NEW YORK—As May approaches, it's the question on the tip of everyone's tongue in Chelsea: Could the new Frieze New York freeze out the city's current behemoth art fair, the Armory Show? With the first edition of Frieze nearly upon us, anticipation has been building about how it might stack up against the Merchandise Mart-run Armory. There are also questions. Will travel to remote Randall's Island be more unpleasant than the trek to Piers 92 and 94 on the far-western part of Manhattan? Will New Yorkers suck it up and cross the RFK Bridge for the promise of fresh art paired with Sant Ambroeus's informal fare, pizza from ultra-hip Bushwick hangout Roberta's, and a pop-up version of the Standard Biergartden? It's hard to set the bar lower than Great Performances's refrigerated-to-oblivion $10 sandwiches at the Armory.
Despite its culinary stumbles, the latter fair brought in many thousands of visitors when it celebrated its 14th anniversary in March. But the heretofore London-based Frieze is more focused on hot emerging artists and exotic international galleries, not to mention perfectly situated between two of the biggest weeks of the year on the New York auction calendar. If Frieze lives up to the hype, will it supplant Armory? Can two mega-fairs coexist in the vast New York art-market ecosystem? To try to make some predictions, ARTINFO talked to some of the participating galleries to find out how they were approaching the newest addition to the Big Apple's art calendar.
TIMING
It's no accident that Frieze falls during the spring auction season — before it are the Impressionist and modern sales at Christie's and Sotheby's, while after are the usually blockbuster contemporary auctions. But will the collectors who come to New York for those marquee events also be attracted to the wet-paint works that Frieze has to offer?
Not everyone is certain of the synergy. "I think that there probably are going to be extra people in town," said Lucy Mitchell-Innes, who runs Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery as well as being the president of the Art Dealers Association of America. But, she added, "my understanding is that it is for art being made in the studio, so to what extent there is a valid overlap remains to be seen."
But there is another, perhaps more important, timing issue to consider about May, and that's the chatter that Hong Kong's increasingly important Art HK fair may be moving to February. If that happens, according to Lisson Gallery's Alex Logsdail, galleries may choose not to participate in Armory because of timing issues. That said, Art HK is currently in mid-May, which poses a similar problem for Frieze NY. Several important galleries — among them James Cohan, Sean Kelly, Yvon Lambert, and Lisson itself — are listed as exhibitors for both May fairs. Once again, time will tell if that schedule is sustainable.
But will galleries even feel the need to choose? Jane Cohan of James Cohan Gallery told ARTINFO, "I think we are all aware that the contemporary art market is increasingly event driven." For that reason, she noted, she didn't think that New York was going to have a problem sustaining two major fairs. More fairs might simply coincide with more demand for fairs.
QUALITY
Many of the gallerists that ARTINFO talked to expressed some sort of brand loyalty to Frieze, which has a reputation for professionalism and general intelligence. Many said they have come to expect high-quality booths and well-curated exhibitions from organizers Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, which is one reason anticipation is so high for the New York version. Ethan Sklar, director of Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, noted that Frieze is more ambitious and targeted than Armory, and his gallery is particularly looking forward to the dedicated sculpture park, always a standout in London.
With a diplomatically positive attitude, Sharp told ARTINFO UK's Coline Milliard last October that Frieze aims to be "different" than Armory, and that there consequently won't be much overlap in gallery participation between the two fairs:
"Historically, the Armory has been a really wonderful fair. But I think that you'll see that the kind of galleries participating in the Frieze New York fair have a very different profile from the kind of galleries that have been participating in the Armory in recent years. There is not much overlap. We are doing a different fair.
How would define it?
Again, Frieze New York will be an international contemporary art fair, showing the best quality galleries from around the world. That is the core activity."
SATELLITES
There are a few satellite fairs that traditionally fall during other fair weeks that have this year changed their schedules to May — NADA, which has previously been confined to Miami in December, and Pulse, which previously did a New York edition opposite Armory, being the most prominent. That said, Armory still has a handful or more fairs in its orbit. ADAA's tony Art Show, for one, is unlikely to move. Mitchell-Innes commented that the Art Show is well established in its current date and location. "Next year is the 25th year of the ADAA so it is fairly unlikely that we would want to move even if we could," she said.
At the end of the day, while there is much anticipation for Frieze, no one is quite ready yet to bet on how it is going to play out — but rest assured that the entire New York art community will be watching to see.
CITY SUPPORT
Finally, one of the major things that Armory Week has going for it is that it is a New York City-sponsored cultural event week. Since 2009 the city has formally recognized Armory Arts Week and has worked to help program events as well as print and distribute maps through its official marketing and tourism firm, NYC & Company. Mayor Bloomberg held a press conference at the Art Show before this year's opening to welcome the fairs, acknowledging the extra revenue brought in by the flood of arts tourists in town for the week. Will the city lend similar support to Frieze?
ARTINFO contacted both the Cultural Affairs Bureau and the Mayor's office to ask the question, but got no official response. Informally, we were told that May was too far away to know the Mayor's schedule. But like the gallerists, Bloomberg and the City may be waiting to see the result of the first year before jumping in to support the May fairs.
Additional reporting by Julia Halperin.