Frieze Sculpture Makes a Comeback at Rockefeller Center

“So much has changed since our planned opening of this year’s Frieze Sculpture on the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, April 22^nd,” said Loring Randolph, Director of Frieze New York. “But what has not waivered is Frieze and Rockefeller Center’s commitment to putting the art of our time in the public realm.”

Free and publicly accessible, on view are sculptures by Ghada Amer presented by Goodman Gallery and Marianne Boesky, Andy Goldsworthy with Galerie Lelong & Co., Lena Henke represented by Bortolami, Beatriz Cortez debuted by Commonwealth and Council, Thaddeus Mosley with Karma, and Camille Henrot presented by Metro Pictures. Each artist has created a major site-specific piece for the project in response to this year’s inspiration—the 50th Earth Day and the city’s natural materials like rock, earth, and plants.

“The projects for this year’s Frieze Sculpture deal with a range of issues including women’s suffrage, migration, urban planning, and ecology,” said curator Brett Littman. “Given our world’s current urgent concerns with ecological sustainability, climate change and racial inequality—and the impact these issues have had in spreading COVID-19—the idea of creating an outdoor sculpture installation within this discourse, could not be more relevant.”

Amer’s garden installation, Women’s Qualities, offers a picture of the impossible standards for the ideal woman, written in flowers. Nearby, Henrot’s Inside Job (reminiscent of a shark and a bird’s beak) juxtaposes themes of threat and tenderness, alongside a series of small-scale works named for book titles.

Other works on view include Cortez’s Glacial Erratic, two giant sculptures by Henke alluding to equestrian symbols found around Rockefeller Cente, Goldsworthy’s Red Flags colored with natural material found in fifty states, and three works by Mosley—Illusory Progression, True to Myth, and Rhizogenic Rhythms.

On view through October 2, this year’s edition of Frieze Sculpture launched yesterday with a series of virtual conversations between the curator and artists Goldsworthy, Amer, and Mosley.