HOW TO HAVE A PERFECT DAY AT FRIEZE NEW YORK
Frieze New York opened this week, running from May 7 – 11, 2025. Frieze have put together a guide of highlights of both the fair and external events happening in New York this week. Starting off the morning at the fair, visitors can explore both local and international talent. Frieze have spotlighted artists like Hannah Levy, whose works will be presented by Casey Kaplan, and Patricia Ayres at Matthew Brown. Gagosian will be showcasing an immersive solo presentation of Jeff Koons, dedicated to Koon’s Hulk Elvis (Tubas) (2004-18) sculpture. Amidst established names, there is a Focus section, supported by Stone Island, that celebrates emerging talents. The fair also includes a number of international artists and galleries; among these is Citra Sasmita at Yeo Workshop, a one of the few women who has been permitted to practice Kamasan painting, a traditional Balinese tradition. In addition, there will be an extensive performance program, starting with Pilvi Takala’s The Pin, a major new co-commission by High Line Art and Frieze. Coinciding with Frieze, many of the galleries will be holding exhibitions, including Thaddaeus Mosley at Karma and Tomma Abts at David Zwirner. Beyond Chelsea, there are also top institutional shows, including Jack Whitten: The Messenger at MoMA and a survey of Christine Sun Kim titled All Day All Night at the Whitney.
Hannah Levy, Untitled, 2023/2025
MARLENE DUMAS PAINTING SET TO BREAK AUCTION RECORD FOR A WORK BY A LIVING WOMAN ARTIST
Marlene Dumas’ Miss January (1997) will be going up for auction at Christie’s in New York this May at the 21st Century Evening Sale. The painting currently holds an estimate of between US$12 million – US$18 million and is predicted to break the record for the highest price paid at auction for a work by a living woman artist. The current painting that holds this record is Jenny Saville’s Propped (1992) which sold for £8.25m (£9.5m with fees) at Sotheby’s London in 2018. Sara Friedlander, Christie’s deputy chairman of post-war and contemporary art released in a statement, “Through its monumental scale and singular subject matter, Miss January is truly the magnum opus of Marlene Dumas. In this painting, Dumas triumphantly demonstrates a formal mastery of the woman’s body while simultaneously freeing it from a tradition of subjection, upending normalised concepts of the female nude through the lens of a male-centric history.” Dumas’ current record is US$6.3 million (with fees), set by The Visitor (1995) at an auction in 2008 at Sotheby’s London.
Marlene Dumas, Miss January, 1997
DARA BIRNBAUM (1946-2025)
Dara Birnbaum, a trailblazing video and installation artist, died on May 2, 2025, at the age of seventy eight. Born in Queens, New York on October 29, 1946, Birnbaum initially enrolled in a premed program at Carnegie Mellon University before switching to architecture. Following graduation, she worked for a few years before enrolling in the San Francisco Art Institute where she studied painting. However, her interest in video art started in Florence, when she saw a video by Allan Kaprow playing in the back of Centro Diffusione Grafica, an art space. Birnbaum was known for her exploration of the politics of image making and dissemination through her video art. Often focusing on themes of feminism, consumerism, power, and control, Birnbaum used television as a way to highlight the inner mechanisms of mass media. She acknowledged television as the dominant form of media in the 20th century, often splicing videos and editing them together to create striking visuals. Birnbaum once commented on television, saying “It was an apparatus that was introduced in our houses like a gun. It was a weapon, and that is how I wanted to use it.” In the 1990s, Birnbaum’s oeuvre took a more political turn with the creation of pieces like Tiananmen Square: Break-In Transmission (1990) which included footage from news broadcasts of Tiananmen Square. Across her career, Birnbaum was exhibited across the world and at major institutions including the MoMA, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and Fondazione Prada in Milan. The artist also participated in the seventh, eighth, and ninth iterations of Documenta. In 2024, Birnbaum shared, “I was very much excited by video moving image… Even after forty-five or fifty years, there is still nothing I want more than to give myself and my voice to a world that I feel has gone awry.”
Dara Birnbaum at her Osservatorio Fondazione Prada survey, Milan, 2023
6 SHOWS CELEBRATING ASIAN AMERICAN ARTISTS THIS AAPI HERITAGE MONTH
Artsy have chosen six shows in honour of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. Starting with Painting As Method at Alisan Fine Arts, the exhibition showcases works by three artists: Mimi Chen Ting, Yifan Jiang, and Kelly Wang. The show presents various art historical traditions, from Surrealism to hard-edge abstraction to Chinese album painting. Following this is Ellie Kayu Ng’s show Bloom! at Latitude Gallery New York. With her hyper-realistic style, Ng’s paintings capture scenes of New York while exploring themes of identity and performance. Throughout May, Jonathan Carver Moore is showing Latitude Unknown by Yunfei Ren, an emerging Chinese artist. The paintings bloom with colour, reminiscent of patterns created by tie-dye, the fluidity of the marks intended as a representation of the natural phenomena witnessed by migrants on their respective journeys. Calvin Kim’s Departure Before Arrival will be presented at Harper’s, exploring the concept of thresholds. From horizons to sightlines, there is a bittersweet tinge of departure and arrival that runs throughout the body of work. Next is Okku/ Beyond the Light by Shuto Okayasu at PLATO Gallery, an exhibition that capture the everyday reality of New York. However, Okasuyu’s depictions of daily scenes of the city retain a sense of magic through the warped edged to the artists’s style. Finally, Noormah Jamal’s Meena/ Veena will be presented at Rajiv Menon Contemporary, exploring Jamal’s childhood memories of Peshawar, known colloquially as the ‘city of flowers.’ Working across a range of mediums, Jamal’s body of work includes paintings, small ceramics, and works on paper. Jamal shared. “At the core of my work is a desire to create space for dialogue—between past and present, between individual experience and collective memory.”
Calvin Kim, If the moon is full we're just fools, 2025
A RARE LALANNE DINING SUITE COULD FETCH $1.4 MILLION AT AUCTION
On June 5, a rare dining set by Claude Lalanne will be auctioned at Christie’s as part of a sale featuring works from the collection of Baron Diego von Buch (1941-2023). The 12-piece ‘Gingko’ set will be sold across four lots and is estimated at more than £1 million. Constructed with painted cast aluminium, the set was completed in 2000. The gingko leaves represent longevity, resilience, peace, and endurance, while also being a commonly used motif in Art Nouveau and Surrealism. The set includes one dining table (£200,000-£300,000), a set of six chairs (£200,000-£300,000), four armchairs (£200,000 to £300,000) and a bench (£100,000 to £150,000). The rarity of the suite lies not only in its wholeness, but in its colour as Lalanne only employed this particular green in a select number of works. Works by Claude’s husband François-Xavier Lalanne will also be featured in the sale, including a pair of 'Tourterelle' armchairs (1999) with an estimate of £200,000 to £300,000.
Part of the 'Ginkgo' dining suite (2000) by Claude Lalanne
Jordan Tan holds an MA in History of Art from the prestigious Courtauld Institute of Art. With a passion for fine art and the art market, Jordan plays a key role at Art Works by researching and interpreting trends across the primary and secondary markets, delivering valuable insights and business intelligence for the fine art department.
