The Armory Show

About

Featuring 198 galleries from 31 countries, The Armory Show presents artworks that range from historical masterpieces to the latest contemporary projects by established and emerging artists.

The fair welcomes 66 new exhibitors, including several who have returned after years of absence, including Galerie Eigen + Art (Berlin), Gagosian (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Geneva, Hong Kong), Perrotin (New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo), Regen Projects (Los Angeles) and Van Doren Waxter (New York).

Of the fair’s new exhibitors, 43 will participate for the first time, including 80m2 Livia Benavides (Lima), BANK (Shanghai), Galerija Gregor Podnar (Berlin), Pearl Lam Galleries (Hong Kong), Night Gallery (Los Angeles) and Yamamoto Gendai (Tokyo).

Galleries, the core section of The Armory Show, features outstanding 20th- and 21st-century artworks in a range of media, presented by 109 leading international galleries. Notable solo presentations include Nam June Paik with a never-exhibited installation at Gagosian; Mary Corse at Kayne Griffin Corcoran; JR at Jeffrey Deitch; Nacho Carbonell at Carpenters Workshop Gallery; Tara Donovan at Pace Gallery; Kaz Oshiro at Honor Fraser; and Sanford Biggers at David Castillo Gallery.

Insights, which comprises 32 international galleries,emphasizes solo, dual-artist and thematic presentations of artworks made before the year 2000. Highlights include a series of 1970s ‘pulled wedge’ works by Ed Moses at albertz benda; a survey of major works by Anna Maria Maiolino from the 1970s through 1990s at Mercedes Viegas; a collection of rare collages by Yayoi Kusama at Omer Tiroche Gallery; and the first-ever United States exhibition of works by Huang Rui, a leading artist in post- Cultural Revolution China, at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery.

Presents is a platform for galleries no more than ten years old. This year, 26 galleries will showcase recent work through solo and dual-artist presentations. Highlights include Athi-Patra Ruga at WHATIFTHEWORLD; André Butzer at NINO MIER GALLERY; at Parafin, new works by Justin Mortimer; at Vigo, selected works by Derrick Adams from his Future People exhibition at Theaster Gates’ Stoney Island Arts Banks; Jose Carlos Martinat at Revolver Galeria; and Cammie Staros’ New York debut at Shulamit Nazarian.

Focus, curated by Gabriel Ritter, Curator and Head of Contemporary Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, features 28 international galleries with solo or dual-artist presentations, which examine how technology has both mediated representation of the physical body and imagined its emancipation in contemporary art. Highlights include an ambitious presentation of new work by Takeshi Murata paired with historical works by Tishan Hsu at Empty Gallery; at Night Gallery, Claire Tabouret’s acrylic paintings on canvas and Anne Libby’s machine-cut objects, which reflect the anxiety of a nearing postapocalyptic future; at Max Estrella interactive mediations on hyper-surveillance by Rafael Lozano- Hemmer; at Redling Fine Art recent and historical works by Tony Oursler that question technology’s role in reanimating the past; visceral reminders of the body’s fragility by Hermann Nitsch at Marc Straus; sculptures by Aleksandra Domanović and Oliver Laric exploring reproducibility in the internet age at Tanya Leighton; recent paintings by Kei Imazu that combine digital effects and traditional oil painting techniques at Yamamoto Gendai; immersive video installations by Tabita Rezaire exploring digital shamanism at Goodman Gallery; and work by Emma Amos that address racial, geographical, and sexual perspectives at RYAN LEE.

Platform stages large-scale artworks, installations and commissions across Piers 92 & 94. Now in its second edition, the 2018 Platform section, entitled The Contingent, is curated by Jen Mergel, Vice President of Programming for the Association of Art Museum Curators and former senior curator of contemporary art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Featuring 15 site-responsive projects by internationally acclaimed artists, Platform includes 11 new works by The Bruce High Quality Foundation, Sarah Cain, Beth Campbell, Tara Donovan, Leonardo Drew, Jeffrey Gibson, JR, Amalia Pica, Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley, Berndnaut Smilde, and Wilmer Wilson IV. Four large-scale projects by Elmgreen & Dragset, Sir Richard Long, Mary Sibande, and Wang Xin will make their US debut.

Situated in the Town Square on Pier 94 is a new commission by Tara Donovan, who is known for her command of vast spaces with accumulations of a single material that triggers our perception of infinity, movement, and the relation of parts to a whole. The new monumental installation, Untitled, results from her latest experiments with the material condition of transparency and takes the form of a pyramidal cross-section, comprised of tens of thousands of clear plastic tubes.

On the exterior of Pier 94, JR will debut a work that transforms archival Ellis Island photographs into a large-scale installation, presented in partnership with Artsy and Jeffrey Deitch. Like his recent image of the smiling toddler Kikito, strategically installed on scaffolding in Tecate to peer over the U.S.-Mexican border wall from the California side, the supersized silhouettes of SO CLOSE are sited at a symbolic point of entry—to the city, to the country, and to the art world.

The inaugural Curatorial Leadership Summit, chaired by Naomi Beckwith, Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, will convene top global curators for a daylong program that aims to foster innovation in the curatorial landscape. Invited curators will explore, debate and challenge ideas of cultural appropriation, censorship and representation with artist and writer Coco Fusco and Olga Viso, Independent Curator and former Director of the Walker Art Center.

Armory Live convenes prominent art world figures for a series of thought-provoking conversations and panels hosted at the fair. All Armory Live events take place in the Armory Live Theater on Pier 94 and are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.

Highlights include a keynote by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of Serpentine Galleries, on exhibition making in the 21st century; solo artist conversations with JR, Hermann Nitsch and Carolee Schneemann; artists-in-dialogue pairings featuring Constant Dullaart and Matt Goerzen; Leonardo Drew and Ja'Tovia Gary; and Josh Kline and Patty Chang; and a series of panels addressing the future

of the gallery model, the rapid growth of new cultural centers globally and the paradoxical conditions for political resistance.

Armory Arts Week is a citywide program of art fairs and events that highlight the diverse cultural offerings of New York's arts scene. With eight satellite fairs coinciding with The Armory Show, in addition to dozens of gallery and museum openings, Armory Arts Week is New York’s premier arts week and a cultural destination for thousands of international visitors. Parallel fairs are Art on Paper, Collective Design, Independent, Moving Image Art Fair, NADA, Scope, Spring/Break Art Show and Volta NY.

The Museum of Modern Art will host The Armory Party, a benefit event with live music and DJs celebrating the opening of The Armory Show, on Wednesday, March 7, 2018. The evening reception, along with the daytime Early Access Preview at Piers 92 and 94, benefits MoMA's exhibition programming. The singer BØRNS will perform a live set in the Museum’s Agnes Gund Garden Lobby.