'Untitled 2012' (detail) by Rirkrit Tiravanija,courtesy of Frieze
The fair was not just a visual feast, but also a literal one. On opening night, dealer Gavin Brown and actor Mark Ruffalo 'performed' a Rirkrit Tiravanija-inspired piece, cooking and serving sausages to the crowd,courtesy of Frieze
Untitled' by Rudolph Stingel, 2012, at the Gagosian Gallery booth, courtesy of Frieze
Visitors stand before a giant yellow disc by Anish Kapoor at the Lisson Gallery stand, courtesy of Frieze
Works by Abraham Cruzvillegas at the Kurimanzutto stand, courtesy of Frieze
'Concrete Cloudburst', by James Angus, 2012, shown by Gavin Brown's Enterprise at Frieze Sculpture Park, courtesy of Frieze
'And If I Don't...', by Cerith Wyn Evans, 2012, shown by White Cube at Frieze Sculpture Park, courtesy of Frieze
'White Snow Dwarf, Sleep #7 (Midget)' by Paul McCarthy, 2012, at the Hauser & Wirth stand, courtesy of Frieze
The Sarah Sze installation at the Victoria Miro booth
Sculpture by Darren Bader at the Andrew Kreps Gallery booth
Sculptures by Buster Graybill at the Jack Hanley booth
Shadow theatre by Ulla von Brandenburg at Frieze Projects
John Ahearn re-created his 1979 exhibition 'South Bronx Hall of Fame' at Frieze Projects
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