One of the weirder booths in the Armory Show’s Nordic pavilion—no small distinction, trust us—has to be Gallery D.O.R, which is out of Brussels, though originally founded in Oslo. As we approached it yesterday afternoon, gallery worker Sverre Gullesen was explaining to a short woman with frizzy grey hair why one work by Marte Johnslien was Read More
High-flying art advisers Thea Westreich and Ethan Wagner typically move gracefully through art fair openings, chatting with clients and dealers and then quickly moving on. However, at the Independent last night, they were up against the wall, not moving, arms spread. A photographer was snapping their picture. Read More
Independent, the 44-gallery art fair that opened for a VIP preview at noon today and that calls itself a “temporary exhibition forum” is located just 30 blocks south down the West Side Highway from the Armory Show’s Piers 92 and 94, but feels like a different world altogether. Started three years ago by art dealers Elizabeth Dee and Darren Flook at the former Dia Center for the Arts in Chelsea, it is smaller and more welcoming than most art fairs happening in New York this week. There are, for instance, windows that let actual light into the exhibition space, not to mention an accessible roof, which is about as rare at one of these things as free alcohol. Independent lived up to its tagline, feeling more like a large, convivial group show than a standard trade show. Read More
Artists, gallery people, Armory Show organizers and young people dressed a bit too well crammed the main hall of the Museum of Modern Art last night for the fair’s banner opening party, and MoMA fundraiser, featuring a set by Neon Indian, who shared the stage, as it were, with Auguste Rodin’s statue of Honoré de Balzac, three Faberge-egg-like Waterford chandeliers and a jumping, flashy billboard that threatened to induce a seizure. Read More
Much of Armory founding director Paul Morris’s welcome toast to the champagne-toting collectors and advisers in the pinkish-maroonish-purplish VIP room at Pier 94 yesterday morning could not be heard, as he simply stood on a chair and raised his voice with no hope of decibel competition with the person banging a drum or a hammer Read More
Walking through the modern section of the Armory Show on Pier 92 during the vernissage on Wednesday night, a more subdued feeling hung in the air. The crowd was smaller and older than over at the contemporary wing and, as a whole, they looked less like they were waiting to be photographed and more like they were actually, well, shopping. Read More
One of the pleasures of visiting the Armory Show’s contemporary section on Pier 94 is the opportunity to catch up with the work of an artist one hasn’t seen in a while. Case in point: Jacob Kassay, the young artist who gained a certain level of notoriety a few years back after his slightly charred, unabashedly beautiful silver paintings began fetching increasingly high prices on the secondary market. Read More
“Somebody just bought that video,” artist Clifford Owens told Gallerist this afternoon and laughed. “It was the weirdest thing. A guy and his wife.” We looked over at the video screen on which he is shown in close-up filling his mouth with food and making faces. “Why would you want to live with this? It’s kind of gross. Apparently,” he said as if to explain this surprising interest, “they’re board members at MoMA, so they’ve seen the show, and seen the work.” Read More
The greatest threat to the Armory Show was a no-show on its opening day. No, we’re not talking about the looming Frieze Art Fair, which launches its first New York edition in May—Frieze was present in corporeal form, in the person of co-director Amanda Sharp, who was spotted amongst the Armory’s booths and in virtual form, in the press release that went out this morning, just as the Armory was opening its doors, announcing Frieze’s New York’s architectural plans. Read More
“You can be part of the party,” said Ed Winkleman to Gallerist, pointing to a photo-op with a life-size cut-out of artist Jennifer Dalton in a pink dress placed by some cocktails before an image of a disco scene. “It’s a response to the sentiment by Anthony Haden-Guest that art fairs have become the new disco.” Read More
