NADA New York 2025: Standout Works Amidst Repetitive Tropes

The 12th annual New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) fair took place at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Manhattan. The author, attending for the first time, observed a prevalence of zany sculptures, shiny objects, kitschy vibrancy, and flower-related art across many booths, making them feel interchangeable. Despite this, several works stood out. At Central Server Works, Moldovan artist Elena Roznovan presented watercolor self-portraits embedded with maternal ephemera like fingernail clippings, breast milk, and umbilical cord in concrete panels with bondage tape, using BDSM language to explore pregnancy and bodily autonomy. At Milk Moon Gallery, mixed-Indigenous Xicana artist Kelly Tapia-Chuning deconstructed vintage serapes to address colonial violence and Indigenous erasure. CH64 Gallery featured Niniko Morbedadze's dream-like folkloric illustrations. Gillian Jason Gallery showed Emily Ponsonby's encaustic paintings evoking uneasy intimacy. At Piedras Galería (Buenos Aires), Jimena Croceri's cast bronze "jewels" from negative spaces of the human figure were displayed alongside Teresa Giarcovich's hand-stitched tulle wall-hangings. In NADA Projects, 95 Gallon Gallery brought its entire alternative venue; co-runner Dan Gausman noted it's the booth that always leaves people smiling.