All the Art That Would Be Trash at Frieze New York 2017
Back in the ’60s, Randall’s Island, which is currently the site of Frieze New York, was conjoined to neighboring Ward Island by a giant landfill. Though both are now grassy parklands, the former is having a trashy renaissance with the 2017 art fair, which, along with its concentration of women artists and squad of Leonardo DiCaprio facsimiles, has littered the island with a number of garbage-y art works. Take the 85-year-old Japanese artist Kimiyo Mishima, who installed a trash can in two different booths, not to mention a spread of crumpled newspaper and half-crushed soda cans. Just like Robert Rauschenberg‘s wall-mounted cardboard boxes, her works are in facts made of ceramics, whereas Robert Gober opted for copper, paper, and glass to recreate a 69-cent boxed personal apple pie, simply Untitled. Still others got more literal: Theaster Gates‘s “self-portrait” is in fact made of a beat-up claw machine with assorted “hardware store items” as its prizes, and Kirsten Pieroth filled 31 jars (from Tostito’s salsa to Smucker’s) with the murky byproducts of boiling newspapers. From Jac Leiner’s flattened boxes of rolling papers tacked to plywood beams to the “for display only” baskets of $18 bagels at the Russ and Daughter’s pop-up, we collect all the garbage here.
1
Gabriele de Santis, Still Watermelon, at Frutta Gallery.
2
Robert Gober, Untitled, 2008, at Matthew Marks Gallery.
3
Kimiyo Mishima, Work 12-C2, 2012, at Taka Ishii Gallery.
4
Kirsten Pieroth, Untitled (The Wall Street Journal), 2015, at Office Baroque.
5
Kimiyo Mishima, Work 12-C2, 2012, at Taka Ishii Gallery.
6
Robert Rauschenberg, Tampa Clay Piece 3, 1972-73, at Galeria Luisa Strina.
7
Marco Giordano at Frutta Gallery.
8
Vlassis Caniaris, Child’s room, 1974, at Galerie Peter Kilchmann.
9
Robert Rauschenberg, Tampa Clay Piece 2, 1972-73, at Galeria Luisa Strina.
10
Gabriele de Santis, Sparkling Watermelon, at Frutta Gallery.
11
Robert Breer, Tucson Rug, 2009, at Simon Preston Gallery.
12
Theaster Gates, A Claw with no Grip, Self-Portrait, 2016, at White Cube.
13
Theaster Gates, A Claw with no Grip, Self-Portrait, 2016, at White Cube.
14
Jac Leirner, 2016, at White Cube.
15
Dawn Kasper at David Lewis Gallery.
16
Catharine Czudej, Trap 3, 2016, at Office Baroque.
17
Kimiyo Mishima at Yamaki Fine Art.
18
Kimiyo Mishima at Yamaki Fine Art.
19
Kimiyo Mishima at Yamaki Fine Art.
20
The Russ & Daughters pop-up at Frieze New York 2017, where bagels with lox cost $18. While not technically art, these bagels are “for display only.”
