Part of its allure is the unusual location - Randall's Island is situated just over the Triborough Bridge, in the East River. It is an expensive taxi ride, or a twenty minute trip on board the New York Waterways Ferry which docks at 34th Street and offers its passengers a superb view of the East Side of Manhattan. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate this year and the tops of the buildings were shrouded in fog, but the idea is a lot of fun.
Once on the island, the fair is housed in a specially constructed serpentine-shaped tent designed by the Brooklyn architectural firm SO-IL. It is a tremendous structure with beautiful light and windows over the river, and it is easy to forget that this is a temporary building.
This year, there is even a hotel incorporated into the design, albeit a small one! Al's Grand Hotel is a reconstruction of a conceptual art work originally created in 1971 by Allen Ruppersberg. It features a lobby with a small bar and two guest bedrooms (one a bridal suite) where guests can actually spend the night and have breakfast before the crowds arrive!
The 190 galleries participating in this year's event represent 29 countries including Brazil, Mexico and China. The work spans no more than a 50 year radius from pop art, think Warhol, and conceptual art, think Rauschenberg, to the latest entries in the art scene, think paint barely dry. As contemporary art is not really my field, I thought I would just show you some photos of what I thought were eye-catching pieces, most of which I can't begin to understand but hope you enjoy.
Like this 2013 version of the Rockettes, by Jonathan Monk and titled "All The Possible Combinations of Eight Legs Kicking (One At A Time)"...
Or Gabriel Kuri's "self portrait as a virtual symmetry chart", 2014...
And Zoe Leonard's installation piece "Vintage suitcases, for every year of the artists' life one suitcase is added", is one I can identify with, especially when waiting at baggage claim...
New York gallerist David Zwirner dedicated his entire stand to the polka dot princess Kusama...
While A Gentle Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, presented the work of Maria Nepomuceno...
If you, like I, find some of this a little outside your comfort zone, here is something especially for us...
Good advice actually, it makes us sound like old fogies and besides, it's hard to complain when it's so much fun being here! The FRIEZE tent comes down on Monday, May 12.
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