Josh Faught, Issues, 2015. Photo courtesy of the artist and Lisa Cooley Gallery.


Faught's large-scale quilt is not the kind you'd receive from your grandmother. Although it might seem haphazard in construction, there is a method to his madness: Faught references themes that touch upon domesticity and sexuality, resulting in charged works that are, ironically, very much home-spun.

Jonathan Horowitz, 700 Dots, 2015. Photo: Marco Scozzaro, courtesy of the artist, Gavin Brown's Enterprise, and Frieze.


Audience participation is one prevalent theme throughout this year's fair. For his installation, Horowitz paid visitors 20 dollars each to paint black circles on white canvases. A clever inversion of the fair business model or a fantastic advertisement to draw in new collectors? Your choice.

Alfredo Jaar, Gold in the Morning, 1985 / 2004. Photo courtesy of the artist and Galerie Lelong.


With the obvious flow of wealth surrounding the fair, Jaar's now classic images of gold mine laborers in Northern Brazil appears all the more poignant. Despite Christie's auction sales totaling a billion this week, Jaar's photographs of muddied workers leave us considering those living far below the one percent.

Sam Lewitt, Bundled Main Board Flex Cable Ribbon Connection Membrane for Sony XPERIA Miro ST23/ST23i Lineament, 2015. Photo courtesy of the artist and Miguel Abreu Gallery.


Looking like a gorgeous crumpled circuit or burnt motherboard strip from a computer, Lewitt's recent works touch upon themes of technology, networks, and social interaction. Utilizing a complex series of processes to create his sculptural installations, they engender thoughts about the tangible forms that underlie our digital lives.

Linder, Untitled, 1977. Photo: Marco Scozzaro, courtesy of the artist, Stuart Shave/Modern Art, and Frieze.


Know for provocative, often highly erotic imagery, Linder's photomontages are at once meditations upon the objectification of the human form and an exercise in sheer voyeurism, falling somewhere between the Dadaist Hannah Höch and Throbbing Gristle legend Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.

Dashiell Manley, It and Another Other, 2015. Photo courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman Gallery.


Manley's minimalist works first caught my eye at the 2014 Whitney Biennial. The young Los Angeles-based artist engages with the environments in which his works are staged, referencing the movement of the viewer while also playing with light and reflection.

Giuseppe Penone, Albero di 8 m, 2000 and Albero di 10 m, 1989. Photo: Marco Scozzaro. Courtesy of the artist, Marian Goodman Gallery, and Frieze. 


If we're going for sheer size, nothing seems to rival Italian artist Giuseppe Penone's installation. Works include a wall of mesh-encased panels containing laurel leaves, as well as denuded tree trunks. The monumentality of Penone's works beg the viewer to pause and marvel amidst the madness of the fair.

Tom Sachs, Big Tits, 2014. Photo courtesy of the artist and Salon 94.


Ever since Sachs took over the Park Avenue Armory in 2012 for his mega-installation Space Program: Mission to Mars, a staged DIY NASA-inspired expedition to the titular planet, we've been a huge fan. A common characteristic of Sachs' creations, as with this boom box, is his use of bricolage- the incorporation of found objects and everyday materials in the construction of works. Fully functioning, it also happens to play the intro sample from Dre and Snoop's hit "The Next Episode." 

Jordan Wolfson, Untitled, 2015. Photo courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ.


Wolfson's masked dancing anamatronic stripper that was exhibited last year at David Zwirner freaked us out, but in the best way possible. Living up to his reputation as an artist who shocks his audience, Wolfson's work this year somehow reminds us of the once ubiquitous tabloid fixture, Bat Boy.

Richard Prince, New Portraits, 2014. Photo: Robert McKeever, courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery. 


One of the biggest names from one of the biggest galleries, Prince's appropriation of Instagram posts belonging to other users is representative of several high-profile artists at the fair this year. Many works on view engage with issues surrounding social media and the Internet. Make sure that selfie looks its best; your feed may be next.