Frieze, held at the Shed, can seem like a hollow spectacle, but it functions as a balancing act between high-selling, market-safe works and opportunities for galleries presenting art that could belong in museums. The fair’s VIP preview emphasized quiet conservatism, including retrograde abstracts, decorative color bursts suited to beach homes, and late examples of politically themed works. With other major art events featuring more brinkmanship and a sense that the art market has not fully recovered, Frieze stands out for avoiding disruption. Galleries often align with painterly, decorative, and sellable aesthetics to stay afloat while still aiming to offer work with longer-term cultural value.
"But while the casual visitor might be mystified by, say, the interactive De Beers diamond installation that sits next to a Turkish Airlines activation - there is a mock check-in counter with hostesses in uniform - to acknowledge the conspicuous cash on view without acknowledging the freedom that cash purchases is to miss the point."
"Frieze, the biggest of the four art fairs opening this week alongside TEFAF, Independent, and NADA, is a balancing act: "Blue-chip slop," as one attendee described it to me, keeps the lights on for the bright-eyed gallerist presenting work that can and will and should sit in a museum one day. Admittedly, it is not always clear which is serving as a pretext for which."
"At the VIP preview on Wednesday, I was struck less by the ostentatious wealth than by the quiet conservatism of the goods on display: polite, retrograde abstracts; "fun" bursts of color on canvas designed to sit in a beach home; and the last gasps of Biden-era "political" works. With the stunt-queen brinkmanship of the Venice Biennale happening at the same time and a creeping sense that the art market is not fully recovered, what is notable at Frieze is its "don't rock the boat or spook the collectors" sensibility."
""A lot of galleries are just like, Oh, let's attach ourselves to this life raft of things that present as painterly and not just decorative but are still quite safe and sellable," says Jed Moch of Amity, an itinerant gallery that itself opened a show on Canal Street consisting mostly of works in pleasing washes of color. Even if he's wary of an aesthetic consensus set by interior decorators, Moch has to be cognizant of the current market, which is dominated by paintings that are "a blending of figuratio"
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