Domenick Ammirati's sardonic dispatch from Frieze New York and MoMA PS1's 50th gala

Domenick Ammirati returns to New York after a year-long residency at Amant in Siena and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown to cover the spring art fairs for CULTURED. He finds Frieze New York subdued, with key players exhausted due to its proximity to the Venice Biennale—a conjunction last seen in 2015. The week includes MoMA PS1's 50th anniversary gala, where a burlesque performance by Women's History Museum occurs. Ammirati notes the absence of Dior's usual Frieze event (the brand presented its first Cruise collection by Jonathan Anderson at LACMA instead) and highlights Rei Kawakubo's installation at Independent and Gucci's Cruise show in Times Square. At Frieze, he spots only two beautiful objects: a Gertrude Abercrombie painting and Janice Guy's Bakelite ring. He also visits Seth Price's exhibition at Petzel Gallery and reflects on the trend of "inscrutable orbs." Ammirati misses several events, including screenings by Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff, Anicka Yi's sculpture at Storm King, and the reading of On Kawara's One Million Years.