Willehad Eilers
Sold
Karla Diaz
Sold
- REGULARNORMAL’s lush presentation of paintings and sculptures by
Bony Ramirez
was the center of considerable attention at Independent. The gallery’s green silk–laden booth featured several stunning paintings by the young Dominican-born artist, including the large-scale Bayahibe (2022), which sold for $20,000, and a series of three smaller paintings affixed with swords that sold for $14,000 each. The gallery also sold three ceramic sculptures that incorporated everything from switchblades to conch shells for prices ranging between $2,000 and $5,500.
- MASSIMODECARLO sold out its solo presentation of works by Los Angeles–based abstract painter
Aaron Garber Maikovska
at TEFAF within the first hour of the fair. The bold, imposing abstractions, which feature whorls of smeared color alongside more frenetic jagged marks, sold for prices ranging between $40,000 and $85,000.
- At Future, Galerie Droste sold out its presentation of works by German artist
Willehad Eilers
, who often works under the pseudonym Wayne Horse. Eilers’s large-scale grotesqueries, which depict the twisted visages and intertwined limbs of what appears to be partygoing socialites, sold for $18,500 apiece to a mixture of new and existing clients.
Piotr Uklanski
Kathryn MacNaughton
Sold
- BEERS London had a similarly successful showing at Future, selling all six of its works by Spanish artist
Gori Mora
. Mora’s flat, blocky compositions of domestic settings and figures with their faces turned away sold for prices between $9,000 and $13,000. BEERS also sold two of
Kathryn MacNaughton
’s vivid geometric abstractions in the range of $7,000 to $10,400.
- Perrotin sold two shimmering abstract works by Norwegian painter
Anna-Eva Bergmann
to two institutional clients for prices ranging from $250,000 to $500,000 at its TEFAF booth. The gallery also sold an abstract work by Hans Hartung in the same price range.
- Montauk-based gallery the Ranch sold a number of haunting yet playful oil paintings by the artist Renate Druks, an actress and underground film icon whose paintings have gone largely unnoticed since her debut solo show in 1957. The Ranch sold eight of Druks’s mystically surrealistic paintings at Independent, many of which feature depictions of cats, for prices ranging from $25,000 to $55,000.
Renate Druks, Bon-Bon and Black Pepper, 1979. Courtesy the artist and the Ranch.
Gori Mora
Sold
- PAGE NYC sold out its presentation of work by the Los Angeles–based artist
Zoé Blue M.
, whose vivid, large-scale works feature distinctive feminine characters in situations ranging from a serene bath scene to a dreamlike grappling with a long-limbed crab. The five paintings went for prices ranging from $20,000 to $30,000.
- CLEARING sold out its two-person presentation of bronze sculptures by
Marguerite Humeau
and large-scale floral paintings by
Calvin Marcus
by the end of the weekend, with all the works selling at $80,000 apiece.
- Harper’s sold an array of works by contemporary figurative painters at its NADA booth, including three deep, mysterious compositions by artist
Ho Jae Kim
depicting statuesque figures alone in darkened sets for prices ranging from $7,500 to $18,000, as well as a wispy, bright-hued, near-abstract canvas by
Carlos Jacanamijoy
for $55,000.
Ho Jae Kim
Sold
Carlos Jacanamijoy
Sold
- Kasmin’s presentation of multimedia sculptures by the artist
vanessa german
was one of Independent’s buzziest booths, with visitors flocking to see the vibrant assemblages well into the weekend. The works were constructed out of materials ranging from shoes and books to braided hair and cowrie shells, while the nearby wall text listed such additional intangible components as “desperation,” “therapy,” and “love in the house at midnight.” The gallery sold 11 works by the artist for prices ranging from $30,000 to $45,000 each.
- Canada sold out its solo presentation of mixed-media tondos by
Rachel Eulena Williams
at Independent, which feature sutured-together swatches of canvas as well as other painted fabric elements. It sold all nine of Williams’s works for prices between $20,000 and $26,000.
- At Independent, Chicago-based gallery moniquemeloche sold out its presentation of mixed-media works by
David Shrobe
. The works, which riff on classical portraiture by combining materials such as wood, fabric, gemstones, and other found objects into multifaceted compositions focusing on Black sitters, sold for prices ranging between $20,000 and $40,000.
David Shrobe
David Shrobe
Sold
Painting and sculpture may have dominated much of the weekend, but novel approaches and practices could still be found. At NADA, the sort of digital artworks that were so noticeably absent from other fairs were on display at booths like Denny Dimin Gallery’s, which featured computers playing
Jeremy Couillard
’s video game/video art piece Fuzz Dungeon on loop alongside paintings of old-school arcade consoles by
Stephen Thorpe
, as well as at the booth of downtown digital art mainstay bitforms gallery, which included the software-driven animation Does The River Flow Both Ways? by
Marina Zurkow
and James Schmitz.
Sold
On the whole, the first edition of New York Art Week felt like an experiment in carving out a space for a different, more approachable sort of New York art fair experience. It may not have been the high-caliber sell-a-thon of fairs like Frieze or The Armory Show, but the weekend’s more relaxed pace and focus on earlier career artists and accessible price points fostered a sense of excitement and connection that seemed to spill beyond sales figures. “I was very happy with the experience,” said Dionne Lausberg, co-director of Queens-based gallery 5-50, who participated in Future. “It was my first fair, and I didn’t know what to expect. The audience was so young, so fun. I can’t wait to do it again.” Put another way, by anonymous’s Nnamdie: “New York is always the starting point.”