THE ARMORY SHOW 2016 PRESS HIGHLIGHTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS PRINT LIFESTYLE & EVENTS DIGITAL BROADCAST
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THE ARMORY SHOW 2016 PRINT
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/04/arts/design/what-not-to-miss-at-the-armory-show-at-the-piers.html
THE ART MARKET March 4, 2016 2:59 pm
The Art Market: Fair play Georgina Adam
Art Basel owners build a new fair portfolio; Armory Show spotlights African artists; Sotheby’s staff head for the door In a major new initiative, the Swiss giant MCH, the parent company of the Art Basel group of fairs, is creating a division that will group a number of design and regional art fairs. Completely separate from the Art Basel group, the new division will be headed by Marco Fazzone, who was previously on the Art Basel team as director for resources. “Our objective is to work together with regional fairs, in partnerships, joint ventures or with other forms of collaboration,” says Fazzone. “The number of fairs will not be restricted; we are looking for quality, not quantity.” The new division is being created, he says, out of a belief that a strong art-fair segment “would strengthen the art market as a whole”. Certainly such collaboration, with the experience Fazzone gained while at Art Basel, could benefit fairs by sharing expertise and achieving economies of scale in, say, VIP programming or communications. But the new grouping would not be “branded” as such, says Fazzone. “We want to keep each fair’s distinct regional identity, its DNA.” Even if there is no overlap between the two “brands”, the initiative will create a sort of “diffusion” range of more mid-market events, bolstered by proximity to and experience gained by the higher-end Art Basel fairs. So which fairs will be in this new portfolio? MCH would only say that it is “discussing a number of art-fair partnerships”. These “potential partners” include Tim Etchells and Sandy Angus, and I put it to MCH that under consideration could be the duo’s new Singapore fair, to be held in 2017, ArtInternational in Istanbul and the London fair Art16. Discussions have also been taking place with Art Brussels. MCH told me it would neither confirm nor deny these “specific suggestions”, saying only that it would “develop specific projects [and] announce them in due course once they are fully formed”.
... The VIP opening at New York’s Armory Show this week came the day after Super Tuesday, and so was against a backdrop of political jitters generated by the presidential election. While many visitors denied that this was affecting buying, decision-making seemed slower, notably affecting works by younger, more speculative artists. Some smaller galleries did not make any sales the first day, while the bigger ones were certainly not reporting a rush.
©October Gallery, London
Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga’s ‘Lost’ (2015)
The focus this year is on the African Perspectives section, with 14 galleries, half from Africa, showing artists from the continent or from the diaspora. For the curators, Julia Gross and Yvette Mutumba, the section is “a great opportunity for African galleries to come to a big-shot show like The Armory and show how professional they are”. Reflecting on whether African art is just the “flavour of the month”, they say the section is an opportunity to get greater visibility and shows that African art is sustainable. “It will still be there after the bandwagon has moved on to something else,” says Gross. Among the standout presentations in the section was that of the Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi at Vigo Gallery, with a number of works that featured in his 2013 Tate show (£8,000-£600,000); two colourful acrylics on canvas by the Congolese Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga ($18,000, October Gallery); and photographic portraits by Namsa Leuba at Art Twenty One of Lagos ($1,500-$22,000). In the main fair, meanwhile, many dealers were showing African-American artists. Kehinde Wiley’s giant, gaudy depictions of rulers on horseback, for example, featured on a number of stands, with “Equestrian Portrait of Prince Tommaso of Savoy-Carignan”
(2015) sold at Roberts & Tilton ($250,000) and one of Philip III also finding a buyer at Sean Kelly ($375,000). The fair continues until March 6. ... While the Armory is a cacophony of art on two scruffy Hudson River piers, the much smaller and calmer Art Show in the brooding Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue stands in complete contrast.
©Tim Thayer/Donald Morris Gallery
Bob Thompson’s ‘Pieta Fragment’ (1965)
America’s longest-running, dealer-organised art fair offers no VIP programme or other such bells and whistles but continues to draw a faithful clientele, mainly from around the Upper East Side. They come for American Modernism, vintage photography, Impressionist and Modern art — and more contemporary offerings, such as Deborah Butterfield’s large-scale horses made of bronze (Danese/Corey, $425,000 each). This year many of the 72 dealers have organised solo shows: the magical Italian sculptor Fausto Melotti at Hauser & Wirth, vigorous paintings by Hernan Bas at Lehmann Maupin (all sold or reserved on first day, $30,000-$200,000); the curious Ron Gorchov at Cheim & Read, with layered, shaped canvases ($120,000, two sold); and the PolishAmerican Jack Tworkov, a contemporary of the Abstract Expressionists who took a more geometric turn, at Alexander Gray ($10,000-$275,000). Again, African-American artists are very much on the agenda: deceptively naive paintings by former slave Bill Traylor, who died in 1949, feature at Betty Cuningham ($50,000-$140,000), while Donald Morris shows Bob Thompson, who was inspired by
European Old Masters to produce boldly coloured figurative paintings (nine of 13 works sold on first day, $125,000-$250,000). Until March 6. ... Sotheby’s is haemorrhaging staff faster than you can say “Tad Smith”. Just before the firm’s fourth-quarter conference call, two more rainmakers announced they were off: contemporary specialist Alex Rotter, and Impressionist and Modern guru David Norman. Fielding questions on these departures, which come in the wake of Sotheby’s acquisition of the art advisers AAP (Art Agency, Partners) for up to $85m, chief executive Smith admitted that there had been “noise” about the “dislocations” caused by the shake-up. “We predicted this and we will get through it,” he said, affirming that changes were needed in the New York operation and that the team there is now “the best”. However, the rush for the door continues, with the latest exit being that of Henry Wyndham, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, with the company for the past 22 years and a brilliant auctioneer. He says he has been mulling the decision for at least a year, and has a bucket list of things to do during a six-month break, among them walking Welsh border trail Offa’s Dyke and taking the Trans-Siberian railway. He leaves on March 15, having stayed on for the Duchess of Devonshire auction this week, which was a predictable roof-raiser with £1.8m sold, well over expectations. However he isn’t leaving the art market, he says, just moving on to what he calls “a new chapter in my life”. Georgina Adam is art market editor-at-large of The Art Newspaper Photographs: October Gallery, London; Tim Thayer/Donald Morris Gallery
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/13a0516e-e060-11e5-9217-6ae3733a2cd1.html#axzz423mcPOIY
IN OCTOBER 2010 a wealthy South African, bidding at Bonhams in London, bought a portrait of a doe-eyed Indian girl from the island of Zanzibar that had been painted in 1945. The artist was Irma Stern, who was born in the Transvaal, the daughter of German-Jewish émigrés. Sentimental in style, it was not a fashionable work of art. Nevertheless, the bidder paid a record £2.37m ($3.3m) for the picture, more than twice the top estimate. Much has changed since that moment, when homesick white South Africans, grown rich on rising commodity prices, would spend millions on the work of artists who reminded them of their parents and grandparents and the white world they grew up in. Half a decade on, the global art world has discovered a quite different Africa—and in a big way. In the course of the 20th century African tribal art was praised by many outsiders, including Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, who absorbed what they saw as its “primitive” imagery into their own work. But few collectors on the continent or beyond were interested in Africa’s contemporary art, still less in its artists. One exception was Jean Pigozzi, heir to the Simca motoring fortune, who, starting in the 1980s, amassed a huge collection of contemporary African art, though never by going to the continent himself; instead, he sent a curator with cash, canvasses and paint for encouragement.
Since then other collectors, both on the continent and beyond, have begun buying. First among them is Sindika Dokolo, a Congolese businessman who is married to Africa’s wealthiest woman, Isabel dos Santos, daughter of Angola’s president. Mr Dokolo owns more than 5,000 pieces of mostly contemporary art, and his foundation plans to build an exhibition space and, later, a museum in Portugal. In recent years galleries have been popping up all over the continent. Regional events like Dak’Art Biennale and LagosPhoto Festival are growing bigger. Last year the Venice Biennale appointed its first artistic director from Africa, Okwui Enwezor, a Nigerian curator who lives in New York and Munich. In the latest development, on March 3rd the historic Armory Show (on Piers 92 and 94) in New York unveiled its first show focusing on SubSaharan Africa. In 2017 Jochen Zeitz, a German art collector and conservationist, plans to open Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art in Cape Town to show his art from Africa and the African diaspora.
Four of the most prominent contemporary artists of African origin move with ease between Africa and the rest of the world. Julie Mehretu was born in Ethiopia and lives in New York, as does Kenyan-born Wangechi Mutu; El Anatsui (whose beer-bottle-top “fabrics”— pictured—are instantly recognisable) was born in Ghana, has worked for much of his career in Nigeria, and has been exhibited all over the world, as has William Kentridge, a white South African. Only the work of Ms Mutu and Mr Kentridge can be said to deal with the African experience directly, though both also address larger themes. Ms Mutu does so through an Afrofuturist exploration of gender and identity. Mr Kentridge is concerned with South African politics. The art world zeros in on a new region for two reasons. The first is that young people in fast-growing economies often begin buying art, as well as luxury goods, when they start becoming rich. The second is that local collectors favour local artists, and these are often undervalued. Buying and representing these artists is attractive to international dealers and collectors because, if a home-grown collecting culture does emerge, then prices for art from that region can only go up. Africa’s recent economic growth is a factor in its expanding art market. In the past decade the GDP of the 11 largest sub-Saharan countries has increased by roughly half, twice the rate in the rest of the world. “We have ten times as many collectors from South Africa as we did ten years ago,” says Joost Bosland, director of the Stevenson Gallery, which has showrooms in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The leader among the international auction houses, Bonhams, has seen average lot prices for African art increase fivefold, to $50,000, since it decided to hold stand-alone sales of African artists. Half its bidders now originate from within the continent. Bonhams has been so successful that both Sotheby’s and Phillips are thinking of copying their African sales. Only eight of the 14 artists featured in the special exhibition at the Armory, “African Perspectives”, are from galleries in Africa. The rest are based in Paris, London, Berlin and Seattle. To Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba, the curators of “African Perspectives”, this was a more accurate way of reflecting the world that many contemporary African artists now
inhabit. How to classify someone who is born in Lagos, splits their time between there and Brussels, and does residencies in Hong Kong and New York? Everyone lives more globally now; artists are no exception. Another element is that growing interest in colonialism, slavery and the diaspora has expanded the story of Africa into the story of the world. Art with African or African-American origins is quickly gaining wider audiences across America. There are now museums of the African diaspora in both San Francisco and New York. In 2014 Harvard University opened the Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & AfricanAmerican Art and the long delayed Africa Centre is being built just north of “Museum Mile� in New York, at Fifth Avenue and 110th Street. Barack Obama, America’s first president with an African father, will step down in 2017, but global interest in Africa’s artists is certainly not about to disappear.
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Pour sortir le marché de l’art de son endogamie, voire d’une certaine monotonie, les foires d’art contemporain s’autorisent une fenêtre sur une contrée méconnue. Depuis peu, un continent a le vent en poupe : l’Afrique. A l’Armory Show à New York, l’une des foires américaines les plus courues, Yvette Mutumba et Julia Grosse, fondatrices du site Internet Contemporary and lui consacrent un focus énergisant jusqu’au 6 mars. Présence de sept galeries africaines On ne traite pas d’art africain mais de perspectives africaines », prévient
Yvette Mutumba, comme pour corriger un malentendu fréquent. L’idée est de montrer en quatorze propositions la diversité des voix que relient toutefois quelques fils rouges, comme la question de l’immigration, du recyclage, de l’identité et du passé colonial. Les deux commissaires ont réussi une gageure, faire venir sept galeries du continent, malgré les difficultés économiques de certaines jeunes structures et les problèmes d’obtention de visa. Les émissaires de deux espaces associatifs, Van de Lagos (Nigeria) et Village Unhu de Harare (Zimbabwe) se sont vus refuser leurs sésames. Une conversation prévue le 5 mars sur la foire sur la « création à l’âge global » est fortement compromise : deux des artistes, le Sénégalais El Hadj Sy et le Zimbabwéen Mischek Masamvu n’ayant pu faire le voyage. Malgré l’adversité, sept galeries du continent sont donc bel et bien présentes. A commencer par une toute nouvelle structure éthiopienne qui a ouvert ses portes en janvier, Addis Fine Art. « L’infrastructure de galeries est quasi inexistante en Ethiopie, on a une tradition de collectionner qui avait été mise en sourdine à l’époque communiste, mais qui recommence lentement. On veut participer au mouvement. Notre ambition est d’être une galerie à la fois locale et globale », lance les yeux pétillants la jeune Rakeb Sile, cofondatrice de cette nouvelle enseigne. Julia Grosse ne dit pas autre chose : « Ces galeries veulent montrer qu’elles peuvent se payer le voyage et la participation à une foire, qu’elles peuvent être aussi professionnelles et de qualité que n’importe quel autre de leurs confrères ». Et la qualité, il est vrai, saute aux yeux. Au point que ce focus africain insuffle une énergie dans une foire globalement atone. Les photos de Namsa Leuba, qui offrent un visage trendy à la jeunesse de Lagos chez Echo Art, ou les lunettes recyclées à tonalité futuriste de Cyrus Kabiru chez Smac (Le Cap) respirent une vitalité qui fait bien défaut aujourd’hui en Occident.
Des artistes connus et des découvertes Deux artistes historiques servent de balise à la scène émergente : le Soudanais Ibrahim El-Salahi, présenté par Vigo Gallery (Londres) et le Ghanéen El Anatsui, en majesté sur le stand d’October Gallery (Londres). Tous deux sont devenus des stars. Lorsque la galerie Vigo a présenté en mai 2015 un solo show des encres de l’octogénaire El-Salahi sur la foire Frieze New York, il a fait carton plein. Aujourd’hui, ses œuvres valent entre 8 000 et 775 000 euros. Un musée a même réservé une pièce exposée sur le stand. C’est que les établissements ont commencé à sortir de leurs ornières géographiques. Le jeune photographe franco-ivoirien François-Xavier Gbré, présenté par Cécile Fakhoury, est désormais collectionné par la Tate Modern à Londres, qui dispose depuis 2012 d’un comité d’achat spécialement dédié à l’Afrique. Le Centre Pompidou à Paris vient aussi de se porter acquéreur d’une série d’œuvres grâce à l’association des amis de l’institution.. Sortis des noms déjà bien référencés, les découvertes sont légions. Circle Art Gallery de Nairobi présente ainsi le travail de la Kenyane Ato Malinda, dont les performances et installations explorent la nature hybride de l’identité africaine, à rebours de tout essentialisme. Addis Fine Art met, elle, en lumière le travail d’un tout jeune Ethiopien, Emanuel Tegene, dont les
tableaux parsemés d’énigmes traitent de l’hypocrisie et de l’injustice sur le mode du rébus. Chez Tiwani Contemporary (Londres), l’œuvre allègre et utopique du jeune Lisboète d’origine angolaise Francisco Vidal est réjouissant. A première vue, on ne voit que des portraits rapidement brossés et colorés de personnalités qui ont accompagné son travail au fil des ans ou qui font office de référence. Une constellation dans laquelle on retrouve aussi bien à Koyo Kouoh, directrice du centre d’art Raw Material à Dakar, que le cinéaste londonien John Akompfrah. Mais il y a bien plus à lire. Une partie des dessins est réalisée sur des feuilles que lui-même a fabriquées avec ses anciens élèves du Lusiada School of Architecture à Luanda. « Les étudiants n’avaient aucun matériel. Ils n’ont pas de magazines ni de livres, confie le jeune homme qui fait la navette entre le Portugal et l’Angola. J’ai voulu qu’ils puissent voir les noms des artistes qui comptent en Angola, qu’ils aient une idée de leur visage. » Ses dessins ont d’emblée fait florès auprès de collectionneurs tels que la Franco-Brésilienne Sandra Mulliez. Reste à espérer que cet intérêt pour l’Afrique, qui a débordé du cadre du Focus pour se répandre sur plusieurs stands du programme général de l’Armory Show, ne soit pas qu’un feu de paille. Julia Grosse et Yvette Mutumba en sont conscientes, le marché est versatile.
http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2016/03/03/l-afrique-s-expose-a-l-armory-show-denew-york_4876036_3212.html#JAe3f4T1G8xvVtOC.99!
Benjamin(Genocchio( Executive(director The(Armory(Show( Rivaled!by!the!Frieze!Art!Fair!since!it!arrived!in!New!York!in!2012,!the!Armory!Show!is!still!technically!holding!down! the!designation!of!New!York’s!premier!international!art!fair.!Founded!in!1994!by!four!local!art!dealers!as!a! renegade!gathering!of!international!galleries!at!the!Gramercy!Park!Hotel,!the!fair!has!blossomed!into!one!of!the! city’s!most!anticipated!cultural!events.! Under!the!leadership!of!executive!director!Benjamin!Genocchio,!who!assumed!the!position!in!January,!the!fair! returns!to!Piers!92!and!94!for!its!22nd!edition!from!March!3!to!March!6!with!205!exhibitors!from!36!countries.! Wooed!to!the!fair!from!Artnet&News,!where!he!had!served!as!editorTinTchief!since!2014,!Mr.!Genocchio!holds!a! Ph.D.!in!art!history!from!the!University!of!Sydney.! Asked!how!he’s!adapting!to!his!new!job,!the!AussieTturnedTNew!Yorker,!who’s!lived!here!since!2002,!admitted,!
“There’s!an!enormous!learning!curve.!The!rhythm!of!an!event!that!happens!once!a!year!for!five!days!is!quite! different!from!the!rhythm!of!producing!journalism!on!a!daily!schedule.!I!know!a!great!deal!about!art!fairs!as!art! fairs,!but!less!about!them!as!a!business.”! ! Although!starting!to!put!his!stamp!on!the!show,!he’s!tried!to!keep!adjustments!to!a!minimum,!out!of!respect!to!the! staff!and!decision!making!that!had!already!gone!into!place!before!he!arrived!(his!new!role!was!announced!only!in! late!December!of!last!year).! ! This!year,!he’s!sort!of!just!shepherding!an!alreadyTplanned!fair!to!completion.!“In!earnest,!my!job!really!begins!the! day!the!fair!closes,”!Mr.!Genocchio!said.! ! But,!of!that!programming,!what!excites!him?! ! “A!number!of!quality!dealer!booths,”!he!said.!“We!have!David!Zwirner.!We!have!Paul!Kasmin!Gallery,!Galerie! Thaddaeus!Ropac!and!Victoria!Miro.!We!have!Sean!Kelly!and!Galerie!Lelong.!They’ve!taken!some!of!the!largest! booths!we!ever!had—up!to!1,000!square!feet.!I’m!excited!to!see!what!these!major!dealers!bring,!and!how!that! plays!to!the!collectors.”! ! What!should!visitors!expect!from!this!year’s!Focus!section,!“African!Perspectives:!Spotlighting!Artistic!Practices!of! Global!Contemporaries,”!which!presents!14!galleries!from!Africa!and!its!diaspora?! ! “Visitors!should!expect!to!see!and!to!become!familiar!with!the!best!dealers!involved!with!the!African! Contemporary!art!scene!and!the!best!African!artists!from!around!the!world!today,”!Mr.!Genocchio!asserted.!“It’s!a! burgeoning!area!of!the!global!economy!and—not!surprisingly—a!new!and!exciting!area!for!the!art!market.”! ! Are!there!any!special!projects!that!we!shouldn’t!miss?! ! “I!always!like!a!naked!woman!in!a!glass!box,”!he!said,!referencing!Romina!de!Novellis’!durational!performance! piece!at!Galerie!Alberta!Pane!in!the!Armory!Presents!section!of!Pier!94.!The!project,!which!is!staged!in!partnership! with!the!New!YorkTbased!arts!organization!Kreëmart,!finds!the!nude!artist!concealing!herself!by!weaving!white! roses!into!the!structure!of!a!wire!cage!over!the!course!of!a!day,!while!handing!out!caramelized!flowers!to!visitors.! ! What!makes!the!Armory!Show!different!from!the!other!art!fairs?! ! “[It]!contributes!to!the!artistic!life!of!the!city.!It’s!not!some!carpetbagger!trade!show!that!blows!into!town!for!five! days!a!year!and!then!disappears,”!Mr.!Genocchio!declared.!“It’s!associated!with!the!piers,!associated!with!the!city! and!associated!with!the!Museum!of!Modern!Art.!We!select!an!artist!to!produce!an!artwork!and!when!it’s!sold,!the! money!benefits!acquisitions.!We!also!have!a!big!party!at!MoMA!on!Wednesday!night,!which!benefits!exhibition! programming.!That’s!why!Glenn!Lowry!is!on!the!Armory!Show!podium!every!year,!and!that’s!why!the!mayor!shows! up.!This!is!a!cultural!institution,!not!just!a!fair.”! ! Other!attractions!this!year!include!design!projects!distributed!throughout!the!fair,!a!series!of!talks!with!artists!and! curators,!a!partnership!with!Hotel!Americano!to!provide!food!at!the!fair,!an!expanded!visitor’s!lounge!on!Pier!92! and!bigger!VIP!lounge!on!Pier!94,!and!a!private!viewing!room!for!dealers!to!show!individual!works!to!clients.! ! The!Armory!Show!2016! Piers&92&and&94! 12th&Avenue&at&55th&Street! By&invitation&only:! March&3,&12@8&p.m.! Public&days:! March&3@March&6,&12@7&p.m.! $45!
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http://observer.com/2016/03/yourTguideTtoTarmoryTartsTweekTdirectlyTfromTtheTfairTdirectors/!
Young&Collectors&Showed&Their& Appetite&for&Art&Last&Night&at& The&Bowery&Hotel&
The!Armory!Show!isn't!just!for!deep6pocketed!uptown!folk! By!Zachary!Weiss!•!03/04/16!9:42am!
Whether!it’s!the!Alexander!Gilkes6helmed!Paddle8!or!the!massive!uptick!in!art!week!events,!one!thing!is!for!certain!–!New!York’s! young!set!are!enamored!with!art.!They’re!not!just!looking!at!it!either.!While!the!new!Whitney!Museum!remains!a!hub!for!pre6 brunch! excursions! in! The! Meatpacking! District,! and! The! Met! continues! its! own! expansion! and! rebranding! into! more! modern! territories,!one!particular!caché!of!Manhattanites!is!collecting!art!too.!That’s!why!the!Bowery!Hotel!filled!to!the!brim!last!night! with!well6heeled!pretty!young!things!celebrating!The!Armory!Show’s!Young!Collectors!Night.!The!sprawling!art!fair!runs!until! March!6th!at!Pier!94!&!92.!
! ! Sarah!Arison!was!out!in!full!force!along!with!her!art6obsessed!peers!including!sculptor,!and!girlfriend!to!David!Schwimmer,!Zoe! Buckman! and! photographer! Hank! Willis! Thomas! who! both! participated! in! the! evening’s! panel! focused! on! the! intersection! of! politics!and!art!alongside!Dread!Scott!and!Joeonna!Bellorado6Samuels.! !
! ! ! ! ! ! Ms.!Arison!is!arguably!the!high!priestess!of!young!art!collectors!in!New!York.!At!just!306years6old,!she!sits!on!the!board!of!The! Americans!for!The!Arts,!which!awarded!Lady!Gaga!and!Walmart!heiress!Alice!Walton!last!October!for!their!contributions!to!the! creative!community.!She!will!also!be!hosting!the!inaugural!National!YoungArts!Foundation!Gala!at!The!Metropolitan!Museum!of! Art! this! April,! which! will! be! underwritten! by! Swarovski.! Mikhail! Baryshnikov! and! PlĂĄcido! Domingo! are! expected! to! attend! as! honorary!co6chairs.! ! !
Julia!Grosse!and!Yvette!Mutumba!were!there!too.!They!were!selected!as!the!first!women!to!curate!“Focus:!African!Perspectives”! at! this! year’s! Armory! Show.! The! two! are! also! responsible! for! founding! the! buzzy! online! art! publication! Contemporary! And! (C&).!While!they!maintain!their!African!roots,!they!hail!from!Mainz!and!Cologne,!Germany,!and!together!they!have!curated!the! wares!on!offer!at!the!show!comprised!mostly!of!contemporary!works!from!their!native!continent.!Best!of!all,!every!single!one!of! their!selections!is!expected!to!sell!out.!
http://observer.com/2016/03/young6collectors6showed6their6apetite6for6art6last6night6at6the6bowery6hotel/!
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New York’s 7 can’t-miss spring design fairs
By Jackie Cooperman March 3, 2016 | 5:25am
For the next 10 weeks, New York City will be inundated with art and design fairs. They sell everything from museum-quality furniture to artisanal soaps, and offer DIY workshops, tattoo salons and playgrounds. Here, a guide to navigating the many options. The Armory Show March 3-6
Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Ben Brown Fine Arts For gallery hoppers: The grande dame of New York’s modern and contemporary art fairs, the Armory Show is debuting a new design section this year. The show’s exhibitors in Pier 92 features blue-chip works like Lucio Fontana’s “Concetto Spaziale, Attese” ($2 million) and Robert Indiana’s iconic “A Garden of Love” print (above), but Pier 94 includes art cred-cool and affordable items at Damien Hirst’s pop up café. Among them are Hirst’s butterfly-festooned orange deck chair ($450) and his porcelain Kingdom of Heaven mug ($12). The Focus section will host African contemporary artists, a great place to find new talent. Get there early: Focus’ commissioned artist Kapwani Kiwanga will give away small prints at her United Nations-inspired installation while supplies last. http://nypost.com/2016/03/03/new-yorks-7-cant-miss-spring-design-fairs/
Town and Country Magazine, March 2016
L’Officiel Mexico, March 2016
THE ARMORY SHOW 2016 LIFESTYLE AND EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
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Every! year! since! it! was! founded! in! 1994! as! the! Gramercy! International! Art! Fair! (it! was! originally! held! in! the! iconic! Gramercy!Park!Hotel),!the!Armory!Show!has!continued!to!delight!its!New!York!audience.!Following!its!move!to!the!Park! Avenue! Armory! in! 1999,! the! fair! renamed! itself,! riffing! on! the! groundbreaking! exhibition! that! brought! pioneering! modern!artists—Vincent!van!Gogh,!Marcel!Duchamp,!Edvard!Munch,!Pablo!Picasso,!Henri!Matisse,!Paul!Gauguin,!and! Paul!Cézanne,!among!others—to!New!York’s!attention.!Today!the!massive!fair!is!held!on!Piers!92!and!94!and!brings! together!modern!and!contemporary!works!from!around!the!world.!Here,!we!bring!you!the!pieces!that!are!generating! the!most!buzz!from!both!seasoned!collectors!and!the!general!public!at!the!2016!show,!from!a!mysterious!jellyfishWlike! installation!to!a!reWcreation!of!Joan!Miró’s!studio.! !
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March!3,!2016!—!7:22!PM!EST! By:!Katya!Kazakina! !
A pair of 7-foot-tall collages depicting room interiors and a pensive-looking black woman in a yellow sleeveless dress caught the attention of Armory Show visitors such as CNN anchor Anderson Cooper on Wednesday afternoon. The 2016 diptych by Nigerian-born artist Njideka Akunyili Crosby, the centerpiece of Victoria Miro gallery’s booth at the New York show, was priced at $75,000 and sold to a museum.
Anderson Cooper Photographer: Katya Kazakina/Bloomberg
Art was moving briskly during the VIP opening of the Armory Show, the annual trade event featuring about 200 international galleries spread over two Hudson River piers. The crowd of collectors, curators, celebrities and industry executives included billionaire Eli Broad, longtime art buyers Mera and Don Rubell, entertainer Steve Martin and Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art. “There’s money out here,” said Benjamin Genocchio, the fair’s new director, as collectors poured into the VIP lounge. “The reason why the Armory Show has survived is because it’s the largest fair in the world’s biggest art market. That’s why the sales have been strong and consistent.” The buoyant start followed a muted opening across town for the annual Art Show organized by the Art Dealers Association of America on March 1. The stakes are high: Armory Arts Week -- with at least eight fairs anchored by the Armory Show’s 22nd edition -- is 2016’s first big test of sales on the fair circuit, an expanding business in recent years. Auction sales have fallen this year amid roiling financial markets and declining oil prices, spurring concerns that the art market may be weakening.
Flowing River
Equestrian Portrait of Philip III by Kehinde Wiley Source: Max Yawney via Sean Kelly, New York
On Wednesday, buyers shrugged off those issues and went shopping. “Contemporary art is like a river,” Mera Rubell said. “It always flows. It doesn’t stop for anything. If you want to check out, it’s at your own risk.”
Works by black artists and of black subjects were popular with collectors, highlighted by this year’s special section devoted to Africa and the African diaspora. Billowing piles of white fiber used for carpet weaving in Tanzania, sculpted by the Armory-commissioned artist Kapwani Kiwanga, were shown in the Focus section by Galerie Poggi from Paris and Galerie Tanja Wagner from Berlin. One piece, priced at $10,000, sold on the first day. At Victoria Miro’s booth, the show-stopper was Crosby’s diptych occupying almost 120 square feet of wall space. The work was “a vivid and cunning conflation of drawing, collage, photography and painting that fuses memory, history, reflection and desire,” said Matthew Armstrong, curator of financier Don Marron’s collection. James Cohan Gallery quickly sold a large mixed-media painting, accented with black-and-white striped fake fur, by American artist Trenton Doyle Hancock for $80,000. Ethiopian Elias Sime’s collage made with electronic waste -- braided wires and motherboards -- sold for $90,000.
Pink Suit Nearby, Jack Shainman Gallery sold a small 1991 painting of a black face with golden halo by Kerry James Marshall, who will have a solo exhibition at the new Met Breuer building later this year, for $250,000. Barkley Hendricks’s Pop-inspired painting “Photo Bloke,” depicting a sleek black man in pink suit on pink background, sold for $200,000.
Photo Bloke by Barkley Hendricks Photographer: Katya Kazakina/Bloomberg
“I could have sold it a 100 times,” Shainman said. Amsterdam’s Grimm Gallery sold three photographs by Dana Lixenberg of black residents of the Imperial Courts housing project in Los Angeles, each priced at 6,000 euros ($6,600). Zurich’s Galerie Eva Presenhuber placed two paintings by Los Angeles-based Henry Taylor for $60,000 and $35,000. New York’s Sean Kelly Gallery sold Kehinde Wiley’s 9.5-by-10-foot painting “Equestrian Portrait of Philip III,” depicting a black man on a white horse, for $300,000. The Stevenson Gallery from Cape Town and Johannesburg had success with Zanele Muholi’s black-and-white photograph of a black woman with ropes around her neck and a stool on her head, selling out an edition of eight with each piece priced at $6,500. “It’s been very busy,” said director Joost Bosland ! ! ! !
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016G03G04/andersonGcooperGsteveGmartinGhitGarmoryGasGblackGartistsGdazzle!
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By:!Katya!Kazakina!!!!!March!2,!2016!
"It’s!time!for!a!correction”!in!the!art!market,!billionaire!Eli!Broad!said.!Broad!had!just!arrived!at! the!VIP!opening!of!the!annual!Art!Show!at!the!Park!Avenue!Armory!where!guests!MM!including! actor!Steve!Martin!and!financiers!Tom!Hill,!Don!Marron,!Joel!Ehrenkranz!and!Peter!Kraus!MM! munched!Peking!duck!rolls!and!bourbonMdrenched!meatballs.!The!Tuesday!event!marked!the! beginning!of!Armory!Arts!Week,!this!year’s!first!big!test!of!art!fair!sales,!which!have!been! expanding!in!recent!years.! !
Eli!Broad!Photographer:!Jin!Lee/Bloomberg!
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! “The!great!works!of!art!will!still!bring!buyers,”!said!Broad,!a!major!collector!of!postwar!and! contemporary!pieces.!“The!works!in!the!middle!are!going!to!be!harder!to!sell.!But!it!won’t! collapse.”! ! The!art!market!is!showing!signs!of!a!slowdown!after!five!years!of!growth!amid!roiling!financial! and!commodities!markets.!Auction!sales!are!down!33!percent!this!year!at!Sotheby’s,!and! Phillips!sold!just!51!percent!of!offered!lots!at!its!“New!Now”!auction!of!emerging!art!in!New! York!on!Monday.!
The!Armory!Show,!which!opened!to!select!guests!Wednesday,!is!the!top!event!at!this!week’s! annual!art!bazaar,!with!at!least!nine!fairs!presenting!hundreds!of!international!galleries!and! thousands!of!artists.!Collectors!on!Tuesday!weren’t!rushing!to!pull!the!trigger!on!purchases.!! “I’m!just!looking!around,”!said!Stephen!Schwarzman,!head!of!Blackstone!Group,!as!he!strolled! the!aisles!on!Tuesday.! & Subdued&Sales& Ed!Dolman,!chief!executive!officer!of!Phillips,!said!in!a!Bloomberg!Television!interview!that!low! interest!rates!pushed!a!massive!amount!of!money!into!the!art!market,!with!prices!rising!10! percent!to!20!percent!a!year.! ! “It’s!been!a!great!place!for!people!to!put!their!money!and!turn!over!pictures.!But!that’s!not!the! case!any!more,"!Dolman!said!Wednesday.!He!said!discretionary!sales!of!art!could!decline!in!the! next!year!as!collectors!“sit!on!what!they’ve!got.”! At!the!Art!Show!in!New!York,!firstMday!sales!were!subdued.!In!2015,!Sean!Kelly!gallery!sold!more! than!$1!million!worth!of!art!at!the!fair’s!opening.!On!Tuesday,!the!gallery!didn’t!confirm!any! sales!of!new!sculptures!and!works!on!paper!by!artist!Rebecca!Horn.! “You!can!say!it’s!a!beautiful!booth,”!dealer!Sean!Kelly!said.! Early!sales!included!a!1962!painting!of!a!yellowMfaced!man!by!Beauford!Delaney,!priced!at! $450,000,!at!Michael!Rosenfeld!Gallery.!Danese/Corey!gallery!sold!a!majestic!lifeMsize!sculpture! of!a!horse!by!Deborah!Butterfield,!priced!at!$425,000.! & Buying&Opportunities& Salon!94!gallery!moved!seven!paintings!by!Marilyn!Minter!at!between!$30,000!and!$160,000.! 11R!gallery!placed!three!works!by!New!York!artist!Mika!Tajima,!each!at!$18,000.!Lehmann! Maupin!gallery!sold!at!least!three!pieces!by!painter!Hernan!Bas,!priced!between!$30,000!and! $200,000.! !
The!Fourth!of!June!(Eton)!by!Hernan!Bas!Source:!Sutton!PR!
! ! There!were!no!immediate!takers!for!a!Joseph!Cornell!glass!case!priced!at!$3.8!million!at!Richard! L.!Feigen!gallery.!A!1964!painting!by!Pablo!Picasso,!priced!at!$4!million,!was!pulled!at!the!last! minute!from!the!exhibition!at!Richard!Gray!Gallery’s!booth!to!be!shown!privately!to!a!client,! said!director!Paul!Gray.!! ! It!wasn’t!sold!by!the!end!of!Tuesday,!he!said.!! ! “The!volatility!of!the!equity!markets!seems!to!be!giving!the!art!community!pause,”!Dan! Desmond,!executive!director!of!Blue!Rider!Group!that!provides!investment!management!for! collectors,!said!at!the!Art!Show.!“This!environment!is!creating!opportunities!for!patient!buyers.”! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016M03M02/eliMbroadMseesMcorrectionMinMartMmarketMasMarmoryMweekMbegins!
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March!4,!2016!—!1:25!PM!EST! By:!James!Tarmy! ! A! line! of! several! hundred! shivering,! elaborately! dressed! art! enthusiasts! stretched!down!the!block!outside!the!Independent!art!fair!Thursday!night!in! SoHo,! as! the! final! phase! of! New! York's! Art! Week! (Feb.! 28–March! 6,! 2016)!opened!with!a!bang!and!more!than!a!few!outraged!collectors.!“But!I’m! VIP!”!wailed!one!woman!in!a!geographically!untraceable!accent!as!she!was! turned!away!at!the!door.! ! That!collector,!along!with!scores!of!other!art!lovers,!can!take!heart:!There!are! so!many!fairs!(at!least!eight)!and!so!many!thousands!of!works!of!art!on!view! that!it!was!almost!impossible!to!see,!let!alone!appreciate,!everything!on!offer.! Instead,!pay!attention!to!these.!Be!they!from!underZtheZradar!artists,!prime! examples!of!an!emerging!trend,!on!offer!at!a!surprisingly!reasonable!price,!or,! in! more! than! a! few! instances,! just! simply! compelling,! these! 10! pieces! are! worth!putting!on!your!agenda—and!on!your!walls.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
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! Abelow’s! been! a! lowZkey! fixture! on! the! art! scene! for! some! time! but! is! now! beginning! to! catch! on.! His! striking,! largeZscale! pencil! drawings! are! reminiscent!of!Matisse!(except!as!far!as!anyone!knows,!Matisse!did!not!draw! a!series!of!images!imagining!himself!as!a!woman)!and!were!“selling!briskly”! on!the!first!day!of!the!fair,!said!James!Fuentes,!the!owner!of!his!eponymous! gallery.!This!one,!Self%Portrait%As%a%Woman,%has!a!price!tag!of!$2,500!and!is! still!available.!James%Fuentes! ! ! !
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Famous!in!Venezuela!(where!a!museum!is!dedicated!to!his!work),!wellZknown! in!Europe!(he!lived!in!France),!and!virtually!anonymous!in!the!U.S.!(you!can’t! have! everything),! Soto! (1923Z2005)! was! an! immensely! important! kinetic! sculptor.!His!Untitled%(double%vibration%in%yellow)!from!1966!features!delicate! metal!spines!suspended!on!nylon!strings,!which!react!gently!to!the!faintest! nearby!movement.!The!work!is!on!offer!for!$165,000.!Cortesi%Gallery! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
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! !Conceptual! artist! Allan! McCollum! isn’t! exactly! a! hidden! gem—he’s! been! known! for! his! work! with! shapes,! materials,! and! experimentation! since! the! 1970s.!Even!so,!his!recent!work,!unique!shape!spinoffs!made!from!ash,!are! particularly! compelling! and! are! doubly! notable! for! their! (relative)! affordability.!Thomas!Schulte!brought!eight!of!these!shelves!to!the!Armory! and! sold! six! in! his! first! day.! Two! shelves! remain,! each! on! sale! for! $25,000.! Galerie%Thomas%Schulte! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
http://howtospendit.ft.com/art/102033-the-best-of-new-york-armory-2016
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2016 Armory Show Opens With Brisk Sales, Spotlights African Art !
By: Bettina Zelkha March 3, 2016
The 2016 Armory Show at Pier 92 and 94 held its VIP preview Tuesday. Strong sales were reported by the end of the day within a wide range of mediums and styles. This year’s Armory Focus is African Perspectives, highlighting the diversity of the African Diaspora across all mediums. “The Armory Show has an enormous audience, ” said Executive Director Benjamin Genocchio. “ We get around 75,000 people in five days, making this probably the largest attended art fair in the world. It has an extraordinary energy to it. It’s fundamentally a fair where art sells. It’s not a glamour fair – it’s in the Piers, which is not a glamorous location. In that sense it’s very much a business fair. It’s very compatible with New York, which is not an attractive city, but a city where business gets done.” Paul Kasmin, who had been absent for a few years, returned because of the unique energy of the Armory Show. “I came and visited last year, and I love it,” said Kasmin. “It’s particularly full of life and activity. I enjoy
having my galleries down the road; I can show off what I exhibit simultaneously here and at the galleries.”
! ! ! The fair was packed with collectors and art world insiders looking to buy that fabulous work of art before it was snapped up, only slightly distracted by the performance piece of the naked woman in a cage at Alberta Pane. Peter Brant, Eli Broad and Beth De Woody walked the show along with Anderson Cooper, Lisa Dennison, Matt Dillon, Thelma Golden, Glenn Lowry, Neil Patrick Harris, Steve Martin, Brooke Garber Neidich, and John Waters ngIf: ticker WAT$+0.59% ngIf: show_card end ngIf: ticker . Though several dealers and collectors mentioned that the contemporary art market wasn’t as strong as in previous years -”the world is awash in art,” was one particularly telling quote – red dots were everywhere. “I think this fair is interesting on so many levels,” said Chris Mack, who collects both emerging and established artists. “I like to see the artists exhibited by the European and Asian galleries, the new artists they find locally. It’s also interesting to see current trends in the art world, and how the art that I already own is faring. I have my eye on the Anish Kapoor at the Lisson gallery.”
Collector Sarah Arison found there were too many distractions to make purchasing decisions. “I will be coming back to shop at the Armory when I won’t run into every person I know,” said Arison. “For me, buying art is a process. You need to spend time with the piece, and speak with the gallerist.” ! ! !
A wise stance, but perhaps somewhat risky this year: a collector might miss the Kenny Scharf Travel Cosmic Cavern at Honor Fraser, one of only three in the world, or the space-themed reflective Robert Longo at Thaddaeus Ropac, or the ominous 500 pound Dustin Yellins at GRIMM. One major collector, who wished to remain anonymous, found the perfect Wesselman painting, and asked its dealer if he could deliver it to her Wednesday morning, promising to buy it if it would fit on her wall; the dealer happily agreed. At 8 PM Tuesday night, she received a text that the dealer had sold the Wesselman to another collector – no first right of refusal, no warning. “I understand that you have to be quick in this market,” said the collector. “But that was just rude.” ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! http://www.forbes.com/sites/bettinazilkha/2016/03/03/2016<armory<show<opens<with<brisk<sales<spotlights<african<art/#726f7d02793c!
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! Last night, guests such as Tali Lennox, Misha Nonoo, and Francesca Amfitheatrof joined Paddle8 co-founder Alexander Gilkes and Carlos Mota to celebrate Paddle8's online auction featuring artworks from Mota's personal collection. The evening began with cocktails at The Armory Art Fair's VIP lounge, which is presented by H么tel Americano, and concluded with an intimate dinner at the hotel proper.
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http://www.interviewmagazine.com/nightlife/paddle88and8carlos8mota8celebrate8the8armory8show8at8hotel8americano81#!
KAPWANI KIWANGA IN NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 2015. PHOTOS: VICENTE MUNOZ. STYLING: ALPHA VOMERO/SEE MANAGEMENT. HAIR: HANJEE/JED ROOT. MAKEUP: SIMONE OTIS/JED ROOT. JACKET AND PANTS: ELLERY. SHIRT: STYLIST'S OWN. Dissecting information from archival documents and found footage is an inherent aspect of artist Kapwani Kiwanga's practice—but not everything remains factual. For example, since 2011, the Ontario-raised, Paris-based artist has been producing an ongoing project entitled Afrogalatica that showcases various approaches to art (film, installation, performance) through quasi-scientific methods. She mixes fact with fiction, presenting a speculative future based on an Afrofuturist history. With her latest project, The Secretary's Suite, which will be on view at the Armory Show beginning tomorrow, Kiwanga focuses upon an image of the UN Secretary General's office in 1961. Though the year 1961 is a significant one in UN history (Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld was mysteriously killed in a plane crash September 1961, and subsequently succeeded by U Thant), Kiwanga says, "it wasn't the year itself but really that
image, and it happened to be taken in that year." The gifted objects within the photograph, found through research done after visiting the UN Headquarters and viewing a collection of gifted objects and artworks, led her to create a video (less than 10 minutes in length), immersive installation, and limited edition screen print to benefit the Museum of Modern Art. As a whole, The Secretary's Suite explores the idea of gifting as a form of exchange. Countries that are part of the UN frequently donate objects or works of art, which are then displayed within public spaces, the Secretary General's office, and stored privately elsewhere. Kiwanga evokes questions regarding how an exchange can create or ruin a relationship, and how the concept of gifting attains different significances in various cultures. In addition to Afrofuturism and examining the UN's history of exchange, Kiwanga has explored other topics, such as the Maji Maji War—the largest uprising in 20th century African history. Before The Secretary's Suite goes on view as the sole commission for the Armory's 2016 Focus: African Perspectives, we spoke with the artist over the phone. EMILY MCDERMOTT: So you first visited the United Nations art collection this past December. How did you come to that as a starting point? KAPWANI KIWANGA: I didn't visit the collection per se. I just saw what was available to the general public. When they go for a tour of the UN they see some objects that were donated at different occasions by different countries. I had gone to the UN with a different project idea in mind for the Armory, and when I got there I was interested in this question of gifting and diplomatic protocol. I kept thinking about this and it developed into the project for the Armory. MCDERMOTT: What was the original idea? KIWANGA: The original idea was more of a historical anecdote, about a president who had come to give a talk at the UN and was limited to a certain area in New York. There's a question of the UN being territorial, a question of different territories and statutes of nations. It's an anecdote which I still find interesting but the objects that were displayed really opened up a door for thinking about the question of exchange more generally. The starting point was really the question of diplomatic gifts and the UN, but the project branched out to more general questions of exchange between people, nations, and time periods as well. In my work I often look at very large temporal structure, so it can be prehistory to our present, but also going into a speculative future. I like the fictional aspect of things, but I wouldn't say futuristic so much. So speculation, to allow for imagination and creativity in a basic sense. I really want to explore all types of gifts that are given, even the most mundane, and those that are not necessarily on [public] display. The list of UN objects is not publicly available yet, but they are making a repository. MCDERMOTT: What are some of the more mundane things that attracted you? KIWANGA: For the UN specifically, there isn't anything I can speak of, but research beyond the UN, I was looking into diplomatic gifts and museums here in France. It could be things, like knitted socks, it could be food—these gifts that are given not only by diplomats but also by the general public, out of admiration or respect. There's this wide range of gifts given, sometimes in a political context, sometimes in a more amicable or appreciative gesture. MCDERMOTT: What are some of the fictional objects you're going to bring into the installation?
KIWANGA: When there's information I've not been able to research to find concrete answers, I propose different scenarios. It's thinking of objects that could have been gifted to the Secretary in the context in which that happens. The actual situation of the Secretary's death in the plane crash has been the object of speculation, through conspiracy theory and serious inquiries from the UN on different occasions, trying to look into what happened. It was quite mysterious. That's a space where quite a lot of speculation that comes about. MCDERMOTT: What is your research process like, and at what point do you start speculating? KIWANGA: It's different each time. This particular project goes back and forth; I'm always accumulating really factual information. The majority of what I do is [based from] documents, archives, and factual information. There are moments when I find that a bit too dry or closed, and those are moments where there needs to be some openness to break the narrative into something more open ended and questionable. Those moments, I think I need to insert some speculative, or imaginary, or fictive part. It's not so much the objects or the theme, it's how everything works formally as a whole, in the end. MCDERMOTT: Have you faced any difficulties accessing information from the UN? I imagine there's some red tape. KIWANGA: That's part of any research I suppose. There are projects that adapted because of that, [although for this project] I would say red tape, yes, partly, but it's more the time frame and bureaucracy. There's a lot of people involved, because a lot of countries gift objects and there's an art counsel. Had I come across this project idea earlier, then maybe I would've been able to go through [more within] the time frame it takes to get responses. I was able to speak to some people who were very honest and said, "Our time frames are usually two months for this, or three months for this," and I needed to work on a time frame which was a more quick. I think the art world and the diplomatic world have different paces. MCDERMOTT: I imagine you've learned so much doing research for this project, but what was one of the more surprising things? KIWANGA: I don't know if it's the most spectacular thing... Local museums that I found in Canada, in fact, are where a Presidential Prime Minister or political leader has donated or opened a museum based on his collection. The museology around that I find quite interesting. Coming across all these small museums that display just the diplomatic gifts given to one person during one term of office I find quite interesting. That was something I hadn't thought of exploring at the beginning but I came across. MCDERMOTT: With the UN collection, each country is technically only supposed to give one gift, but of course they have given more. What do you think of that policy? KIWANGA: In my research I've found that nations give gifts all the time. Whenever they meet, they'll give a new gift. The idea of giving only one gift is surprising because gifts are given at the anniversary of 25 years being part of the UN or 50 years of a specific event in one country's history, and continual gifts that are given, from the same nation in the end, but in different contexts and for different reasons. MCDERMOTT: How do you feel about gift giving in general?
KIWANGA: What I find interesting about the idea gift giving is this idea of how exchange really ties people together in some form of relationship. Also, how culturally different that process and act is, how binding it is in different cultures. Not giving a gift in one culture could be disastrous, whereas in another place it may not be so important. Meandering through different perspectives, be it cultural or temporal, allows us to see how the importance—political, sociological, economic—can link to this whole process of exchange. It's, for me, the question of relationship through exchange, more than gifting. MCDERMOTT: What about the religious aspects inherently associated with exchange, like offerings? KIWANGA: The questions of offerings are quite interesting. One of the things I find interesting is giving materially to buy oneself time in heaven, or to repay sins. It's interesting that the religious institution sets up a model in which you can give in order to somehow redeem oneself but at the same time create a social system that is more balanced. You're right to point out the offering—the offering is more spiritual than religious to me—and the religious, which is linked to those institutions and giving a percentage of your wealth. These ideas of how religion and spirituality have taken that idea of gifting is quite important. THE ARMORY SHOW WILL BE ON VIEW MARCH 3-6, 2016. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CLICK HERE.
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March 1: While the political world had everyone in a tizzy, the New York art world exploded last week with fairs, exhibitions and a new museum. One fair was the Spring/Break Art Show in the main post office on Eighth Avenue and 31st Street. The art installations had a youthful exuberance. More than 7,000 attended the opening festivities. March 2: Pier 94 of the Armory Show attracts those in search of the newest of the new. There was an exuberance to the thousands of stylishly dressed guests who were looking for the next big thing and had money to spend. The vitality of the fair was enhanced by the African art section.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/04/fashion/bill;cunningham;armory.html!
The Armory VIP Preview Is a True Fashion Parade So this is where all the Ready To Wear ends up By Sarah Kennedy • 03/03/16 1:09pm
You could be forgiven for thinking NYFW is the place to see fashionable clothes being worn. After all, isn’t that where the world’s fashionerati gather to celebrate in our awesome city twice a year? Yes and no. New York, possibly more than the other international fashion weeks, is the place where bloggers, instagrammers, friends of friends and so forth come to be seen. The result is a style smorgasbord that certainly bears no relation to what is being sold on the 4th floor at Barneys new location or, say, the Prada boutique downtown. Instead, the poor journalists bartering with Celine for one pair of cherished shoes mingle with the store buyers pilfering from the sample cupboard. This crowd of dowdily dressed, sometimes cash-strapped insiders look down a little at the fancy dress parade of students and wannabes dressed in, well, fancy dress. All of these folks are in turn, ever so slightly ignored by the golden circle of soinfluential they get it for free style stars, who wear the most camera-catching versions of the latest looks. Nothing on show at NYFW reveals the Ready To Wear clothing that those who can afford it, actually buy and regularly wear. Cue the Art Show, if any reminders are needed. The modern art preview evening is the place to see RTW on display. Here are the people with the cash, interest and access to runway fashion and thank goodness. This lot not only support the valuable arts scene but they keep the fashion boat afloat too. Anyone seeking ideas for throwing together their Marni, Dries or Vetements need look no further. It is all happening here. Or it certainly was at last night’s Armory VIP preview. My thoughts went something like this, “So this is where all the big Celine bags went! Ah…I wondered who, besides me, is buying those Vetements tracksuit pants.. I now need MASSIVE 1975-style reading glasses or I am over.” And so on, I am a follower, mea culpa. Of course, the art was fascinating and entertaining, beautiful and thoughtsome but TBH, what I noticed most were the clothes. SORRY.
Michael Stipe Patrick McMullan
Christina Larson, Jennifer Amadeo, Kim Heirston Evans, Artwork, Bosco Sodi Patrick McMullan
Maria Brito Patrick McMullan
Doreen Remen, Casey Fremont Crowe Patrick McMullan
Anthony Haden Guest, Patrick McMullan
Jane Cohan, Nicholas Baume Patrick McMullan
Matthew Moskowitz Patrick McMullan
Cecile Panzieri, Ruth Naditch, Sean Kelly Patrick McMullan
(L)Paola Mendoza, Laura Saenz (R)Jessica Anne Schwartz
Holly Baxter
http://observer.com/2016/03/armory-vip-preview-is-a-true-fashion-parade/#slide11
Celebs, collectors, gallerists and artists mixed at the annual Armory Show’s VIP preview on Piers 92 and 94, including Steve Martin, Michael Stipe, Peter Brant, Eli Broad, Arne Glimcher, Jeanne Greenberg-Rohatyn, Sean Kelly, Brooke Garber Neidich, Donald and Mera Rubell, Kiki Smith and Marilyn Minter. Some of the cultured characters trolling the piers had also toured the Metropolitan Museum’s new Met Breuer space in the Whitney Museum’s former site on Madison Avenue. Armory Show sales were reportedly brisk: Marianne Boesky Gallery said it nearly sold out, including three paintings by Dashiell Manley, while Sean Kelly Gallery sold a Kehinde Wiley sculpture for $375,000 and David Zwirner moved works by Wolfgang Tillmans and others.
http://pagesix.com/2016/03/03/armory-shows-vip-preview-attracts-big-names/
At the Wednesday preview — where film director John Waters, Neil Patrick Harris and Matt Dillon also perused — performance artist Romina de Novellis got a lot of attention as she spent the day nude in a chicken-wire box filled with flowers. No word on how she ate lunch.
http://pagesix.com/2016/03/03/armory-shows-vip-preview-attracts-big-names/
http://pagesix.com/2016/03/03/armory-shows-vip-preview-attracts-big-names/
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Chef!Marcus!Samuelsson!threw!open!his!uptown!restaurant!Red!Rooster!to!downtown!art!types!on!Friday.! More!than!200!artists,!gallerists!and!insiders!attended!a!reception!for!the!Armory!Show’s!“Focus:!African!Perspectives”! program,!including!New!York!artists!Derrick!Adams!and!Hank!Willis!Thomas.! ! Elsewhere,!visual!artists!Shirin!Neshat!and!Shoja!Azari!hosted!an!Iranian!meal!for!more!than!60!guests!—!including! collector!Beth!Rudin!DeWoody,!gallerist!Leila!Heller,!Duchess!of!Marlborough!Lily! SpencerUChurchill!and!Town!&! Country!publisher!Jennifer!Levene!Bruno!—!at!their!Soho!loft.! ! Experimental!director!Robert!Wilson!stood!to!give!a!toast,!but!was!silent!for!nearly!two!minutes.! He!later!was!seen!cutting!up!with!jokes!about!his!home!state!of!Texas,!a!guest!said.! ! Over!at!the!Hotel!Americano,!Armory!Show!director!Benjamin!Genocchio!dined!with!starchitect!David!Adjaye,!artist!Isaac! Julien,!Performa!founder!RoseLee!Goldberg!and!Studio!Museum!in!Harlem!director!Thelma!Golden.! ! ! ! ! ! http://pagesix.com/2016/03/06/marcusUsamuelssonUhostsUartistsUatUuptownUrestaurant/!
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http://purple.fr/diary/highlights3from3the3armory3show320163part3i3new3york/!
http://purple.fr/diary/highlights-armory-show-2016-part-ii-new-york/
Two$Eerie$Armory$Installations,$From$One$ Buzzy$Artist$ !
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By!JULIE!BAUMGARDNER! MARCH!3,!2016!
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An!installation!view!of!Kapwani!Kiwanga’s!work!in!the!booth!in!the!Armory!Fair!operated!in!tandem!by! Galerie!Jerome!Poggi,!Paris,!and!Galerie!Tanja!Wagner,!Berlin.! Credit!:Vicente!Muñoz!
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The!researchXbased!artist!Kapwani!Kiwanga,!best!known!for!the!ongoing!series!she!started!in!2011!of!cutXflower! arrangements!symbolic!of!African!independence,!is!having!a!big!Armory!week.!She’s!represented!in!the!fair!twice,! both!as!the!recipient!of!its!Artist!Commission,!headlining!the!fair’s!“Focus:!African!Perspectives”!spotlight!section,! and!in!a!joint!booth!operated!by!her!representation!Galerie!Jerome!Poggi,!Paris,!and!Galerie!Tanja!Wagner,!Berlin.! So!she’s!created!two!separate!Armory!projects!—!one!plantXderived!and!the!other!stemming!from!an!eerie! photograph.! ! Kiwanga!was!born!in!Canada!and!currently!resides!in!Paris,!but!she!still!has!strong!familial!ties!to!Tanzania,!a!nation! known!for!its!cultivation!of!the!Agave!species!sisal,!which!produces!a!robust!fiber!often!found!in!rugs!and!rope.! “Unconsciously,!I!have!some!organic!things!I!need!to!get!out!of!my!system,”!she!admits!—!but!clarifies,!“It’s!not!so! much!about!identity!as!it!is!experience.”!In!the!galleries’!booth,!she’s!hung!large!sheaths!of!sisal!on!the!walls,!and! in!one!work,!slung!between!two!tall!posts!—!perhaps!a!gesture!to!thresholds!or!border!markers.!The!sisal!bundles! exist!in!a!liminal!space,!as!Kiwanga!explains;!somewhere!“between!being!processed!—!disassembled!somehow!—! and!yet!not!been!reassembled.”! !
An!installation!view!of!“The!Secretary’s!Suite,”!the!video!work!Kiwanga!created!for!this!year’s!Artist!Commission.! Credit!Vicente!Muñoz! The Armory commission, a video installation titled “The Secretary’s Suite,” is quite different from the sisal project — and came as a surprise even to Kiwanga herself. “I had gone in with another idea altogether,” she says, but switched gears when she stumbled across a strange image in the United Nations photo archive, which “really appealed to me, and I couldn’t say exactly why it was.” The 1961 photograph of the chambers of then-Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, decorated with an animal-skin rug, prime midcentury wares and a South Asian deity bust, inspired her “to get more into a speculative, almost conspiracy-theory, narrative,” Kiwanga says. “It’s a mis-en-scène, which lends itself to a story. It’s interesting that the photo was taken 16 or 17 days before the Secretary General passed away.” In fact, Hammarskjöld’s death is still shrouded in mystery — he died in a plane crash, but how the plane crashed remains unclear. (Even President Truman was suspicious: At the time, he remarked that “Dag Hammarskjöld was on the point of getting something done when they killed him. Notice that I said ‘when they killed him.’”) Kiwanga’s video work depicts the artist’s hands shuffling around photocopies of images of diplomatic gifts, while she narrates stories. Some things she says are factual, and some imagined — but the video doesn’t distinguish fact from fiction. To add to the uncanniness of the experience, looming in front of the video is a screen with the U.N. photo projected onto it, which can alter the viewing perspective if the video is seen through the spooky filter of Hammarskjöld’s empty office. (The photo will also be reproduced in a series of limited-edition prints to benefit MoMA’s Acquisition Fund.) “It creates a discomfort in the questioning, like, ‘Is this part real?’” Kiwangi says. “Where is the reality, and where does it slip?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/03/t-magazine/art/armory-show-kapwani-kiwanga.html
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http://www.vogue.it/l-uomo-vogue/news/2016/03/09/art-travel-diaries-the-armory-show/
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Surface!Hosts!an!Armory!Dinner!for! Isaac!Julien!and!David!Adjaye !
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! ! ! ! ! It!might!be!bustling!in!the!city!of!lights,!but!New!York!is!still!the!city!that!never!sleeps.!Last!week!was!Armory!Arts! week! in! Manhattan—bringing! together! the! worlds! of! fashion! and! film! and! culminating! with! a! dinner! hosted! by! Surface!in!celebration!of!architect!David!Adjaye!and!filmmaker!Isaac!Julien.!And!while!Adjaye!wasn’t!there!in!person,! a!chic!crew!assembled!at!the!Americano!including!Misha!Nonoo!and!Alexander!Gilkes,!Thelma!Golden,!and!Alexandra! Chemla.!Between!cocktails,!Kyle!Hotchkiss!Carone,!Siki!Im,!and!Yigal!Azrouël!scoped!out!the!latest!issue!and!mingled! throughout!the!night.!
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A First Look at the Women Artists of the Armory Show 2016 !
March 1, 2016 01:52 PM | by Fan Zhong Women are making their mark at The Armory Show in New York. Before the VIP opening on Wednesday, a preview of the most striking booths at the fair.
Sylvie Fleury, at Galerie Thaddeus Ropac And we have lift-off, with one of the Swiss artist's sexy, shiny objets. It's a little phallic, and a lot pink — the emasculation is not a coincidence. Sylvie Fleury. Courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.
Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze at Mariane Ibrahim Born in Nigeria, raised in the U.K., and now based in New York, Amanze's dreamy drawings, which are part of the Armory Focus section — which this year zeroes in on artists with African roots — are as fluently free-floating as the artist herself. Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze, "I sent you to survey the world, and when you did not return, I came," 2016. Courtesy Mariane Ibrahim gallery.
Sigalet Landau at Hezi Cohen The Israeli artist took black bridal gowns and dunked them in her native Dead Sea until they turned white. Even a Jewish mother might agree that the humor is a little dark, yes? Sigalit Landau in collaboration with Yotam From, "Salt-Crystal Bridal Gown III" and "Salt-Crystal Bridal Gown VI," 2014. Photo by Yotam From. Courtesy Hezi Cohen.
Esther Stocker at Alberta Pane. The Armory is cavernous enough to make you lose your bearings. Maybe save the Vienna-based painter's geometric environments, which take Op Art to a trippier level, after you've found them first. Esther Stocker, Installation view, "Dirty Geometry," 2011. Copyright Takeshi Sugiura. Courtesy Alberta Pane Gallery.
Tracey Emin at Lorcan O'Neill If Cosmo ever does an Art Issue, we have your artist collaborator. Tracey Emin, "The more of you the more I love you," 2015. Courtesy Galleria Lorcan O'Neil
Cecilia Edefalk at Stene Projects F—k the self portrait, the Swedish artist is telling you. Cecilia Edefalk, "Selfportrait," 1993/2004. Courtesy Stene Projects Stockholm .
Laura Aldridge at Koppe Astner Just the thing to soften up the cold, hard edges of any art fair, courtesy of this Glasgow-based artist. Laura Aldridge, Courtesy Koppe Astner.
Cindy Sherman at Vivian Horan Let's go out with one of Sherman's groundbreaking film stills, featuring herself as ye Old Hollywood clichés — bombshell, career girl, housewife, vamp, and so on. How much has really changed since the '70s?
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Zoë Paul at The Breeder Few could take an old refrigerator grill and bead it in so painterly a manner as this young British artist can. Crafting made cool, literally. Zoe Paul, "Hand Sign C," 2015. Courtesy The Breeder, Athens.
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http://www.wmagazine.com/culture/art5and5design/2016/03/women5artists5armory5art5fair52016/photos/slide/1!
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The Not-So-Hidden Messages of Armory Week !
March 5, 2016 01:01 PM | by Stephanie Eckardt From the Armory Show itself to its charmingly scrappy subsidiaries, the art fairs of Armory Week have been full of messages – and not just for potential buyers. Some, like a red neon by Tracey Emin, can be sensual, casting a seductive glow on the white-walled Pier 94. Others are more utilitarian, like a floor plaque urging caution around Jo Shane's bottles of perishable breast milk at Spring/Break. In any case, what's a better break from taking selfies than some good old-fashioned reading?
"What in the Wide, Wide World of Sports" (2015) by Polly Shindler at Spring/Break. Photo by Katie Thompson.
"You Touch Me" by Tracey Emin at The Armory Show. Photo courtesy of Armand Bartos Fine Art, New York.
Close-up of "Milk" (2016) by Jo Shane at Spring/Break. Curated by Jo Shane + Maripol. Photo by Katie Thompson.
Work by Jean-Baptiste Michel at Spring/Break. Curated by Marc Azoulay. Photo by Katie Thompson.
"Come to Daddy" (2015) by Ivan Navarro at The Armory Show. Photo courtesy of the artist and Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris/Brussels.
"Finish Line" (2016) by Nicole Reber at Spring/Break. Curated by Myla Dalbesio. Photo by Katie Thompson.
"Mommie Dearest Daddie Dead" (2015) by James Concannon at Spring/Break. Curated by 1985, RĂŠmy Bennett, and Kelsey Bennett. Photo by Katie Thompson.
"Wanted By the Law" (2011) by Andrea Bowers at The Armory Show. Photo courtesy of Andrew Kreps Gallery.
"Untitled" (2013) by Erika Blair at Spring/Break. Curated by Jo Shane and Maripol. Photo by Katie Thompson.
"Set in the Street" by Justin Bettman at Spring/Break. Curated by Marc Azoulay. Photo by Katie Thompson.
At Spring/Break. Curated by 1985, RĂŠmy Bennett, and Kelsey Bennett. Photo by Katie Thompson.
"VCR" (2015) by Polly Shindler at Spring/Break. Curated by Christopher Stout and Will Hutnick. Photo by Katie Thompson.
"Good News" (2016) by Nicole Reber at Spring/Break. Curated by Myla Dalbesio. Photo by Katie Thompson.
"Whose?" (2014) by Esmeralda Kosmatopoulos at Spring/Break. Photo by Katie Thompson.
"Money" (2015) by Annette Kelm at The Armory Show. Photo courtesy of Konig Galerie.
"Mondrian's Works IV� by Joseph Kosuth at The Armory Show. Photo courtesy of Galleri Brandstrup Oslo.
"Seven Minutes in Heaven" by Alanna Vanacore at Spring/Break. Curated by Aaron Levi Garvey. Photo by Katie Thompson.
Work by James Concannon at Spring/Break. Curated by 1985, RĂŠmy Bennett, and Kelsey Bennett. Photo by Katie Thompson.
"Art" by Mary Bauermeister at The Armory Show. Photo courtesy of 401 Contemporary, Berlin.
"Broke Ass (from YOUNG MONEY performance)" (2011) by Myla Dalbesio at Spring/Break. Photo by Katie Thompson.
"Broke Ass (from YOUNG MONEY performance)" (2011) by Myla Dalbesio at Spring/Break. Photo by Katie Thompson.
"Broke Ass (from YOUNG MONEY performance)" (2011) by Myla Dalbesio at Spring/Break. Photo by Katie Thompson.
http://www.wmagazine.com/culture/art-and-design/2016/03/armory-week-2016-spring-break-art-fair-messages/photos/slide/all
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Where to Take Selfies at the New York Art Fairs !
March 4, 2016 03:45 PM | by Ally Betker Walking through the various art fairs open in New York this week, mirrors showed up time and time again. At Spring/Break, Graham Caldwell made a large-scale sculpture with numerous reflective surfaces. Meanwhile at The Armory Show, Anish Kapoor (who designed the famous – and well-photographed – public art piece The Bean in Chicago), created a small, smooth sphere. It's hard, if not impossible, to resist whipping out your iPhone to snap your likeness – an interesting, ahem, reflection of our time. Are we, as viewers, artwork unto ourselves or simply endlessly narcissistic? In any case, there's certainly something to be said for the art of the selfie.
Michelangelo Pistoletto "Scimmia in gabbia." Courtesy of Repetto Gallery, London. The Armory Show.
Adolf Luther. Courtesy of 401 Contemporary, Berlin. The Armory Show.
Adolf Luther. Courtesy of 401 Contemporary, Berlin. The Armory Show.
Anish Kapoor "Alice - Double Circle," 2014. Courtesy of Lisson Gallery. The Armory Show.
Claudia Wieser "Untitled," 2015. Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York. Photo credit: Matt Grubb. The Armory Show.
Ahmet Gunestekin "Encounter Kostantiniyye Series 3" 2015. Courtesy Marlborough Gallery, New York. The Armory Show.
http://www.wmagazine.com/culture/art-and-design/2016/03/new-york-art-fairs-trends-2016-armory-show/photos/slide/1
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A Poseur's Guide to Armory Week 2016 !
March 8, 2016 07:01 AM | by Ally Betker and Stephanie Eckardt
The sprawling art world event known as Armory Week ended in New York on Sunday. With a dozen or so fairs spread out all over the city, taking them all in was an enormous undertaking. Even if you narrowed your focus to three of the fairs — say the Armory Show, Independent New York , and the Spring/Break Art Show — it's likely you still missed something. But no need to fret. Here's ten highlights of everything you need to know about this year's edition — the best booths, the most memorable controversies, the artists that had the critics swooning — so you too can pretend to hold court on the subject like your average snobby art world connoisseur.
Naked, Not Afraid at the Armory Show During the VIP preview of the Armory Show, Italian performance artist Romina de Novellis locked herself naked in a cage with 500 white roses. Throughout the day, she slowly picked up the blooms one by one and secured them to the structure, eventually concealing herself from the curious gaze of guests. It's unclear if she took a break for lunch or bathroom visits.
Kehinde Wiley's Very Good Week Of course, sales are the true indicator of success – it’s easy to forget that’s why most people attend the fairs, though maybe less so at the official Armory Show, where you can hear people ask things like, “How much for the Haring?” In any case, Kehinde Wiley had a number of sales by a handful galleries, including New York’s Sean Kelly, which sold the painting “Equestrian Portrait of Philip III” for $300,000 and the sculpture “Bound” for $375,000. Galerie Daniel Templon sold “Jose Alberto de la Cruz Diaz and Luis Nunez" for $250,000, and Roberts & Tilton of Culver City, California sold “Equestrian Portrait of Prince Tommaso of Savoy-Carignan,” also for $250,000.
African Art at the Armory Show This year’s “Show Focus” at the Armory was on African art, which South African artist Ed Young announced from the get-go with a giant banner reading “ALL SO F—ING AFRICAN” right by the fair’s entrance. (That was a relatively chaste message compared to the other one he had in mind, making for a brief rumor that Young had been censored.) Controversy aside, the 14 international galleries’ worth of contemporary African art was a definite highlight of the Armory, adding a welcome mix of diversity and showcasing standout works like collage-like paintings from Njideka Akunyili Crosby, a video from Kapwani Kiwanga, and bright canvases from Barkley L. Hendricks, seen here. Photo courtesy of @beckyhammer.
Not for Sale Garth Greenan Gallery is exhibiting at the Armory Show, but still took one piece to Independent. (Independent as a whole, which moved to Spring Studios from Dia in Chelsea this year, was a buzzy topic in its own right.) Unfortunately, Mark Greenwold's big, colorful “Bright Promise (for Simon)” from 197175 isn’t for sale, but head over to the gallery, where his later work is on view through March 26 and is available for purchase. Talk about a good PR move.
A Solo Show from a Female Artist at the Armory A solo show at an art fair is unusual – and one by a woman should be celebrated. At the Armory Show, New York gallery Two Palms showed Cecily Brown exclusively, a British artist who explores the work of Old Masters like Hieronymus Bosch and Jan Brueghel the Elder through the female gaze. Earlier this year, she was one of the female artists' at the Rubell Collection's all-women No Man's Land exhibit.
http://www.wmagazine.com/culture/2016/03/armory-week-2016-ten-highlights/photos/slide/1
! Q&A!With!New!York’s!The!Armory! Show’s!Benjamin!Genocchio!
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! The!executive!director!of!the!art!fair!discusses!the!future!of!The! Armory!Show,!diversity!in!art!and!more! ! By!THOMAS!GEBREMEDHIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!March!2,!2016!3:53!p.m.!ET!
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! ! Over!the!past!several!years,!The!Armory!Show—long!considered!one!of! the!country’s!leading!art!fairs—has!weathered!more!than!a!few!changes.! First,! it! received! some! competition! when! LondonWbased! art! fair! Frieze! arrived! on! nearby! Randall’s! Island.! Then! its! director,! Noah! Horowitz,! decamped!for!Art!Basel!in!Miami.!It!comes!as!no!surprise!then!that!the! recent! appointment! of! former! Artnet! News! editorWinWchief! Benjamin! Genocchio! has! been! met! with! both! excitement! and! hesitation,! with! some,!including!Genocchio,!calling!for!key!changes!in!the!fair’s!model.! WSJ.!spoke!with!Genocchio!over!the!phone!last!week!in!anticipation!of! the!fair,!opening!March!3,!about!diversity!in!art,!those!new!$1000/hour! private!viewing!rooms!and!the!future!of!The!Armory!Show.! ! How$will$The$Armory$show$continue$to$distinguish$itself$from$the$other$ fairs$that$are$popping$up?$ ! To!give!you!an!indication!that!we’re!not!just!a!fair,!we!still!support!the!Pat! Hearn!and!Colin!de!Land!Cancer!Foundation.!We!raise!money!for!MoMA.! This!is!not!a!franchise!fair.!We!come!out!of!New!York’s!cultural!scene— we’re!part!of!it.!I!see!us!as!a!fair!that!trades!on!the!city,!whereas!other! fairs!like!Basel!are!cities!that!trade!off!the!fair.!They!show!up!for!five!days,! fly!everyone!in!and!then!they!get!up!and!leave.!But!we!live!and!work!here.! When!I!moved!to!New!York!sixteen!years!ago,!there!were!like!five!art!fairs! in!the!world.!Last!year!there!were!180!international!fairs.!There’s!been!a! fragmentation!of!the!art!world,!what!you’d!call!an!increasing! regionalization!in!which!dealers,!and!therefore!fairs,!seek!to!service! clients!or!collectors!where!they!live.!It’s!questionable!whether!some!of! these!cities!can!sustain!fairs!in!the!long!term.! ! You$were$named$Executive$Director$in$January.$Many$of$the$moving$ parts$for$this$year’s$fair$were$in$place.$So$what$kind$of$changes$were$you$ able$to$implement$in$this$new$role?$ ! I!have!a!strong!attachment!to!popular!culture—I!have!a!theatrical!streak.!I! pushed!very!heavily!to!have!this!project!of!the!Italian!artist!Romina!de! Novellis,!naked!in!a!glass!box.!And!then!there’s![Jonathan!Schipper’s]!car!
crashing!slowly!into!a!wall.!I!was!really!supportive!of!these!kinds!of! projects!because!they!bring!a!sense!of!occasion!and!theatricality!to!the! event.!We!needed!some!fun.! ! !
! Romina!de!Novellis’s!‘La!Gabbia’! Do$you$feel$that$institutions$like$The$Armory$Show$are$obligated$to$ provide$exposure$to$artists$who$are$on$the$periphery,$those$who$are$less$ wellFknown?$ ! Very!much!so.!If!you!look!at!the!way!the!fair!is!structured,!we!have!a! section!called!Armory!Presents,!which!highlights!emerging!galleries.!We! received!220!applications!for!that!section!and!we!could!only!take!22! dealers.!I’m!going!to!make!it!more!restrictive!next!year!and!say!that!you! can!only!show!art!that!has!been!made!in!the!last!three!to!four!years.! ! Similarly,$I$talked$with$the$artist$Rachel$Whiteread$last$year$about$the$
lack$of$diversity$in$art.$She$made$the$point$that$although$women$are$ more$successful$than$ever$in$art,$they$still$fetch$prices$that$are$much$ lower$than$their$male$counterparts.$I$think$the$same$could$probably$said$ for$artists$of$color.$Should$diversity$be$a$consideration$when$planning$ these$types$of$fairs?$ Yes.!The!Armory!Show!has!always!prided!itself!on!diversity.!It!was! founded!on!principals!of!inclusivity,!as!a!reaction!to!the!ADAA,!which!was! this!stuffy!art!fair!up!at!the!Park!Avenue!Armory.!We!have!exhibitors!from! 36!countries.!That’s!more!than!any!art!fair!in!the!world.! !
Jonathan!Schipper’s!‘Slow!Motion!Car!Crash’! !
There’s$been$a$lot$of$buzz$about$these$private$viewing$rooms.$I’ve$read$ that$they$go$anywhere$from$seven$hundred$to$one$thousand$dollars$an$ hour.$What$was$the$logic$behind$that?$ ! That!was!something!I!pushed!for!when!I!arrived.!The!fair!experience!can! be!degrading!for!art.!If!you’re!looking!to!buy!important!work!for!a! significant!amount!of!money,!you!want!to!have!the!ability!to!contemplate! it!in!a!private!space.!Increasingly!art!fairs!have!become!almost!like!a! promenade.!That’s!certainly!the!case!in!Miami!and!to!some!extent!the!
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case!with!The!Armory!Show.! ! Are$these$works$that$would$not$have$otherwise$been$on$view?$ $ They!can!be!on!view!in!booths!or!sometimes!they’ll!be!works!that!dealers! bring!or!have!in!storage.!In!the!case!of!Thaddaeus!Ropac,!who!has! galleries!all!around!the!world!but!not!in!New!York,!he!may!bring!many! other!artworks!that!are!not!on!display!in!his!booth.! ! What’s$the$future$of$The$Armory$Show?$I$know$you’ve$spoken$about$ finding$a$new$model$for$it.$ My!instincts!tell!me!that!we’re!going!to!deepen!our!role!and!responsibility! and!responsiveness!to!New!York.!This!is!a!New!York!fair—we’re!not! franchising.!We’re!part!of!the!fabric!of!the!city.! ! Do$you$feel$like$The$Armory$Show$is$removed$from$the$New$York$scene?$ $ No,!I!just!think!it!drifted!a!little!bit.!There’s!an!opportunity!for!us!to!take!it! back!to!its!roots.!I!mean!every!two!years!it!coincides!with!the!Whitney! Biennial!and!yet!we!have!no!relationship!with!the!museum.!Maybe!we! could!sponsor!a!prize.!These!are!things!that!seem!obvious.!We!are!New! York.!We!lost!sight!of!that!for!a!bit.!This!old!grey!lady!just!sat!there!and! thought,!‘We!don’t!need!to!do!anything.’!But!we!are!New!York.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
http://www.wsj.com/articles/qWaWwithWnewWyorksWtheWarmoryWshowsWbenjaminWgenocchioW1456952012!
KATY DONOGHUE March 5, 2016!
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! The Armory Show this week has a bright energy, a more fluid layout, and a great presentation of work by artists from the African diaspora in the fair’s “Focus” section. Galleries brought quality work, shying away from more flashy, shocking, or installationheavy presentations. Daniel Joseph Martinez‘s wall work that read “I can’t ever imagine wanting to be white.” at Roberts & Tilton was one of the few politically charged pieces. We saw a good amount of impressive painting, from artists like Fiona Rae at Timothy Taylor gallery, Jules de Balincourt‘s Space Investors (2015) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Njideka Akunyili Crosby‘s collages at Victoria Miro, and we loved Barkley L. Hendricks‘ at Jack Shainman gallery (presenting an exhibition of the artist later this month). We also noticed quite a bit of material exploration on view — like Matthew Brandt‘s chromogenic prints buried in Wai’anae, Hawaii at M+B gallery, Kirk Mangus‘ stoneware vessels at James Cohan gallery, and Sebastian Stöhrer‘s glossy ceramic pieces Carl Freedman gallery. Other 3D standouts included Patrick Jacob‘s miniature-like blush pink circular diorama, Yeesookyung‘s massive sculpture made from ceramic shards at Ota Fine Arts, a solo exhibition of Marlene Mocquet at Galerie Laurent Godin featuring sculpture and paintings straight from a spooky fable, and E.V. Day‘s sensual Satellite of Modern Love (2016) a mashup of arms and legs in Yves Klein blue at Carolina Nitsch. Overall, the fair felt serious and strong, continuing its role as an anchor in New York’s spring art calendar. The Armory Show is on view through March 6
http://www.whitewallmag.com/art/12-things-to-see-at-the-armory-show-2016
An eclectically stylish crowd descended upon Piers 92 and 94 in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon for the 22nd annual Armory Show. On its VIP preview day, the modern and contemporary art fair, now open to the public until March 6, drew several recognizable faces. Among them: Steve Martin, Matt Dillon, Neil Patrick Harris, Vivienne Tam, Glenn O’Brien, Yvonne Force Villareal, John Waters, Kiki Smith and Dustin Yellin, many of whom could be spotted sipping bubbly in the venue’s Champagne lounge. This year marks an unprecedentedly international array of vendors for the fair, with 205 galleries from 36 countries worldwide, as well as a symposium and a special exhibit on African artists. Not unlike the art world itself, the see-and-be-seen crowd’s looks tended to divide into two main camps: uptown chic and downtown eccentric. Exemplifying the former were ladies in lush fur coats, Chanel tweed suits, knee-high snakeskin boots or Gucci kangaroo fur loafers, with Hermès Birkin bags dangling from arms. The quirkier contingent displayed a preference for clashing prints, statement hats, bold jewelry, colorful eyeglasses, and lots and lots of leather. But among both groups, the hottest accessories were the giveaways: canvas totes by Canadian artist and novelist Douglas Coupland from his “Slogans for the 21st Century” series — emblazoned with one-liners riffing on digital culture, such as “You and Your Selfie are Merging” — and South African artist Ed Youngdesigned black balloons, stamped with the words “Your Mom.”
http://wwd.com/fashion-news/they-are-wearing/they-are-wearing-armory-show-art-street-style-10377688/
THE ARMORY SHOW 2016 DIGITAL HIGHLIGHTS
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/travel/a-guide-to-new-york-art-fairs.html?ribbon-adidx=4&rref=arts/design&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Art% 20%26%20Design&pgtype=article
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Galerie!Thaddaeus!Ropac!(Pier!94,!901)! On!Wednesday,!Nasa!astronaut!Scott!Kelly!returned!to!Earth!after!a!year!on!the!International! Space!Station.!Meanwhile,!on!Planet!Art,!visitors!to!New!York’s!Armory!Show!at!Piers!92!and!94! can! travel! to! the! outer! reaches! with! a! spaceNthemed! stand! by! Galerie! Thaddaeus! Ropac.! To! launch!things!off!there!is!Sylvie!Fleury’s!First!Spaceship!on!Venus!(22)!(2015),!a!sparkly!fibreglass! rocket!priced!at!$35,000.! ! ! !
! ! ! The!gallery!is!also!showing!a!largeNscale!diptych!Robert!Longo,!Untitled!(Cosmonaut!Tereshkova,! First!Woman!in!Space)!(2015),!Jules!de!Ballincourt’s!Space!Investors!(2015)!and!a!smaller!garbage! rocket! by! Tom! Sachs! Saturn! V,! (2011).! These! are! accompanied! by! older! works! by! James! Rosenquist,! Richard! Artschwager! and! Robert! Rauschenberg,! who! created! a! wallNmounted! sculpture!that!resembles!a!sort!of!broken!flying!machine.!Ropac!said!almost!all!the!works!in!the! booth!besides!those!older!ones!were!commissioned!by!the!gallery.!The!historic!works!are!a!bit! more!expensive!too—$1m!for!Rosenquist’s!and!$1.5m!for!Rauschenberg’s.! ! The!Armory!project!follows!a!similar!group!show!Ropac!staged!at!its!Paris!Pantin!gallery!this!fall.! “We!were!just!talking!at!the!gallery!about!what!might!be!a!fun!idea!to!do,!and!this!came!up,”! Ropac!said,!adding!that!the!decision!to!do!a!show!about!space!was!not!at!all!influenced!by!the! new!Star!Wars!movie.!—!Dan$Duray$ $ $
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Galerie!Nordenhake!(Pier!94,!801)! John!Coplans!(1920N2003)!is!known!best!as!a!founding!editor!of!Artforum!and!its!editorNinNchief! from!1972!to!1977.!His!nude!selfNportrait!photographs,!a!group!of!which!are!on!view!with!Galerie! Nordenhake!from!Berlin!and!Stockholm,!reveal!a!more!intimate!side!to!the!artist!and!writer.!“The! head!is!decapitated!in!every!image,”!says!the!dealer!Ben!Loveless,!adding!that!the!series!reflects! in!part!Coplans’s!experience!as!a!British!soldier!in!Ethiopia!during!the!Second!World!War.!! ! He!took!up!photography!in!earnest!in!1980,!says!Amanda!Means,!Coplans’s!second!wife!and!a! trustee!of!the!John!Coplans!Trust.!“He!said!he!had!entered!his!‘silent!period’!when!he!stopped! writing,”!she!says.!In!2002,!the!selfNportrait!series!was!the!subject!of!the!monograph!A!Body,! published!by!Powerhouse!books.!Each!print!at!the!Nordenhake!stand!is!priced!at!$18,000.!—!Pac$ Pobric$ $
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Two!Palms!Press!(Pier!94,!733)! The!Armory!Show!tends!not!to!be!a!place!for!single!artist!shows—most!galleries!tend!to!favour!a!
more!eclectic!display—but!one!stand!features!an!impressive!series!of!new!works!by!Cecily!Brown.! They!are!presented!by!Two!Palms!Press,!a!New!YorkNbased!print!studio!that!works!with!artists! including!Brown,!Elizabeth!Peyton,!Chris!Ofili!and!Dana!Schutz.!! ! The!works!are!all!original!monotypes!generally!featuring!forest!scenes,!but!in!Brown’s!abstract! style,!and!are!around!three!feet!long.!The!cost!of!each!is!$66,000.!Not!bad!for!a!unique!work!by! Brown,!even!if!the!resale!value!may!pale!in!comparison!to!her!other!pieces.!—!Dan$Duray! !
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James!Cohan!(Pier!94,!909)! The!New!Yorker's!art!critic!Peter!Schjeldahl!once!described!the!Brooklyn!artist!Fred!Tomaselli!as! “the!guy!who!puts!drugs!in!his!paintings”.!This!anatomical!depiction!of!a!man,!priced!at!$300,000,! is!made!from!a!cocktail!of!overNtheNcounter!pills!such!as!Tylenol,!Advil,!Tums,!and!placebos!which! are!set!with!paint!and!resin!on!wood.!The!piece!demonstrates!“the!idea!of!how!humans!use!drugs! as! an! escape,! and! the! psychological! effects! of! taking! drugs”,! a! spokeswoman! for! the! gallery! said.!!—!Gabriella$Angeleti$ $
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Sean!Kelly!(Pier!94,!501)! The!artist!Kehinde!Wiley!typically!discovers!his!models!on!the!streets!of!New!York,!but!for!his! newest!painting—finished!in!Sean!Kelly’s!booth!the!night!before!the!Armory!Show!opened!to! VIPs!on!Wednesday—the!painter!picked!Niles!Luther,!a!strapping!young!cellist!who!Wiley!saw! performing!with!the!Harlem!Chamber!Players!at!the!opening!of!his!Brooklyn!Museum! retrospective!last!year.!! ! During!the!fair’s!Wednesday!afternoon!preview,!Luther,!now!a!student!at!the!Manhattan! School!of!Music,!could!be!found!standing!proudly!alongside!the!portrait,!which!showed!him! riding!a!bucking!blond!horse,!sword!in!hand.!One!of!Wiley’s!largest!works!to!date,!the!painting! is!priced!at!$300,000.!—!Rachel$Corbett! $ $
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Hollis!Taggart!(Pier!92,!406)! Frank!Stella’s!work!can!be!spotted!all!over!Pier!92,!the!section!of!the!Armory!Show!that!learns! toward!Modern!art.!At!least!four!galleries—Armand!Bartos!Fine!Art!(420),!Leila!Heller!Gallery! (106),!Simon!CapstickNDale!Fine!Art!(100)!and!Hollis!Taggart!Galleries!(406),!all!from!New!York— are!presenting!work!by!the!artist.!That!the!market!for!Stella’s!work!has!picked!up!following!his! recent!retrospective!at!the!Whitney!Museum!is!perhaps!not!surprising.!“He!has!always!had!such! broad!appeal,”!says!the!New!Jersey!dealer!Michael!Borghi,!who!is!working!with!Hollis!Taggart!at! the!fair.!! ! But!are!Stella’s!more!recent!works,!made!since!he!abandoned!his!stripe!paintings!in!1965,!less! popular?!“It’s!not!that!they’re!less!popular,!it’s!just!that!they!don’t!cost!as!much!money,”!Borghi! says.!Taggart!is!selling!The!Honor!and!Glory!of!Whaling!(1992),!a!painted!aluminium!maquette! for!a!larger!work!from!the!Moby!Dick!series,!for!$675,000.!As!well!as!the!lower!priceNpoint,!this!
newer!work!is!less!hefty!in!other!ways.!“It!probably!only!weighs!about!250!pounds,”!Borghi!says,! adding!that!it!was!intended!for!a!private!residence.!—!Pac$Pobric$ $
! ! Donald!Ellis!(Pier!92,!238)! WellNtrafficked! by! the! public! and! wellNregarded! by! critics,! the! Plains! Indians! exhibition! at! the! Metropolitan!Museum!of!Art!last!year!has!spurred!new!interest!in!the!market!for!works!of!art!by! Native!American!artists.!“This!is!one!of!the!most!important!aspects!of!American!art!history!and! nobody!knows!about!it,”!says!Donald!Ellis,!whose!New!YorkNbased!gallery!had!an!especially!vivid! pigmentNonNmuslin!work!on!view!at!Pier!92.!! ! Made!by!an!anonymous!artist!from!the!Lakota!(Teton!Sioux)!Northern!Plains!tribe!and!dating!to! around!1895,!the!painting!depicts!a!crowd!gathered!for!the!grueling!spiritual!ceremony!known! as!a!Sun!Dance.!Ellis!said!the!piece,!priced!at!$275,000,!is!“the!finest!example!of!its!type”,!pointing! out!the!way!the!earthy!colours!“expand!across!the!surface”!of!the!muslin.!—!Rachel$Corbett$ $ $ $ ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! http://theartnewspaper.com/market/artNmarketNnews/ourNpickNofNwhichNgalleriesNtoNseeNatNtheNarmoryNshow/!
https://news.artnet.com/market/dealers-bringing-2016-armory-show-435296
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The!22nd!edition!of!the!Armory!Show!opens!to!the!public!on!Thursday,!March!3,!with!a! preview!day!on!Wednesday,!March!2.!This!year’s!fair!is!the!first!edition!with!Artnet!News! editor!Ben!Genocchio!at!the!helm,!replacing!Noah!Horowitz,!who!left!to!be!director!of!the! Americas!for!Art!Basel!after!being!credited!with!reinvigorating!the!annual!event.!The!fair,! which!will!bring!together!205!galleries!from!36!countries,!returns!to!New!York’s!West!Side! with!the!Modern!sector!taking!over!Pier!92!and!the!Contemporary,!Focus,!and!Presents! sectors!taking!over!Pier!94.! !
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! 10!Must(See!Booths!at!the!Armory!Show! BY#SCOTT#INDRISEK#|#MARCH#03,#2016# #
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! An#installation#view#of#works#by#Matthew#Brandt#at#the#PrazKDelavallade#booth#at#the#Armory# Show.(Photo#by#Regina#Mogilevskaya#)# # Under#the#new#directorship#of#Benjamin#Genocchio,#I#expected#major#changes#at#the#Armory# Show#this#year#—#perhaps#an#abolition#of#the#tyranny#of#booths,#a#more#freeKflowing,#freeK loving#affair#where#dealers#and#collectors#in#Maison#Margiela#pajamas#hung#out#on#super# comfortable#Muji#beanbag#chairs,#coolly#discussing#the#future#of#contemporary#practice#while# sipping#a#variety#of#cocktails#inspired#by#popular#back#issues#of#Artforum.# Alas,#despite#a#change#in#leadership,#the#booths#remained.#(There’s#always#next#year.)#In#the# meantime,#here’s#an#entirely#subjective#list#of#a#few#things#worth#seeing#at#this#year’s#fair.# ! Alison!Jacques!# “She’s#like,#a#millionKyearKold#German#woman,”#one#wouldKbe#collector#said#approvingly#of#Irma# Blank,#whose#densely#swirling#ballpointKonKcanvas#work#hangs#on#one#wall.#(Fact#check:#She’s#in# her#80s.)#Next#to#it#there’s#a#terrific#mixedKmedia#paintingKsculpture#by#Nobuo#Sekine,#which# resembles#a#pinched#and#puckered#nipple#painfully#cinched#by#a#rope#bearing#a#stone.#The#same# abstractedKbody#mood#carries#into#a#series#of#plasterKandKPerspex#works#by#Maria#Bartuszova.# Victoria!Miro# Works#by#Kara#Walker,#Chris#Ofili,#Alice#Neel,#Isaac#Julien,#and#Hernan#Bas#all#shine#here,#but#the# obvious#highlight#is#a#large#diptych#by#Njideka#Akunyili#Crosby#—#a#portrait#of#a#woman#and#a#
domestic#interior#enlivened#by#found#textiles#and#family#photographs#dyeKtransferred#to#the# surface#to#form#a#rippling#collage.# Nicelle!Beauchene# Three#different#riffs#on#the#grid,#from#Louise#Despont,#Ruby#Sky#Stiler,#and#Alexander#Tovborg,# each#exuding#a#certain#ritualistic#vibe#—#as#if#they’re#all#esoteric#relics#of#religions#way#more# interesting#than#the#real#ones.### ! Praz(Delavallade# A#solo#booth#from#photographic#experimentalist#Matthew#Brandt,#though#you’d#be#hardK pressed#to#guess#that#the#three#distinct#bodies#of#work#issued#from#the#same#studio.#For#one,# the#artist#cropped#moments#from#images#in#the#Los#Angeles#Times#and,#using#a#projector#(and,# I’d#guess,#many#nimbleKfingered#and#patient#assistants),#reconstituted#the#composition#with# shining#rhinestones.#An#additional#series,#represented#here#by#five#paintingKlike#pieces,#uses#a# devoré'(“burnout”)#technique#to#sear#a#photographic#image#into#sheets#of#velvet.#It’s#a#neat,# and#weirdly#Warholian,#direction#for#this#innovator.# ! Grimm!Gallery# Comfortably#crammed#and#its#walls#draped#with#bare#linen,#this#booth#becomes#a#clubhouse#for# works#by#Nick#van#Woert,#Dave#McDermott,#and#others.#I#was#so#busy#admiring#Van#Woert’s# Minimalist#cube#structure,#its#interior#stuffed#with#a#maximalist#assortment#of#soda#cans,#maps,# and#other#stuff,#that#I#completely'forgot'to#look#at#the#two#sculptures#by#Dustin#Yellin.## ! Susanne!Vielmetter# Sadie#Benning#has#been#doing#aquaKresin#based,#puzzleKpiece#compositions#for#a#while,#but#a# new#one#from#2016#here#has#the#bold#graphic#punch#of#early#MTV.#It#sizzles#in#the#best#possible# way.# ! On!Stellar!Rays# The#largeKscale#Julia#Bland#textileKpainting#here#was#made#during#a#residency#in#Dumbo,#with# the#artist’s#windows#offering#a#stunning#view#of#the#Manhattan#Bridge#that#surely#influenced# this#piece’s#architecturally#tinged#composition.#It#shares#the#New#York#gallery’s#cozy#booth#with# paintings#—#of#fields#of#dots,#and#orangeKladen#trees#—#by#the#excellent#Ryan#Mrozowski.# ! Sim!Galerie# This#Brazilian#gallery#presents#a#solo#booth#by#Delson#Uchoa,#10#resinKbased#curtains#that#he# calls#“Inhabited#Paintings.”#They#form#a#meditative#cocoon#within#the#fair’s#larger#buzz#and# clamor.# ! Blain!|!Southern# I#met#newly#signed#gallery#artist#Agathe#de#Bailliencourt#at#this#booth#—#she’s#French,#based#in# Berlin,#but#the#piece#we#were#standing#in#front#of#had#been#made#during#a#residency#in#Marfa.#It# was#a#subtly#glowing#abstraction,#made#by#soaking#bare#linen#with#lots#of#water#and#then# brushing#layer#upon#layer#of#paint#on#top.#It#may#look#simple,#but#plenty#of#factors#are#at#play#—# like#the#water#itself,#which#de#Bailliencourt#swore#was#just#different#in#Texas.#(Back#home#in# Germany#she’s#been#experimenting#with#the#bottled#mineral#variety.)#The#artist#is#currently# planning#an#inspirationKgathering#sixKday#road#trip#in#Death#Valley#—#she’s#a#fan#of#“extreme#
landscapes.”#And,#she#said#approvingly,#in#America#our#landscapes#—#like#our#ice#cream#cones# —#are#just#bigger.#Nearby,#a#blackKandKwhite#Wim#Wenders#photo#of#a#row#of#lonely#mailboxes# on#a#dusty#Montana#road#provides#a#more#literal#record#of#a#similar#terrain.# ! Carl!Freedman!Gallery# “Last#year#I#was#looking#at#ceramics#like#these,”#a#fair#visitor#confessed,#“and#they#just#made#me# ill.”#The#offending#works#in#question,#resembling#Boschian#bongs,#were#squirmy,#biomorphic# glazed#sculptures#by#Sebastian#Stohrer.#Any#illKmaking#effects#here#are#countered#by#BrusselsK based#Pieter#Vermeersch’s#cool#and#contemplative#paintings,#with#their#barely#perceptible# gradient#fades.# # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1344552/10KmustKseeKboothsKatKtheKarmoryKshow#
! At!Armory!Show,!No!Signs!of! Art!Market!Slowing!
Celebs,'artworlders'were'out'in'force'at'the'show's'VIP'preview' By'Alanna'Martinez'•'03/03/16'11:28am' '
Artwork'by'Francisco'Vidal'on'view'at'London'gallery'Tiwani'Contemporary’s'booth'in'the' Armory'Focus:'African'Perspective'section.'(Photo:'Alanna'Martinez)' While'headlines'proclaim'that'the'art'market'is'cooling,'to'put'it'kindly,'it'couldn’t'have'been' sunnier'on'The'Armory'Show‘s'opening'day.'At'high'noon'on'Wednesday,'the'aisles'on'Piers'92'
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and'94'on'Manhattan’s'far'west'side'were'packed'with'eager'collectors'and'celebrity'art' enthusiasts.' Neil'Patrick'Harris'headed'for'the'Focus:'African'Perspective'section,'Matt'Dillon'had'his'eye'on' pretty'much'everything'inside'Sean'Kelly’s'booth,'BBC’s'Being&Human'star'Russell'Tovey'was' spotted'at'Kavi'Gupta,'and'John'Waters’'painted'blazer'was'itself'a'work'of'art.'A'little'bird'also' told'us'Steve'Martin'was'in'the'house.' ' “Maybe'I’m'just'a'fanboy,'but'was'that'Anderson'Cooper?”'a'dealer'asked'us'in'the'Modern' section'on'Pier'92.'Indeed,'it'was.' ' And'while'sadly'we'didn’t'trip'into'Leonardo'DiCaprio'this'time'around,'we'did'overhear'one' visitor'ask'their'art'adviser'“So,'are'you'working'with'Leonardo'DiCaprio'now?”' '
Kudzanai'Chiurai,'Emporium,'(2016),'at'Goodman'Gallery.'(Photo:'Alanna'Martinez)'
' Prominent'art'world'figures'such'as'former'Brooklyn'Museum'director'Arnold'Lehman'and'his' successor'Anne'Pasternak'were'in'attendance,'as'was'artist'Matthew'Barney,'Art'Basel'execs' Marc'Spiegler'and'Noah'Horowitz,'and'Expo'Chicago'director'Tony'Karman.' Celebrities'and'regular'VIPs'alike'all'gravitated'toward'the'Focus'section,'which'typically' showcases'galleries'and'artists'from'a'specific'geographic'region,'and'shines'a'spotlight'on' Africa'this'year.'While'the'section'only'included'14'galleries,'specially'commissioned'projects'
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from'African'artists'spilled'over'into'the'rest'of'the'fair'and'many'dealers'in'the'main' section'chose'to'highlight'works'that'touched'on'the'regional'theme'as'well.' ' Zimbabwean'artist'Kuzanai'Chiurai’s'project&Emporium'was'shown'by'Goodman'Gallery,'which' has'locations'in'Capetown'and'Johannesburg.'The'installation'juxtaposed'the'history'of' commerce'in'preecolonial'Africa'with'contemporary'consumerism'and'features'a'colorfully' printed'garment,'gilded'shopping'cart'and'editioned'prints'and'wallpaper'displayed'in'a'glass' vitrine'made'to'look'like'a'shop'window.'The'work’s'asking'price'is'$85,000.' ' '
Kehinde'Wiley,'Bound,'(2015),'and'Jose'Davila,'Untitled'(Oh,'Jeff…'I'Love'You,'Too…)'II,' (2016)'at'Sean'Kelly'Gallery.'(Photo:'Alanna'Martinez)' ' Meanwhile,'at'Sean'Kelly'Gallery'near'the'entrance'of'Pier'94,'a'large'bronze'sculpture'by' Kehide'Wiley'titled'Bound,'featuring'the'busts'of'three'women'bound'together'by'intricate' braided'hairstyles,'drew'large'crowds.'The'work'is'an'edition'of'three'(one'was'shown'at'the' artist’s'Brooklyn'Museum'exhibition'in'2015)'and'is'the'artist’s'first'sculpture'featuring'women.' By'the'afternoon,'the'gallery'reported'the'work'sold'for'$375,000.' Standout'works'can'also'be'found'at'Jack'Shainman'Gallery,'which'occupies'an'oversized'booth' on'the'north'end'of'Pier'94.'Viewers'were'captivated'by'a'bright'pink'painting'by'Barkley'L.' Hendricks'titled'Photo&Bloke,'who'will'open'a'new,'perhaps'“controversial”'series'of'works' according'to'a'spokesperson'for'the'gallery,'on'March'17'at'Shainman’s'24th'Street'location.'
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Mr.'Hendricks’'painting'is'shown'next'to'a'sculpture'by'Hank'Willis'Thomas,'In&Liberty,'which' features'the'cast'arm'of'retired'NBA'player'Juwan'Howard,'and'is'included'in'The'Brooklyn' Museum’s'collection.' '
' Barkley'L.'Hendricks,'Photo&Bloke,'(2016)'at'Jack'Shainman'Gallery.'(Photo:'Alanna'Martinez)' ' We'spotted'a'recognizable'white'coif'on'view'at'Paul'Kasmin'Gallery.'The'white'hair'from'James' Nares’'video'portrait'belongs'to'filmmaker'and'artist'Jim'Jarmusch,'who'happens'to'be' showing'his'own'artwork'to'the'public'for'the'first'time'at'the'Spring/Break'Art'Show'at' Moynihan'Station'this'week.'Mr.'Nares’'slow'motion'film'work'Street'was'shown'at'The'Met'in' 2013'and'featured'a'soundtrack'by'Thurston'Moore,'and'his'work'Pendulum'is'included'in' MoMA'PS1’s'“Greater'New'York”'show.'For'his'newest'series,'he'captures'the'portraits'of'close' friends'and'family'using'high'speed'cameras,'and'slows'and'stretches'moments'of'movement'
into'durations'of'45'minutes'or'longer.'The'works'premiere'today'in'an'exhibition'at'Kasmin' Gallery,'and'Mr.'Nares’'portrait'Jim'(2015),'is'on'sale'at'The'Armory'Show'for'$85,000.' '
The'Armory'Show’s'Champagne'Lounge.'(Photo:'Alanna'Martinez)' '
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In'the'Modern'section,'a'grouping'of'works'by'Gutai'group'artists,'such'as'Yayoi'Kusama,'Shuji' Mukai'and'Chiyu'Uemae'can'be'found'at'Tokyo’s'Whitestone'Gallery,'which'is'putting'on'a'mini' “showewithineaeshow.”'Japan’s'avantegarde'Gutai'artists'were'given'a'spotlight'during'the' Guggenheim'2013'survey'of'the'midecentury'art'movement,'and'interest'in'the'work'has' increased'during'the'last'five'years,'a'representative'for'the'gallery'told'The'Observer.'We' couldn’t'help'but'ask'how'a'slowdown'in'the'Chinese'economy'has'been'affecting'Asian'art' markets.' '
' A'painting'by'Shuji'Mukai'at'Whitestone'Gallery.'(Photo:'Alanna'Martinez)' '
' “Chinese'buyers'are'buying.'The'media'likes'to'make'it'sound'worse'than'it'is,'but'if'you'go'to' China,'that’s'not'the'case,”'he'said.' ' So'how'about'that'art'market'cooling?' ' “I'wouldn’t'say'a'‘cooling,’'I’d'say'it’s'more'like'a'pause,”'he'said.'“The'people'interested'in'this' work,'who'are'able'to'buy'it,'aren’t'going'to'stop.”' ' ' ' ' http://observer.com/2016/03/atearmoryeshowenoesignseofeartemarketeslowing/'
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The! Armory! Show! is! upon! us! once! again.! The! venerable! New! York! fair! has! been! battling! the! headwinds! of! global! art! fair! competition! for! some! time,! fighting! to!
retain!its!status!as!a!must?see!attraction.!Earlier!this!year,!it!got!a!new!director,!the! editor!and!writer!(and!my!old!boss)!Benjamin!Genocchio,!following!Noah!Horowitz,! who!has!decamped!to!work!with!the!Art!Basel!franchise.!Genocchio!is!tasked!with! injecting!some!kind!of!renewing!vision!to!the!whole!thing.! !
What! that! might! be,! we! can't! say! yet.! The! wheels! were! already! turning! for! this! year's! edition.! On! first! blush,! the! all?important! Pier! 94! “Contemporary"! section! feels!pretty!similar!to!other!recent!outings.!It!has!about!the!same!ratio!of!classiness! and!crassness,!the!same!sense!of!a!space!at!once!airy!and!closely!packed,!part!trade! show!and!part!circus.!It!feels!business?as?usual?ish.! As!always!at!an!event!of!this!size,!there!are!little!discoveries!and!moments!to!savor.! Here!are!a!few!for!which!it!is!worth!making!the!trip.! !
Barkley L. Hendricks, Photo Bloke (2016). Image: Courtesy Jack Shainman.
At New York's Jack Shainman, a full-length portrait by the great African American painter Barkley L. Hendricks (b. 1945), whose solo show at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2009 was a real revelation. Its central figure, clad in a bubble-gum pink suit and suspended a bubble-gum pink background, shows an indelible portrait of stylish intelligence in form and content.
Untitled 2016 work by Njideka Akunyili Crosby at Victoria Miro. Image: Ben Davis.
At London's Victoria Miro, a large diptych by Nigerian-born, London-based painter Njideka Akunyili Crosby (b. 1983) is so hot off the presses, the dealer told me, that the work was yet to be titled. The left panel features a graceful self-portrait, the artist reclining in a crisply painted chair. The textures of the interior around her are rendered via a collage of textiles and photo-transfer images of Nigerian news items: the artist's background rendered, literally, as background.
Ana Maria Tavares at Sicardi Gallery. Image: Courtesy Sicardi Gallery.
At Houston's Sicardi Gallery, the Brazilian artist Ana Maria Tavares (b. 1958) has a variety of hand-embroidered, lily pad-like soft sculptures suggesting the alluvial flora of the Amazon. Delicate but with accents of crafty psychedelia, the objects are installed in glass cases, deliberately courting a look somewhere between a science exhibit and a display of groovy jewelry. Each year brings in a curated selection of galleries for the "Focus" section, which attempts to offer the hint of an edifying mission. This year the task fell to Yvette Mutumba and Julia Grosse, co-founders of Contemporary And, a magazine and online platform for “ideas, discourse and information on contemporary art practice from diverse African perspectives." Their Armory mini-show, correspondingly, is simply called "African Perspectives."
Yvette Mutumba and Julia Grosse. Image: Rain Embuscado.
Pretending to represent a coherent perspective on an entire continent and its diaspora is folly, a fact of which these curators are certainly aware. “We always say that we are able to give a glimpse of the variety that is out there," Grosse told me. It's nevertheless through this door that a few of the most interesting discoveries in the show enter.
Francisco Vidal at Tiwani Contemporary. Image: Ben Davis.
London's Tiwani Contemporary offers Portugal-born artist Francisco Vidal (b. 1978), who was one of last year's representatives for Angola at the Venice Biennale. His full-booth display lines the space with messy, energetic color abstractions as well as grids of deft black-and-white drawings of friends, colleagues, and heroes; scrappy plywood boxes are scattered about the space, serving both as furniture and sculpture. The whole thing, as I understand it, is a demonstration of what Vidal calls the U.topia Machine, a scheme to pack the capacity of a pop-up art studio into the portable crates. The installation represents an overall proposal for making on-the-go art as much as it is a bunch of discrete works.
Cyrus Kabiru, Njia Ya Maisha, Macho Nne Trump (2016). Image: Courtesy SMAC Gallery.
Cape Town's SMAC Gallery presents Nairobi-born Cyrus Kabiru (b. 1984), who has forged a totally charming Afro-Futurist practice. Kabiru creates inventive sunglass/face mask hybrids from scrounged materials, then captures himself wearing them in photographic self-portraits.
Ibrahim!al?Salahi,!Calligraphic*Forms*III*(1989).! Image:!Courtesy!Vigo!Gallery.!
! The!towering!presence!in!"African!Perspectives,"!though,!is!Sudanese!artist!Ibrahim! al?Salahi!(b.!1930),!at!London's!Vigo!gallery.!The!artist's!dreamy?but?lucid!pen!on! canvas!works!have!an!otherworldly!suggestiveness,!sometimes!hinting!at!personal! stories,!sometimes!evoking!mystic!symbols,!primeval!artifacts,!or!alien!machines.! Al?Salahi!is!a!major!figure!in!his!home!country,!and!one!who!has!recently!gathered! greater!and!greater!recognition!for!his!unique!synthesis!of!calligraphy,!automatic! drawing,!and!more.!Recently,!a!show!at!the!Tate!Modern!used!him!to!inaugurate!a! series!on!"African!Modernisms."!The!work!here!is!more!than!worth!seeing;!it!the! kind!of!work—rooted!in!a!deep!history!but!offering!a!fresh!way!of!looking—that! makes!this!whole!circus!feel!worth!something.! ! ! www.news.artnet.com/art?world/armory?show?2016?first?impressions?440054!
Installation view of Paul Kasmin Gallery’s booth at The Armory Show, 2016. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy. The Armory Show opened to VIPs on Wednesday at Piers 92 and 94 on Manhattan’s west side. The 22nd edition of the New York institution welcomes 205 galleries from 36 countries on every continent save Antarctica and Australia—the motherland of its new director, Benjamin Genocchio. Over 700 galleries applied to participate in The Armory Show this year, 200 of whom were vying for the mere 22 spots in the Presents section for galleries under 10 years old
Those galleries’ enthusiasm was met equally by that of collectors queueing for entry today ahead of the fair’s high-noon start, with notables like Anderson Cooper (fresh from covering the Super Tuesday of Trump), Steve Martin, Neil Patrick Harris, and John Waters commingling with the many New York buyers and those from around the country that make The Armory Show a reliable sales platform for domestic dealers and its increasingly international set of participants alike.
Installation view of the Focus: African Perspectives section at The Armory Show, 2016. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.
Much of the fair’s international expansion in 2016 is thanks to its Focus section. Called “African
Perspectives” and organized by curators Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba, the section brings galleries from Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the Ivory Coast to The Armory Show for the first time. Many of the regional focus sections that dot fairs around the globe get lost in the excitement around the fairs’ bluechip exhibitors and serve as strategic marketing efforts—where discounted booths get dealers from new regions hooked. However, “African Perspectives” is a true achievement for The Armory Show, serving up a number of its best booths and most intriguing emerging artists.Among those is Armory Show commissioned artist Kapwani Kiwanga, who, aside from an installation on Pier 92, enjoys a solo presentation at a joint booth by Berlin’s Galerie Tanja Wagner and Paris’ Jérôme Poggi. “It’s been very exciting,” said first-time Armory exhibitor Wagner of the fair’s first few hours, which saw art fair regulars and Miami mega-collectors Don and Mera Rubell, among others, take a particular shine to Kiwanga’s sculptural works presented at the booth. (No sales had been confirmed at the time.) “When Kapwani visited her family in Tanzania, she was very interested in the sisal plantations there,” said Wagner of the booth’s central work, The Drying Fields. “They call sisal ‘white gold’ because of how important it is to the local economy. Like much of her work it’s about deconstructing production and the economy,” she added, pointing to a video work in the middle of the booth in which Kiwanga slowly un-weaves a sisal rug.
Installation view of Sean Kelly’s booth at The Armory Show, 2016. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy.
Whether due to the Focus section itself or the increased interest in contemporary art from Africa and the African Diaspora on the art market, African—and African-American—perspectives were prevalent throughout Pier 94. Sean Kelly Gallery wracked up some of the vernissage’s most impressive sales, topped with two works by red-hot Brooklyn-based artist Kehinde Wiley. A nearly 11-foot-wide painting in the artist’s signature style of regal portraiture, Equestrian Portrait of Philip III (2016) sold quickly for $300,000. Wiley’s first sculpture of women, Bound (2015), which featured prominently in the artist’s Brooklyn Museum show last spring and sees three black women facing outwards and tied together by their braided hair, sold for $375,000. From James Cohan, who sold the large Elias Sime work that anchors the outside of his booth, to Victoria Miro, who sold work by Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Kara Walker, to Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, who sold two pieces by late pioneering painter Alma Thomas, to Stevenson, who returned to The Armory Show after five years to sell out of their edition of Zanele Muholi,
collectors were primed for purchase of such artists.
Installation view of Sean Kelly’s booth at The Armory Show, 2016. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy. Latin American galleries also exhibited at The Armory Show in greater numbers this year. From Brazil alone SIM Galeria, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, and Galeria Luisa Strina have joined (or rejoined) the Armory’s ranks. (Six more Brazilian galleries have committed for 2017.) It’s an infusion that longtime Armory Show participant and committee member Daniel Roesler of Galeria Nara Roesler helped initiate. And one that couldn’t come at a better time for the country’s dealers and artists For their part, Galeria Nara Roesler debuted a New York showroom just two days before the Armory opened its gates. “Brazil and the U.S. are very similar,” explained artistic director Alexandra Garcia Waldman of the move. “Our artists back home have a very strong market in the same way that New Yorkbased artists have a very strong market in New York. So part of our role is to bring these staples of the market where we’re from to a very similar market here. It’s interesting to create that bridge.” That bridge bore sales of Vik Muniz’s c-print Postcards from Nowhere: São Paulo (2014) for $55,000 and Artur Lescher’s delicate brass and fishing-line sculpture Maggi (2015) for $17,000 on opening day. The booth, with which Waldman says she hopes to “portray a different vision of Brazil than what you’re currently hearing in the news,” focuses on artists from the famed Geração 80 just as a new generation of figurative painters gains traction in Brazil.
Installation view of The Armory Show, 2016. Photo by Adam Reich for Artsy. New European additions to the fair were also quick to sell. “The last time we did Armory was 2009,” said Sascha Welchering of Berlin’s Wentrup. “We started getting back into the American market in Miami, but today was even busier, to be honest.” The assessment was confirmed as gallery owner Jan Wentrup swept over to confirm the sale of Karl Haendel’s wall-spanning, photorealistic pencil-on-paper work Rodeo (2016), for which they were asking $40,000. “Okay, two more works and we’re sold out,” updated Welchering. Successfully sold pieces included Gregor Hildebrandt’s“Cross the Border” (2016) from a new series of cut vinyl record works, for $36,000; Olaf Metzel’s Yona Friedmann (2011) for $54,000; and David Renggli’s Floorplan Desire Painting (Left/Center) (2016) for $27,000. And even for dealers who didn’t sell out, a surprise sale or two often appeared unannounced. “It’s a good start, but just okay, nothing too exciting,” said Nicolò Cardi of the eponymous Milan gallery. He had sold three works by Pino Pinelli for between $30,000–85,000 by mid-way through Wednesday afternoon. And, while many dealers would have considered that quite a successful day, for Cardi, it didn’t match up to the two $2 million Fontana works he sold on opening day the year before. But, no sooner had the words left his mouth than a collector strutted into the booth, reintroducing himself from half its span away and asking, “Hey, did you get my offer on the 18-inch white Fontana?” With a smile back to me, Cardi swooped over to close the deal. —Alexander Forbes Explore The Armory Show 2016 on Artsy.
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-at-the-armory-show-international-dealers-find-refuge-in-new-york-market-s-strength
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Future&of&Armory&Show,&According& to&New&Director&Ben&Genocchio& By!Alanna!Martinez!•!03/03/16!11:52am! ! At!yesterday’s!VIP!preview!of!The!Armory!Art!Show,!we!had!the!chance!to!take!a!break!from!the! crowds!with!newly!appointed!director!Benjamin!Genocchio.!(Full!disclosure:!I!used!to!work!for! him).!Mr.!Genocchio!comes!to!The!Armory!Show!from!a!journalism!background,!first!at!the!New! York!Times!and!most!recently!as!the!founder!and!editorTinTchief!of!Artnet!News.!Sitting!in!the! fair’s!show!office!while!he!caught!his!breath,!we!asked!him!how!he!felt!about!being!on!the!other! side.!
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!“I!didn’t!realize!until!I!started!this!job!just!how!much!of!a!microcosm!of!New!York!the!fair!is,”!he! told!us.! He!emphasized!that!The!Armory!Show!is!one!of!the!few!major!art!fairs!that!isn’t!sponsored!by!a! cooperation!or!a!bank,!but!instead!partners!cultural!institutions!and!the!city!for!support.!It’s!an! arrangement!that!seems!to!have!worked!well!for!the!past!22!years,!and!something!he’d!like!build! upon—just!not!in!other!cities.! “We’re!not!a!franchise,!we’re!a!city!fair.!We’re!creating!a!moment!here!for!New!York,”!he!said.! In!fact,!megadealers!don’t!need!to!attend!the!fair—they!might!choose!to—but!really,!they!have! locations!all!over!the!world,!he!said.! !
! The!Armory!Show!director!Benjamin!Genocchio.!(Photo:!Patrick! McMullan/PatrickMcMullan.com)!
Jim!Campbell!at!Bryce!Wolkowitz.! ! But! that! doesn’t! mean! there! isn’t! room! for! improvement.! Some! possibilities,! he! says,! are! expanding!the!Armory’s!Presents!section,!for!younger!dealers.’! ! “We! get! over! 200! applications! for! just! over! 20! spots,! why! not! open! it! up! more,”! said! Mr.! Genocchio.! ! The!Projects!section,!which!features!works!chosen!by!Focus!section!curators,!could!also!expand,! he!said,!beyond!the!dates!of!the!fair!with!a!possibility!of!putting!on!smaller!events!throughout! the! year.! Concentrating! on! geographic! regions! for! Focus! will! only! work! for! so! long.! And! reconsidering!the!divide!between!the!modern!and!contemporary!sections!is!also!on!the!table.! Any!changes,!he!says,!are!about!looking!forward!embracing!the!trends!in!the!market!and!the!art! world!at!large.! “We’re!not!building!business,!the!business!already!exists,”!he!said,!“We’re!not!a!Potemkin!village! for!art!here,!we!don’t!need!to!bribe!people!to!come.”!
Sigalit!Landau,!Restive!Products,!at!Hezi!Cohen!Gallery.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
http://observer.com/2016/03/futureTofTarmoryTshowTaccordingTtoTnewTdirectorTbenTgenocchio/!
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-can-benjamin-genocchio-make-the-armory-show-theworld-s-best-art-fair-he-certainly-thinks-so
http://www.whitewallmag.com/art/new-director-benjamin-genocchio-on-the-armory-show-2016
SALES, RESERVES, AND PRICES AT THE 2016 ARMORY SHOW
BY The Editors of ARTnews POSTED 03/03/16 9:55 AM The Armory Show opened to press and invited guests on Wednesday, and celebrities and collectors were out in force. There was Neil Patrick Harris! And over there, Sofia Coppola! John Waters! That guy who plays Cyclops in the X-Men movie! Art was for sale. Business was being conducted. Below, a running list of sales, reserves, and prices, which we’ll update as we come across more news Three big Kehinde Wileys sold big: at Roberts & Tilton, Equestrian Portrait of Prince Tommaso of Savoy-Carignan (2015), measuring 102 by 108 inches, for $250,000; at Galerie Daniel Templon, Jose Alberto de la Cruz Diaz and Luis Ninez (2016), 120 by 70 inches, for $250,000; and at Sean Kelly, Equestrian Portrait of Philip III (2016) , 114 by 119 inches, for $300,000. All three are from the same series, recently made, of a similar size, and they sold quickly. What’s interesting is the different bases for the selling galleries: Los Angeles, Paris/Brussels, and New York, respectively. Robert & Tilton’s was also offering a Betye Saar sculpture, which had been placed on hold by an institution, and many more works were selling fast—a good first day for the Los Angeles gallery. The big Ugo Rondinone built with bluestone and steel at the front of the Eva Presenhuber sold for $350,000. (Those heading to Europe soon, take note: Ugo’s epic show/love letter to John Giorno is still up at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris until October.)
Sterling Ruby’s big sculpture M S40-2947 (2010), which was taking up a ton of space at the Sprüth Magers booth, went for $200,000. Director Sarah Watson came to work the Armory Show booth even though she just spent a crazy last few months prepping for the opening of the gallery’s new Los Angeles space. “The Armory isn’t just the 1 percenters. People who save up to buy one thing a year—they come here,” she said. “I actually meet people here. And we don’t have a New York gallery, so the collectors we work with come by.” Marianne Boesky sold out its booth, Frank Stella’s Split Star (2015) going for $850,000. It was difficult to place in a collection because it has to be installed outside—it’s pretty big, 43 by 57 by 51 inches—but can’t be placed anywhere with salty air because of the type of steel it’s made out of. Rules, rules, rules. Paul Kasmin is back at the Armory after a few years away and had something to say about it: “I love being back at the Armory Show.” He added, “We have a remarkable Venet sculpture on view to coincide with a monumental sculpture installation at Union Square.” The Bernar Venet—a rolled steel work coming in at a hulking 98 by 102 by 78 inches—is called Indeterminate Line, and it’s priced at $525,000, but had not sold as of Wednesday evening. Over at GRIMM was an untitled triptych by Dustin Yellin. Like many other works by the Brooklyn artist, it featured images encased in sheets of glass and was worth a lot of money—a whopping $300,000. A prospective buyer had placed it on hold. (Twelve more like it are going to be shown at the Amsterdam gallery later this year.) Lisson Gallery had on view a diverse grouping of works, from post-Internet video to ink drawings, and its sales included a Cory Arcangel video featuring Lindsay Lohan over a pool of rippling water ($60,000) and a multicolored Spencer Finch light work ($50,000). It also sent an e-mail to press saying it had moved works by Stanley Whitney, Ryan Gander, and Julian Opie. New York’s 11R gallery (née Eleven Rivington) had lured many viewers into its booth with a formidable Jackie Saccoccio painting. With a large beige splotch in the middle and eye-popping splashes on it, the work was priced at $45,000. In the first hour of the fair, Michael Rosenfeld had on offer an Alice Neel triple portrait of three young children, from around 1952, for $650,000; a wall of four Alma Thomases (one of red chunky forms atop a blue ground, from 1976, for $580,000); and a Barbara Chase-Riboud bronzeand-silk piece from 2007 for $350,000. Nate Freeman and Alex Greenberger contributed reporting. http://www.artnews.com/2016/03/03/sales-reserves-and-prices-at-the-2016-armory-show/
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Kehinde Wiley, Jose Alberto de la Cruz Diaz and Luis Nunez (2016) at Galerie Daniel Templon. Photo: Rain Embuscado.
New York's 2016 Armory Show opened to brisk sales on Wednesday, March 2. Almost every dealer artnet News spoke to on the contemporary pier yesterday evening had at least one sale to report, if not more. A hot seller as the fair got underway was works by Kehinde Wiley, with big ticket items finding buyers at a number of booths. At Roberts & Tilton of Culver City, California, Equestrian Portrait of Prince Tommaso of SavoyCarignan had sold at $250,000, while Jose Alberto de la Cruz Diaz and Luis Nunez went for $250,000 at Galerie Daniel Templon. At New York's Sean Kelly Gallery, Wiley's Bound, a bronze sculpture that was part of his recent Brooklyn Museum exhibition, fetched $375,000, while Equestrian Portrait of Philip III went for $300,000. Other sales for the dealer included four pieces by José Dávilla, two at $37,500 and the others at $16,500, as well as a Callum Innes painting at £36,500 (about $51,400).
Iván Navarro, Come to Daddy. Photo: courtesy Galerie Daniel Templon.
Paris- and Brussels-based Galerie Daniel Templon also sold four Chiharu Shiota sculptures in the $40,000 range, and a showstopping $150,000 Ivรกn Navarro light work titled Come to Daddy.
Shih Chieh Huang, Disphotic Zone. Photo: Rain Embuscado
One of the fair's most striking pieces, Shih Chieh Huang's Disphotic Zone, a glowing robotic jellyfish sculpture hanging from the ceiling of a darkened, completely enclosed booth, had also sold by the day's end. "It happened so quickly," Ronald Feldman, owner of the eponymous New York gallery, told artnet News. Though unable to share the selling price or the buyer, he assured us "it's in really good hands." A number of Kapwani Kiwanga's unusual-looking sculptures, made from Tanzanian sisal fiber, sold in the $10,000–20,000 range at the joint booth of Galerie Jérôme Poggi and Galerie Tanja Wagner. At New Dehli's Gallery Espace, Zarina Hashmi's haunting paper works, many inspired by the current refugee crisis and priced at $10,000–75,000, were also finding buyers, but beyond that, the gallery was unwilling to share details.
Jannis Varelas, The Cowboy (2016). Photo: courtesy the Breeder, Athens
George Vamvakidis was more forthcoming at Athens's the Breeder Gallery, where he proudly revealed that the Zabludowicz Collection had snapped up Jannis Varelas's The Cowboy for a cool $30,000. Late in the day on Wednesday, the New Museum's Limited Editions booth had sold all but 6 of the 20 limited edition sculptures by Matthew Monahan, bound stacks of 160 gruesome prints of a man's face shot from behind by a Colt 45 pistol. The resulting works, priced at $12,000 each, are almost Cubist in appearance.
An animated GIF of all 20 editions of Matthew Monahan's Son of a Gun. Photo: Matthew Monahan, courtesy the New Museum Limited Editions.
London's Mot International had sold works by a number of artists, including Laure Prouvoust, as well as a trio of works by Amikam Toren priced between $20,000 and $30,000. At Sprüth Magers, which has locations in Berlin, London, Los Angeles, and Cologne, sales included a $175,000 Sterling Ruby sculpture, snapped up by a Middle Eastern collector; a George Condo painting at an undisclosed price, and multiple Michail Pirgelis works between €20,000–30,000 (about $21,800–32,700). Galeria Nara Roesler in São Paulo (and soon-to-be New York) reported two sales: Vik Muniz's Postcards from Nowhere: São Paulo, for $55,000, and Artur Lescher's Maggi for $17,000.
Vik Muniz, Postcards from Nowhere: São Paulo (2014). Photo: courtesy Galeria Nara Roesler.
New York's Lisson Gallery had sales of work by Stanley Whitney, Ryan Gander, and Julian Opie, as well as Tony Cragg's Points of View and Spencer Finch's Color Test, both between $50,000–200,000. On the lower end of the spectrum, Tokyo's Ota Fine Arts had sold one of Yeesookyung's smaller "Translated Vase" works, created from the
remnants of rejected pieces of mass-produced traditional Korean ceramics for $3,800.
Yeesookyung, Translated Vase, Set of 3. Photo: courtesy Ota Fine Arts.
Despite the crowds admiring the miniature forests by Patrick Jacobs at Brooklyn's Pierogi gallery, interested parties had yet to pull the trigger when artnet News stopped by. "Things are on hold at the moment," said gallery director Joe Amrhein. Other sales mentioned in a recap sent out by fair include two thirds of the work at Blain | Southern gallery of New York and Berlin, a near sell-out at New York's Marianne Boesky gallery, and works by Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Kara Walker selling to museums by London's Victoria Miro Gallery.
Patrick Jacobs, Untitled (Pink Forest). Photo: courtesy Pierogi.
Amsterdam's Upstream Gallery reportedly sold out within an hour of the VIP opening, while Stevenson Gallery of Johannesburg sold its entire edition of Zanele Muholi works.
https://news.artnet.com/market/armory/show/sales/report/day/1/440285!
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The Armory Show Opens With a Quieter Flurry of Sales BY JUDD TULLY | MARCH 03, 2016
Kehinde Wiley's "Equestrian Portrait of Philip III" 2016.
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The Armory Show, now in its 22nd year and spread out along two piers abutting the always scenic Hudson River, kicked off its VIP preview on Wednesday with a quieter flurry of sales. Free from last year’s badly timed blizzard that made entry into New York a major challenge, the only headwinds yesterday were the growing perception that the global art market is beginning to soften, at least from first-hand though hardly scientific impressions of a seasoned observer.
A bellweather of any international fair would be Paris/Salzburg uber dealer Thaddaeus Ropac, one of the 205 exhibitors whose lively stand, themed “The Space Age,” replete with works ranging from Richard Artschwager to Robert Rauschenberg, was unusually quiet in terms of sales on Wednesday. Artschwager’s blast off “Rocket” from 1971, executed in acrylic on Celotex and modestly scaled at 46.5 by 21 inches, sold for $350,000. Robert Longo’s impressive diptych, “Untitled (Cosmonaut Tereshkova, First Woman in Space)” from 2015, in charcoal on mounted paper and large-scaled at 94 by 48 inches, had a reserve from an undisclosed museum at $650,000, but hadn’t sold as of press time. “We’re happy to be here,” said Ropac in understated enthusiasm. “I remember the first Armory Show in the hotel, so it’s almost a nostalgic feeling to support this fair and I love New York,” he added, referring to the fair’s cutting edge beginnings in 1994, organized by dealers Pat Hearn, Colin de Land, Paul Morris, and Matthew Marks at the Gramercy Park Hotel (in those days, the fair was known as the Gramercy International Art Fair). Ropac also mentioned the quandary facing some art fair hopping dealers who show at both Armory and the May slotted Frieze New York fair on Randall’s Island, just two months away, in that you can’t bring the same type of material. For that reason, Ropac didn’t have any works by either Georg Baselitz or Anselm Kiefer. That disappointed Miami super collector and art patron Marty Margulies, buttonholed along the wide aisles during the early afternoon VIP viewing, who said, “There’s nothing here for me. I’m concentrating on Arte Povera and Kiefer.”
But collectors certainly found other artists of interest as evidenced at New York’s Sean Kelly stand, where Kehinde Wiley’s bronze trio of African women, “Bound” from 2015 at 65 by 45 by 44 inches and from an edition of three plus two artist proofs, sold for $375,000, as did the artist’s grandly scaled and Old Master-styled “Equestrian Portrait of Philip III” from 2016, in oil on canvas and measuring 114 by 119 inches, which went for $300,000. “It’s been extremely good so far,” said Sean Kelly. “And though I can’t claim to be a barometer of the entire art fair, the sales have been absolutely consistent with past years and very solid.” The gallery also sold numerous works by Guadalajara-based artist Jose Davila, whose Pop Art styled reprises of Roy Lichtenstein bubble captioned, comic book inspired works from the ’60s proved irresistible to the market. All of the featured editions of four with one artist proof sold out, such as “Untitled (Drowning Girl),” an archival pigment print from 2016, which went for $37,500. Toronto collector Larry Wasser, who also serves on the board of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, was one of the Davila buyers. “It’s a way to get ’60s art in contemporary times,” Wasser said. One of the most exciting works at the fair, emblematic of what the Armory Show is supposed to deliver in terms of primary market works, is the fresh from the studio diptych by the LA-based Nigerian artist Nijideka Akunyili Crosby. The yet to be titled work at London’s Victoria Miro Gallery instantly sold to a major though unnamed New York museum for a high five-figure price. The artist literally brought the just finished, large-scale, multi-media work on paper to the fair the day before the opening.
The autobiographical piece, hung in the stand with large metal clips, features a striking self-portrait of the artist seated at a table, surrounded in part by illustrated medallions of her politician mother in campaign style finery, depicting her candidacy for a Senate seat in the Nigerian congress — the work pulsated with a kind of real-life vibrancy. “We have about 18 big public museums on a waiting list for her work,” said Miro Gallery director Glenn Scott Wright, “and there’s a lot of buzz around her work.” The gallery also sold Kara Walker’s “For Idioms of Negro Art, #1 folk,” from 2015, at an undisclosed six figure price.
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'This!is!a!rodeo,'!were!the!words!used!to!summarise!the!Armory!Show's!packed!VIP!preview!yesterday! by!new!executive!director!Benjamin!Genocchio,!an!editor!and!former!New$York$Times$critic!who!was! tapped!to!run!the!fair!in!December.!'The!one!thing!a!lot!of!the!fairs!want!is!energy,!this!place!has!it.! This!is!a!selling!machine.'! ! Now!in!its!22nd!year,!the!fair!certainly!wouldn't!be!recognisable!to!its!1913!namesake,!or!even!the! modest! contemporary! concept! conceived! (originally! as! the! Gramercy! International! Art! Fair)! by!
dealers!Colin!de!Land,!Pat!Hearn,!Matthew!Marks!and!Paul!Morris!back!in!1994.!By!5pm,!Sean!Kelly! sold!two!massive!works!by!Kehinde!Wiley!(one!painting;!one!sculpture)!for!$375,000!a!piece;!Jack! Shainman!sold!Photo$Bloke,!the!Instagram[breaking!neon!pink!Barkley!L!Hendricks!portrait!for!a!cool! $200,000;!Sprüth!Magers!moved!a!2010!stainless!steel!Sterling!Ruby!sculpture!for!$175,000;!and!both! Marianne! Boesky! and! Jessica! Silverman! Gallery! sold! a! few! watercolour! and! gouache! paintings! by! Dashiell!Manley!for!between!$20,000[$30,000.!! ! 'People!brought!out!heaps!of!quality!–!they're!a!little!bit!anxious!about!the!market!so!they!brought! great!stuff,'!says!Genocchio,!noting!that,!for!this!year's!edition,!the!fair!built!a!bigger!VIP!lounge!and! enhanced!visitor!services.!It!also!bowed!its!Africa!Focus!section,!the!highlights!of!which!included!solo! offerings!by!Dan!Halter!(at!Cape!Town's!WhatIfTheWorld)!and!Ruby!Onyinyechi!Amanze!at!Seattle's! Mariane!Ibrahim[Lenhardt!–!who!also!presented!Stephen!Burks'$'Noir'!exhibition!beside!his!Pier!92! lounge.!'But!for!next!year's!fair!we'll!make!some!changes,'!Genocchio!continues.!'We'll!look!at!the! floor! plan,! try! to! create! more! space! downstairs,! maybe! move! some! of! the! services! up! to! Pier! 92,! maybe!relocate!the!VIP!lounge.!Dealers!want!bigger!booths,!it!gets!congested.'! ! Some!key!changes!might!include!a!reimagined!Focus!section!(arranged!conceptually!or!thematically! instead!of!simply!by!region);!more!spots!for!the!Armory!Presents!section!(for!galleries!aged!ten!years! and! under,! and! which! received! 220! applications! for! 20! slots);! a! rethink! on! the! division! between! modern!and!contemporary!('The!market!has!dissolved!that!division');!and!perhaps!a!new!section!for! larger!installations!on!par!with!Art!Basel's!Unlimited!sector.!! 'That's!a!prissy,!Swiss!space.!This!is!a!huge!industrial!structure!in!New!York.!I've!got!40[foot!ceilings,! I've!got!37,000!feet!on!the!bone!yard!–!that's!a!third!more!space,!and!we!don't!even!use!it.!All!of!this! is!up!for!grabs,'!says!Genocchio.!Nodding!to!the!surging!preview!crowd,!he!adds,!'This!is!unstoppable,! but!as!a!result!we!haven't!done!anything.!I'd!like!to!evolve!it!conceptually,!the!first!major!conceptual! floor!plan!evolution!since!they!added!the!Modern!section.!It!hasn't!evolved!because!it!works!as!it!is,! but!we!can!do!it,!it's!just!a!matter!of!getting!through!this!current!fair.'! Until!then,!see!above!for!some!highlights!from!the!last!pre[Genocchio!rodeo.!! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
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https://news.artnet.com/art-world/best-deals-armory-show-440504
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The Armory Show Modern Strikes a Quiet, Contemplative Pose BY JUDD TULLY | MARCH 04, 2016
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Marc Chagall's "Animal and clown," 1964, on view at Galleria d’Arte Maggiore's booth at the Armory Show Modern.
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After the rather raucous, tire kicking action during the preview opening of the Armory Show Contemporary on Wednesday, the 56 galleries of Armory Show Modern, tucked away on Pier 92, became a peaceful refuge for unhurried viewing on Thursday. The difference in atmosphere between the two sibling venues is always striking, and one doesn’t have to dodge zombie texters that seem to prefer
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roaming the more crowded aisles of Pier 94 where 114 contemporary galleries ply their mostly primary market stock and trade.
The Armory Modern pier, however, has its own energy, in a steady, middle age plus kind of way. That slower view was appreciated at Bologna’s Galleria d’Arte Maggiore, where a dazzling grouping of Giorgio Morandi paintings and prints, as well as a striking Rene Magritte and a Marc Chagall gouache, punched all the right viewing buttons. With reserves on one of the Morandi oils and the Magritte painting waiting in the stand at an identical $2 million asking price, the gallery sold Chagall’s “Animal and Clown” from 1964, a charming gouache of a reclining circus figure nestled on top of a horned creature, to an American collector near the $800,000 asking price. Maggiore also sold a Morandi still life etching from 1946, “Grande natura morta circolare con bottiglio e tre oggetti,” for around $60,000. There are always surprises at Modern, such as the combo artist booth of Joseph Beuys and Salvatore Scarpitta at the Innsbruck-, Monza-, and Milan-based Montrasio Arte. Scarpitta’s spectacular and used dirt track custom racer, “Sal’s Red Hauler Special” from 1966/67, powered by a twin Harley-Davidson modified engine and priced at $650,000, far less than what you’d pay for a run-of-the-mill vintage Ferrari, was a crowd pleaser. You can’t beat the provenance, since Scarpitta’s racer was sponsored by his dealer, the late and great Leo Castelli. “We expected a little bit more on opening day,” said director Gianluca Bianco, “and we didn’t really connect with sales.”
Seasoned New York dealer Vivian Horan was stationed directly across the Beuys/Scarpitta installation and appreciated her view. “I like this fair,” said Horan. “It has energy and more European representation.” The gallerist sold Vik Munoz’s collaged confection, “Three Flags, after Jasper Johns (Pictures of Magazines),” a chromogenic print from 2007 and scaled at 40 by 60 inches, which went for an otherwise undisclosed fivefigure price. Horan sold the Munoz to a Texas collector and uttered a wellknown art fair trade phrase for works that sell easily: “I could sell it five times over.” The viewing landscape changed again at New York’s Michael Rosenfeld Gallery in a stand devoted to women artists, including a biomorphic hanging sculpture by Ruth Osawa, “Untitled” from 1953, in copper wire and just 14 inches by 16 ½ by 17 inches. It sold for an undisclosed price at the request of the publicity shy buyer. Rosenfeld also sold early abstractionist Charmion von Wiegand’s nature painting, “I Ching series-Ta Yu: The Image of Fire in Heaven” from 1955, measuring 36 by 30 inches, which hit the region of the $380,000 asking price. In addition, the gallery sold two acrylic and graphite works on paper by Alma Thomas, both untitled from circa 1970, at $30,000 each to a single collector, and a small, 8 ½ inch high Dorothea Dehner abstract bronze from 1992, “Sancho Panza,” for around $20,000. Rosenfeld, one of 24 dealers at Armory simultaneously showing across town at the ADAA’s Art Show, also sold a rare to market Beauford Delaney oil portrait there in the region of the $450,000 asking price.
Referring to the African-American, ex-patriot artist who moved to Paris in 1953, Rosenfeld said, “He’s not as yet known to the average collector of postwar art.” Price points jump up and down at will as evidenced by the impressive array of prints at London’s Alan Cristea Gallery, led in part by Jim Dine’s jumboscaled “The Big Wall of Hearts” from 2002, a hand printed wood cut with extensive hand coloring on Somerset paper and scaled at 70 ¼ by 57 inches. It sold to a Canadian collector for $28,000. The gallery also sold numerous single square geometric works by Josef Albers from $9,000 to $12,000. “We sold works by pretty much all of the artists,” said director David Cleaton-Roberts, “and perhaps not as frenetic as the last couple of years but still business is being done.” Cristea also sold Sol Lewitt’s “Eight Cubic Rectangles (Diptych),” an etching with acquatint from 1995, near the $16,000 asking price, as well as Tom Wesselmann’s “Still Life with Lilies and Mixed Fruit” from 1997, a screen print in 26 colors on Coventry paper, for around $12,500. More American art was featured at New York’s D.C. Moore, as two works on paper by Paul Cadmus sold: “The Poet” from 1932 in watercolor on paper and the wickedly witty “Still Life for a Gentleman’s Bathroom” in colored pencil on paper from the same decade. Each brought around $55,000. Other Armory Modern surprises included the sale of a major David Hockney interior from 1976, which went for an undisclosed price at
Stockholm’s Wetterling Gallery. Again, the price secrecy stemmed from the request of the buyer, who happened to be a fellow exhibitor at the fair. Outsider Art was also in vibrant evidence at Philadelphia’s Fleisher Ollman, led by Bill Traylor’s masterly “Untitled (Women gossiping about Men Drinking)” from 1939-42 in graphite on cardboard, which sold for $195,000, as well as Joseph Yoakum’s exacting “The First Steam Engine to be assigned to the service of the Kansas City, Ft. Scott and Memphis Run” from circa 1960s, in graphite, colored pencil, and ballpoint pen on paper. It sold for around $20,000. The gallery also sold Chicago Imagist artist Gladys Nilsson’s funky “Robotmen Beseiged” from 1969 in watercolor on paper for around $35,000. “We’ve always loved doing the Armory Show,” said founding partner John Ollman. The Armory Show runs through March 6 at Piers 94 and 94 in New York. !
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The!Armory!Show!opened!to!press!and!invited!guests!on!Wednesday! at!Piers!92!and!94!on!Manhattan’s!West!Side.!It!runs!through!this! Sunday.! Below,! a! look! at! the! action! in! the! fair’s! section! for! contemporary!art,!which!takes!up!Pier!94.! !
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When!Frieze!Art!Fair!launched!its!first!New!York!edition!in!2012,!many!asked!whether!the!stalwart! Armory!Show!would!fold!in!the!face!of!British!competition.!That!competition!seemed!capably! met!by!Noah!Horowitz,!the!Armory’s!director!since!2011,!but!the!fair’s!future!looked!uncertain! again!last!summer,!when!he!departed!to!become!Americas!director!for!Art!Basel.! ! Heading!into!the!Armory!Show’s!18th!edition,!its!new!executive!director,!the!former!editorJinJ chief!of!Artnet!News,!Benjamin!Genocchio,!says!that!the!fair!is!holding!its!own!against!its!rival.! “Frieze!is!in!some!ways!a!very!boutique!item!and!product,”!he!says.!“It’s!a!tentJbased!product;! it’s!very!limited!in!terms!of!what!it!can!provide.”!! ! While!Genocchio,!who!took!up!his!appointment!in!January,!has!had!little!involvement!in!the!2016! edition,!he!says!that!the!state!of!the!Armory!Show!is!strong.!“This!is!a!fair!that!trades!off!the!city,!
as!opposed!to!a!city!that!trades!off!the!fair,”!he!says.!“We!don’t!need!to!fly!in!our!collectors— they’re!here.”!There!is!data!to!support!his!claim:!a!study!on!the!Armory!Show’s!2015!edition!by! the! economist! Clare! McAndrew! recorded! total! sales! of! $200m! over! the! fiveJday! run.! Around! 65,000!visitors!attended!the!fair!last!year,!making!it!the!second!mostJattended!fair!in!the!world! after!Art!Basel!in!Miami!Beach.!! ! The!exhibitor!list!this!year!features!205!exhibitors!from!36!countries!(among!them,!the!fair’s!first! Cuban!gallery,!Galería!Habana),!figures!consistent!with!past!editions.!In!2012,!the!Armory!Show! had!272!exhibitors,!but!the!organisers!limited!booth!numbers!to!provide!a!better!experience.! Genocchio! says! he! was! heartened! by! the! number! of! applications! for! its! Presents! section! for! galleries!less!than!10!years!old—more!than!200!galleries!vied!for!22!spots.!The!Focus!section,! which!traditionally!highlights!a!geographical!region,!is!called!“African!Perspectives”!this!year.!The! curators!Julia!Grosse!and!Yvette!Mutumba!have!invited!galleries!from!Nairobi!and!Cape!Town,! but!also!Paris!and!London,!a!nod!to!the!idea!that!identity,!these!days,!knows!no!physical!borders.! ! But!the!Armory’s!strength!also!rests!on!its!Manhattan!location!and!established!position!in!the! New!York!art!calendar,!Genocchio!says.!“It’s!the!start!of!the!year,!the!start!of!the!season.!It!marks! a!new!calendar!for!the!art!world.”!! ! •"The"Armory"Show,"Piers"92"and"94,"12th"Avenue"at"55th"Street,"New"York,"3@6"March" " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " " ! http://theartnewspaper.com/market/artJfairs/theJarmoryJshowJpreviewJofJnewJyorkJsJstalwartJfairJ/!
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VIP! guests! were! released! into! the! Armory! Show's! arena! today! as! the! fair! readies! itself! for! tomorrow's!public!premiere.!Shortly!after!executive!director!(and!former!artnet!News!editor!in! chief)!Benjamin!Genocchio!and!his!panel!addressed!the!press,!the!doors!swung!open!to!reveal! this!year's!focus!show!"African!Perspectives,"!curated!by!Yvette!Mutumba!and!Julia!Grosse.! !
Among! the! 205! exhibitors! represented! throughout! Piers! 92! and! 94,! some! works! certainly! commanded!greater!attention!than!others.!Romina!de!Novellis's!The$Cage,!for!instance,!was! a!nude!performance!piece!that!sent!spectators!flocking!for!photographs.!People!were!lining!up! to!see!Shih!Chieh!Huang's!Disphotic$Zone,!a!cybernetic!jellyfish!occupying!a!room!of!its!own,!
courtesy!of!Ronald!Feldman!Fine!Arts!gallery.! ! Amidst! the! throng,! installation! workers! and! art! handlers! could! be! seen! making! lastTminute! touches! to! booths.! And,! of! course,! the! preview! counted! a! number! of! celebrity! collectors,! including!actors!Neil!Patrick!Harris,!Russell!Tovey,!and!director!John!Waters.! Take! a! tour! of! the! Armory! Show's! 22nd! edition,! which! runs! from! March! 3T6,! via! the! photos! below.! !
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https://news.artnet.com/market/armory-show-2016-final-sales-442349
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! ! ! The! Armory! Show! closes! this! evening! following! a! busy! 22nd! run! over! the! past! five! days! on! Manhattan’s!Piers!92!and!94.!The!fair’s!2016!edition!comes!at!an!uncertain!time!for!the!global! economy.!Brazil!is!in!the!doldrums.!On!Saturday,!China!lowered!its!economic!growth!target!for! 2016!to!6.5–7%—its!slowest!projected!growth!in!25!years—and!declined!to!announce!a!trade!
target!on!fears!of!global!instability.!Lagging!investment!from!China!and!commodity!price!declines! have!put!Africa’s!growth!in!question.!And!the!Russian!economy!continues!to!slide.! ! The!U.S.!economy!received!positive!news!on!Friday:!a!better!than!expected!242,000!jobs!were! added!in!the!month!of!February.!And,!as!a!result,!the!Dow!eked!above!17,000!to!close!at!a!twoX month!high.!Given!that!the!U.S.!has!thus!far!remained!relatively!isolated!from!instability!in!global! economic!forecasts,!a!good!number!of!new!dealers!were!lured!to!The!Armory!Show!this!year.!But! with!prominent!investors!suggesting!a!U.S.!recession!is!but!the!next!domino!to!fall,!and!concerns! about!a!contracting!art!market!staying!continuously!above!the!fold!in!art!publications!since!the! year’s!start,!collectors!are!understandably!cautious!at!the!moment.!They’re!sticking!to!consistent,! strong!performers!on!the!established!end!of!the!spectrum!and!young!artists!whose!low!prices! amount!to!an!unnoticeable!blip!on!their!portfolio!summary!page.! ! Those! bookends! at! the! high! and! low! extremes! of! the! market! nonetheless! played! out! for! a! resoundingly! successful! 2016! edition! of! The! Armory! Show.! The! common! refrain! from! dealers! across!the!fair!was!“These!aren’t!the!boom!years,!but!we’re!doing!just!fine.”!A!time!for!panic,!this! is! not.! Most! of! the! fair’s! biggest! sales! popped! early! on,! either! being! confirmed! during! Wednesday’s!vernissage!or!shortly!thereafter.!A!sculpture!by!Ugo!Rondinone!was!picked!up!from! Zurich’s!Galerie!Eva!Presenhuber!for!$350,000.!Sean!Kelly!led!a!strong!set!of!sales!among!multiple! dealers!representing!Kehinde!Wiley!at!the!fair,!with!the!painting!Equestrian!Portrait!of!Philip!III! (2016)!selling!for!$300,000!and!the!sculpture!Bound!(2015)!selling!for!$375,000!from!Kelly;!Daniel! Templon! also! sold! a! Wiley! painting! for! $250,000.! YBA! Richard! Patterson’s! Soaper! (2015)! and! Christina!with!Dutch!Door!(2015)!sold!for!$250,000!and!$100,000,!respectively,!from!Timothy! Taylor’s!booth.!!
! Installation!view!of!Mazzoleni’s!booth!at!The!Armory!Show,!2016.!Photo!by!Adam!Reich!for!Artsy.! !
The!largest!confirmed!sale!by!Saturday!evening!was!$500,000!for!a!work!by!Italian!painter!Alberto! Burri!from!London!and!Turin’s!Mazzoleni!Galleria!d’Arte,!who!moved!to!Pier!94!this!year!after! three!years!on!Pier!92.!The!gallery!mounted!a!twoXman!show!at!Armory,!juxtaposing!Burri!with! works!by!Nunzio,!winner!of!the!Duemila!Prize!at!the!Venice!Biennale!in!1986.!Two!of!Nunzio’s! works—a!lead!piece!and!a!burned!wood!sculpture—had!also!sold!by!Friday!evening.!Mazzoleni’s! more!prominent!positioning!on!Pier!94!speaks!to!increased!fervor!on!the!art!market!for!works!by! Italian! postXwar! artists! like! Burri,! who! have! been! among! the! best! performers! of! the! past! 12! months.!“Everybody!is!just!beginning!to!realize!how!important!the!postXwar!Italian!movement! was!for!the!international!art!scene,”!said!the!gallery’s!founding!director!Luigi!Mazzoleni!of!the! rise!in!interest.!This!increase!in!interest!has!been!headlined!by!Lucio!Fontana,!but!has!been!an! equal!boon!to!his!peers.!(Burri’s!Sacco!e!rosso,!ca.!1959,!sold!for!a!record!£9.1!million!at!Sotheby’s! London!in!February,!the!same!work!having!sold!for!only!£1.9!million!in!2007.)!“It!was!undervalued! before,”!said!Mazzoleni!of!postXwar!Italian!artists’!work.!“Now!they’re!getting!what!they!deserve.! And!I’m!investing!all!my!time!and!money!into!doing!what!I!can!to!help.”! ! Two! galleries’! booths—Lisson! and! Sprüth! Magers—served! as! something! of! a! preview! of! their! entrees!into!the!U.S.!market,!with!Lisson!opening!its!first!American!gallery!in!New!York!this!May! and!Sprüth!Magers!having!just!unveiled!its!Los!Angeles!location,!also!its!first!in!the!U.S.!“Given! our! imminent! plans! to! expand! in! the! U.S.! this! spring,! the! fair! was! particularly! important! and! successful!for!us!this!year,”!said!Lisson’s!Alex!Logsdail!of!The!Armory!Show,!where!they!sold!works! by!Tony!Cragg!and!Spencer!Finch!(prices!for!which!ranged!from!$50,000!to!$200,000)!as!well!as! pieces! by! Stanley! Whitney,! Ryan! Gander,! and! Julian! Opie! (these! went! for! undisclosed! sums).! However,!by!press!time,!no!sales!had!been!confirmed!of!works!by!two!of!the!artists!who!will! follow!Carmen!Herrera!in!inaugurating!Lisson’s!New!York!space:!John!Akomfrah!(snatched!last! year! from! Carroll! /! Fletcher,! following! major! critical! reception! at! the! Venice! Biennale)! and! Ai! Weiwei.! ! Sterling! Ruby’s! imposing! steel! sculpture! MS40X2947! (2010)! started! off! the! sales! at! Sprüth! Magers’s! booth,! being! picked! up! by! a! Middle! Eastern! private! collection! for! $175,000.! Analia! Saban’s! Burlap! Rag! (2015)! also! went! to! the! Middle! East! for! $28,000.! A! handful! of! pieces! by! Michail!Pirgelis!sold!on!opening!day!for!€20,000–30,000.!By!day!two,!George!Condo’s!Primitive! Modern! Head! (2012)! set! a! new! high! for! the! booth,! going! for! an! undisclosed! sum! that! past! performance! indicates! would! be! comfortably! in! the! midXsix! figures.! Condo! will! follow! John! Baldessari’s!exhibition!at!Spüth!Magers’s!L.A.!outpost—one!which!director!Andreas!Gegner!said! “people!were!queuing!around!the!block”!for!during!the!opening.!“The!U.S.!has!always!been!our! strongest! market,”! said! Gegner! of! the! impetus! to! make! the! move.! “We! were! following! that! enthusiasm!through!our!presence!in!Los!Angeles.”
! ! Installation!view!of!Sprüth!Magers’s!booth!at!The!Armory!Show,!2016.!Photo!by!Adam!Reich!for! Artsy.! ! One!of!three!Brazilian!galleries!new!or!returning!to!the!fair!this!year!after!a!hiatus,!Galeria!Fortes! Vilaça! presented! one! of! the! Armory’s! most! ambitious! setXups,! rehanging! their! booth! with! a! different! twoXperson! show! each! day.! “We! decided! to! do! a! small! booth! this! time,! but! we! still! wanted!to!be!able!to!show!our!artists!in!the!best!way!possible,”!said!the!gallery’s!Alessandra! d’Aloia.!“People!are!responding!to!it!very!well,”!she!added,!citing!sales!of!a!$75,000!painting!and! a!$36,000!work!on!paper!by!Janaina!Tschäpe,!who!showed!on!Friday,!as!well!as!three!works!by! Agnieszka!Kurant!in!the!range!of!$18,000–25,000.!“We!wanted!to!get!back!into!the!New!York! market,”!said!d’Aloia!of!the!gallery’s!return!to!The!Armory!Show!after!around!a!decade’s!absence.!! ! “This!is!a!real!New!York!fair.”! ! Düsseldorf’s!Sies!+!Höke!saw!significant!success!with!their!younger!artists,!with!two!largeXscale! paintings!by!Henning!Strassburger!selling!for!€17,000!on!opening!day.!Both!went!to!New!York! collections,! according! to! director! Lucas! Hirsch.! “That’s! why! we’re! here.! We! can! sell! them! in! Germany!very!quickly,!but!we!want!to!place!them!here,”!said!Hirsch,!in!reference!to!the!gallery’s! efforts!to!continue!to!establish!the!young!painter’s!market!in!the!U.S.!(A!major!painting!by!the! artist! was! also! recently! placed! with! one! of! Miami’s! most! prominent! collections.)! “I’ve! been! friends!with!Henning!since!before!he!started!painting!and!before!I!started!working!at!Sies!+!Höke.! Now! I! work! with! one! of! my! best! friends,”! added! Hirsch! of! his! enthusiasm! to! see! the! artist’s! reception!grow.!The!gallery!had!also!sold!an!edition!of!Talia!Chetrit’s!Fennel!(2015)!for!$6,000! and!three!works!by!Claudia!Wieser!for!$6,500!apiece.!! ! Among!other!strong!sales!of!soughtXafter!emerging!artists!were!two!editions!of!Mario!Pfeifer’s! twoXchannel!video!work!#blacktivist!(2015)!at!KOW,!priced!at!$15,000;!On!Stellar!Rays’s!entire!
twoXperson!presentation!of!paintings!by!Ryan!Mrozowski!and!works!by!a!new!addition!to!the! gallery’s! stable,! Julia! Bland;! two! editions! of! Natalie! Czech’s! A! poem! by! Repetition! by! Aram! Saroyan! (CD)! (2016)! for! up! to! $10,000! at! Kadel! Willborn;! ceramicXandXmirror! works! by! Ry! Rocklen,!as!well!as!pieces!by!Brenna!Youngblood!and!Victoria!Fu,!from!Honor!Fraser!for!$3,000– 50,000;!and!a!work!by!Lydia!Gifford!sold!by!Laura!Bartlett.! !
! Installation!view!of!Beck!&!Eggeling’s!booth!at!The!Armory!Show,!2016.!Photo!by!Adam!Reich! for!Artsy.!
! If!The!Armory!Show!is!any!indication!of!what’s!to!come!in!the!art!market!in!2016,!it’s!a!sign!that! middleXmarket! galleries! may! have! the! hardest! go! of! it! this! year.! Up! to! $10,000,! and! to! some! extent! $25,000,! collectors! are! quite! willing! to! pull! the! trigger.! And! above! $100,000—where! recent! reports! indicate! one! can! expect! a! constant! rate! of! return! on! the! range! of! 12–15%! annually—more!deepXpocketed!buyers!are!still!raking!up!pieces,!too.!But!even!for!those!middleX market!galleries,!panic!should!not!ensue.!Collectors!are!buying,!just!not!at!the!frenetic!pace!of! the!past!five!years,!which!could!be!good!for!art!anyway!(if!still!a!sting!to!the!art!market).!And! during!the!worst!economic!collapse!since!the!Great!Depression!in!2008,!the!art!market!fared! relatively!well!compared!to!other!asset!classes—and!jumped!back!faster.!With!little!to!suggest! that!this!current!correction!will!deviate!from!that!record,!it’s!time!for!a!deep!breath.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! https://www.artsy.net/article/artsyXeditorialXartXbaselXownerXplansXtoXbuyXupXregionalXartXfairsXhereXsXwhyXitXcouldXbeXgoodXforXgalleries!
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! ! There!was!once!a!time!in!Western!art!history!when!Africa!was!pictured!only!through!the!eyes!of! Europeans,! and! when! the! varied! visual! language! of! an! entire! continent! was! reduced! to! the! regressive!label!of!“primitive”—and!depicted!through!the!paintbrushes!of!Picasso,!Gauguin,!and! Matisse.!It’s!this!kind!of!entrenched,!monolithic!understanding!of!Africa,!and!African!art,!that! curators! Julia! Grosse! and! Yvette! Mutumba! hope! to! mortally! rupture! through! “African! Perspectives,”!this!year’s!Focus!section!at!The!Armory!Show.! ! It’s! a! tricky! proposition:! how! does! one! shine! a! spotlight! on! African! art! without! accidentally! confining! it! to! overly! prescriptive! visual! categories?! Their! answer! comes! in! the! form! of! 14! galleries! from! across! the! globe! (many! from! Africa)! and! an! equally! diverse! spread! of! artists! working! across! styles! and! mediums.! In! attempting! to! capture! a! snapshot! of! African! art,! the! curators! are! threading! a! thin! needle,! while! simultaneously! endeavoring! to! increase! our!
knowledge!of!the!region.!And!with!“African!Perspectives,”!Grosse!and!Mutumba!have!provided! fairgoers!with!some!of!the!most!engaging!work!on!view!throughout!the!entire!pier.! ! Years!ago,!a!focus!on!African!art!“would!have!never!even!been!considered,”!Jack!Shainman,!a! longtime!supporter!of!African!and!AfricanQAmerican!artists,!told!me!as!we!stood!in!the!shadow! of!Kay!Hassan’s!breathtaking!mural!of!torn!and!reconfigured!South!African!billboards.!The!fair’s! focus!on!Africa!is!indicative!of!the!art!world’s!gradual!shift—slow!enough!to!be!tectonic—over! the!last!few!decades,!one!that!culminated!in!the!earthquake!that!was!Nigerian!curator!Okwui! Enwezor’s!Venice!Biennale!in!2015.!! ! !
! ! Installation!view!of!Jack!Shainmain!Gallery’s!booth!at!The!Armory!Show,!2016.!Photo!by!Adam! Reich!for!Artsy.!
! ! Shainman!cautioned,!however,!that!overQemphasizing!Africa!as!an!exhibition!or!auction!theme! can! deter! artists! who! “don’t! want! to! show! in! that! context! because! they! want! to! be! seen! as! international!artists.”!It’s!a!sentiment!echoed!by!some!gallerists!showing!within!the!section!itself.! “Turiya!Magadlela!is!from!Africa!but!what’s!on!the!wall!should!speak!for!itself,”!says!Jonathan! Garnham,!owner!and!director!of!Cape!Town’s!blank!of!the!artist!he!has!brought!to!the!fair.!“It’s! a!bandwagon!I!don’t!want!to!jump!onto.!The!artists!I!work!with!also!don’t!want!to!be!seen!first! and! foremost! as! African! artists.! They! want! to! be! seen! as! artists! who! incidentally! come! from! Africa.”!(Two!of!Magadlela’s!pieces!priced!at!$4,000!had!sold!by!just!the!second!day!of!the!fair! and! many—though! certainly! not! all—booths! reported! solid! sales! by! Thursday! morning,! an! indication!that!collectors!will!let!others!sort!out!the!nomenclature!while!they!sort!out!the!wall! hanging.)! ! Grosse! and! Mutumba,! who! founded! Contemporary! And,! an! online! magazine! dedicated! to! exploring!Africa!and!the!Diaspora,!are!clearly!aware!of!the!potential!pitfalls.!After!all,!“the!focus! is!called!‘African!Perspectives,’!not!‘Africa,’”!says!German!gallerist!Tanja!Wagner,!a!reminder!that! Grosse! and! Mutumba! opted! not! simply! for! a! geographical! requirement! to! entry! but! rather! a! multiplicity! of! connections! to! the! continent.! It’s! the! best,! likely! the! only,! way! to! invoke! 54! countries,!roughly!1!billion!people,!and!thousands!of!languages.!
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! Installation!view!of!Galerie!Jérôme!Poggi!and!Galerie!Tanja!Wagner’s!booth!at!The!Armory! Show,!2016.!Photo!by!Adam!Reich!for!Artsy.! ! ! A!joint!booth!with!Paris’s!Galerie!Jérôme!Poggi,!Wagner’s!presentation!of!Armory!commissioned! artist! Kapwani! Kiwanga’s! coarse! sculptures,! made! out! of! a! lucrative! material! harvested! in! Tanzania!called!sisal,!is!a!strong!example.!Born!in!Canada,!living!in!Paris,!but!with!family!in!Africa,! Kapwani!“looks!with!different!eyes,”!as!Wagner!puts!it.!! ! Still,!“inasmuch!as!there’s!no!such!thing!as!African!art,!many!of!the!African!artists!may!see!things! a!different!way!and!tell!their!own!story,”!says!Lagos’s!Omenka!Gallery!curator!Oliver!Enwonwu! (who! graciously! allowed! me! to! interrupt! his! lunch).! His! booth! hangs! the! paintings! of! Nengi! Omuku—abstract,! emotional! manifestations! of! her! frustrations! while! dealing! with! a! failing! Nigerian! justice! system.! “She! can! experience! that! because! she! lives! on! the! continent,”! says! Enwonwu.!“That’s!firstQhand!experience,!that’s!a!perspective.”! ! !
! ! Installation!view!of!Omenka!Gallery’s!booth!at!The!Armory!Show,!2016.!Photo!by!Adam!Reich! for!Artsy.! ! !
While! crucial,! it’s! one! of! many.! “I! think! the! idea! that! there’s! an! African! identity! or! there’s! something!African!artists!are!addressing!in!particular!is!troublesome,”!Danda!Jarolmek,!director! of!Circle!Art!Gallery,!told!me.!“It!doesn’t!really!exist.”!The!gallery!represents!artists!from!Kenya,! Tanzania,!Uganda,!Ethiopia,!and!Sudan,!five!distinct!countries!in!East!Africa.!“In!some!countries,! all!the!artists!have!come!out!of!the!same!art!school.!In!some!countries,!there!are!no!art!schools.”! ! Circle!Art!Gallery,!showing!videos!of!Ato!Malinda!that!explore!numerous!issues,!including!the! experience! of! being! a! queer! woman! in! Kenya,! has! one! of! the! most! immersive! booths! in! the! section.! Another! is! that! of! Tiwani! Contemporary,! the! walls! of! which! are! covered! with! the! paintings!of!Francisco!Vidal,!an!artist!who!was!inspired!by!jazz!music!and!who!you!can!periodically! catch!DJ’ing!at!the!booth.!Vidal!studied!in!New!York,!but!after!moving!to!Angola!he!couldn’t!find! canvas!supplies—so!he!made!his!own!paper.!“I!think!there!are!a!lot!of!artists!thinking!about!new! techniques,”!says!Tiwani’s!Nathalie!Fouilloux!of!those!working!in!Africa.! ! !
! Installation!view!of!Circle!Art!Gallery’s!booth!at!The!Armory!Show,!2016.!Photo!by!Adam!Reich! for!Artsy.!
! Indeed!there’s!a!recurrence!of!craftsmanship!and!attention!to!material!from!the!continent—as! seen!in!Kiwanga’s!sculptures!or!the!the!Afrofuturist!“CQStunner”!goggles,!made!of!detritus!found! on!the!streets!of!Nairobi,!by!SMAC!Gallery’s!Cyrus!Kabiru.!Some!artists!also!fuse!styles!that!might! seem! “Western”! with! those! that! appear! “African.”! At! October! Gallery,! paintings! by! Eddy! Kamuanga!Ilunga!feature!the!wet!drapery!style!beloved!by!the!Greeks,!but!Ilunga!“infiltrates!it! with!African!textile!pattern,”!notes!the!gallery’s!artistic!director!Elisabeth!Lalouschek.!The!work! was!priced!at!$18,000,!according!to!the!wall!label,!which!I!watched!a!smiling!gallery!staffer!add! a!green!dot!to.!! ! Then,!of!course,!at!London’s!Vigo!Gallery,!there!is!the!towering!presence!of!Ibrahim!ElQSalahi,!the! oldest! and! most! influential! artist! on! display! in! the! section,! known! for! blending! Western! modernism!with!elements!of!Arabic!calligraphy!and!his!personal!Sudanese!history—ultimately! forging!a!style!that!is!all!his!own.!The!presentation!impressed!several!institutions.! ! Installation!view!of!SMAC’s!booth!at!The!Armory!Show,!2016.!Photo!by!Adam!Reich!for!Artsy.!
There!are!problems!and!limitations!to!any!geographical!focus.!Hectic!art!fairs!aren’t!the!most! meditative! places! for! contemplating! art! from! an! entire! continent.! There’s! a! whole! lot! more! happening! artistically! in! Africa,! much! of! it! nonQcommercial.! Many! artists! and! galleries! can’t! afford,!or!don’t!want,!to!make!it!to!The!Armory!Show,!even!with!a!welcoming!focus.! ! At! WHATIFTHEWORLD,! Justin! Rhodes,! director! of! the! South! African! gallery,! voiced! such! perspective.!But,!he!added,!“for!people!to!be!exposed!to!new!artists!and!to!a!different!part!of! the!world!they’ve!never!seen!before!is!a!very!good!thing.”!His!booth!presents!the!work!of!Dan! Halter,!and!one!of!his!maps!of!woven!plasticQweave!bags!that!trace!the!destination!of!immigrants! through!their!very!materiality!had!a!reserve!from!a!major!museum.!So!what!happens!next,!after! the! focus?! “I! hope! people! dig! a! little! deeper.! Scratch! under! the! surface,”! says! Rhodes.! What! comes!next,!it!seems,!would!be!many!more!African!perspectives.! ! ! —!Isaac!Kaplan! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
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https://www.artsy.net/article/artsyQeditorialQwhyQtheQafricanQperspectivesQsectionQisQtheQnumberQoneQreasonQtoQvisitQtheQarmoryQshow!
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-4-shifts-in-the-unpredictable-art-market-you-should-know-about
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-8-projects-asserting-contemporary-african-art-s-equal-standing-tounfold-at-the-armory-show
https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-up-and-coming-meet-kapwani-kiwanga-the-emerging-artistchallenging-what-you-learned-in-history-class
http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1339113/african-perspectives-anchors-focus-section-at-the-armoryshow
http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/1341024/kapwani-kiwangas-commissioned-work-centers-on-a-photofrom
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! ! at! new! york’s! armory! show! 2016,! chamber! presents! ‘a! decade! of! studio! job,! 2006=2016>,! an! exhibition!dedicated!to!dutch=belgian!design!duo!job!smeets!and!nynke!tynagel.!the!presentation! reflects!the!oeuvre!of!studio!job!through!a!curated!selection!of!creative!work!from!the!past!ten! years,!highlighting!the!practice’s!attention!to!craftsmanship!and!ornamentation.!the!exhibition! includes!the!iconic!‘homework’!series!(2006);!‘piece!for!peace’!(2010);!‘horse!bust!(chess!piece)’! (2014);!and!presented!for!the!first!time,!‘sinking!ship’!(2016).!the!show!is!organized!as!a!prelude! to!a!comprehensive!retrospective!opening!march!22nd,!2016!at!the!museum!of!arts!and!design! (MAD)!in!new!york.!read!below!for!more!information!on!the!individual!pieces.! ! ! ! ! ! !
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! in!2014,!designer!alex!de!witte!and!studio!job!collaborated!on!the!‘standing!bubble’!lamp.! originally!conceived!while!blowing!bubbles,!the!object!captures!the!fluid!reflection,! weightlessness!and!ephemerality!of!the!playful!act.!by!casting!the!base!in!bronze,!the!designers! stall!the!singular!moment!of!blowing!a!bubble!with!an!unexpected!result!—!a!light!object!that! takes!after!an!archetypal!oil!lamp.!! !
! ! crafted!from!indian!rosewood,!the!‘bavaria!mirror’!features!intricate!laser=cut!inlays!made!from! seventeen!colored!dyes,!which!depict!idyllic!pastoral!and!farm!motifs.!referencing!17th!and!18th= century!hand=painted!furniture!and!storybook!themes!of!paradise,!studio!job!playfully!employs! marquetry!to!mimic!the!‘fine!art’!of!painting.! !
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! presented!for!the!first!time!is!a!sketch!in!ink!of!the!‘sinking!ship’!coffee!table.!the!surface!is!made! from! polished! bronze! and! depicts! a! billowing! cloud! of! smoke,! teetering! on! top! of! a! half= submerged!bronze=sculpted!ship.!
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made!for!the!administrative!office!of!herman!van!rompuy!—!president!of!the!european!council! in!brussels!—!‘piece!for!peace’!sees!the!collaboration!of!studio!job!with!belgian!crystal!glassware! manufacturer!val!saint!lambert.!the!statuesque!piece!is!made!from!polished!bronze!and!colored! crystal,!sitting!on!a!plinth!made!from!indian!rosewood.!the!object!has!the!hybrid!appearance!of! a!teapot!and!a!vase,!while!a!bronze!cast!of!the!hand!symbol!for!peace!tops!off!the!work.! ! !
! ! ‘horse!bust!(chess!piece)’!—!originally!designed!for!jeff!koons!—!references!the!american!artist’s! blown! up! sculptures! of! balloon! animals,! and! the! vacuum! cleaners! he! placed! in! fluorescent=lit! plexiglass!boxes.!studio!job!used!a!nilfisk!GM!80!P!vacuum!as!a!bust,!and!bronze!or!brass!for!the! horse’s!head!to!mimic!koons’!glossy!surfaces.!when!the!vacuum!is!turned!on,!the!horse’s!eyes! light!up!as!it!sniffs!through!its!nostrils.!!
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! the! ‘homework’! series! is! suite! of! eight! totems! in! bronze,! glass,! and! wood.! the! precious! yet! common!household!objects!—!the!likes!of!which!include!a!fully=functional!cooking!pot,!stool,! lantern,!and!coal!bins!—!are!each!hand=sculpted!in!wax!in!oversized!proportions,!rendered!in! polished!bronze,!and!finally!placed!upon!aged!wooden!pedestals!reminiscent!of!sacred!statuary.! !
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http://www.designboom.com/design/chamber=a=decade=of=studio=job=armory=show=new=york=03=04=2016/!
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by Alan G Brake March 4, 2016 !
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! A!capsule!Chamber!gallery!exhibition!covering!10!years!of!work!by!designers!Studio!Job!is!on!view!at!the!Armory! Show!art!fair!in!New!York!(+!slideshow).! !
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The!gallery!is!showing!six!Studio!Job!pieces!at!the!fair,!which!is!located!on!the!far!west!side!of!Midtown!Manhattan! and!runs!for!3!I!6!March.! ! The!objects!created!by!the!BelgiumIbased!artists!range!from!a!bust!of!a!horse!mounted!on!a!vacuum!cleaner!to!a! drawing!of!a!sinking!ship!and!a!large!threeIpart!mirror.! !
! ! ! The!works!mix!materials!including!rare!woods,!handblown!glass,!cut!glass,!and!polished!bronze,!and!draw!on!folk!art! and!other!pictorial!imagery.!The!objects!include!oneIoff!unique!pieces!and!limited!editions.! !
! ! The!piece!called!Horse!Bust!(Chess!Piece)!was!designed!for!the!artist!Jeff!Koons!and!includes!a!Nilfisk!vacuum!cleaner! in!its!base.!When!the!vacuum!is!switched!on,!the!horse's!eyes!light!up!and!air!pulls!through!its!nostrils.! ! "We!love!Jeff!Koons!and!I!love!Nifilisk,"!Job!said.!"It's!such!a!highIquality!vacuum!cleaner!"! !
! ! The!Piece!by!Piece!cut!glass!pitcher!was!designed!for!the!private!office!of!the!President!of!the!European!Council!in! Brussels.!Its!handle!is!a!pair!of!fingers!forming!a!peace!sign.! ! Standing!Bubble!is!a!large!blown!glass!object!based!on!a!traditional!oil!lamp!and!produced!in!collaboration!with!artist! Alex!de!Witte,!while!Pinocchio!Homework!is!a!totemic!brass!structure!from!the!studio's!2008!Homework!series!that! stands!on!a!wedge!wood!pedestal.! !
! ! The!large!ink!illustration!of!a!sinking!ship,!called!Sinking!Ship,!is!mounted!on!a!wall!above!a!lifeIsize!replica!of!a!side! cabinet!created!specifically!for!the!show.! ! Finally,!the!wallImounted!Indian!rosewood!Bavaria!Mirror!is!from!the!studio's!2008!Bavaria!collection!of!furniture,! which!is!decorated!with!marquetry!showing!farm!motifs.!Other!objects!in!the!collection!included!a!cabinet,!table! and!screen.! ! !
! ! Founded! in! 2000! by! Nynke! Tyngel! and! Job! Smeets,! Studio! Job! seeks! to! "redefine! the! applied! arts! for! the! contemporary!age."! ! Their!whimsical!objects!are!"more!in!keeping!with!with!the!traditional!guilds!than!anything!industrial,"!according!to! the!designers.! ! !
! ! The! Armory! Show! is! the! oldest! and! largest! of! New! York's! art! fairs.! It! anchors! a! group! of! fairs,! including! Pulse,! Spring/Break!Art!Show,!and!The!Art!Show,!among!others.! ! This!is!the!first!year!that!design!has!had!a!presence!at!the!fair.!Beyond!Chamber's!booth,!the!show!has!initiated!a! program! called! Armory! Design,! which! also! includes! a! series! of! lounge! areas,! as! well! as! a! siteIspecific! gateway! between!fair!halls!by!Sung!Jang.! ! Jang!has!previously!showed!at!Chamber!gallery,!which!is!currently!exhibiting!Unpacking!the!Cube,!with!works!by! Steven!Holl,!Leong!Leong,!and!Leven!Betts.!
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The$Space)Inspired$Works$Of$8$Artists,$ From$Rosenquist$To$Rauschenberg$ $
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In!Space!Age,!Galerie!Thaddaeus!Ropac's!Armory!Show,!eight!contemporary!artists!look!to!the!sky!for!inspiration.! !
! "Ever!since!the!Tower!of!Babel,!there!has!always!been!the!urge!to!go!up,"!gallerist!Thaddaeus!Ropac!told!the!New!York!Times!in! September.!"But!’69!changed!everything."!Ropac,!the!owner!of!Galerie!Thaddaeus!Ropac—based!in!Paris!and!Salzburg,!Austria— was!of!course!referring!to!the!year!that!Apollo!11!sent!the!first!human!beings!to!the!moon.!The!magnitude!of!that!feat!and!the! sense!of!curiosity!and!ambition!that!it!inspired!were!reflected!in!all!aspects!of!society,!from!literature!to!business!to!art.!For!its! Space!Age!show,!the!gallery!explores!the!contemporary!artists!for!whom!space!became!a!subject!to!explore!here!on!Earth.! ! Space!Age,!which!originally!exhibited!in!one!of!Galerie!Thaddaeus!Ropac's!Paris!galleries!in!September,!came!to!the!Armory!Show! this! past! weekend! with! a! selection! of! eight! works.! The! show! represents! a! variety! of! ways! that! contemporary! artists! have! responded!to!the!allure!of!the!cosmos!and!the!obsession!with!progress!during!the!Space!Race.!Pop!art!icon!James!Rosenquist's! long!fascination!with!the!U.S.!space!program,!for!example,!is!reflected!in!paintings!of!brightly!colored!geometric!galaxies.!The! painter!and!sculptor!Robert!Longo,!who!has!recently!been!working!on!a!series!of!drawings!of!female!astronauts,!depicted!the! Russian!astronaut!Valentina!Tereshkova,!the!first!woman!in!space,!in!a!piece!for!the!show.!And!Swiss!artist!Sylvie!Fleury's!glittery! pink!fiberglass!rocket!coyly!plays!up!the!phallic!object!as!mainly!a!male!obsession.! ! For!most!of!us—including!the!artists!in!the!show—the!seduction!of!space!is!that!it!is!a!blank!canvas!for!our!imaginations.!We've! never!visited!it,!and!we!probably!never!will.!Robert!Rauschenberg,!however,!has!gotten!close:!In!1960,!he!was!invited!by!NASA! to! witness! the! Apollo! 11! launch,! and! in! 1984,! he! visited! Discovery.! Two! years! later,! he! traveled! to! Houston! to! assemble! the! neglected!industrial!materials!that!make!up!his!famous!Gluts!series.!The!show!exhibits!his!Nagshead!Summer!Glut!Sketch,!a!wall! sculpture!built!with!airplane!parts!that!Galerie!Thaddaeus!Ropac!calls!"a!souvenir!without!nostalgia!influenced!by!one!of!the! consequences!of!the!industrial!and!spatial!race:!the!oil!crisis."! ! See!all!eight!of!the!pieces!in!Space!Age!in!the!gallery!above.!!All!Photos:!Courtesy!Galerie!Thaddaeus!Ropac! ! ! !
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http://www.fastcodesign.com/3057498/theaspaceainspiredaworksaofa8aartistsafromarosenquistatoarauschenberg!
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Armory Week Survival Guide: Part 1
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MAR$1,$2016$@$10:00$AM$
! Armory!week!is!back!in!New!York!City,!with!the!art!world’s!denizens!descending!into! Manhattan.!With!endless!champagne,!exquisite!exhibitions,!and!exhausting!schedules,!the! good,!the!bad,!and!the!excellent!abound.!We’ve!asked!a!collection!of!gallerists,!artists,!curators,! and!collectors!their!tips,!tricks,!and!mustDhaves!for!getting!through!the!fairs!in!this!3Dpart!series.! !
! Larry%Ossei*Mensah.%Photography%by%Kris%Graves% % Larry$Ossei4Mensah,$independent$curator$and$writer! On%top%priorities…%discover!new!artists!that!I!could!potentially!curate!into!a!future!exhibition!or! add!to!my!collection.!
Best%tips%to%navigate%the%fairs…%pace!yourself.!Fair!fatigue!is!a!real!thing.!You!can’t!see! everything,!so!be!okay!with!that.!Drink!water!!Don’t!try!to!see!everything!because!you!can’t.!Be! strategic!and!have!fun.!If!you!are!tight!on!time,!hit!the!fairs!right!when!they!open.!Have!a!plan! of!action!with!regards!to!what!booths!you!want!to!see.!This!will!enable!you!to!get!in!and!get!out! without!a!hassle.I!prefer!to!visit!fairs!with!friends.!The!beauty!of!the!art!world!is!the!community! and!camaraderie.!The!experience!is!not!as!fun!when!you!are!seeing!art!alone.!I!can!go!to!a! museum!for!that…! ! On%which%satellite%fairs%to%visit…%Spring!Break!Art!Show!and!PULSE.!They!are!definitely!fairs! worth!checking!out.!They!both!are!always!filled!with!delightful!surprises.! On%what%to%see…!I’m!excited!to!see!the!specially!curated!section!at!VOLTA,!“Something!I!Can! Feel”!curated!by!Derrick!Adams.!I’m!looking!forward!to!seeing!Glenn!Ligon!at!Luhring! Augustine.!Regarding!suggestions,!check!out!A%Constellation!at!the!Studio!Museum.!It!closes!on! March!6th!! ! Make%sure%to…!make!reservations!for!dinner.!Upland,!Marta,The!Nomad!and!Indochine!are! great!options.! ! Favorite%device(s)…%I!use!Evernote!on!my!Galaxy!to!keep!track!of!my!notes.!It!is!a!great!app!that! I!can!share!and!compare!notes!with!my!“art!friends.”!I!do!whatever!it!takes!to!keep!my!phone! from!dying.!l!bring![with!me]!a!nonDtraditional!charger,!normal!charger!and!extra!battery.!I! make!sure!to!be!super!prepared.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! http://www.forbes.com/sites/courtneywillisblair/2016/03/01/armoryDweekDsurvivalDguideDpartD1/#482ad9a82c7d!
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By:!Courtney!Willis!Blair!! March!3,!2016!
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! Armory!week!is!back!in!New!York!City,!with!the!art!world’s!denizens!descending!into!Manhattan.! With!endless!champagne,!exquisite!exhibitions,!and!exhausting!schedules,!the!good,!the!bad,!and! the!excellent!abound.!We’ve!asked!a!collection!of!gallerists,!artists,!curators,!and!collectors!their! tips,!tricks,!and!mustKhaves!for!getting!through!the!fairs!in!this!3Kpart!series.! !
! Tamsen!Greene,!Senior!Director,!Jack!Shainman!Gallery!
! On!top!priorities…!To!be!present!and!focused!at!the!Armory!and!at!the!gallery.!That!means!I!clear! my!schedule,!get!enough!sleep,!and!make!sure!I!take!care!of!myself!to!have!enough!energy!for! the!insane!demands!of!an!art!fair.!If!you!aren’t!rested!and!your!most!supercharged!self,!it!limits! the!acuity,!memory,!focus,!and!ability!to!conduct!many!conversations!simultaneously!that!an!art! fair!requires.! ! Favorite! device(s)…! In! the! booth! we! take! notes! in! Moleskine! books.! The! fast! pace! of! the! fair! makes! jotting! down! notes! in! old! fashioned! pen! on! paper! much! more! efficient.! When! I! walk! around!on!my!own,!I!take!photographs!of!artworks!and!their!labels!as!a!form!of!note!taking!as! well.!In!the!booth!we!are!basically!surgically!attached!to!our!phones!because!we!are!constantly! asking!the!gallery!to!send!images!or!fielding!questions!via!email.!Therefore!we!can’t!afford!to! separate!from!them!so!we!rely!on!Mophie!backup!batteries.!We!work!them!hard!!I!remember!
years!ago!when!you!rented!telephones!on!the!booth!as!part!of!your!fair!package!!That!seems!like! the!stone!age!in!some!ways,!but!art!still!got!sold!!I!think!in!20!years,!we!will!be!shocked!that!we! ever!were!able!to!do!art!fairs!without!our!smartphones.!So,!it’s!all!about!what!the!expectations! and! times! demand.! But! yes! –! we! work! our! phones! very! hard! during! the! art! fairs! and! they! definitely!need!to!be!charged!during!the!fair.! ! Favorite!fair!accessories…!I!have!a!beautiful!pair!of!black!pony!Marc!Jacobs!flats!that!I!wear!to! every!art!fair!and!almost!nowhere!else.!They!match!everything!and!are!chic!and!understated.! They!are!also!very!comfortable,!which!is!key!for!those!concrete!floors,!but!too!delicate!to!actually! wear!outside!in!“real!life”.!So!it’s!a!win!win.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!http://www.forbes.com/sites/courtneywillisblair/2016/03/03/armoryKweekKsurvivalKguideKpartK3/#39d3f35e44a5!
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There!Is!No!One!Style!of!'African!Art'! Armory!Focus!is!celebrating!the!diversity!of!perspectives!in!contemporary!African!art.! ! By:!Priscilla!Frank!!!!March!2,!2016!
COURTESY BEN BROWN FINE ARTS
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Brukawit , Awol Erizku, 2013, Digital Chromatic print ! "What!exactly!is!an!'African!artist'?"!curators!Julia!Grosse!and!Yvette!Mutumba!asked!in!an!email! to! The! Huffington! Post.! "Someone! who! grew! up! in! Johannesburg,! studied! in! London! and! has! galleries!in!Italy!and!Germany?"!! ! Grosse!and!Mutumba!are!the!curators!of!"Focus:!African!Perspectives,"!this!year's!rendition!of! "Armory!Focus,"!which!spotlights!art!from!a!specific!region!every!year!during!the!historic!Armory! Show!in!New!York!City.!This!year's!edition!will!feature!young!contemporary!artists,!born!between! the!late!1970s!and!early!1990s,!working!in!the!African!content!or!diaspora.!It!will!feature!galleries! from!Ethiopia,!Ivory!Coast,!Kenya!and!Nigeria,!as!well!as!those!from!New!York.! !
In!the!past!couple!of!years,!African!contemporary!art!has!entered!the!art!world's!main!stage!in!a! big!way.!Thanks!to!fairs!like!1:54!Contemporary!African!Art!Fair!and!the!Dakar!Biennale,!museums! like!MoCADA,!and!exhibitions!like!"Disguise:!Masks!and!Global!African!Art,"!African!artists!are! reaching!larger!audiences!and!higher!values.!! ! With!this!newfound!success,!however,!comes!misunderstandings.!As!Grosse!and!Mutumba!put! it:!"With!this!rather!new!attention,!unfortunately,!too!often!comes!an!idea!of!'African!Art'!or!'the! African!artist'!as!if!a!continent!with!54!states!was!a!country!with!a!completely!homogenous!art! scene.!We!advocate!the!idea!that,!as!a!matter!of!fact,!there!is!no!'African!Art'!in!that!sense.!The! work!of!a!conceptual!artist!in!Harare!is!very!different!from!what!a!performance!artist!in!Nairobi! or!a!painter!in!Kampala!produces."! !
! “Zulu Kids� from the series, Power. Namsa Leuba, 2014. Fiber pigment on Dibond With!this!in!mind,!Grosse!and!Mutumba!set!out!to!curate!a!show!that!reflects!the!radical! diversity!of!contemporary!art!from!an!African!perspective.!Visitors!at!"Armory!Focus"!are!just!as! likely!to!see!"an!artist!who!has!lived!and!worked!in!Dakar!his!whole!life!as!much!as!someone! who!grew!up!in!Berlin,!with!Nigerian!parents!and!is!now!based!in!New!York,"!they!explained.!! ! "Focus"!will!spotlight!young!artists!through!solo!presentations!by!the!galleries!that!represent! them,!as!well!as!through!on\site!special!projects.!The!main!shared!characteristic!of!the!artists! on!view!is!their!youth,!and!the!undoubtedly!contemporary!nature!of!the!work.!Beyond!that,!
diversity!prevails,!with!artists!working!in!video,!photography,!installation,!performance,! drawing!and!painting!in!wildly!different!styles.! ! "Of!course!they!are!sometimes!issues!(like!migration!or!various!definitions!of!identities)!that! come!up!again!in!different!works,!simply!because!they!reflect!the!realities!of!the!young!global! contemporaries!we!invited,"!the!curators!said.!The!exhibit!will!also!feature!the!work!of!two!or! three!artists!from!an!older!generation,!looking!back!at!just!how!long!the!artistic!conversation! between!the!continent!and!the!diaspora!has!been!in!place.!! !
! !AbandonnÂŹs, Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, 2015, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 200 x 200 cm Both!Grosse!and!Mutumba!hope!that!one!day!artists!from!Africa!will!not!be!identified! specifically!as!such,!and!can!freely!navigate!the!contemporary!art!world!without!special! distinction.!"It!of!course!should!be!normal!to!have!artists!from!a!'non\Western'!background! included!in!the!art!world!circle!and!not!first!of!all!defined!as!'a!Nigerian!artist'!but!as! 'contemporary!artist.'"! !
However,!the!curators!feel!that!ultimately,!through!shows!like!this,!we're!making!progress,! moving!forward!on!the!road!to!a!more!diverse!and!fluid!art!marketplace.!"By!approaching!us!to! curate!the!'Focus'!section,!the!Armory!Show!is!a!great!example!of!how!the!art!market!does!not! only!allocate!economic!presence!and!value!to!art,!but!how!it!can!also!be!an!important,! emphatic!promoter!and!supporter!of!productive!and!creative!networks!and!relations."! ! "Focus:!African!Perspectives"!runs!from!March!3!to!March!6!as!part!of!the!The!Armory!Show!in! New!York.!! !
! Somnyama!Ngonyama!II,!Oslo,!Zanele!Muholi,!2015.!Silver!gelatin!print!Image!and!paper!50!x! 43.6cm!
All!So!Fucking!African![Part!of!All!So!Fucking!African!installation].!Ed!Young,!2016.!Oil!on!Board! ! ! !
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Courtesy!of!the!artist!and!SMAC!Gallery! Macho!Nne!\!Brazilian!Mask,!Cyrus!Kabiru,!2015,!Pigment!Ink!on!HP!Premium!Satin! Photographic!Paper! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
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The Pied Piper, Lebohang Kganye, 2014 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
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Courtesy the artist and Goodman Gallery
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Untitled I, Kudzanai Chiurai, 2015, Lithographic Print
! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/there\is\no\one\style\of\african\art_us_56d716cae4b0bf0dab341519!
http://hyperallergic.com/280124/finding-jesus-your-mom-and-other-surprises-at-the-2016-armory-show/
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/armory-show-one-of-largest-collections-of-african-art-togo-on-display-in-new-york-a6892131.html
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CARLY!MARK,!ILLUMINATED! By!RACHEL!SMALL! ! !
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In the last few weeks, she has been in overdrive preparing for the first major showing of her work in New York with Breeder Gallery at The Armory Show. She is still working with food packaging–here, a Haribo Gold-Bear package is the dominant motif. But, in the past four years, Mark's interests have multiplied and evolved: As such, several bags are obscured, sometimes completely, with gold paint, and are interspersed with objects or symbols that resonate with her, from a Memphis Group-designed lamp, to anime characters, to a portrait of her sister.
Separately, Mark is experimenting with large-scale works she calls "physical Reddits," a compendium of signs or symbols she chooses by a sort of free association with her personal narrative, but that she emphasizes should work as subjective "triggers" of memories. After Armory, Mark will begin preparing for a residency in Athens that will culminate with her first-ever solo show at Breeder Gallery. ! !
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THE ARMORY SHOW IS ON VIEW THROUGH THIS SUNDAY, MARCH 6. FOR MORE ON CARLY MARK, VISIT HER WEBSITE. Photography!THOMAS!WHITESIDE! Published!03/04/16!
http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/carlySmarkStheSarmorySshow/#_!
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A!Blockbuster!Deal!Reassures!the!Art!World! By#SCOTT#REYBURN#FEB.!26,!2016!
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As the art market braces for a difficult year ahead, along comes news of a $500 million private sale that creates a reassuring sense of business as usual. According to market insiders, Willem de Kooning’s 1955 Abstract Expressionist painting “Interchanged” is now either the world’s most expensive artwork or on par with Qatar’s reported $300 million purchase in 2014 of the 1892 “Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?)” by Paul Gauguin. The buyer was the Chicago hedge fund manager Kenneth C. Griffin, founder of Citadel, which manages more than $24 billion in assets, and the seller was the entertainment mogul David Geffen, owner of one of the world’s most admired collections of postwar American art. Mr. Griffin was said to have paid $300 million for the de Kooning and $200 million for the 1948 Jackson Pollock drip painting “Number 17A” in a transaction that was completed in the fall, Bloomberg News reported. Both works have been on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago since September. Mr. Griffin, 47, has a net worth of $7.6 billion, according to Forbes. Katie Spring, his spokeswoman at Citadel, confirmed in an email that the two paintings had been bought for $500 million, but she declined to specify their individual prices.
This blockbuster deal was first mentioned on Feb. 18 in the trade newsletter The Baer Faxt, which suggested that a “Midwest hedge fund collector” had paid about $500 million for Abstract Expressionist paintings by de Kooning and Pollock from a “West Coast collection.” Brett Gorvy, international head of contemporary art at Christie’s, then used his Instagram account to identify the de Kooning as “Interchanged” ( which is also known as a “Interchange”), a “seminal masterpiece” by the New York School artist that sold at auction in 1989 for $20.7 million. Mary Hoeveler, an art adviser in New York, said, “It’s business as usual on a grand scale — the uber rich buying the most coveted works of art.” “Regardless of conditions, and sometimes because of them, the market always responds to oncein-a-lifetime opportunities,” she added. “Masterpieces are a safe haven for wealth.” Ms. Hoeveler, like many professionals in the art trade, viewed the news of the $500 million transaction as a welcome counter to the downturn in auction sales so far this year, even though the purchase was made in 2015. The Griffin acquisition also has symbolic value. Back in 1989, “Interchanged” was bought by the Mountain Tortoise Gallery in Tokyo for a $20.7 million at auction, at the time the highest price for a contemporary work of art. But that was only about a quarter of the $82.5 million paid the next year for Van Gogh’s “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” at the high-point of the late-1980s art boom. Now this monumental de Kooning abstract is deemed equal to, if not more valuable than, such Post-Impressionist masterpieces. Wendy Cromwell, an art adviser in New York, said: “That cycle ended and we have skipped on to the Abstract Expressionists. That is where the focus is right now. It’s a natural evolution that comes with a younger generation of collector.” Many in the United States revere de Kooning, Pollock and Rothko as the Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo of postwar modernism. Unfortunately for private collectors, virtually all the prime examples by these Abstract Expressionist masters are in, or promised to, museums. Dealers said “Number 17A” was probably the last available large-scale Pollock from his most admired period, 1947 to 1950. The painting, which is three feet, eight inches wide, was one of three featured in a Life magazine article in August 1949 entitled, “Jackson Pollock: Is He the Greatest Living Painter in the United States?” Killed in a car accident in 1956, Pollock might now seem to be regarded as the country’s greatest dead painter. In 2011, the San Francisco collectors Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson bequeathed Pollock’s majestic drip painting “Lucifer,” dating from 1947, to the Anderson Collection at Stanford University. Dealers now value that work at as much as $500 million. With museum-quality Pollocks rare on the market, collectors returned to the realities of the mainstream art trade on Wednesday at the ARCOmadrid fair in Spain. The event, now in its 35th year, is one of a group of what might be called second-tier contemporary art fairs, with price levels that can be more accessible to many collectors than those being asked by the megagalleries at Art Basel, Frieze or FIAC. But this is a crowded marketplace. Art Cologne in Germany, Artissima in Turin, The Armory Show in New York, Art Brussels in Belgium, viennacontemporary in Austria and ARCOmadrid are all vying for a similar audience of wealthy, but not necessarily extremely wealthy, clients. All need to come up with something distinctive to persuade serious exhibitors and collectors to participate, particularly at a time of economic uncertainty. One way of doing that is to pay for them. ARCOmadrid is organized by a consortium of local municipal bodies in the Spanish capital that this year allocated the fair a budget of 4.5 million euros, about $5 million. The fair was thus able to finance visits from about 400 collectors, curators and “international influencers,” and offer moderately priced or even free booths to exhibitors.
The Paris dealer Chantal Crousel, who exhibited at the first edition of ARCO in 1982, was one of 33 galleries allotted free spaces to present works by two of their artists, selected by the fair’s curators to celebrate the 35th anniversary. “The fair has become a lot more open and international,” said Ms. Crousel, who was showing Mona Hatoum and Danh Vo. “The city’s museums give a point of reference, and people from abroad love to come to Madrid.” Works by Mr. Vo, a Vietnamese-born Danish artist who represented Denmark at last year’s Venice Biennale, continue to be on collectors’ shopping lists. One of his 2011-2014 “We the People” copper sculptures, derived from a drapery section of the Statue of Liberty, sold at ARCO’s Wednesday preview for €174,000 to a Spanish client and a gold-painted Corona beer cardboardbox sculpture was bought by a Belgian for €70,000. The fair, held as usual in the Feria de Madrid exhibition center on the outskirts of the city, featured 221 galleries from 27 countries and was expected to have attracted 100,000 visitors by the time it closed on Sunday. Most galleries in the main body of the fair, even if they were not from Spain, featured works by Spanish-speaking artists. Lisson Gallery of London, for example, sold two brightly colored 2010 fabric sculptures by the Spanish artist Angela de la Cruz, priced between 20,000 and 50,000 pounds, or $27,000 and $69,700. Sales were sporadic, though, and there was a conspicuous lack of urgency in the way that visitors browsed on preview day. There was, however, plenty of commercial action at the booth of the Berlin gallery Crone, which was showing works by young Cuban artists. Notable for their technical innovation and political engagement — and for 20 sales at the preview on Wednesday to a range of international buyers — the Crone sales included 18 drawings made by Kelvin López, using a fake official rubber stamp, of houses appropriated by the former Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Ten of these “This Is Your House Fidel” drawings sold for €800 each. Two of Rachel Valdés’s mirror installations, “Infinite Composition,” from an edition of five, have respectively sold to a German collector and the Cuban state for €100,000 each. Ms. Valdés, who, like Mr. López, lives in Havana, is just 25. “With the opening up of Cuba, collectors are looking for opportunities,” said the New York adviser Erica Barrish, who was one of the fair’s 400 invited guests. “They’re always looking to new regions. Something similar happened in China.” These transactions might seem small in light of the money that has been paid for those works by the two Abstract Expressionist painters. But they do show that there is still some life left in the market for contemporary art. Correction: March 3, 2016 An earlier version of this article misidentified the gallery at Stanford University to which a different Pollock work, “Lucifer,” was bequeathed. It was the Anderson Collection at Stanford University, not the Stanford University art gallery. The article also gave an incorrect date for the bequest. It was in 2011, not 2014.!
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! If!you!happen!by!the!Armory!Show’s!Champagne!Lounge!this!week,!you!might! have!the!fortune!of!being!a!muse!for!Nigerian=born!artist!Karo!Akpokiere.! As!visitors!check!their!fair!maps!and!catch!their!breath,!the!artist!will!be!busy! creating!what!he!calls!an!Alternate!Art!Fair!on!a!6=by=10=foot!wall,!inspired!by! the!dynamic!booths,!loud!art=world!personalities!and!frenzied!buzz!of!Armory! Art!Week.! ! The! 34=year=old! Mr.! Akpokiere! hails! from! Nigeria’s! capital,! Lagos.! He! was! trained!as!a!graphic!designer,!and!his!drawings!are!known!for!their!crisp,!clean! lines!and!bold,!flat!colors,!fused!together!through!patterns!and!text.!In!2015,! he!gained!international!recognition!when!curator!Okwui!Enwezor!showed!his! Lagos!Drawings!series!at!56th!Venice!Biennale.! ! !
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! ! His!Alternate!Art!Fair!project!is!one!of!several!special!works!selected!for!this! year’s!Focus!section,!featuring!contemporary!artists!and!leading!galleries!from! Africa,!curated!by!Julia!Grosse!and!Yvette!Mutumba.!In!2014,!the!artist!did!a! similar!live=drawing!project!for!the!Lagos!Fashion!and!Design!Week!Showroom,! and!while!that!work!was!created!during!a!single!night!rather!than!four!days,!it! served! as! an! important! lesson! for! Mr.! Akpokiere! while! he! prepares! for! this! week.!
! ‘For!every!commercial!activity!there!should!be!a!balance!with!non= commercial!activity,’!said!Mr.!Akpokiere.! ! “I!had!an!idea!to!create!a!page!from!a!sketchbook,!tiny!drawings!and!tiny!text! but!on!a!larger!surface.!Then,!I!realized!my!initial!idea!wasn’t!going!to!work.! [The!wall!was]!a!wooden!surface!painted!white,!and!it!sucked!up!a!lot!of!my! paint,!so!I!just!started!making!changes!on!the!go.”! It’s!no!surprise!then!that!Mr.!Akpokiere!chooses!to!be!vague!about!the!details! of! his! vision! for! the! fair,! but! he! did! say! his! goal! would! be! to! translate! his! experiences!at!the!show!for!his!fictitious!version!on!the!canvas.!
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! During!the!four!days!on!site,!he’ll!“assume!different!personalities,”!from!artist! and!director!to!curator.!“[The!project]!is!meant!to!drive!home!a!point!about! ownership!for!an!artist—to!be!able!to!be!independent!and!in!control!of!creative! output!and!career,”!he!told!the!Observer!via!Skype!from!Lagos.!This!will!be!his! first!time!showing!at!the!Armory,!as!well!as!his!first!time!ever!visiting!New!York.! “Art!fairs!serve!a!purpose.!For!the!most!part!they’re!an!extension!of!what!a! gallery! has! to! offer,”! he! said.! “There’s! nothing! necessarily! wrong! with!
commerce,!but!for!every!commercial!activity!there!should!be!a!balance!with! non=commercial!activity—works!that!don’t!exist!for!sale.”! !
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! Mr.! Akpokiere! plans! to! interact! with! visitors! as! much! as! possible! while! he! draws.!He’ll!ask!questions!to!passersby!about!issues!relating!to!the!art=world! economy!with!topics!such!as!“social!mobility!within!the!arts.”! “You!can’t!escape!commercial!activity.!It’s!just!the!world!we!live!in.!But!intent! should!always!be!questioned:!‘Why!do!you!want!to!be!involved!in!an!art!fair?’! and!‘What’s!the!reason?’!”!he!said.! ! After!Armory!Week!is!over,!his!Alternate!Art!Fair!will!become!a!new!series!of! prints.! Hang! around! the! lounge! long! enough,! and! you! might! become! a! character!in!Mr.!Akpokiere’s!work.!So!be!on!your!best!behavior.! ! ! ! ! http://observer.com/2016/03/at=the=armory=show=nigerian=artist=karo=akpokiere=to=create=a=fair=within=a=fair/!
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The$Armory$Show$Unveils$a$ New$Era$for$African$Art$
The!fair's!Focus!Section!puts!African!artists!front!and!center! By!Ryan!Steadman!•!03/02/16!2:57pm! !
! Francisco!Vidal,!New$Spirits$No.1,!2015.!Micael!Costa,!courtesy!of!the!artist!and!Tiwani! Contemporary!
During!this!most!recent!Contemporary$art!market!boom,!the!smears!and!squiggles!of!young!American!painters! (usually!with!sixQfigure!MFA!degrees)!were!deeply!in!vogue.!But!eventually,!that!artwork!became!redundant,!and! some!of!it!even!started!to!resemble!discarded!garbage!(drywall,!dirty!windshields,!etc.).!Therefore,!that!fad!has! been!put!aside!for!a!new!art!trend:!Contemporary!African!art,!which!has!been!booming,!thanks!to!its!relatively!low! price,!and!is!now!spilling!into!collections!around!the!globe.! !
Of!course,!there’s!been!a!strong!thread!of!artists!coming!out!of!Africa,!like!El!Anatsui!and!William!Kentridge,!and! into!the!contemporary!art!world!for!decades.!But!now!there’s!great!excitement!for!a!younger!generation!of!African! artists.!Their!work,!as!mentioned,!tends!to!come!cheaper!than!most!of!the!aforementioned!MFAQgraduate! artworks,!and!they!also!offer!artworks!that!has!been!informed!by!real!issues:!murderous,!religious!fanatics!and! environmental!disasters,!for!example!(not!problems!like!having!to!sign!in!and!out!of!multiple!Instagram!accounts,! which,!let’s!face!it,!does!suck).! ! ! Enter!the!Armory!Show:!one!of!over!nine!art!fairs!taking!place!in!New!York!City!this!March!(and!in!case!you’re!like,! “What?!Only!nine?”!there!is!also!a!bunch!more!taking!place!in!May!for!some!reason).!This!year,!the!Armory!is! showcasing—you!guessed!it—the!art!of!Africa!in!its!critically!lauded!Focus!section.!Each!year,!the!Focus!section! brings!wellQdeserved!attention!to!artists!and!artwork!from!a!new!far!away!district,!like!Scandinavia,!China!or! Westeros!(ok,!not!actually!the!dragonQinfested!Westeros).!This!year,!the!Focus!section,!titled!“African! Perspectives,”!has!been!curated!by!the!team!of!Julia!Grosse!and!Yvette!Mutumba!from!the!online!African!art! platform!Contemporary!And!(C&).! ! Last!year,!a!big!artQworld!spotlight!was!put!on!African!art!when!Nigerian!Okwui!Enwezor!became!the!first!African! to!curate!the!Venice!Biennale.!And!momentum!for!African!art!and!African!presence!in!the!art!world!has!only! strengthened!since.!By!the!way,!did!you!know!that!Africa!makes!up!more!than!20!percent!of!the!earth’s!land!and!is! the!only!continent!to!stretch!from!the!northern!temperate!zone!to!the!southern!temperate!zone?!As!you!can! imagine,!there!are!as!many!different!art!styles!as!there!are!countries!(54)!in!the!birthplace!of!the!human!race.!And! considering!Africa’s!exploding!population,!it!shouldn’t!come!as!a!surprise!that!hot!young!artists!are!starting!to!pour! out!of!Africa.!Fortunately,!Americans!will!have!the!chance!to!see!a!tantalizing!cross!section!of!works!by!these! African!artists!up!close!and!personal!in!the!2016!Armory!Show.!We!got!a!sneak!preview,!and—spoiler!alert—a!lot! of!the!work!is!pretty!great.!Here!are!some!of!the!highlights.!
Dan Halter, Patterns of Migration, 2015. Image courtesy of Dan Halter and WHATIFTHEWORLD! ! Any!African!focus!should!naturally!start!with!the!South!African!gallery!What!If!the!World?,!which!has!been!a! trailblazer!of!the!Cape!Town!Contemporary!art!scene!since!2008.!The!gallery!is!a!launching!pad!for!young!African! artists,!like!AthiQPatra!Ruga!and!Rowan!Smith,!but!for!this!art!fair,!they’re!focusing!on!relatively!established!artist! Dan!Halter.!The!39QyearQold!artist,!who!addresses!the!colonization!of!his!Zimbabwean!ancestry!through!a!series!of! wall!works!and!sculptures,!has!settled!on!some!impressively!detailed!and!highly!individualized!styles.!His!booth! installation,!which!features!altered!African!masks,!tartan!fabrics,!handQwoven!printed!texts!and!plastic!bag!
material,!is!highlighted!by!a!pair!of!mannequin!legs!topped!with!a!stack!of!tartan!bags!that!both!sadly!and! humorously!symbolize!the!tragic!displacement!of!many!of!Mr.!Halter’s!fellow!Africans.! ! Cécile!Fakhoury!Gallery!is!visiting!from!the!port!city!of!Abidjan!in!the!Ivory!Coast—over!5,000!miles!away!from! Cape!Town.!The!space,!which!opened!in!2012,!is!more!than!just!another!art!gallery:!It’s!a!hub!of!Contemporary!artQ making!for!this!warQtorn!west!African!country,!offering!an!occasion!for!locals!to!show!or!view!topQnotch! Contemporary!artwork.!For!the!fair,!the!gallery!will!bring!a!series!of!otherworldly!photographs!by!Abidjanian! photographer!FrançoisQXavier!Gbré.!The!FrenchQborn!artist,!who!currently!lives!in!the!Ivory!Coast,!takes! photographs!of!the!local!buildings!and!infrastructure,!which!expose!evidence!of!prolonged!colonial!abuse.!This!is! certainly!obvious!in!pieces!like!Palais!du!Gouverneur!II,!Lomé,!Togo,!2012,!which!offers!hints!of!the!local!idyllic! landscape!from!within!the!shell!of!a!former!palace!long!vacated!and!gutted!of!its!opulent!wares.! !
! FrançoisQXavier!Gbré,!Cité$Espérance$#2,$Route$de$Bingerville,!2013.!Courtesy!of!the!Artist!and!the!Galerie!Cécile! Fakhoury!–!Abidjan! ! The!plight!of!Africa!under!colonial!rule!is!a!major!theme!among!the!Focus!booths.!Even!some!galleries!that!don’t! reside!in!Africa!will!be!presenting!works!that!touch!on!these!issues.!The!Tiwani!Contemporary,!despite!being! located!far!from!the!mother!continent!in!London,!focuses!on!artwork!from!“Africa!and!its!diaspora”!and!will!bring! the!eyeQpopping!works!of!Angolan!artist!Francisco!Vidal!to!New!York.!Though!Mr.!Vidal!was!born!in!Lisbon,!he!has! left!an!indelible!mark!on!the!citizens!of!Angola!that!goes!beyond!his!own!art.!The!artist,!who!is!of!Angolan!heritage! and!represented!his!country!at!the!most!recent!Venice!Biennale,!helped!to!grow!the!art!scene!of!Luanda,!Angola! by!coQfounding!the!eQstudio!Luanda,!a!project!space!and!studio!complex!that!offers!exhibitions!and!an!art! education!program!run!by!local!artists.!Mr.!Vidal’s!own!chromatic!text!and!imageQbased!paintings,!which!evoke!the! works!of!historic!colorists!such!as!Henri!Matisse!and!Ernst!Ludwig!Kirchner,!appear!jubilant!at!first!blush,!but!a! further!examination!of!his!work!reveals!paintedQover!machetes!and!other!munitions!that!Portugal!forged!in!order! to!extinguish!uprisings!in!Angola.!This!of!course!led!to!the!African!diaspora!into!which!Mr.!Vidal!was!born.!It’s! heavy!stuff,!yet!it!comes!in!an!alluring!package.! ! Another!artist!working!and!showing!outside!of!Africa!is!the!CanadianQborn,!ParisQbased!multimedia!artist!Kapwani! Kiwanga,!who!received!the!Armory’s!distinguished!artist!commission!for!this!year’s!fair!and!will!be!highlighted!on!
the!2016!fair!catalogue.!CoQpresented!by!both!the!Parisian!Galerie!Jerome!Poggi!and!the!BerlinQbased!Galerie!Tanja! Wagner,!Ms.!Kiwanga’s!installation!and!multimedia!works!combine!the!cuttingQedge!look!of!western! Contemporary!art!practices!but!with!a!litany!of!African!subjects.!The!artist!uses!her!research!on!a!multitude!of! subjects!to!create!installations!that!combine!projections,!photographs!and!altered!objects!Q—referencing!both!the! future!and!the!past.! ! As!a!group,!these!artists!cover!a!lot!of!territory!in!terms!of!their!artistic!styles!and,!literally,!in!terms!of!their! locations.!And!who!knows—if!this!Focus!section!really!takes!off,!maybe!we’ll!be!talking!about!the!artistQled! gentrification!of!Zimbabwe!at!this!time!next!year.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! http://observer.com/2016/03/theQarmoryQshowQunveilsQtheQdawnQofQaQnewQeraQforQafricanQart/!
! Art produced by African artists and the diaspora has been gaining traction on the international stage in the last few years. In 2013, for instance, Touria El Glaoui set up 1:54, a London fair focusing on contemporary African art that runs alongside Frieze. Despite its success in shedding light on underrepresented art, it has also raised the questions on whether the art presented at 1:54 shouldn’t simply be part of the main event. Adding to this discussion are Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba, the first female curators of Armory Focus, a branch of The Armory Show in New York, which this year is dedicated to art with African perspectives. The Berlin and Frankfurt based curators and art historians, who also founded Contemporary And, took up the task of challenging conceptions of what “African art” is, starting with the language to address it. Sleek’s online editor, Will Furtado, met co-curator Julia Grosse at Soho House Berlin to discuss their risky curatorial choices, why there isn’t such a thing as contemporary African art and the African artists to look out for. Sleek: What will you do differently at this iteration of Armory Focus? Julia Grosse: They’ve had Africa in mind for a long time and finally thought it’d be a good chance or a good year to do it now. It’s always tricky to say how we’d do it differently but we really tried to. The first step was not to focus on
We want to go beyond this kind of old idea and this is what we do at Contemporary And as well. This was our first approach: to state that the focus is just a perspective, and we look at art from Africa and the diaspora, wherever artists may be or come from. Even if they might be white? Yes, we have a few white artists; however, the focus of course is more on black artists. But for us it’s super important to focus on the diversity of artistic positions. We are both art historians and we approached the whole idea through the individual artists and then we approached the galleries and convinced them to show just a solo exhibition rather than having the booth full with work from ten different artists. That would have made sense for big recognisable names but in this case most of them aren’t really known; they are pretty young, the youngest was born in 1991. All the galleries agreed on having only one voice per booth. This is still like a little risk in terms of selling them. But we know these artists are great; we are really looking forward to see it happen.
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Compared to, for example, older artists who are in their 50s now and decided to stay in the west, the tendency among young artists is to go back, spend a few years in Nairobi and start a residency programme or an artist run space. And then maybe they want to go back to New York or elsewhere: so this kind of flux is quite telling for the young generations. It’s something we really relate to in our world so that’s why the focus is on the youngsters. But we also included two galleries who focus on modernists like Ibrahim el-Salahi, demonstrating the long history of contemporary art from African perspective.
You’ve once said there isn’t such a thing as contemporary African art. What exactly do you mean by that? It is more about the idea and wording. Of course it exists, this tendency of all the artists in the 54 African countries to deal with Africa as a topic but it’s just too easy to put it all down to one label. So contemporary African art is just contemporary art? Yes – that’s it. This is the goal as well, that ideally in 10 years you wouldn’t need something like Contemporary And anymore. An artist is foremost contemporary, and to the younger generation identity is important but not in the sense of “I’m from here or there”, but more like “I was here and there and this is all part of my identity.” In our next print issue which comes out during the Armory, there’s an interview with Martine Syms who is such a good example of this. Of course she has an inclination towards black culture, but she is also present in group shows at the New Museum and other not as a black artist but as a contemporary artist, and this is the goal. You don’t ask an artist where they’re from but what they’re working on.
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! Could you give us one artist we should look out for?
Namsa Leuba. She was born in 1982 to Swiss-Ghanaian parents, studied art and design and often works for fashion magazines like i-D. Leuba works with the stereotypical western images of Africa and juxtaposes them with elements from fashion and design. The end result features crazy settings with models in this kind of ritual tribe masquerades. She’s presenting a new project as well, which she produced during her residency in Lagos last year.
The Armory Show takes place in New York from 3 until 6 March 2016 Written by: Will Furtado
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! ! http://www.sleek-mag.com/2016/03/03/armory-focus-challenging-our-idea-of-african-art/!
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/t-magazine/armory-show-japanese-photographer-masahisafukase.html?_r=0
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Jason!Farago!in!New!York! Friday!4!March!2016!16.04!EST! Last!modified!on!Saturday!5!March!2016!05.09!EST!
! What!goes!up!must!come!down!–!you!just!have!to!wait!long!enough.!After!a!solid!decade!of!acceleration!to!hyperL speed,!the!goLgo!market!for!contemporary!art!is!finally!slowing!down.!This!winter,!after!torrid!results!at!Christie’s! and!Sotheby’s!in!London!(plus!continued!bloodletting!amid!the!staff’s!top!echelons),!the!respected!Laurel!Gitlen! closed!her!gallery!and!Paris!Photo!announced!it!was!cancelling!its!fair!in!Los!Angeles.!And!this!March,!as!the!American! art!world!gathered!in!New!York!for!the!annual!confab!of!Armory!Week!(and!the!opening!of!the!new!Met!Breuer),! the! usual! champagneLsoaked! parties! have! been! shadowed! with! gossip! from! the! sale! floor.! Contemporary! art’s! endless!party!may!not!be!over,!but!a!few!folks!are!definitely!headed!home.! ! Nearly!a!dozen!fairs!are!taking!place!this!week!in!New!York,!their!contents!ranging!from!thirdLrate!tchotchkes!to! blueLchip!assets!to!store!in!a!Hamptons!home!or!a!taxLfree!shelter.!In!between!those!two!poles!is!some!serious!art.! Here’s!what!to!see!at!the!three!most!important!fairs,!which!all!run!through!Sunday.! !
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! ! Two! questions! have! hovered! over! this! year’s! edition! of! the! Armory! Show,! and! only! one! was! financial.! Once! the! premier!fair!in!New!York,!the!Armory!Show!has!been!hounded!in!recent!years!by!the!arrival!of!Frieze!New!York,!a! London! import! than! has! siphoned! off! galleries! and! collectors.! Under! the! young,! shrew! director! Noah! Horowitz,! Armory!got!back!much!of!its!mojo!–!but!his!success!did!not!go!unnoticed,!and!in!September!he!left!to!join!the!biggest! fair!of!them!all,!Art!Basel.! ! Will!a!postLHorowitz!Armory!lose!its!momentum?!Armory’s!gratifyingly!strong!presentations!this!year!are!clearly!a! legacy!of!Horowitz’s!assiduous!courting!of!foreign!galleries!and!sloughing!off!of!wobblier!American!ones.!With!the! softening!of!the!market,!galleries!have!brought!younger!(and!often!better)!artists!to!exhibit,!and!the!recent!vogue! for!“zombie!formalism”!–!the!painter/critic!Walter!Robinson’s!phrase!for!braindead!abstraction!by!affable!bros!–!has! been!superseded!by!a!more!thoughtful,!less!cashLandLcarry!sort!of!art.!On!the!booth!of!Laura!Bartlett!Gallery,!from! London,!the!young!Danish!artist!Marie!Lund!presented!a!quixotic,!compelling!sheet!of!pockmarked!bronze!alongside! found! wooden! busts! shorn! of! their! identifying! features.! Nicelle! Beauchene,! a! New! York! gallery,! has! mounted! delicate,! intricate,! drawings! on! large! sheets! of! graph! paper,! whose! nearly! occult! forms! revive! a! link! between! abstraction!and!spirituality!too!long!suppressed.! ! ! ! ! ! !
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! ! The!best!reason!to!go!to!Armory!this!year!is!its!major,!concerted!turnout!for!African!art.!Kapwani!Kiwanga,!a!ParisL based! artist! of! Tanzanian! descent,! is! presenting! a! compelling! video! that! excavates! how! foreign! ministers! and! business!machers!at!the!United!Nations!used!art!as!a!tool!of!diplomacy.!The!work!was!commissioned!by!the!Armory! as!part!of!its!nonLcommercial!section,!and!Kiwanga!is!also!showing!excellent!work!on!the!booth!of!Galerie!Tanja! Wagner,!from!Berlin:!beautiful!hassocks!of!sisal!strung!across!clotheslines,!in!the!tradition!of!Robert!Morris!and!other! postLminimalists.! ! Wagner!is!one!of!more!than!a!dozen!galleries!focusing!on!African!art!at!this!fair,!in!town!not!only!from!Berlin!and! Paris!but!from!Lagos,!Nairobi!and!Addis!Ababa.!Galerie!Cécile!Fakhoury,!from!Abidjan,!has!knockout!photographs! from!the!Ivorian!artist!FrançoisLXavier!Gbré,!in!which!an!industrial!port!or!a!former!governor’s!mansion!appear!as! washedLout,!historyLscarred!carapaces.!And!South!Africa’s!two!most!important!galleries,!Goodman!Gallery!and! Stevenson,!are!both!exhibiting!for!the!first!time.!On!the!booth!of!Stevenson!there’s!a!wrenching!painting!by! Barthélémy!Toguo,!recently!nominated!for!the!Prix!Marcel!Duchamp,!that!memorializes!the!victims!of!January’s! terrorist!attack!in!Burkina!Faso.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
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The!African!focus!has!inspired!several!western!dealers!to!focus!their!presentations!on!art!from!the!continent!and!its! diaspora.!Victoria!Miro,!from!London,!has!given!over!her!booth!almost!entirely!to!African,!black!American,!and!black! British!artists,!among!them!Chris!Ofili,!Kara!Walker,!Wangechi!Mutu!and!Isaac!Julien.!The!Nigerian!painter!Njideka! Akunyili!Crosby!–!a!standout!at!last!year’s!triennial!at!New!York’s!New!Museum,!and!who’s!currently!enjoying!a! retrospective!at!the!Norton!Museum!of!Art!in!West!Palm!Beach,!Florida!–!has!contributed!a!knockout!diptych:!the! artist!lazes!at!her!kitchen!table,!while!in!the!background!is!a!dense!collage!of!Lagosian!movers!and!shakers,!among! them!her!own!mother.! ! We!will!have!to!wait!until!next!year!to!see!if!they!keep!it!up!under!a!new!director,!the!former!Artnet!editor!Benjamin! Genocchio.!For!now,!Armory!remains!seaworthy!–!even!if!the!market!is!getting!choppier.!
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Uptown! from! the! Armory! Show! is! the! smaller,! more! elite! showcase! of! the! Art! Dealers! Association! of! America.! (Confusingly,!this!fair!is!in!a!building!called!“the!Armory”;!the!actual!Armory!Show!itself!is!located!on!two!cruise!ship! piers! on! the! Hudson! river.)! At! ADAA’s! fair,! most! booths! are! given! over! to! solo! presentations,! making! the! fair! especially!pleasant!for!those!of!us!there!to!learn!rather!than!shop.!Which,!if!the!market!slows!any!further,!will!be!all! of!us.! ! Betty! Cunningham! Gallery,! from! New! York,! has! organized! the! most! enthralling! exhibition! at! the! fair:! a! miniL retrospective!of!the!art!of!Bill!Traylor,!one!of!the!first!African!Americans!to!win!prominence!as!an!artist.!Born!into! slavery!in!1854,!Traylor!continued!to!work!for!the!family!that!owned!him!after!emancipation!and!barely!made!a! living!until!he!was!85!–!when!he!picked!up!some!graphite!and!cardboard!and!started!to!draw.!The!works!he!made!in! the!last!decade!of!his!long!life,!of!a!hieroglyphic!young!mule!or!a!vase!simplified!to!its!most!basic!geometry,!have!a! force! and! straightforwardness! common! to! modernism,! and! deserve! to! be! seen! beyond! the! boundaries! of! the! offensive!and!unilluminating!designation!of!“folk!art”.!
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The!biggest!upshift!on!this!year’s!art!fair!circuit,!however,!comes!from!Independent:!the!once!scruffy,!now!decidedly! polished!upstart!that!began!as!an!Armory!alternative!in!2010.!In!its!previous!location,!at!the!former!home!of!the!Dia! Art!Foundation,!Independent!had!no!fixed!walls!dividing!gallery!spaces!and!no!finely!gradated!lists!of!VIPs.!This!year,! it’s!relocated!to!a!spacious,!warehouse!space!beside!the!decidedly!unglamorous!Holland!Tunnel,!flooded!with!light.! It!looks!more!like!a!classical!art!swap!meet!than!a!punky!newcomer!–!but!Independent!has!grown!up!without!selling! out,!if!you!can!even!say!that!about!a!commercial!fair.! Advertisement! ! Independent! still! pulls! in! the! cream! of! New! York! and! London’s! hipper! galleries,! among! them! Gavin! Brown’s! enterprise,!Herald!Street!and!Maureen!Paley!–!the!last!of!which!is!displaying!a!striking!largeLscale!photograph!by! Wolfgang!Tillmans,!in!which!a!man’s!outstretched!fingers!twiddles!in!lavender!light.!But!more!established!galleries! have!begun!to!migrate!to!Independent,!among!them!the!august!Paula!Cooper!Gallery,!founded!in!1968!(before!many! of!the!dealers!here!were!born),!and!displaying!cerebral!text!works!from!the!conceptualist!Robert!Barry.! It’s!the!finest!fair!of!the!week!–!and!my!recommendation!if!you’re!traipsing!through!New!York!this!snowy!March.! But!the!professionalization!of!Independent!comes!with!a!downside:!formerly!free,!it’ll!now!cost!you!$25!to!get!in.! Given!the!soft!market,!that!might!be!the!most!anyone!spends.! ! ! ! ! ! ! http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/mar/04/armoryLshowLreviewLnewLyorkLartLfairsLindependentLadaa!
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8 African Artists to Know at The Armory Show By Beckett Mufson — Mar 3 2016
Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga,Titre Lost, 2015, acrylic and oil on canvas, 200x200cm. Image courtesy October Gallery, London. Photo: the artist This week, the chrous of frenzied art world posturing known as The Armory Show attracts hundreds of artists, galleries, and collectors from all over the world, like sharks swooping in on the smell of fresh blood. Teetering on the westernmost edge of Manhattan, hundreds of booths and thousands of paintings, sculptures, photographs, and experiences fill up the massive warehouse space of Piers 92 and 94. Within the cacophonous labyrinth of art objects vying for human attention, however, there are enough genuinely interesting artifacts to justify a visit, particularly within The Armory Show’s Focus: African Perspectives - Spotlighting Artistic Practices of Global Contemporaries. This focus takes form as a ring of galleries on the border of the two piers, and features work ranging from plastic bag tapestries and line drawings that evoke Picasso, to men and women infected with circuit boards and Afrofuturist masks reclaimed from garbage. These challenging artworks season our American mixing-pot with the genuine stories of Zimbabwe, South Africa, Sudan, and Angola. They elicit empathy, make
familiar the unknown, yet remain refreshingly unpretentious. These are artists with real problems, and the way they deal with them is through creativity and art. Even outside the dedicated African focus area, African artworks stand out from the rest, such as Mary Sibande’s surreal, sculptural photographs and Wim Botha’s busts sculpted from lacerated books. Here are eight of the most alluring, challenging, fascinating, and straight up good African artists you’ve got to check out at The 2016 Armory Show. Cyrus Kabiru
(L to R)Cyrus Kabiru, Throwback, 2015, Medium Pigment Ink on HP Premium Satin Photographic Paper, Image: SMAC Gallery, South Africa; Cyrus Kabiru, Trump, 2015, Medium Pigment Ink on HP Premium Satin Photographic Paper, Image: SMAC Gallery, South Africa Known as an advocate of Afrofuturism, Kenyan artist Cyrus Kabiru offers stunning photography of himself in a series of improvised masks made from garbage and spare metal, which he calls "C-Stunners" (the C is for Cyrus). Part performance, part fashion, part fine art, the photo series is called Nija Ya Maisha, which is Swahili for “Ways of Life.” His booth was handing out balloons that read “Your Mom,” but Armory Show officials made them stop. Look for Cyrus Kabiru at the Smac Gallery booth in Pier 94.
Namsa Leuba
(L to R) Namsa Leuba, Rasheed NGL, 2015; Namsa Leuba, Sarah NGL, 2015. Photos courtesy Echo Art Working with local fashion designers of her home base in Lagos, Nigeria, SwissGuinean artist Namsa Leuba presents photography electrified with vivid colors and eye-catching outfits in her new series NGL, debuting at The Armory Show. Composed with auteur level attention to detail, she explores the symbolism and rituals of her cultural heritage, both European and African. The result is a fusion of styles and ideas that would look at home on a net artist’s Tumblr, infused with a panache that is clearly African. Look for Namsa Leuba at the Echo Art Gallery booth in Pier 94.
Dan Halter
Dan Halter, V for Vendetta, African masks, dimensions variable, 2014. Image courtesy Tiwandi Gallery One of many Zimbabwean immigrants living in South Africa, Dan Halter’s work at The Armory Show is centered around the concept of migration. With tapestries and a massive sculpture stitched together from large plastic bags used to carry valuables across the Zimbabwe-South Africa border, Halter makes a statement about nature of migration. A massive map of the world is revealed to be an infographic—countries whose populations are on the move are cut from weathered plastic bags, while their destinations are shiny and new. An assemblage of Guy Fawkes masks crafted in the styles of different African tribes parodies both trendiness of cultural artifacts in the markets of Cape Town and the empty promises of the Occupy movement, whose most recognizable symbol has been reduced to simple product and profit. Halter has exhibited work all over the world, including at the South African National Gallery and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, and has completed residencies in Zurich, Rio de Janeiro, Scotland, and Turin. Find his work at The Armory Show in the What If The World Gallery booth in Pier 94.
Wim Botha
Wim Botha, Busts, 2016. Photo by the author Cape Town-based sculptor Wim Botha’s selection of battered, shredded, and otherwise unconventional busts is the hidden gem amongst the hundreds of Armory Show booths, tucked behind a wall near an emergency exit. The award-winning artist was invited to the 2013 Venice Biennale, and has also shown work in Austria, Paris, and London. One bust called Untitled (Witness 38) is made from carved encyclopedias, while its neighbor, A Thousand Things Part 206, is a frightening sight composed of charred fire-resistant pine. While one gallerist assured me these busts were satirical of classical busts, institutional ideas about materials, and the aging institution of encyclopedias, I couldn’t help but sense an imprint of rage, disgust, or dissatisfaction on the works—but maybe that’s just extended exposure to The Armory Show talking. Find Wim Botha’s work at the Stevenson Gallery booth in Pier 94.
Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga
Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga, No identity, no evolution, 2015, acrylic and oil on canvas, 200x200cm. Image courtesy October Gallery, London. Photo: the artist The continuing effects of cultural and economic imperialism drive paintings by 24-year-old Congolese artist Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga presents at The Armory Show, entitled Mangbetu. His characters’ black skin is coated with circuit boards, while they are wrapped in vivid clothes printed with traditional Mangbetu patterns. The Mangbetu are a tribe of warrior extraction in Ilunga’s home country, The Democratic Republic of Congo, whose culture is threatened by the momentum of modernization in Africa. With his art collective M’Pongo, Ilunga seeks to offer creative alternatives to Western-style growth in his home. Find Eddy Kamuanga Ilunga’s work at the October Gallery booth in Pier 94.
Mary Sibande
Mary Sibande, Right Now, 101.16-x-235.57 cm, Digital Pigment Print, 1500x644. Image courtesy Momo Gallery Mary Sibande blends photography, performance, and sculpture in her stunning works depicting the emotional trauma of life in a South Africa still reeling from the effects of apartheid. She dresses in vibrant costumes, often accompanied by colorful sculptures, in the photographs on display at The Armory Show. After the photo is taken, she replaces her own form with an identical resin cast, breathing new life into the scene as sculpture. See Mary Sibande’s work at the Gallery Mono booth in Pier 94.
Francisco Vidal
Francisco Vidal in front of Black Fire, New Spirits No. 1, 2015. Photos by the author Fresh off his selection to participate in last year’s Venice Biennale, the Lisbonborn and Columbia-educated artist Francisco Vidal was an art teacher in Angola when he began making artwork from scratch—right down to the very paper he paints or draws on. His work at The Armory Show includes colorful wall-sized abstracts and dozens of black-and-white drawings of his friends, other artists, and inspirations, ranging from Questlove, to Bruce Lee, and even Mr. T. He began making paper because the Angolese school he was teaching in didn’t have the supplies necessary for his class. Today, he continues to make his own paper, even bringing the portable paper presses he uses to his booth at The Armory Show. “It’s like the first layer of ink,” he tells The Creators Project. “It evokes industry and manufacturing. It’s more human, not having to buy stuff.” Find Francisco Vidal’s work at the Tiwani Contemporary booth in Pier 94.
Ibrahim El-Salahi
Ibrahim El-Salahi, Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams III, 2015, Pen and ink, 154 x 122 cm / 60 5/8 x 48 in. Image courtesy Vigo Gallery At 85 years of age, Sudanese Muslim artist Ibrahim El-Salahi’s work bears marks of his decades-long struggle to make honest art. El-Salahi is a founding member of the Khartoum School, former Undersecretary in Sudan’s Ministry of Culture and Information, and a former political prisoner in his home nation. His work has been compared to Picasso and Miró, infusing elements of calligraphy, native Sudanese design, and Islamic imagery into many of his artworks. His resume is long, impressive, and at times heartbreaking. At The Armory Show, he exhibits the third artwork in a series he’s been working on since 1965 called Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams, the first of which hangs next to Picasso’s Three Dancers (1925) in the Tate Modern. “It recalls all the stories and fables he was read as a child,” Vigo Gallery director Toby Clarke explains to The Creators Project. “He likes to live with his paintings because he doesn’t understand them until looking at them later on.” See Ibrahim El-Salahi’s work, including Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams III, at the Vigo Gallery booth in Pier 94.
http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/blog/8-african-artists-armory-show
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!Artist Jonathan Schipper has personally never been in more than a fender bender, and these days he
lives in Brooklyn and doesn’t even own a car, but one of his most well-known works is Slow Motion Car Crash, which is just what it sounds like: a car, attached to a hydraulic piston, being unhurriedly but implacably mashed into a wall. Think of it as an impact safety test, minus the crash-test dummies and at molasses speed. Thanks to Pierogi Gallery, you’ll be able to see it at the Armory Show the first week of March, compacting itself over four days. So what is it about a car wreck? “My interest in it was that this pivotal emotional moment," Schipper says. "It happens so damn fast, and you have so much adrenaline,” that its hard to apprehend. So why not slow it down? “We’ve all seen a million slow-motion crashes in Hollywood. But this one you can touch.” It’s part of a series Schipper, who is originally from California, has been working on for the past ten years. “The original piece was a head-on collision, which is called The Slow Inevitable Death of American Muscle,” he says. A portentous title, perhaps, but he chose the muscle cars for their powerful, specific cultural pull: “They did such a great job of reflecting the aspirations of a generation,” he says. And in any case, its hard to argue that these have been the best years for American muscle (in the larger sense of military and economic self-assurance) around the world. (And for what its worth, it was around the time that Quentin Tarantino made his muscle-car snuff film Death Proof.) The
project has been put on as far away as China. Muscle was an edition of three: To create it, for example, a Pontiac Firebird and a Chevy Camaro have both been deployed to commit drawn-out auto murder-suicide. One edition of it is owned by an heir to the Jack Daniel's fortune (appropriately enough, since part of what this reminds you of is those banged-up-by-driving-drunk car-carcasses suburban police sometimes display as a scare tactic), and sits in front of a restaurant and art space made out of a former gas station in Louisville, Kentucky. They have it set to very slow: "They’ve only changed the cars out twice, I believe.” “I still get almost weekly hate mail from the muscle-car world, who think it’s an attack on them: ‘How could you destroy these wonderful cars?’” In reality, the cars he buys, on which he never spends more than $2,000, are usually barely street-legal. Actually, at the Armory, he'd originally hoped to up the ante with a slow-motion airplane crash, but it proved too unwieldy (not to mention, these days, evocative of terrorism). So it was back to the single-car version, which he has done several times before in gallery spaces. It’s cheaper, and simpler to pull off, and has slightly different implications: of cars crashing into buildings, or perhaps just our own inevitable mortality. “We empty out all of the gas and fluids and electrical batteries, take the air out of the tires, and all that. The nice thing is that cars are engineered to be safe in an accident. We put a safety film over the windows; the side windows sometimes break.” The hydraulic cydinder pushes at 20,000 pounds. The three to four days “is as fast as we’ve done it, basically,” he says. “When you’re actually there, this is a nice speed. You can see a small difference in an hour. So it’s kind of fun to watch.” He’ll buy a car — he’s hoping to get a Mini Cooper — on Craigslist the week before. And it ought to be a popular diversion at the fair: After all, probably the most-Instagrammed artwork at Art Basel Miami Beach this year was Jimmie Durham’s Still Life with Xitle and Spirit: a junker crushed by a big volcanic basalt rock (the car was an old Chrysler Spirit; Xitle is a volcano in Mexico). “I’m a conceptual artist, a sculptor,” he says. “General America gives us a lot of flak. But this gets a lot of public acceptance. It’s kind of like a special effect, in a way, which is easy to get into. It’s kind of like watching fire, when you sit around watching fire. It’s so captivating: You’re watching something die, it's contemplative.” Here is an earlier iteration of it, sped up:
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When!Chamber!opened!back!in!2014,!it!inaugurated!its!space!with!an!ambitious!collection!that!its!founder,! Juan!Garcia!Mosqueda,!curated!with!Studio!Job.!Now,!for!its!first!showing!at!The!Armory!Show,!the!galleryG slashGboutique!turned!again!to!Studio!Job,!but!this!time,!it!put!the!Dutch!design!duo!into!the!spotlight!as!the! subject!of!its!booth,!‘A!Decade!of!Studio!Job,!2006–2016’.! ! The!presentation!provides!a!glimpse!at!the!last!ten!years!of!the!studio’s!work,!beginning!with!Pinocchio!from! 2006's! seminal! ‘Homework’! series,! and! culminating! with! a! neverGbeforeGseen! drawing! for! its! forthcoming! ‘Sinking!Ship’!table.! Between!those!two!bookends,!Chamber!includes!four!other!objects!that!collectively!form!an!arc!through!Studio! Job’s!busy!decade:!‘Bavaria!Triptych!Mirror’,!2008;!‘Piece!for!Peace’,!2010;!‘Horse!Bust!(Chess!Piece)’,!2014;! and!‘Standing!Bubble!(Light!Object)’,!2014.! ! Chamber’s!booth!is!a!tantalising!precursor!to!yet!another!presentation!of!Studio!Job’s!work:!a!major!exhibition! opening!later!this!month!at!New!York’s!Museum!of!Arts!and!Design!(MAD).!The!first!US!solo!museum!exhibition!
of!the!firm’s!work,!‘Studio!Job!MAD!HOUSE’!will!run!from!22!March!to!21!August,!including!several!key!loans! of! pieces! from! Chamber! that! it! has! commissioned! from! the! studio.! ‘Sinking! Ship’,! represented! through! the! drawing!at!the!Armory!booth,!will!be!included!in!the!MAD!exhibition!as!a!fully!realised!table.!! ! While!the!Studio!Job!show!concludes!at!the!end!of!this!week,!back!at!the!gallery!itself,!Chamber!is!readying!its! space!for!the!next!capsule!–!a!presentation!of!new!works!by!Azuma!Makoto,!curated!by!photographer!Andrew! Zuckerman,!who!also!arranged!Chamber’s!recent!‘Human!Nature’!collection.!!
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In!2011,!Brooklyn.based!designer!Stephen!Burks!had!a!solo!exhibition!at!the!Studio!Museum!in!Harlem,!which! was!given!the!title!'Man!Made'!by!museum!director!Thelma!Golden.!‘Since!its!founding!in!1968,!the!museum! had!never!shown!design!before,’!says!Burks,!who!has!worked!with!Aid!to!Artisans,!the!Clinton!Global!Initiative! and!the!Nature!Conservancy!since!2005,!and!received!the!Cooper!Hewitt!National!Design!Award!last!year.!‘But! they!wanted!to!show!this!project!because!of!its!social!context.’! ! That!context!was!rooted!in!the!designer’s!long.running!investigations!in!the!global!economy!of!artisanal!craft,! which!began!with!Burks’s!collaborations!with!Senegalese!basket!weavers!based!in!New!York!and!Dakar,!and! continued!with!other!artisans!in!South!Africa,!Peru!and!India.! ! ‘It! was! really! rooted! in! a! single! craft! technique! by! these! Senegalese! people,! which! Harlem! has! a! decent! population!of,!and!so!the!question!was,!if!these!same!people!could!make!your!bread!basket!and!hamper,!why! couldn’t!they!also!make!your!chandelier!or!your!coffee!table?’!asks!Burks.! ! In! the! years! since,! he’s! employed! this! model! in! projects! with! Dedon,! Parachilna,! Harry! Winston! and! Roche! Bobois! (for! the! 'Traveler'! chair,! the! company's! first! collaboration! with! an! American! designer! in! its! 40! year! history).!‘The!studio!is!now!called!Stephen!Burks!Man!Made!because!we!believe!in!combining!the!hand!with! industry,!so!the!closer!we!get!to!the!act!of!making!the!more!potential!we!have!for!innovation,’!he!adds.!
! That!innovation!came!full!circle!this!week!at!The!Armory!Show,!where!Burks!designed!the!central!lounge!with! his! chairs,! ottomans,! side! tables! and! lamps! from! his! 'Dala'! collection! for! Dedon,! made! by! artisans! in! the! Philippines.!‘I’ve!designed!an!installation!that!joins!it!all!together!with!two!arcing!walls!of!painted!wooden!posts! at! varying! heights! that! look! like! a! contemporary! forest,’! explained! Burks! before! the! show.! ‘There! will! be! a! passageway!and!a!video.!I’m!trying!to!optimize!this!opportunity.’! Meanwhile,!he’s!also!debuting!his!'Noir'!pendant!lamps!at!a!titular!exhibition!presented!by!Seattle’s!Mariane! Ibrahim!Gallery!(he’ll!have!a!solo!show!there!later!this!year)!that!was!curated!by!Maria!Cristina!Didero!for!this! year’s! Armory! Focus! initiative,! highlighting! the! practices! of! contemporary! African! artists! and! those! in! the! diaspora.! ! Produced!in!an!edition!of!18,!the!three!'Noir'!lamps!on!display!–!shown!in!small,!medium,!and!large!sizes!–! were!rendered!from!a!composite!fibre!woven!into!flat!planes!to!form!a!series!of!architectural!stacking!discs!of! different!dimensions.! ! ‘We’re!actually!blackening!the!surface!with!powdered!graphite,!creating!this!very!deep!but!very!rich!metallic! surface! and! then! the! edges! are! hand.painted! in! several! different! enameled! colors.! They’re! very! simple,! immediate,!and!practical,’!says!Burks,!noting!the!central!light!tube!features!an!LED!element!with!an!amber! diffuser!that!radiates!at!the!edges!of!the!black!planes,!which!have!been!painted!in!bright!pops!of!coloured! enamel.!‘What’s!interesting!for!me!at!this!point!in!my!junction!is!how!we!begin!to!build!upon!the!potential!of! technology!and!craft!and!how!do!I!bring!a!broader!audience!to!this!work.!In!a!sense!that’s!what!"Noir"!is!all! about.’! ! ! !
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! www.wallpaper.com/design/stephen.burks.brings.a.design.slant.to.the.armory.show.with.new. lighting.and.a.lounge#K0SbYP25GlquPxfq.99!
THE ARMORY SHOW 2016 BROADCAST
Armory&Show&2016:&An& Insider's&Tips&
As!the!Armory!Show!kicks!off,!which!trends!turning!heads!within!the!contemporary!art!world?! Surface!editor!in!chief!Spencer!Bailey!joins!Tanya!Rivero!with!an!insider's!look!at!the!popular! New!York!City.!!
http://www.ajc.com/videos/entertainment/armoryFshowF2016FanFinsidersFtips/vDnQnX/!
VIDEO: What's Really Cool at the 2016 Armory Show? Brian Boucher, Friday, March 4, 2016
Hundreds(of(international(dealers(have(brought(thousands(of(artworks(to(the(Hudson( River(piers(this(week(for(the(2016(Armory(Show.(We've(sifted(through(and(found(some( of(the(best(for(the(2016(installment(of(our(“That's(Really(Cool"(video.( March(is(Women's(History(Month,(and(so(we've(highlighted(some(works(by(women( artists.( A(sculpture(by(Agnieszka(Kurant,(at(São(Paulo's(Fortes(Vilaça,(engages(her(interest(in( what(she(refers(to(as(“phantom(capital,"(in(which(money(moves(silently(and(invisibly( around(the(globe—in(this(case,(in(the(form(of(highQticket(artworks.((She's(also(showing(a( work(involving(a(fake(rock(that(floats—and(that(part(isn't(fake—above(a(plinth.)( Lucia(Koch's(large(curtain(in(gorgeous(gradated(colors(hangs(in(the(stand(of( Brazil's(Galeria(Nara(Roesler.(She's(created(works(at(museums(and(galleries(all(over(the( world(that(intervene(in(space(with(curtains(and(panes(of(glass(in(rich(hues.(
Zoë(Paul,(using(trashed(refrigerator(shelves(as(the(warp(and(weft(of(yarn(weavings,( create(magical(results(from(the(most(modest(of(materials,(evoking(both(the(modernist( grid(and(humble(domestic(appliances.(She's(showing(with(Athens(gallery(The(Breeder.( (You(can(also(catch(similar(work(inthe(current(show(“Unorthodox,"(at(New(York's(Jewish( Museum.)( Turiya(Magadlela,(whose(canvases(on(view(at(Cape(Town's(blank(projects,(uses( pantyhose(to(create(paintingQlike(works(that(recall(a(story(her(grandfather(told(her.( Those(works(are(part(of(the(fair's(“Focus"(section,(which(highlights(artists(of(the(African( diaspora,(represented(by(galleries(from(around(the(globe.( Sadie(Benning(first(got(noticed(for(video(works(she(created(using(a(FisherQPrice(toy( camera.(She's(moved(on(to(more(sophisticated(technology,(having(drawn(her(new( paintings,(on(view(at(Los(Angeles'(Susanne(Vielmetter,(with(an(iPhone.(
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Armory Week March 2016 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2016-03-04/fears-of-an-art-world-slump-are-fading
http://it.blouinartinfo.com/video/watch/a-walk-through-the-armory-show-2016-with-judd-tully/4786413670001
! ! March!3,!2016!! !
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! As!the!Armory!Show!kicks!off,!which!trends!turning!heads!within!the!contemporary!art!world?! Surface!editor!in!chief!Spencer!Bailey!joins!Tanya!Rivero!with!an!insider's!look!at!the!popular! New!York!City!art!fair.!Photo:!BFA! ! ! ! ! !
http://shows.huffingtonpost.com/video/armoryNshowN2016NanNinsiderNsNtipsN519550039?context=PC:news:PL7208:1457058101353!
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It!is!Art!Fair!Week.!Some!call!it!Armory!Week,!and!others!call!it!New!York!Arts!Week.!Whatever!you!call!it,! with!more!than!a!dozen!art!fairs!taking!place!in!the!city,!it!is!a!real!happening!that!anyone!can!be!a!part!of.! NY1's!Stephanie!Simon!takes!us!to!some!of!her!favorites.!! Art!Fair!Week!can!be!confusing.!The!Armory!Show!takes!place!at!the!piers,!the!Art!Show!takes!place!at!the! Park!Avenue!Armory,!and!to!further!complicate!things,!we!asked!Gracie!Mansion!to!weigh!in.!Of!course,!that! is!Gracie!Mansion!the!art!expert,!not!the!building!! “New!York!is!a!hub!for!everyone!interested!in!arts!this!week,”!said!Artnet!Senior!Specialist,!Gracie!Mansion.! Intimidated?!Don't!be!! "Just!walk!around!and!see!incredible!things,”!Mansion!said.!“I!mean,!you!don't!have!to!buy!things!to!enjoy! the!art.”! “This!is!like!100!museum!shows!all!at!once,"!Mansion!added.! "We!bring!together!galleries!from!36!different!countries!here!in!one!place:!4,000!artists,”!said!The!Armory! Show’s!Executive!Director!Benjamin!Genocchio.!“Close!to!75,000!people!come!through!the!doors,"! Admission!is!$45.!
http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all_boroughs/lifestyles/2016/03/3/new_york_arts_week_kicks_off_with_more_than_a_dozen_art_fairs_in_the_city.html!
http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/arts/2016/03/2/your-weekend-starts-now-3-3-16.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2_hbiq9siQ
03/08/16!
https://www.vice.com/video/daily9vice9delphine9diallo9photography9art9308!
http://www.wsj.com/video/armory5show520165an5insider5tips/69C3657A5D9C6543505B18B56EEFAC8034DC.html!
http://www.westportnow.com/index.php?/v3/comments/wn_on_the_scene_ny_armory_art_show_opens_today/!
http://news.yahoo.com/video/armory5show520165insiders5tips5230851790.html!