In the past two days, I have seen four art fairs, eight gallery shows, walked 34,714 steps, and smoked zero cigarettes. It’s Armory Week here in New York, ushering the art world back into its busy season, and I’m living up to my last name, scoping out the scene in this strange moment.
Technically, my art week started bright and early Tuesday morning at the press preview for Tiona Nekkia McClodden’s sexy solo show “PURE GAZE” at White Cube, on the Upper East Side. The exhibition marks just the second-ever presentation of the artist’s limited, 49-work series titled “NEVER LET ME GO”, wherein planes of sumptuous leather, some sourced for Saint Laurent, become abstract figures—not bodies!—bound by the artist’s hand, trained in Japan. Avid BDSM fans will appreciate the premise that these binds cannot work on the human form.
But, I truly popped my art week cherry Wednesday evening at Collectible, the design fair happening 39 stories above 180 Maiden Lane. I’d never been to a design fair, and knew I was in for a real treat when a girl struggling to find the elevator alongside me responded to a joke I’d made with a stank face like I’d insulted her mother. “Who knew design people are meaner than art people,” I told legendary art writer Carlo McCormick the next day, in Tony Shafrazi’s booth at Independent 20th Century. “They’re like the fashion people of the art world,” McCormick grinned.
Overall, Collectible was stuffy (temperature-wise), aspirational (at least to me), and cluttered (a consensus, starting with the much nicer girl I chatted up in the elevator on the way back down.)
The new Duet art fair, opening around the corner, offered relief in the form of a considerably more spacious setting. WSA’s trademark red entryway suited the theatrical premise, where galleries staged visual dances in the forms of duo booths—exclusively. In this era where we’re struggling to find meaning in fairs, this proved a compelling approach. Curators Zoe Lukov and Kyle DeWoody scored 11 buzzy exhibitors, from smaller outfits like Miami-based Spinello Projects and Amagansett-based Galerie Sardine to New York superstars like Pace Gallery and Salon 94. Upon exiting the elevator I laid eyes on EXPO Chicago director Tony Karman in Mexico City-based MASA Galeria’s booth, which was also a favorite of Austrian collector Amir Shariat.
I left right as the vernissage started, and was surprised to find a hefty queue taking shape. Alas, I wanted to catch the slew of openings unfolding throughout the Lower East Side—namely, Lily Wong and Ren Light Pan at Lyles and King, Ohad Meromi at 56 Henry, Matthew Kirk at Fierman, Yatta Sound at Blade Study, and Erin Lee Jones at OLYMPIA. I liked seeing everyone out and about after summer—that’s what Armory Week’s for. But, that was the first night in my life I ever attended openings without smoking. Can you believe that? My dopamine is so fucked.
I ran into Roberta Smith at 56 Henry. The room was wide open, we were face to face. I could’ve said anything. There was a time in my life where I shot that shot. Now I know there’s no shot to shoot. I kept moving, didn’t remind her of my name or ask if she’d read the unhinged email I sent at my rock bottom on New Years Eve 2023, the last time I quit smoking. Cigarettes wafted in off the street and I nearly cried for a time when it was all new, or maybe just a time when I could still indulge. Bawl and wish all you want, but we’re here now. This reality can be better, if I embrace it. Same goes for the art world, I think. The sensation didn’t retreat as the night continued, but I soldiered on to “TOYS! TOYS! TOYS!”—a group show staged by Spielzeug with art advisory Time With Space, and curatorial program 1 Day at a Time. It was that evening’s hottest function.
That party ended at 2am, but I was in bed by midnight, girding my loins for The Armory Show—where I found warm vibes. No matter the market, this fair always offers a great hang.
As for the hang itself, in terms of the art—well, it’s hectic. This is notably the largest Armory ever, with about 230 exhibitors from 35 countries. That’s still about 50 less booths than last year’s Art Basel proper or Miami Beach editions, but good golly it nearly feels like more, maybe because the map was designed to drive your local systematic art writer up the wall. This time I approached the fair sectionally, seeing the main exhibitors, then the Presents section of smaller galleries, then the tiny Function section, then the Focus section of Southern galleries, which became somewhat of a source of drama this summer as art fair booth prices came into focus.
Function has proven a motif this Armory Week—though perhaps that’s just the Collectible kickoff talking. In this economy, we need to be reminded that art does something. Nino Mier leaned into this idea, teaming up with interior decorator Benjamin Vandiver to situate his offerings amidst a chic living room, offering frazzled fair goers a much-needed comfy seat. They even had room leftover to present a great solo showcase of shadow paintings by British painter Jess Allen, too. The booth was teeming. Considering Mier’s drama last year, I heard “Hollaback Girl” in my head.
Luis De Jesus Los Angeles treated me to the largest array of Evita Tezeno works I’ve ever seen in one place—at least one of which had sold within an hour of the fair opening. I particularly enjoyed discovering Jacqueline Surdell’s grandiose, sculptural tapestries at Chicago-based SECRIST | BEACH gallery, tucked into the fair’s very back row, plus Mae Aur’s wooden Harlequin reliefs at San Francisco’s Marrow Gallery—and rediscovering Rocio Garcia via Miami-based Fredric Snitzer Gallery after falling for her work at Thomas Nickle Projects in 2021. I got to see another canvas by Maja Djordjevic at Athens-based Dio Horia gallery’s booth, after admiring the Serbian painter’s trippy analog digital canvases in their Duet booth the previous night. Oh, and I adored the three Thornton Dial artworks anchoring the center of the Armory Show madness. Outsider art is officially inside, and it seems that readjustment is here to stay.
I was one of many revelers relieved to arrive at Independent 20th Century afterwards, where a comparatively thoughtful spread of 30 galleries flooded Casa Cipriani’s mercifully carpeted floors with 20th century artists, from the super famous (like Ernie Barnes, brought by New York-based Ortuzar) to the lesser-known (like the Florida Highwaymen, with London-based Jeremy Scholar).
All day yesterday, I got the sense that people aren’t pushing themselves this Armory Week. I was the only one committed to hauling ass back uptown for Chelsea openings, but I really wanted to see Shara Hughes’s first New York solo show in six years at David Kordansky. “How much do you think these are going for?” a stranger asked me. Apparently, her work was selling for $35,000 eight years ago at New York’s Rachel Uffner gallery (now Uffner & Liu). When that guy tried scoring one for a client he was advising, the gallery purportedly didn’t even answer his calls. Now Hughes’s big, bright scenes go for $500,000. All nine works had sold by the opening.
When I left, it was raining. Galleries that had been empty when I got to Chelsea were suddenly filled with people. Maybe there’s a metaphor there. But, I braved the elements to catch Gabriel Chaile’s animate, political ovens at Marianne Boesky. I like that we’re all marching to the beat of our own drum in these strange times. Mine thumps at 120bpm—and there’s more Armory Week in store. The U-Haul Art Fair opens today, as do tons of shows tonight. I’m especially excited to see Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola’s latest works at Sean Kelly in Chelsea. See you there, maybe?
Categories
Tags
- 56 Henry
- Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola
- Armory Week
- Blade Study
- Collectible
- David Kordansky Gallery
- Dio Horia gallery
- Duet
- Erin Lee Jones
- Ernie Barnes
- Evita Tezeno
- Fierman
- Fredric Snitzer Gallery
- Independent 20th Century
- Jeremy Scholar
- Jess Allen
- Kyle DeWoody
- Lily Wong
- Luis De Jesus
- Lyles and King
- Mae Aur
- Maja Djordjevic
- Marianne Boesky
- MASA Galeria
- Matthew Kirk
- NINO MIER
- Ohad Meromi
- Ortuzar Projects
- Pace Gallery
- Ren Light Pan
- Rocio Garcia
- Salon 94
- Sean Kelly
- SECRIST | BEACH gallery
- Spielzeug
- Spinello Projects
- THE ARMORY SHOW
- the Florida Highwaymen
- Thornton Dial
- Tiona Nekkia McClodden
- Tony Shafrazi
- U-Haul Art Fair
- Yatta Sound
- Zoe Lukov
