Deutsche Bank sponsors Frieze Art Fair's New York debut
Since its launch in 2003 at Regents Park in London, Frieze Art Fair has quickly become one of the premier international contemporary art fairs. This year, the nine year-old fair crossed the Atlantic to launch its first outpost in another global arts capital: New York City.
Deutsche Bank became the lead sponsor of Frieze Art Fair one year after its opening and this year Private Wealth Management supported its expansion to New York. At a Deutsche Bank-hosted dinner held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Mayor Michael Bloomberg welcomed Frieze and thanked Deutsche Bank for its support of the arts. In his remarks, Mayor Bloomberg emphasized the vital role that art serves in the city’s economy.
From May 4-7, art professionals, collectors, and enthusiasts streamed to Randall’s Island, situated between Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx. Brooklyn architectural firm SO-IL transformed the island with a custom-designed tent structure – the size of several football fields – that curved around the banks of the East River. Inside, more than 180 cutting edge galleries from the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa displayed world-class works featuring both well-recognized and emerging artists. Mixed in with more established galleries were newcomers in sections devoted to galleries that had opened since 2001 (“Focus”) and those displaying the works of a single artist (“Frame”).
Frieze New York also offered an array of public projects and programs. A series of talks featured art world luminaries such as MOMA director Glenn Lowry, artist Taryn Simon, and Haus der Kunst director Okwui Enwezor, a member of Deutsche Bank’s Global Art Advisory Committee. Outside the tent, Frieze Projects commissioned and displayed works by New York-based artists including John Ahearn, who re-created his Bronx Hall of Fame, and Tim Rollins and KOS (“Kids of Survival”), who invited young visitors to contribute to one of their famed murals. Also on display was a free outdoor sculpture park, which placed new and existing works by renowned artists such as Louise Bourgeois and Christoph Büchel along the East River.
In an effort to engage youth, Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation funded a youth guide by non-profit 826NYC, which took inspiration from Eames' "House of Cards" playing cards. The bank also hosted student groups from New York City public schools and participants from New York Foundation for the Arts’ (NYFA) Immigrant Artist Program.
For more information about Frieze Art Fair New York, please click here.
