Photo-Illustration: The Cut; Photo: Ramsey Alderson In November 2021, Christine Messineo was appointed director of Frieze Los Angeles and Frieze New York, making her the first person to oversee both art fairs. A former fashion stylist who once had ambitions of being a ballet dancer, Messineo has worked at the center of the art world for 15 years, having previously been a partner at Bortolami Gallery in New York and a director at Hannah Hoffman Gallery in Los Angeles.
Dividing her time between Manhattan and Connecticut with regular stints on the West Coast, the Cut caught up with Messineo from her home office in Connecticut as she prepares for the tenth-anniversary edition of Frieze New York, which runs May 18 to 22 at the Shed in Hudson Yards. Here’s how she gets it done.I have a 2-year-old son, Enzo, so my mornings start as early as 5:30 with the wake-up alarm of “Let’s play” or “I hungry.
Other than that, my days don’t have a consistent schedule except that my husband and I always sit down for dinner together — whether that’s just the two of us or we’re with friends or family. Even if we go back to work afterward, it is important for us to have this momentary pause. I’m very fortunate that the job I do involves looking at art and that that’s something I can do with my family by visiting museums and galleries together.
We started a tradition about six years ago where we document our parties by passing around an old Polaroid camera and having each guest take a selfie. It began with a dinner we had for the artist Barbara Kasten. We were living in a Neutra house in Los Angeles at the time, so all the bookshelves, desks, dressers, and closets were built in. We pulled some folding chairs up to the built-in couch and used a folding table from Staples as a dining table.