Artist and Poet Precious Okoyomon Was Fêted With a Frieze Art Fair Dinner
On Saturday night, the eve of Frieze Art Fair’s closing, Performance Space NY gathered a group of artists and artful dressers to 21st Street’s Creator House. It had been several days into the art fair, which for the first time ever was hosted at The Shed, where Okoyomon put on an intimate performance art piece inspired by the Tower of Babel a week ago. The work was filmed and then screened as This God Is a Slow Recovery (2021) at Frieze for all to enjoy. Okoyomon had been awarded the annual Frieze Artist Award—so there was much to celebrate. Being able to fête anything, in-person and among others, was also worth a Champagne toast and luckily, the Ruinart flowed all night.
The dinner was organized by Jenny Schlenzka, executive artistic director at Performance Space New York, the non-profit exhibition space in the East Village which dedicates its walls to emerging and under-recognized artists. In attendance was a creative-leaning guest list that included Leigh Lezark (who is overseeing programming for Creator House, which kicked off with a De Ella mezcal dinner the night before), Antwaun Sargent, Raúl de Nieves, Gregory Miller, Sam Hine, and Ella Emhoff. Fashion was also represented by the Telfar (of Telfar), Patric Dicaprio (of Vaquera), and Mike Eckhaus (of Eckhaus Latta).
At some point in the dinner, which Cosme presented, Schlenzka quieted the room to sing the praises of Okoyomon. Everyone cheered and in the spirit of giving, many left with the dinner’s floral arrangements and magnums of Ruinart.
