“It’s a bunch of white upper class people in a feeding frenzy,” commented one of the VIPs on Randall’s Island shortly before Frieze New York opened its doors May 4 at 11:00 a.m.

While the entry queue didn’t turn into a Black Friday-level stampede from the first round of well-heeled guests, it was still a wild day at the fair, full of the expected selection of blue-chip contemporary art (including the Hirst/Gagosian reunion), but also a live donkey, mimes, and performances, not to mention a futuristic Solylent meal-replacement drink from Sean Raspet at Berlin’s Gallery Société.

Also on hand were plenty of celebrities, from noted collector Swizz Beatz and newly-minted celebrity artist Adrian Brody, who stopped by the big tent on a break from Art New York, where he has work on view, to the paparazzi-dodging Leonardo DiCaprio. artnet News spotted the Academy Award-winner speaking to gallery owner Tony Shafrazi in the back of the VIP lounge; he was characteristically unwilling to talk to the press.

Celebrity chef Bobby Flay was also spotted roaming the aisles, in the hopes of starting an art collection. “I don’t know much about art at all,” Flay admitted to artnet News, “so I’m here on an educational expedition.”

More seasoned art experts were also on hand, of course, from dealer Jeffrey Deitch and Studio Museum in Harlem director Thelma Golden. For art fair veterans, the international circuit can admittedly get repetitive, but that doesn’t mean new discoveries aren’t just around the corner.

“The stuff I like best is stuff I already know,” artist Chuck Close told artnet News. “I’m just getting started though, and I’m an eternal optimist.”

See more of artnet News’s photos of Frieze New York below.

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