The StyleGuyde's Round UP of NYC Art Week 2025
Written by Steve Galindo
Published on May 30th, 2025
What once was referred to as Frieze Art Week only seems right to rebrand into New York Art Week. I have been attending NYFW for a decade now, only now having attended art week this year. With the limited time I had for a whole week in NYC, I could not see it all. Here are a few highlights at Frieze, NADA and Spring Break. Artists and curators, beneath understanding what is on the market not to influence your work but merely inspire the direction of your future narratives, collections and ultimately practice… or not. Here is what I observed subjectively as an independent curator engaging with subject, materiality and storytelling.
FRIEZE
Focus, A Platform for Young Galleries
“Frieze’s celebrated section for young galleries features 12 exhibitors each showing solo presentations by emerging or under-appreciated artists. Overseen for a second year by curator and writer Lumi Tan, the section sees an increased international presence while maintaining a spotlight on New York’s vibrant young spaces.
PROYECTOS ULTRAVIOLETA, GUATEMALA CITY
For Frieze New York 2025, Proyectos Ultravioleta presents a booth that explores how contemporary artists honor cultural heritage through diverse and innovative practices.Together, these artists open a dynamic conversation around heritage, displacement, identity, tradition, and materiality—reimagining ancestral knowledge through contemporary, multimedia practices.
PUBLIC GALLERY, LONDON
Presented a solo booth by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, whose practice in animation, sound, performance, and video games archives Black trans experiences, and intertwines reality, technology and fiction to create participatory work. The artist presents a selection of choose-your-own-adventure video games, each tackling subjects like transphobia and racism, challenging her/their audience’s ethical boundaries while centering ideas of responsibility, sincerity and care.
(1) WE ARE HERE BECAUSE OF THOSE THAT ARE NOT (2020-2023) is an interactive archive currently playable on the artist’s website (2) PIRATING BLACKNESS (2021) is a Javascript game (3) NO SPACE FOR REDEMPTION (2024) is an interactive visual novella. Brathwaite-Shirley presents a series of new works on paper and a sculptural installation, together forming a reactionary sketchbook and diaristic exercise in response to recent anti-trans legislation, supreme court rulings and rise of right wing agendas in the U.S., U.K. and worldwide.
YEO WORKSHOP, SINGAPORE
Presented a solo presentation of new works by Balinese artist Citra Sasmita for the gallery’s inaugural participation in Frieze New York.
Titled ‘Vortex in the Land of Liberation’, Sasmita’s installation is centered around a long vertical painting that employs the Kamasan painting technique, depicting tales of divine female figures. Kamasan painting technique dates from the 15th century and is traditionally exclusively practiced by men to narrate Hindu epics; Sasmita engages with it as a reclamation of female agency, reimagining narratives drawn from ancient Balinese literature, mythologies and iconography.
‘Vortex in the Land of Liberation’ explores the deep essence of living, resisting finality around our understanding of nature, knowledge and the body. Sasmita reflects the complexity between the Anthropocene and post-human while simultaneously repositioning women within the historical canon. Underpinning her work is a dedication to alternative narratives, particularly the experiences of women who have been fetishized, suppressed or erased. Reinventing inherited mythologies – from indigenous Indonesian histories to Dutch colonial narratives, to our contemporary society now – her protagonists are powerful women who populate a post patriarchal world.
GENTIL CARIOCA, RIO JANEIRO – SAO PAULO
Presented a curatorial proposal based on the thought of Brazil as earth. Through the dialog between artists, a reflection on the multiple dimensions of the theme, presenting the earth as terrain, surface, homeland, nest and fertile ground. From the physical substrate and source of life, but also as a symbol of memory and future, and as a starting point for thinking about urgent social, political and environmental issues. The artists use different languages to appropriate the earth in their works, articulating narratives that connect us to the soil, the planet and our common existence, creating a space for discussions about belonging, identity, ecology and preservation.
Maria incorporates references from collective works from indigenous communities, weavers and Carnival in her works as a form of dialogue with space, time and cultural diversity. In her sculptural work is very common the mixture of vibrant colors and the balance of volumes as propellants of the anachronism between times, a kind of living mathematics where her forms incorporate an intense poetic and affective reasoning.
NEW ART DEALERS ALLIANCE ( NADA )
839
Janacua works in various sculptural media; 839 will exhibit his toquillo lanyard weavings set in custom-patterned artist-made frames, alongside a carved cedar sculpture. Their materially distinct practices share a quiet rigor and an invitation to look closely at form, color, and process.
Spinello Projects
Showcased new ceramic works from Nina Surel’s ongoing Greta Chamotta/Great Love series, first introduced at Art Basel Miami Beach.
Chamotte—a granular grog central to Surel’s practice—gives her stoneware vessels, relief murals, and sculptures a raw, tactile presence that embodies strength, transformation, and imperfection. Her material palette includes dark horse clay, creating lava-like surfaces, and blue glaze interiors that evoke spiritual depth and alchemical change.
This new body of work draws on elemental and mythic symbols—saw palmetto, conch shells, water, scales, mermaids, and the blue pearl—while integrating Afro-Caribbean, Latin, and Mediterranean influences into a surreal landscape of botanical, human, and mythical forms.
Cohju
An esteemed international contemporary art fair recognized for its commitment to presenting emerging and independent voices within the art world, curated an exhibition featuring the works of distinguished emerging artists Takuya Otsuki, Anna Yamanishi and Shu Okamoto.
Their works explore the profound dialogue between tradition and innovation. Otsuki’s abstract compositions reinterpret classical Japanese painting, while Yamanishi’s meticulously crafted wood sculptures reflect themes of emotion, fragility, and impermanence.
The booth design adheres to the principles of Japanese aesthetics, offering visitors a serene and contemplative space amidst the vibrant atmosphere of the fair.
Embajada
Joshua Nazario is a self-taught artist born in San Germán in 2001, currently based in Isabela, Puerto Rico. Raised in the neighboring town of Sabana Grande, he grew interested in culture, cars and sports such as basketball and cycling. It was his exposure to skateboarding’s creative culture during his teenage years that served as a catalyst for his art practice. These diverse interests have become the backbone of his artistic approach today.
Written by Steve Galindo – The Style Guyde