Works by photographer and activist Nan Goldin will be displayed with Gagosian at Frieze New York later this month, marking her first showing with the gallery.
Goldin joined Gagosian in March after being represented by the Marian Goodman Gallery for five years, citing the desire to expand her profile and collector base as factors for the change.
Her first show with Marian Goodman also took place at Frieze, when the gallery exhibited a collection of her works from the 1970s to 2016 during the 2018 London edition of the art fair.
Her debut with Gagosian, which said Goldin was “among the most consequential artists of her generation,” when announcing her representation, will take place between May 18 and May 21 at The Shed, a cultural center in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards.
Frieze New York will display eight grid works made up of Goldin’s photographs, which the artist has assembled into groupings over the past fifteen years.
Why does Goldin use a grid format?
The photographer has worked with the grid format for more than twenty years and typically distinguishes each work by a particular theme.
“I never believed that one photograph encapsulates the whole of one person,” she said in a 2020 interview with Aperture. “Now I use grids when I show pieces on the wall, which I’ve wanted to do since the 80s, but I couldn’t afford it then. They are like storyboards.”
Among the grids to be shown at Frieze New York, some, like Red, Gold and Black, are thematically linked by the dominant color of the photographs. Others are organized by themes like veils, backs or island oceans. An additional grid is built around images of trans performer Kim Harlow.
Goldin’s photographs, which typically capture her friends and close acquaintances in intimate moments, have often explored or highlighted LGBT subcultures. A prominent activist, she has long documented subjects suffering from AIDS and opioid addiction. In 2017, she formed Prescription Addiction Intervention Now (PAIN), a group that has protested at museums around the world to demand they remove the names of the Sackler family. The Sacklers, who have made numerous donations to art institutions, founded Purdue Pharma and have been largely blamed for helping fuel the opioid crisis.
