The creative landscape is constantly expanding to welcome new technologies and approaches. Offering opportunities for dialogue and discovery, The Armory Show is an annual art fair taking place in New York City. The event brings together a wealth of innovative output, from historical masterpieces to experimental works by emerging practitioners.
Perrotin, New York
The fair’s Galleries strand brings together 107 main exhibitors who demonstratea range of 20th and 21st century artworks. For example, Galerie Perrotin represents Takashi Murakami, who is known for blurring the boundaries between fine and commercial art forms. Leslie Hewitt also forms part of their line-up, whose photographs and sculptures are often politically charged.
Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris
This institution also forms part of the core selection of exhibitors. Seydou Keïta captured striking monochromatic portraits of Malian society between 1940-1960. Other figures represented include Lorna Simpson, Andres Serrano, Laure Prouvost and Valérie Belin, whose striking photography explores notions of artifice.
Sabrina Amrani Art Gallery, Madrid
The Presents strand is a platform for emerging galleries less than 10 years old. Sabrina Amrani Art Gallery is one such space, foregrounding Aesthetica Art Prize alumnus Timothy Hyunsoo Lee. The labour-intensive watercolour and gouache pieces make psychology visible, exploring Lee’s own history of anxiety disorders.
El Apartamento, Cuba
This young gallery highlights the multidisciplinary practice of Reynier Leyva Novo, whose image is shown above. Leyva Novo’s practice interrogates historical events. By transforming documents and data into conceptually charged yet minimalist pieces, the artist questions power structures, unearthing universal truths and examining the power of the individual in a globalised world.
Lévy Gorvy, New York
The Armory Show’s Focus category investigates the relationship between technology and the body. For example, interdisciplinary artist and filmmaker Karin Schneider, represented by Lévy Gorvy, subverts established viewing practices by combining text and image, offering the spectator multiple encounters with the monochrome pieces.
Jane Lombard Gallery, New York
Forming part of the same strand, Lee Kit’s contributions, foregrounded by Jane Lombard Gallery, transform everyday items into art objects. Foregrounding a sense of narrative, the items are deeply rooted in the act of their own creation, and comprise minimal, decorated fabrics that play a part in Kit’s day-to-day experience.
Gagosian, New York
A never-before-seen installation, Lion, by video art pioneer Nam June Paik is foregrounded by Gagosian, New York, an established institution new to the fair. The ground-breaking artist used television as medium in the 1960s, and this solo presentation illustrates how Paik combined art and technology in innovative ways.
Von Bartha, Switzerland
Another key space, Von Bartha, Switzerland, represents contemporary figures such as Danish collective SUPERFLEX, whose interactive installation One Two Three Swing! currently occupies the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, London. New pieces by leading post-war German minimalist Imi Knoebel also feature.
Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Paul Kasmin offers contributions from diverse practitioners working across photography, sculpture, installation and painting. These include Iván Navarro, Robert Motherwell, Robert Indiana and Tina Barney. Roxy Paine’s Meeting forms part of a body of work that examines the tense relationship between man and the environment through sculptures and dioramas.
Victoria Miro, London
Iconic Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s painting Finding Myself in the Midst of Creation is on display with Victoria Miro, alongside works by key figures across a range of creative practices. Other highlights include compositions by pioneers: Idris Khan, Grayson Perry, William Eggleston, Do Ho Suh and Kara Walker.
The Armory Show, Piers 92 & 94, New York, runs 8-11 March. Find out more here.
Credits:
1. Reynier Leyva Novo, A Happy Day FC, 2016-17. Courtesy El Apartamento.
