The Frieze Art Fair has a reputation for keeping it of-the-moment and ambitious. Its New York arrival on Randall's Island this year has contemporary art by over 180 galleries spanning 6, very large sections total (read: bring comfortable shoes, drink copious amounts of champagne, go for at least 2 days if you can). Yesterday's opening revealed the promised selection of excellent food choices from Mission Chinese, Roberta's Pizza, Sant Ambroeus, Blue Bottle Coffee, Marlow & Sons, and more, making it a little easier to maintain endurance for the entire length of the fair.

In addition to the main tent, there's a fantastic outdoor Sculpture Park with works intermittently placed along the East River grass area, plus Frieze Sounds presented by BMW (featuring works by Charles Atlas and New Humans, Trisha Baga, and Haroon Mirza).

Not only was the fair ambitious and daring in scale, the pieces were, too. Galleries didn't hesitate to bring their larger sculptures and installations, and there was even a performance at the Galerie Peter Kilchmann booth. Carlos Bunga's cardboard Construcción pictórica #11 sculpture towered over the booth barriers, Alexandre da Cunha's Mix (Americana) cement mixer looked capable of crushing fair-goers if it were to lose support, and a piece by Daniel Firman at Galerie Perrotin made visitors wonder whether they were passing a real, live woman turned in towards a wall. In short, there is something exciting around every corner, and the fair feels like a true indication of where contemporary art is in the present moment.

Buy tickets for Frieze NY here, and be sure to visit today through May 13, 2013 if you're in town. For those who want some guidance on what the fair has to offer, check out these 30 Must-See Art Pieces at Frieze New York, and if you want more, browse many of the works on Artsy's Frieze page.

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