Frieze New York opened on Wednesday (May 13) to the loudest first day the art market has had in a while. At The Shed on Manhattan’s West Side, about 65 galleries from around the world were selling before the paintings were even all hung, and seven-figure deals started early. ARTnews called the preview day a “fiesta,” and the dealers didn’t argue.
White Cube placed two El Anatsui sculptures, LuwVor I and MivEvi III (both 2025), for $2.2 million and $1.9 million, plus an Antony Gormley for £450,000 (about $608,555). Thaddaeus Ropac sold Georg Baselitz’s Stunde der Nachtigall (2012) for €1.4 million ($1.6 million), and Pace, which brought just Maya Lin and Leo Villareal, reportedly sold most of its works by the end of the day, with sources putting prices between $100,000 and $200,000.
At the other end, Night Gallery’s solo booth of atmospheric Southwestern landscapes by Hayley Barker was almost gone by midday, with prices from $24,000 to $175,000. Founder Davida Nemeroff said demand had built before the fair opened. The booth was dressed like a desert retreat, with glowing sunlit trees and porches.
The room
The guest list ran from newsman Anderson Cooper and R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe to the collector Leonardo DiCaprio, who arrived in a black cap and mask, and the actor Sharon Stone. ARTnews also reported that many attendees had just flown back from Venice, where the Biennale opened to the public on Saturday, and were comparing notes on the pavilions and protests. The overlap was literal: Alvaro Barrington and Carolina Caycedo, both in the Biennale’s main show, In Minor Keys, appeared in booths at Emalin and Anton Kern, and at Instituto de Visión.
The money was cautious, not frenzied. Chapter NY’s Nicole Russo, who reported seven sales by early afternoon, put it simply: “It’s not 2021.” Adviser Meredith Darrow said buyers were moving “at a more normal and less frantic pace.” The mood was a strange mix, as the 303 Gallery founder Lisa Spellman put it, after describing a world where “the general mood day-to-day is that it’s the apocalypse.”
And then you come to a fair and it’s a fiesta
Lisa Spellman, 303 Gallery, ARTnews
Why it matters
After two rocky years, the market’s recovery is the story. Frieze’s Americas director, Christine Messineo, pointed to the strong recent editions of Frieze Los Angeles and Expo Chicago, and ARTnews noted that consignors were confident enough to put three works estimated near $100 million into the marquee auctions this week and next. We have the first of them in our report on the Pollock sale.
Institutions bought, too. In the first year of the Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund, the Brooklyn Museum acquired two works by Bettina from Ulrik, and the Baltimore Museum of Art picked up works by Reika Takebayashi, Seba Calfuqueo and Joanne Burke. The fair also hosts the Whitney Biennial commission by the artist Jonathan González. Frieze runs through Sunday, May 17, alongside NADA New York and 1-54 New York. For the Biennale’s opening, see our Venice report.
- Dates
- May 13–17, 2026
- Where
- The Shed, Hudson Yards, New York
- Size
- About 65–68 galleries from 25 countries (15th edition)
- Also this week
- TEFAF, Independent, NADA New York and 1-54 New York
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 12, 2026.
