Wet Paint Does Frieze Week: The Dinosaur Dealer Downtown, David Zwirner Tribeca, and More Juicy Art-World Gossip

Friday, May 8: The Grand Procession

When fair week in New York rears its head in the spring, the feelings it provokes in me are not so different from the ones that the Feast of San Gennaro inspires.

My first thought is always: Oh right, this is happening again.

Of course I look forward to the plethora of exhibitions, many of which have been planned with careful consideration to coincide with the bajillion fairs that bring the collectors and curators to town. I get to catch up with friends at fancy gallery dinners and booze-sponsored museum parties, but I’m also dutifully resigned to the fact that I’ll end up tired and overstimulated, overwhelmed by the infinite offerings, and exhausted from dealing with crowds and lines. The mood is mostly jovial, but people seem pretty fried by the end. And just like San Gennaro, it’s only really fun if you’re there for the right amount of time, if you go on the right rides and get the right Italian sausage.

My fair week kicked off last Friday at the opening of “Statics of an Egg” at David Zwirner’s gallery in Tribeca, the former 52 Walker.

The group show, curated by Martin Germann, features a network of Japanese artists gathered by artists Yu Nishimura and Kenji Ide.

Yu Nishimura, in waiting (2026). © Yu Nishimura Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner.

The in-demand Nishimura joined the gallery’s roster last year, and David Zwirner credited his daughter Marlene Zwirner for introducing him to the program. He has a new painting on view, titled in waiting, that I highly recommend seeing. Contemplating it offers respite in an otherwise crazed week. It’s the way he paints grass and flowers.

Ide, for his part, is represented by Matthew Brown, who happens to be Marlene’s fiancé.

With artist Sasha Gordon at the David Zwirner Tribeca opening.

Upstairs, I complimented Sasha Gordon, co-represented by Zwirner and Brown, on her Yohji Yamamoto handbag. A week prior, we were fangirling over Real Housewives alum Lisa Rinna at Cultured’s Cult 100 party at the Guggenheim. Fellow Matthew Brown artist Olivia van Kuiken posed for a photo at my request. Such long legs!

Downstairs in the private offices, I spotted artists Calvin Marcus (whom I had seen an hour earlier at Walker’s saying hello to collectors Alberto Chehbar and Jocelyn Katz), and Olga Balema, as well as Josh Smith and Andy Robert, who were both admiring an arrangement of white orchids. Also in attendance, David and Monica Zwirner and Zak, a guy I once played poker with.

Artist Olivia Van Kuiken, repped by Matthew Brown.

Festivities continued at a private party at the River, the downtown art-world hangout, where guests enjoyed grilled cheeses passed on doily-lined silver trays.

As for what to expect from the former 52 Walker space, it’s officially called David Zwirner Tribeca now, a press representative confirmed. Marlene is the day-to-day lead, and it will be “programmed in the same spirit as the gallery’s other locations, presenting both gallery artists and artists from outside the program.”

Saturday, May 9: Freddy the Dinosaur Dealer

On Saturday, I visited Amanita, the gallery helmed by Caio Twombly, grandson of painter Cy Twombly, and Tommaso Rositani Suckert, great-nephew of writer and artist Curzio Malaparte, alongside partners Jacob Hyman, formerly of Gagosian, and Garrett Goldsmith, for the opening of “A Land Before Time: Three Dinosaurs and a Gondola.”

Two dinosaur fossils and a Chamberlain at Amanita.

The invite featured an image of John Chamberlain’s 1982 sculpture Gondola Marianne Moore.

For some reason, it was surprising to me that the downtown gallery could procure a Chamberlain to begin with (private collection, courtesy of Hauser & Wirth, the checklist reveals), though according to gallerist Alex Berns, there are a lot of Chamberlains roaming around.

In all candor, I didn’t read the press release before going, and despite “dinosaurs” being in the title, I was gobsmacked to discover the Chamberlain alongside three complete Maiasaura fossil specimens. LA, a gallery director, told me they were killed by a giant mudslide 75 million years ago.

The confessional at Gosh.

Max Werner, fresh off a flight from Berlin, and dealer Lindsay Jarvis met me at Gosh, the art-filled, hyper-designed Chinatown bar run by two of the Amanita boys, Jacob and Tommaso, alongside two other business partners not affiliated with the gallery, for the after-party. Former Wet Paint columnist Annie Armstrong has a more comprehensive piece about the place, which you should read now. It opens to the public in two weeks and getting in will not be easy, so her article may be the closest you will ever get to the shenanigans that happen there.

The stools at Gosh.

“Aren’t these Rachel Harrisons cool?” asked my dear friend Minna, seated on a deer-print reupholstered Philippe Starck for Kartell gnome stool, across from Anton Kern artist Marcus Jahmal.

Throughout the evening, I heard whisperings of the famous dinosaur dealer Freddy, the man responsible for brokering the partnership between Amanita and Tucson-based Granada Gallery, “a cross-disciplinary, vertically integrated endeavor that encompasses the full spectrum of activity surrounding natural history, from excavation and sourcing to scientific research,” which I understand to mean a gallery that owns the fossil sites and sells the fossils directly to the collector.

I found him on Instagram, and he agreed to hop on a quick call with me the next day.

Freddy Leiva, the Dinosaur Dealer.

Freddy is Freddy Leiva. New York-born and Managua, Nicaragua-raised. He used to manage Michelin-starred restaurants and was Donald Baechler‘s studio manager for seven years, up until the artist passed away. Now he’s an art advisor, a fossil dealer, a curator, and a founding team member at Co-Museum, the Singapore-based art and tech startup “pioneering new ways to collect and monetize art through Web3 and blockchain.” In his words, “I have my hands in a bit of everything.”

His introduction into the fossil business took place this March, when Trey the Triceratops sold for $5.55 million on Joopiter, the online auction house founded by Pharrell Williams. Freddy was involved in the deal, he said. “Basically this is the Triceratops that I found available with Ruediger Pohl, the Granada gallery founder.” Worth noting that Freddy is 33 years old. He’s in his Christ year.

Last year, Sotheby’s sold a juvenile Ceratosaurus fossil for $30.5 million and Phillips entered the category for the first time with a young Triceratops skeleton that fetched $5.4 million.

Although new to me, none of this is new. Dutch and English auction houses were bundling fossils with paintings at auction in the 18th century, and Leonardo DiCaprio has apparently been supplementing his Basquiat collection with fossils since 2007.

Fair Week: Survival of the Fittest

Red Hook Tavern Emotional Support Cheeseburger. Photo: Gabriela Vidal-Irizarry.

Monday was perfect. I didn’t talk to anyone or see any art. I went for a run outside and had a cheeseburger at Red Hook Tavern. All great athletes need a rest day.

Meg Webster at Paula Cooper. We Found Love in a Hopeless Place. Photo: Gabriela Vidal-Irizarry.

My Tuesday morning and afternoon included a visit to White Columns for its Annual Benefit preview, where I saw Matthew Higgs taking photos of participating artists in front of their works, the Meg Webster show at Paula Cooper (also a good place to recalibrate), and the Estonian House for the final edition of the boutique fair Esther, where I noticed collector Susan Hort reaching for an Estonian pastry.

Eliza Douglas at her Gagosian Park Ave opening. Photo: Gabriela Vidal-Irizarry.

From there, I hailed a yellow cab uptown to Gagosian’s Park & 75 gallery for Eliza Douglas‘s first solo exhibition in New York, curated by Francesco Bonami. Douglas reworks existing paintings exhibited over the past 10 years at her French gallery, Air de Paris, which sadly announced this week that it is shuttering its operations for good.

Anne Imhof, ballet dancer Devon Teuscher, and Arthur Jafa outside Gagosian Park Ave. Photo: Gabriela Vidal-Irizarry.

Outside, Anne Imhof, Eliza’s ex, was deep in conversation with Arthur Jafa, who was wearing white leather cowboy shoes, similar but different from the ones I saw him wear in February.

Performance artist Kembra Pfahler was taking a phone call. Maybe with actor Michael Imperioli? The two were in conversation at Artbook PS1 on the occasion of her Rizzoli book launch over the weekend. Through the glass, I perceived Douglas looking amazing in a white crystalled tracksuit that I presume is Demna for Balenciaga.

Michael Imperioli and Kembra Pfahler. What do these two talk about…

As I made my way inside, I clocked Gagosian artist Jamian Juliano-Villani and many people who don’t seem to make it up to this part of town too often, like Dean, a musician associated with the screamo band OLTH.

Bonami, master deliverer of hot takes (do check out his Venice Biennale rants), was holding court at the front desk. I asked him how the show came together and if he could give me a hint as to which other non-Gagosian artists we could expect him to present. “I like the show,” he said. I pushed further, but couldn’t get much more out of him except: “None of them work for the gallery.”

Wet Paint can reveal that this is the first of seven exhibitions he’ll curate for the uptown location, with the next one expected sometime in September.

The Martini at Donahue’s.

The cool kids dispersed, so I walked a few blocks to my beloved, soon-to-close Donahue’s and sipped on possibly the best gin dirty martini in Manhattan while a man with an eyepatch relayed the story of his eye falling out of its socket.

I made a brief stop at a bracelet-making party in Ridgewood hosted by ambient musicians Purelink, where I reached flow state, then went on to Long Island City for MoMA PS1’s gala after-party, where I ate lemon birthday cake and was too distracted by the baile funk being pumped out of Jim Toth‘s trademark white speakers to recognize anybody, with the exception of Dia curator Jordan Carter and artist Louis Osmosis. I wonder how much money we’re all spending on cars this week.

The next morning I trekked over to everyone’s favorite neighborhood in New York, Hudson Yards, for the Frieze VIP preview at the Shed. 

A fairgoer enjoys a complimentary baklava, courtesy of Turkish Airlines.

In the eight-floor lounge, I was thrilled to see that Turkish Airlines was able to return as a sponsor, signaling that the airline has fully recovered from the Eric Adams indictment. They set up a fake airport check-in desk, and elegant models dressed as air hostesses handed out Turkish delights, which I chased with a crisp glass of Ruinart Blanc de Blancs, naturally.

Jerry Saltz dashing across the lounge was my cue that it was time to go see the booths, too.

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #690 (2025). © 2026 Cindy Sherman. Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Photo: Sarah Muehlbauer.

On the main floor, I caught art advisors Ralph DeLuca, Rachel Carr Goulding, Dan Oglander, and Joe Sheftel, plus Ben Godsill standing in front of the Gagosian booth. I marveled at the new works by Cindy Sherman at the Hauser booth, especially the one where she looks completely yassified and Kardashianified.

Massimiliano Gioni and Cecilia Alemani paid a visit to Leo Villarreal at the Pace booth. At Kurimanzutto, I heard Klaus Biesenbach pronounce Marfa in a very strange way. My hopes to see Hans Ulrich dissipated when Max (Turner, not Werner) sent me a photo of the celebrity curator with Serpentine CEO Bettina Korek outside the Mermaid Inn.

Hans Ulrich Obrist and Bettina Korek.

Second Alberto Chehbar spotting, but this time chatting with Brendan Dugan at Karma’s booth, which sold both Maja Ruznics on opening day.

Two floors up, I asked Vanessa Carlos of Carlos/Ishikawa, sharing a booth with Chapter NY again this year, how she felt going into this edition of the fair. She seemed relaxed and told me most of the works sold before the fair opened. I’d bet the two Issy Woods were the first to go.

Lucy Chadwick of Champ Lacombe, and Laura Hoptman, of the Drawing Center.

I did not interrupt Lucy Chadwick of Biarritz and London’s Champ Lacombe as she flipped through pages of Miralda’s El Internacional (1984–1986): New York’s Archaeological Sandwich with Laura Hoptman, executive director of the Drawing Center. I did the polite thing and waited until their conversation was over to compliment Chadwick’s Chanel shoes.

The first of many Hermès Birkins I saw at the fair.

My final Frieze Hermès bag tally is 23 total. I saw zero at NADA.

More Ruinart at People’s, where I spilled caviar all over my silver pants and jotted down some notes.

Alex Marshall in front of 12 Bryce Guilberts. Photo: Gabriela Vidal-Irizarry.

My evening concluded at the fourth annual backgammon tournament hosted by Fair Warning, Loïc Gouzer’s auction platform, at Nine Orchard’s Swan Room. The room was decorated with 12 Brice Guilberts for the occasion, all of which go up on the Fair Warning app on May 21, right after the auction of Banksy‘s Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape (2012), currently on view at the Tiffany Landmark on Fifth Avenue. I joined a group of fashion power lesbians who were thankfully not playing backgammon.

Fair Warning’s Fourth Annual Backgammon Tournament Bracket.

Almine Rech’s Paul de Froment was crowned victor and walked away with a 13th Guilbert from the same series, beating out 56 players, including Nahmads of all generations, collectors George Economou, Laurent Asscher, Peter Brant, Lyor Cohen, and Xin Li, and dealers Alex Marshall and Cooke Maroney.

I gingerly headed towards the exit, uttering quiet “excuse mes” to people much more powerful than me. I walked home and slept.

In other unrelated news:

• The galleries all seem to agree that Tribeca is the best place to set up shop. Gratin is relocating to White Street, as announced in an Instagram post by property broker and gallery client Jonathan Travis. Karma and Maxwell Graham are also reportedly heading to Tribeca, per sources close to both galleries.
• You’ll see a few more Wet Paint columns from me this spring and summer. Got a tip? Send it to [email protected].