Frieze New York Diary: two VIP sightings out of the blue, a husband hunter and puppy love

Two talking heads

There were some famous faces at the VIP preview of Frieze—including the CNN news anchor Anderson Cooper (above left), who was browsing the aisles, no doubt hoping to add to his burgeoning contemporary art collection. Cooper told us he’d been eyeing works by Lorna Simpson at Hauser & Wirth and was keen on a painting by Inka Essenhigh (Subway, 2005) at Victoria Miro. The popular journalist has loaned a key painting to the current Amy Sherald show at the Whitney Museum (Handsome, 2019). Another silver-haired personality on the fair floor was the musician and cycling enthusiast David Byrne (top), seen admiring a Chitra Ganesh piece at Hales Gallery. Byrne looked chic as ever—we’re loving that blue fedora!

Pop inflation

Everything is inflated these days, from egg prices to works of art. Indeed, a new show organised by the Locker Room in Tribeca (Inflation, until 1 June) features “a range of balloon-inspired, inflatable and air-filled works that collectively probe themes of value, spectacle, fragility and collapse”, according to the gallery. We popped along to the blow-up show and chatted to DJ Morrow, a Houston-based balloon artist who was raised in a cult and learned balloon twisting from his parents. “I was a standard balloon twister but lost all my bookings in the pandemic,” he says. “I want to highlight America’s descent into populist fascism in this piece,” he adds, pointing to a trio of falling inflatable cherubs and a foreboding balloon tree sculpture.

The art of love

T-shirts and sweatshirts are the fashion statements at Frieze this year, with several jaunty examples on show in the aisles. We spotted a cheeky shirt sporting “Wikipedia editor in chief”, but our prize for top attire goes to the artist Lauren Cohen. She was turning heads while wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with: “I just came here to find a husband.” Cohen says the shirt comes courtesy of the artist Ayana Evans, and she’s sticking to her brief. “There are men over 60 who are interested. My cut-off age is 54, though,” she quipped.

A courtly canine

Doggy art is always a hit, so it’s no surprise that an adorable photograph of a soppy-eyed King Charles Spaniel is making fairgoers go all ga-ga at Frieze. The image of the prize pooch, Sprout (2023) by Roe Ethridge, “looks like a dog in an Old Master painting”, says the gallerist Andrew Kreps. The picture strikes a chord with The Art Newspaper team, because our office dog—the delightful George—is a dead ringer for Ethridge’s spaniel (in our fantasy world, we’d like to get together and buy the Ethridge pic). Sprout is the artist Anna Weyant’s dog.