Today, Frieze revealed the programming line-up for Frieze New York 2024, which takes place at The Shed.
This year’s program places a particular emphasis on performance through a series of collaborations with four defining New York arts organizations. Located both in and around The Shed and across the city, the curated program extends the reach of Frieze New York, animating public space and engaging diverse audiences, as well as providing a platform for boundary-pushing work that reflects the dynamism of New York’s arts communities.
Christine Messineo (Director of Americas, Frieze) said:
This year’s Frieze New York features collaborations with four foundational non-profit organizations. I look forward to our new partnerships with the High Line, with whom we have co-commissioned a site-specific work by Matty Davis, and Performance Space New York, presenting a video work by artist Chella Man. We also continue long- standing relationships with Artists Space and Art Production Fund this year: instrument-builder and musician Ellen Fullman will perform on a string instrument that spans an entire gallery at Artists Space, and together with the Art Production Fund and Rockefeller Center, Frieze will mount interactive public art in the Rock’s famous rink.
Matty Davis: Die No Die (The High Line), co-commissioned by High Line Art and Frieze
Artist and choreographer Matty Davis will present Die No Die (The High Line), a site-responsive work undertaken by Davis and five collaborators – Nile Harris, Chloé Cooper Jones, Anna Thompson & Taylor Knight and Bryan Saner – on the evenings of April 30, May 1 and May 2 during Frieze Week. Each performance will see the artists and audience traverse the High Line together, from the southern entrance, passing by The Shed, to the park’s end at the Spur. With a four-part choreographic score performed by each artist in succession, and accompanied by an original publication, Die No Die (The High Line) will explore freedom, demand and our responsibility to the transference of life between and among bodies that propels us forward.
Matty Davis’s engagement with the High Line, both physically and through insightful research, has culminated in a performance that is highly specific to our space, its history, and the people who make the High Line what it is,
said Taylor Zakarin (Associate Curator, High Line Art), who curated the performance.
‘Die No Die (The High Line) offers an exciting and revelatory experience of this environment, amplified by Davis’s captivating physicality. The High Line is grateful to partner with an organization as vital to contemporary art as Frieze to realize Matty’s vision.
Matty Davis is an artist and choreographer engaged in collaborative explorations of risk, trust, responsibility and empathy. He works predominantly in performance and dance, foregrounding the body as a means to activate tensions inherent in our being. Davis often orchestrates performances to be directly responsive and engaged with his audience, characterized by their intense physicality and inventive choreography.
Chella Man film screening in collaboration with Performance Space New York
Artist Chella Man’s film, The Device That Turned Me Into A Cyborg Was Born The Same Year I Was (2023), will be presented on Level 4 of The Shed in a new collaboration with Performance Space New York. Originally commissioned by NOWNESS in an editorial collaboration with The Powerhouse Museum, the short considers Man’s relationship with their cochlear implant and the spectrum of existence between the deaf and hearing worlds.
Man highlights the constraints of a seemingly life-changing device in response to a prototype held in the Powerhouse’s collection, informed by their position as a transgender, genderqueer artist. They furthermore question technologies developed with ableist intentions, interrogate the symbolism of their implant, and detail the complicated journey of hearing through them. The film is context for and a bridge to Man’s performance, Autonomy, coinciding with the fair on Thursday, May 2 at Performance Space New York. Autonomy is co-presented with the Jewish Museum, where Man’s work will be on view as part of Overflow, Afterglow: New Work in Chromatic Figuration, a seven-person group show opening on May 24, 2024.
Artists Space off-site performance by Ellen Fullman
In collaboration with Frieze, Artists Space will proudly present a performance by composer Ellen Fullman with the Long String Instrument: an installation comprising dozens of tuned strings 50 feet or longer, which effectively turn architectural spaces into site-specific musical instruments. Fullman has been refining the Long String Instrument for over four decades, a process that typically involves several days of meticulous installation and tuning to adapt to a specific space. Moving amidst the strings, she plays the instrument by ‘bowing’ with rosin-coated fingertips. Her project encompasses a comprehensive exploration of Just Intonation tuning theory, focused on string harmonics, as well as experiments with various wire alloys and gauges, and the design and fabrication of wooden resonators. The performance will take place on the evening of Friday, May 3 at Artists Space in Tribeca.
Sharif Farrag’s Gotham Grinders: Hamster Wheel, presented by Art Production Fund, Frieze and Rockefeller Center
Following a first appearance in ‘Set Seen,’ curated by Art Production Fund at Frieze Los Angeles 2024, Sharif Farrag will bring his playful interactive public art project to New York for its east coast debut. Free and open to the public, Gotham Grinders: Hamster Wheel will welcome participants of all ages to the iconic Rink at Rockefeller Center to race customized R/C cars by Farrag, individually fitted with ceramic hamster heads, custom vanity plates and vintage patches specific to New York. Facilitated by a ‘pit crew’ sporting artist-designed suits, the work offers a lighthearted commentary on the hamster wheel of hustle culture. Farrag has long considered New York, particularly Midtown Manhattan, as a center of business, and sees Rockefeller Center as a symbol of modern life fitting the project’s focus on the pursuit of success, work and wealth. Gotham Grinders: Hamster Wheel, while reflecting on the culture of hard work, will give participants the opportunity to take control of their racer.
For the third consecutive year, Vote.org will be on-site at Frieze New York, registering voters and celebrating the Plan Your Vote initiative. Built in partnership with Christine Messineo, Plan Your Vote leverages artists’ visual languages to encourage Americans to register and vote, and has generated over 20 million media impressions and more than 10,000 voter verifications and registrations since its inception. Visitors to Frieze New York can also engage with Vote.org’s ‘BANNED’ activation, which distributes water bottles inscribed with the word ‘banned’ to raise awareness about voter suppression tactics like the Georgia law banning the distribution of food and drinks at polling stations. Vote.org is a leader in connecting artists, institutions and creativity with voter engagement.
Printed Matter will also return to Frieze New York with a wide-ranging presentation of artist books, editions and ephemera in the lobby bookshop area. The pop-up will showcase the best in contemporary artists’ books along with a curated selection of editions and rare and out of print publications. Founded in 1976, Printed Matter, Inc. is the world’s leading non-profit organization dedicated to the dissemination, understanding and appreciation of artists’ books and related publications.
The annual Frieze Library initiative, organized with Gordon Robichaux for the sixth year, invites Frieze New York’s participating galleries to each donate one arts publication to the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The resulting selection of digital and physical publications reflects the current moment through diverse artists, writers and art world professionals. The submissions will be on display at the fair on Level 8, with a bibliography of contributions available on frieze.com, and subsequently donated to the Met.
Frieze New York, May 1 – 5, 2024, The Shed.
A dedicated online Frieze Viewing Room will open in the week before the fair, offering audiences a first look at the presentations and the opportunity to engage with the fair from afar.
