Frieze and Artadia are excited to reveal details of the inaugural Frieze Artadia Prize, a new initiative that will provide a New York-based artist with the opportunity to realize a major new work at Frieze New York. Jessica Vaughn has been named as the recipient of the prize and will debut her selected commission at this year’s fair, which runs May 17–21, 2023 at The Shed.
The prize recognizes the work of a New York-based artist who has previously received an Artadia Award, enabling them to realize a new site-specific commission at Frieze New York. Vaughn’s proposal was selected by jurors: Sohrab Mohebbi, Director of New York’s Sculpture Center, and Franklin Sirmans, Director of Miami’s Perez Art Museum.
Titled The Internet of Things, Vaughn’s Frieze Artadia Prize commission draws on the US postal system as a means to spotlight the organizational structures that underlie late stage capitalism. In a process that began during the pandemic and lasted until earlier this year, Vaughn mailed letters via the US Postal Service to a series of locations, each marking a site of leisure, commerce, or a historic act of public violence. These include Disney World, Prospect Park, Silicon Valley offices, malls, and the gated community in Sanford, Florida where Trayvon Martin was murdered in 2012. By intentionally mislabelling the letters, Vaughn was able to ensure their return, and each now bears the marks, digital and handwritten, of passing through the various stages of the postal system. Images of both the interior and exterior of these envelopes, printed onto strips of canvas and linen, will be on view at The Shed throughout the fair’s run, in what the artist describes as a “revisioning of the traditions of landscape painting.” She adds, “I was interested in all of these sites, which when considered together, constitute a conceptual landscape that reorients how American life is pictured, felt, and structured.”
Click here to read the announcement on the Frieze website, The Art Newspaper, or to read the full press release.
Artadia is a non-profit grantmaker and nationwide community of visual artists, curators, and patrons. We elevate the careers of artists at pivotal moments in their practice through a proven combination of recognition, grantmaking, community support, and advocacy. Artadia was founded in 1999 by Christopher E. Vroom and a group of arts leaders, motivated by the erosion of national funding for the arts and united by the belief that visual artists play a foundational role in shaping society and the arts economy, as storytellers and civic leaders.
Since its founding, Artadia has awarded over $6 million in unrestricted funds to over 380 artists nationally. Celebrating visual artists and their foundational role in shaping society, the Artadia Award benefits three artists annually in seven major US cities with high concentrations of creative workers—Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Frieze is the world’s leading platform for modern and contemporary art for scholars, connoisseurs, collectors, and the general public alike. Frieze comprises three magazines – frieze, Frieze Masters Magazine and Frieze Week – and five international art fairs – Frieze London, Frieze Masters, Frieze New York, Frieze Los Angeles and Frieze Seoul. In October 2021, Frieze launched No. 9 Cork Street, a hub for visiting international galleries in the heart of Mayfair, London. Frieze is part of the IMG network.
Jessica Vaughn is an artist who lives in Brooklyn, New York. Her work in sculpture, video, and 2D work interrogates questions of labor, race, and architecture. Her solo exhibition, ‘I 🖤 CUSTOMERS’ is on view through May 21, 2023 at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf. Other solo exhibitions have included the ICA Philadelphia and Dallas Contemporary and group exhibitions at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, DE, Museum Bellpark, CH. Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, DE, Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Swiss Institute, The Kitchen, Pace Gallery Sculpture Center and Studio Museum in Harlem among others.