Installation view of Pace at Frieze New York 2026

Installation view, Pace at Frieze New York, Booth B10, May 13 – 17, The Shed, New York © Maya Lin / Leo Villareal

Frieze New York

Maya Lin and Leo Villareal

On View
May 13 – 17, 2026
New York
 
ART FAIR DETAILS

Frieze New York
The Shed
Booth B10
May 13 – 17, 2026

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At the 2026 edition of Frieze New York, Pace will present works by Maya Lin and Leo Villareal, celebrating two major figures in public art as they unveil significant new commissions in the US this year. The gallery’s booth will feature sculptures by Lin, inspired by her interest in the shape and flow of water and her environmental concerns, and new wall-mounted works from Villareal’s latest series, titled Golden Game, which incorporates wood, LEDs, and custom software to produce abstractions that reflect the power and mystery of the natural world.

On its booth, Pace will show works by Lin that call attention to natural sites that have seen or will see significant environmental change. A new silver sculpture by the artist, however, celebrates the exception to this trend. Titled Silver Yellowstone (2026), this work is inspired by the only untouched river in the continuous United States.

The gallery’s booth at Frieze New York will also showcase sculptures, rendered at new scales, from Villareal’s Golden Game series. Villareal presented Golden Game at Pace Tokyo in 2025, furthering his exploration into the relationships between nature, technology, chance, and the human experience. The series title, which references a book of 17th century alchemical engravings, speaks to the influence of esoteric knowledge and the mystical on the works. Through Golden Game, Villareal invites viewers to consider the boundary between the physical and digital worlds.

This will be the third consecutive year that Pace presents a two-artist booth at Frieze New York. Conceived by the gallery’s President Samanthe Rubell, these pairings bring artists into unexpected dialogues and encourage new ways of seeing and experiencing their work.

Samanthe Rubell, President of Pace Gallery, says:

“We’re very excited to show works by Maya and Leo at Frieze New York during this year of incredible public projects by them both. Pace has a long history of supporting artists’ commissions in New York and beyond, including works by Louise Nevelson, Claes Oldenburg, and Jean Dubuffet. The new, large-scale works by Maya and Leo will be enduring gifts to the city, bringing a renewed energy to the spaces we move through every day.”

 

Featured Works

Maya Lin, Silver Yellowstone, 2026, recycled silver, 44-7/8" × 47-3/4" × 1/4" (114 cm × 121.3 cm × 0.6 cm)
Maya Lin, Disappearing Bodies of Water: Lake Chad, 2013, Vermont Danby marble, wood base, 42" x 36" x 19" (106.7 cm x 91.4 cm x 48.3 cm)
Maya Lin, Disappearing Bodies of Water: Aral Sea, 2013, Vermont Danby marble, wood base, 44" x 44" x 33" (111.8 cm x 111.8 cm x 83.8 cm)
Maya Lin, Arctic Circle, 2017, Blanco Macael marble, 8-5/16" × 60" (21.1 cm × 152.4 cm)
Leo Villareal, Ripple, 2026, LEDs, white oak, acrylic, custom software and electrical hardware, aluminum, 60" × 60" × 6-1/2" (152.4 cm × 152.4 cm × 16.5 cm)
Leo Villareal, Smooth Operator, 2026, LEDs, white oak, acrylic, custom software and electrical hardware, aluminum, 40" × 40" × 6-1/2" (101.6 cm × 101.6 cm × 16.5 cm)
Leo Villareal, Black Hole Sun, 2026, LEDs, white oak, acrylic, custom software and electrical hardware, aluminum, 60" × 60" × 6-1/2" (152.4 cm × 152.4 cm × 16.5 cm)
Leo Villareal, Rotorelief, 2026, LEDs, white oak, acrylic, custom software and electrical hardware, aluminum, 40" × 40" × 6-1/2" (101.6 cm × 101.6 cm × 16.5 cm)
Leo Villareal, Moon Shadow, 2026, LEDs, white oak, acrylic, custom software and electrical hardware, aluminum, 40" × 40" × 6-1/2" (101.6 cm × 101.6 cm × 16.5 cm)
 

Maya Lin

A Parallel Nature

Officially opening this spring, Maya Lin’s large-scale artwork A Parallel Nature—the centerpiece of a new public plaza on Madison Avenue in Midtown Manhattan—is inspired by the natural bedrock of the city and the rockfaces of Central Park. Commissioned by JPMorganChase, A Parallel Nature comprises two monumental sculptural granite walls based off a scan of an actual rock ledge from Central Park, bringing the natural world to the heart of New York City. Lin has also been commissioned to create two major stone sculptural fountains that will anchor the Ann Dunham Water Garden at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Titled, Seeing Through the Universe, this work will be located near the north entrance of the Center, which opens June 19.

Leo Villareal

Celestial Passage

Leo Villareal recently unveiled  Celestial Passage, a permanent, site-specific artwork commissioned by JPMorganChase for the crown of its new global headquarters at 270 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. Using custom-built software and 1.5 million programmable LEDs, Villareal has sculpted harmonious swaths of light that play across the exterior of the 60-story skyscraper in symphonic movements. In San Francisco, the artist’s The Bay Lights—which debuted in 2013 and is one of the largest public artworks in the world, spanning 1.8 miles of the Bay Bridge—has returned to the city for an additional ten years following the installation of a newly designed and fabricated lighting system.

 
Leo Villareal Headshot

Leo Villareal

Leo Villareal works with pixels and binary code to create complex, rhythmic compositions in light. Firmly rooted in abstraction, his approach uses layered sequencing that results in open-ended and subjective visual experiences. Villareal’s works often reference organic systems and evoke—but do not illustrate—atmospheric elements in that emergent and unexpected behavior occurs without a predetermined outcome.
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Maya Lin Portrait

Photo: Ron Blunt

Maya Lin

Maya Lin critically engages with notions of site and place, exploring the development of systems in order to reflect on the environment, creating objects that invite contemplation—intellectual, sensorial, and physical—of the natural world.
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To inquire about works by Arlene Shechet and Robert Mangold, please email us at inquiries@pacegallery.com.

 

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