The verdict from Frieze New York? Not so bad! While the city has experienced a rash of yawn-worthy art fairs — this year's Armory no exception — yesterday saw the impressively successful debut of Frieze Art Fair on New York's Randall's Island. Combining mainstays such as Gagosian with younger, more innovative galleries such as 47 Canal, T293, and Balice Hertling, Frieze NY offered a crowd-pleasing multifaceted, international approach. Some stand-out works below.

Stephen G Rhodes, "Untitled," 2012 at Overduin and Kite. All photographs by Marcus Cuffie

While I'm familiar with Rhodes' installation work through a recent solo exhibition at Metro Pictures in New York, this collages proves his two-dimensional work to be much more pared down and sensitive to detail. Rhodes, who splits his time between Berlin and New Orleans, has gathered materials around both of his studios, using spraypainted reliefs of New Orleans flora as a background to this composition. Although the most satisfying details of the piece are lost in this jpeg, Rhodes further layers his collage with text from Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, "'Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.' -- Judge. GO OUTSIDE."

Keltie Ferris, "(*)", 2012 at Mitchell Innes and Nash

On view at Mitchelle Innes and Nash's booth is Keltie Ferris' large, graffiti-inspired paintings. While the term "graffiti-inspired" alone may be enough to turn many a viewer off, Ferris' paintings seem timely, and dare I say, internet-aware. With titles that frequently employ various combinations of punctuation marks, Ferris' paintings appear at once almost pixelated or digitally inspired as well as cognizant of the delicate position that abstract painting occupies in 2012.

 Sarah Braman, "Untitled," 2012 at Mitchell Innes and Nash

Sarah Braman also kills it at Mitchell Innes and Nash.

Carissa Rodriguez and Pamela Rosenkranz at Karma International, Zurich

Carissa Rodriguez and Pamela Rosenkranz at Karma International, Zurich

Artist and Reena Spaulings director Carissa Rodriguez is excellently paired with Pamela Rosenkranz by Karma International of Zurich. Rosenkranz, whose Fiji bottles are pictured alongside Rodriguez's sperm photos and ikebana, recently enjoyed a stand-out solo exhibition at Reena Spauling's Chinatown neighbor Miguel Abreu.

Oliver Laric, "Sun Tzu Janus," 2012 at Tanya Leighton, Berlin

Laric expands the polyurethane sculpture annex of his Versions projects to include the head of Sun Tzu, which appears curiously akin to the bust of the two-faced Roman god Janus. "Sun Tzu Janus" is also currently on view within Cecelia Alemani's exhibition "Lilliput" on the High Line.

Aleksandra Domanovic, "Bubanj Fist Relief," 2012 at Tanya Leighton, Berlin

Created out of MDF and tadelakt, a lime plaster usually used to coat the palaces in Morocco, Aleksandra Domanovic has re-envisioned 20th-century Croation sculptor Ivan Sabolic’s famous monument of three raised fists at the Bubanj Memorial Park in Niš, Serbia.

Oliver Laric "Ise Gulloche," 2012 at Seventeen, London

Another offering by Oliver Laric, this work builds on the artist's series of custom-made holograms.

Martin Boyce, "Waves," 2012 at Tanya Bonakdar, New York

Previously, I'd only been familiar with Boyce's more popular custom-made steel constructions, mobiles and fluorescent tube trees, which are often accompanied by poetic titles. Out of curiosity, I checked who made this somewhat unremarkable piece at Tanya Bonakdar's booth. After learning the title, "Waves," the piece took on a more elegiac tone.

Calla Henekel and Max Pitegoff "New Media (Cocktails)" 2012 at T293, Naples and Rome, Italy

I can't express how pleased I am to see the work of artistic duo Max Pitegoff and Calla Henkel at Frieze NY. The recent Cooper Union graduates moved to Berlin last year to found Times, a bar, exhibition and event in the city's Neukolln district which now serves as a meeting point for many in the German capital's art community. These works, Times cocktail glasses filled with acrylic ice cubes encased in resin, act as markers of an audience recently left, such as at the end of a long night. Curiously fitting for the art fair setting.

Anders Clausen at Broadway 1602

This might not be my favorite Clausen piece, but after perusing his artist portfolio, I'm convinced no one can make screenshots look better than Anders Clausen. Check out the rest of his work on the Hotel site here.

Greg Parma Smith "Ultimate Color Pencil..." 2012 at Balice Hertling, Paris

Parma Smith's jubilant, meticulous oil paintings playfully juxtapose faux-naif symbols and instruments endemic to art instruction, such as the Prismacolor, with the more serious undertaking of adult artistic practice.

Michele Abeles at 47 Canal, New York

It was only a few years ago that Margaret Lee began 179 Canal, an exhibition space in New York's Chinatown, via gaining free rent through acting as a sort of art-world real estate agent by renting out studio spaces in the building's remaining floors. Since this time, Lee has moved east to 47 Canal, closer to the Orchard Street gallery district, and has established her aptitude as a prescient talent-spotter. For her first major fair, Lee has brought the work of photographer Michele Abeles, who has created collages out of her own previous work.

Simon Denny, "Diligent Boardbooks," 2011 at Friedrich Petzel

Simon Denny, "Diligent Boardbooks," 2011 at Friedrich Petzel

Berlin-based, New Zealand-born artist on the up-and-up Simon Denny showed with both Friedrich Petzel and Daniel Buchholz. "Diligent Boardbooks," shown above at Petzel, creates abstracted, analog versions of the television screen.

Cheyney Thompson, "Motif IX," 2010 at Andrew Kreps

A painterly ink blot by Cheyney Thompson at Andrew Kreps. 

Diana Thater, "Untitled (Kelly)," 2011 at Hauser and Wirth

Despite Thater being a pioneering new media artist, for which she deserves credit, I can't get over the sickeningly decorative nature of this work. I suppose it's only fitting that this represents one of the only new media offerings of the mega-gallery Hauser and Wirth.

Lutz Bacher, "Club Bud," 2008 at Cabinet, London

At first glance, I hoped this might be an Americanized, art-fair-booth-sized version of Cyprien Gaillard's beer pyramid, "The Recovery of Discovery," originally shown at KW, Berlin. Alas, the beer was not intended for drinking, as it belonged rather to 2012 Whitney Biennial mainstay Lutz Bacher. 

Rudolf Stingel at Gagosian

To create these works, Stingel washes his canvas in burgundy paint, then directly screenprints upon it the pattern of an oriental carpet in silver enamel.