Art Marathon: The Armory Show 2014

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Photo: M-KOS

Armory Week this year coincided with the opening of the highly anticipated 2014 Whitney Biennial, to add an extra layer of fervor to the usual art spectacle that is New York City at this time of the year. Opened to the public from the 6th to the 9th of March, The Armory Show welcomed the 16th edition of its current incarnation, which changed its name from Gramercy International Art Fair in 1999, as homage to the original 1913 gathering. As always situated on Piers 92 & 94 of Manhattan’s western shore, stretching out onto the Hudson River, the fair hosted 205 galleries (146 for Contemporary, 59 for Modern) across 26 countries. Once again Armory opted to hold their VIP preview and benefit opening at MoMA, perhaps rubbing shoulders with the blue chip institution in a bid to upscale its brand and better compete with Frieze, the London based art fair franchise which started-up two years ago on Randall Island, flanked between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

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Victoria Miro’s booth (Left), Richard Deacon at Lisson Gallery (Front), Serge Alain Nitegeka’s installation at Marianne Boesky Gallery (Far right) Photo: M-KOS

Evidently Armory has worked on a major housecleaning operation, dusting off the cobwebs of older editions to produce substantial changes under the direction of Noah Horowitz, since his appointment in November 2011. Horowitz, formerly the director of VIP Art Fair also partnered with Artsy for the second time to add tech savvy chic to his new upgraded package. By and large, this year’s selection of galleries particularly enjoyed a more gregarious and international setting. The fair’s Contemporary wing inaugurated “Armory Presents”, a new section dedicated to solo and duo presentations, introducing 18 emerging galleries that opened less than ten years ago. Notable contributions here included François Ghebaly Gallery (LA) presenting Davide Balula’s elegant white shaped canvases, Klaus Merkel and Nicolás Guargini at Galerie Max Mayer (Düsseldorf), Dénes Farkas at Ani Molnár Gallery (Budapest), Thomas Raat at BolteLang (Zürich) and so on. A few more gallery booths in the main section also followed this model, showcasing solo and duo presentation such as Thomas Fougeirol and Nathan Mabry at Praz-Delavallade (Paris), Jürgen Drescher at Mai 36 Galerie (Zürich), Fernanda Gomez at Alison Jacques (London), Aiko Hachisuka at Eleven Rivington (NY), and Serge Alain Nitegeka at Marianne Boesky Gallery (NY). These curatorially driven spaces stood out from the more orthodox hodgepodge layouts of works and booths purposefully itemizing art dealer inventories of artists.

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Jürgen Drescher at Mai 36 Galerie. Photo: M-KOS

The Art Focus section also energized Armory by highlighting contemporary galleries from a specific geographic region. In its fifth year running, Art Focus in 2014 was curated by Philip Tinari, Director of the Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art in Beijing. Tinari designated an expansive spectrum of Chinese contemporary art galleries, offering diverse artistic productions spread over many generations and regional backgrounds, to elaborate more on China’s constituency within the global cultural community instead of simply exposing its creative works under geopolitical terms. Commissioned this year by Armory to produce “Art of Change”, Shanghai-based Xu Zhen delivered a continuous performance over the whole duration of Armory Week, while hidden inside a three-meter tall white cube which audiences could only catch glimpses of objects sporadically thrown above the cube’s threshold. In addition Zhen designed this year’s visual identity for Armory as well as a limited edition of artworks for the fund-raising opening.

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Artist from Chinese artists collective Double Fly Art Center dressed in a traditional costume in front of their booth, Space Station, Beijing. Photo: M-KOS

Special interest sections such as Art Focus were mainly situated at the intersection between the Contemporary and Modern wings of Armory, surely to encourage viewers to circulate from one to the other. On the Modern side of the said junction, a new curatorial project made its debut this year with New York based writer and curator Susan Harris, focusing exclusively on drawings made by female artists in the 20th Century. The centerpiece of Harris’ project featured a freehand gestural ensemble of lines cast over two angled walls, by Pat Steir. Referencing last year’s comprehensive survey of “Gutai” movement at Guggenheim (“Gutai: Splendid Playground”, Feb.–May 2013), Whitestone Gallery of Japan dedicated its booth to the Eastern movement with a collection of works set against red painted walls. Although advertised as covering historically significant 20th Century works, a few pieces outside of this period did make it onto Armory Modern’s program, like Damian Hirst’s Spin Painting executed only six years ago, an ironic contrast with Joseph Beuys presented at Contemporary Armory’s Sean Kelly Gallery (NY). Notwithstanding similar idiosyncrasies, Armory Art Fair has again seen high sales figures from the early hours of the VIP opening, to evidence at least in monetary terms that this art attraction is competing well against its now main contender: Frieze. On this note, Frieze co-director Amanda Sharp was seen doing her homework at Armory, perhaps checking out the set-up, all the way down to the catering choices as we discovered her lunching at Mile End Deli. Will this year’s makeover of Armory prompt new amendments at Frieze in May 2014? Watch this space for upcoming reports.

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Pat Steir, Endless Line, 2014 at the Armory Modern’s new curated project “Venus Drawn Out”. Photo: M-KOS

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