Last Week’s Party: Richard Phillips, Outsider Art Fair, Doug Aitken, Bernard Frize

The Outsider Art Fair opened last week with an opening reception held at the fair’s newest location 548Center. The opening played guest to Andrew Edlin, Nessia Pope, Julian and Vito Schnabel, Mario del Curto, and John Levin, among others. The fair, which celebrates folk, outsider, and self-taught art, has been pivotal in creating a sense of importance around less mainstream forms of art. This year’s fair featured works from all over the world while continuing to showcase established artists like Bill Traylor, Joseph Yoakum, and St. Etienne.

303 Gallery celebrated the opening of Doug Aitken’s “100 YRS.” Aitken’s video work and fine art installations run the gamut from peering into the world of Bollywood, to looking at emotionally loaded sites like Jonestown. Central to the “100 YRS” exhibition is Aitken’s Sonic Fountain, where water drips from five suspended rods to create a sonic system for tracking time. Among those who turned out to celebrate were Lisa Spellman, Julie Gilhart, Chloe Sevigny, Ann Pasternak, Alban de Pury, Klaus Biesenbach, and Kim Gordon.

The Pace Gallery also had reason for celebration last Thursday; the gallery’s 57th street location held an opening reception for French conceptual painter Bernard Frize’s newest exhibition, “Winter Diary.” His work has been displayed throughout Europe, but Frize has not had an exhibition in New York for over a decade. Working by a process of pre-devised systems and sets of rules, Frize creates calculated, method driven work while still allowing room for chance and natural laws like gravity to be present in his practice. Among those who turned out to view the artist’s new work were Arne Glimcher, Peggy Leboeuf, Emmanuel Perrotin, Bjorn Ressler, Jennifer Lin, Anastasia Lenglet, Emily Jane Kirwin, and Phillip von Matt.