Frieze New York 2026 opened its 15th edition at The Shed in Manhattan on May 13th with a VIP preview, drawing collectors, museum directors, artists, and celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, Julia Fox, and Sharon Stone. The fair features 68 galleries from 25 countries and runs through May 17th, with a $2.2 million work by El Anatsui leading reported sales.
Frieze New York 2026 closed its 15th edition at The Shed on May 17, drawing 25,000 visitors from 75 countries and featuring 68 galleries from 26 countries. The fair reported strong sales across market levels, including seven-figure transactions such as El Anatsui's *LuwVor I* sold by White Cube for $2.2 million and Georg Baselitz's *Stunde der Nachtigall* sold by Thaddaeus Ropac for €1.4 million. The inaugural Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund enabled acquisitions by the Brooklyn Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art, with works by Bettina, Reika Takebayashi, Seba Calfuqueo, and Joanne Burke. Several galleries, including Johyun Gallery and James Cohan, reported sold-out or near-sell-out booths.
Frieze New York closed its 15th edition at The Shed with strong sales, major museum acquisitions, and 25,000 visitors from 75 countries. The fair featured 68 galleries from 26 countries and launched the inaugural Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund, enabling the Brooklyn Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art to acquire works by Bettina from Ulrik, Reika Takebayashi, Seba Calfuqueo, and Joanne Burke. Notable sales included El Anatsui works for $2.2 million and $1.9 million at White Cube, a Georg Baselitz painting for €1.4 million at Thaddaeus Ropac, and a James Turrell light work in the $900,000–$1 million range at Almine Rech. Latin American representation grew to 14 galleries, and the Focus section curated by Lumi Tan drew strong institutional attention.
Brook Hsu's exhibition "The Barcelona Pavilion (including work by Georg Kolbe)" at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler in Berlin presents a series of works that interweave references to architecture, film, literature, and animal carcasses. The show's title alludes to Mies van der Rohe's iconic Barcelona Pavilion and the sculptor Georg Kolbe, whose work was originally installed there, while the list of pieces—ranging from paintings like "Daybreak:Orange Tree" to works dedicated to figures such as Anne Wiazemsky and Pasolini—creates a dense, associative network of cultural and personal memory.
On May 24, the Collegio Ghislieri in Pavia inaugurated the Giardino della Ricerca, a garden dedicated to photojournalist Andy Rocchelli, who was killed in 2014 in the Donbas region of Ukraine alongside human rights activist Andrei Mironov. The garden, opened on the twelfth anniversary of his death, features a commemorative plaque and includes speeches by Gherardo Colombo and Michele Serra, as well as a podcast by Agostino Zappia and Enrico Rotondi. Italian courts have ruled that Rocchelli and Mironov were killed by Ukrainian army fire, but no one has been convicted.
"Das letzte Quartal meines Lebens soll wie der Anfang sein"
Armin Mueller-Stahl, the 95-year-old German actor and painter, opens his solo exhibition "Nacht und Tag auf der Erde" (Night and Day on Earth) at Museum Schloss Moyland. The show features a graphic cycle inspired by Jim Jarmusch's film "Night on Earth," in which Mueller-Stahl played a New York taxi driver. In an interview, he reflects on his dual careers in film and painting, his life between Hollywood, East Germany, and the present, and themes of loss and memory.