An Eerie Landscape Of Ashes And Ladybugs Beckons In The East Village View all 5
A physical post-Covid landscape and a powerful place of mourning has been created inside Performance Space New York in the East Village.
Artist Precious Okoyomon (they/their) made the installation on commission after winning the Frieze Festival’s Emerging Artist Award. Called “Fragmented Body Perceptions as Higher Vibration Frequencies to God” the title is from their own poem this eerie, otherworldly place is Okoyomon’s reaction to COVID.
“I just think they’re one of the most interesting artists out there,” says Frieze jury chair Jenny Schlenzka, executive artistic director of Performance Space and curator of Okoyomon’s installation.
Frieze Has Awarded Artist, Poet, and Chef Precious Okoyomon With Its Closely Watched $30,000 Commission in New York
The artist will also have a solo show at Performance Space New York during the fair.
Precious Okoyomon. Photo by Sam Penn.
Frieze is giving its annual Artist Award to Precious Okoyomon, a New York-based artist, poet, and chef, who will use the $30,000 budget for a new commission at this year’s fair in New York, which is being held in scaled-back fashion at the Shed.
“Simultaneously playful and critically inquisitive, this singular artist-poet’s work highlights the inevitability of change, decay, death, and rebirth,” said jury chair Jenny Schlenzka, executive artistic director at Performance Space New York, in a statement. “By extending poetry into the organic world, Okoyomon reminds us that apocalypse and utopia coexist and always have.”
Precious Okoyomon Wins 2021 Frieze Artist Award
The New York-based artist will realise a major commission, supported by Luma Foundation at Frieze New York 2021
Precious Okoyomon is the winner of the 2021 Frieze Artist Award at Frieze New York, taking place at
The Shed, May 5-9.
Supported by the Luma Foundation, the award presents a major opportunity for an emerging artist to debut an ambitious new commission.
For Frieze New York 2021, Okoyomon will present a performance-activated installation conceived specifically for The Shed. Extending their practice, Okoyomon’s work will aim to create what the artist describes as ‘a portal for a space of fragilization.’ Convening poetry, sensory elements, sculpture, light, and sound, the work will celebrate self-expression and champion the value of shared, collective experience. The performance will be filmed and streamed online at Frieze.com from May 5 onwards, allowing audiences across the globe