Image: Courtesy of the artist and Blain Southern
This year marks the 22nd annual edition of the world-renowned Armory Show, the fair at the center of Armory Week, a constellation of fairs that pop up in the busy first week of March spawning countless related parties, performances, and VIP tours of the fairs and private collections.
This year, there are 205 exhibitors spread across Piers 92 and 94 on the far west side of the city, perched on the Hudson River—which features the fair’s modern section and the main attraction, the contemporary pier.
In addition to a busy roster of talks and lectures, this edition of the fair presents a focus on African art, curated by Julia Grosse and Yvette Mutumba, founders of Contemporary And, an online platform for international art from African perspectives. artnet News spoke to dealers about what they’re planning to bring to the piers this year and why.
Yinka Shonibare Girl on Flying Machine (2008)
Image: Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery.
“We are happy to connect with the African Perspectives presentation at The Armory,” Jane Cohan, partner of the James Cohan Gallery, told artnet News. The gallery will feature work by Yinka Shonibare MBE and Elias Sime, the latter of whom it premiered at last year’s Armory show. Sime’s work has been collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Perez Art Museum Miami and the North Carolina Museum to name a few institutions.
James Cohan will also feature gallery artists Trenton Doyle Hancock, Michelle Grabner, Alison Elizabeth Taylor, Fred Tomaselli, Byron Kim, Phil Hanson, and will further introduce ceramic work by the late artist Kirk Mangus.
Francisco Vidal Black Fire, New Spirits No. 2 (2015)
©Michael Costa
Image: Courtesy of the artist and Tiwani Contemporary.
London gallery Tiwani Contemporary, which works with established and emerging artists from Africa and the diaspora, was selected for the special focus section. The gallery will present a solo exhibition of works by Francisco Vidal. Vidal was selected by the Financial Times’s Jackie Wullschlager as one to watch in 2016, and was part of the official selection for the Angolan Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale. Vidal has played an instrumental role in fostering the arts scene in Luanda.
James Nares, still from film portrait Jim (2015)
Image: Courtesy of the artist and Paul Kasmin Gallery.
New York dealer Paul Kasmin says he likes to have the works he shows at the Armory “correlate to what I have at the gallery coming up very soon. I like to do a mini-portrait of the gallery.” Among the objects he is bringing are a Bernar Venet sculpture (Kasmin is planning a Venet show in April as well as placing a sculpture in Union Square Park in conjunction with a collaboration with the Department of Transportation and the Union Square Partnership); collages by Robert Motherwell; and a portrait of Jim Jarmusch that’s part of a new series by Nares of friends and family that is being shown at the gallery beginning March 3.
“It’s difficult to describe them but they’re quite timeless and I’d say extremely classical,” Kasmin said about the film portraits. “They’re also quite moving in that they’re portraits of his family and closest friends.” With regard to Venet and Motherwell, Kasmin noted that they were friendly and that when Venet was young, “Motherwell was particularly helpful and friendly. I’ve always liked showing the way artists relate even if they’re different ages or in different places. There are these interesting relationships that crop up.”
Kwon Young-Woo Untitled (1986)
Image: Courtesy of Kukje/Tina Kim Gallery
Kukje and Tina Kim Gallery will present paintings by the late Dansaekhwa master Kwon Young-Woo, alongside embroideries and new ceramic sculptures by Egyptian artist Ghada Amer. “A pioneer in the development of Dansaekhwa, Kwon Young-Woo’s paintings investigate the limitations of two-dimensional surfaces and explore the relationship between traditional materials and abstract expression. Choosing to use paper as both a ground and as a sculptural medium, Kwon used his fingernails to scratch and tear at the fibers, developing his own highly refined gestural vocabulary,” according to a statement from the gallery. Both Kwon Young-Woo and Ghada Amer use unique materials as a medium and canvas (for Kwon its paper, for Ghada its thread), according to a statement from the gallery.
London gallery Blain Southern will be participating in the Armory Show for the sixth time, showing works by two artists who recently joined the gallery stable, Chiharu Shiota and Bosco Sodi. The booth will also feature one of Malian artist Abdoulaye Konaté’s large-scale textile pieces (pictured at top). In April Konaté’s work will be on view at EVA International, Ireland’s biennale of art, and at a solo show planned for Arken Museum, near Copenhagan. Blain Southern will also show works by artists including: Agathe de Bailliencourt; Ali Banisadr; Marius Bercea; Franceso Clemente; Michael Joo; and Wim Wenders.
Alberto Burri, Cellotex (1990)
Courtesy Mazzoleni Art
© Fondazione
Palazzo Albizzini Collezione Burri, Città di Castello
Luigi Mazzoleni, of Mazzoleni Fine Art in London, told artnet News via email that the gallery will “present a dialogue between Alberto Burri and the contemporary Italian artist Nunzio. Specifically, we want to reveal the affinities between the Cellotex series that Burri produced between the 1970s and the 1990s and Nunzio’s ‘combustion’ works, created from the late 1980s through to the present day. The unifying motif is the reciprocal emphasis that both Burri and Nunzio’s works place on materiality and tangibility.”
Mazzoleni added, “What I find extraordinary in Post-war Italian art is the avant-garde language that all these artists created that still feels incredibly contemporary.”
Jackie Saccoccio, Place (Mott Graph) (2016)
Image: Courtesy of the artist and 11R Gallery.
Eleven Rivington
Augusto Arbizo, director of 11R, told artnet News he will be showing a “fresh from the studio” work by Jackie Saccoccio (above), titled Place (Mott Graph), 2016, as well as works by Volker Huller, Mika Tajima, and Moira Dryer.
Richard Patterson That sunny dome! those caves of ice (2015)
© Richard Patterson, courtesy Timothy Taylor, London
London gallerist Timothy Taylor is bringing works by Fiona Rae and Richard Patterson, two artists not shown in New York for many years, and both of whom have taken very new directions in their work recently. “The timing is particularly opportune for Armory, as the respective new ‘identities’ of both artists are entirely unfamiliar to the New York market and will show beautifully together. New York may know the artists, but won’t know this work,” Taylor told artnet News via email.
Pi Artworks Susan Hefuna Be One (2015)
Image: Courtesy of the artist and Pi Artworks, London and Istanbul.
Pi Artworks, which operates spaces in London and Istanbul will present a solo booth of new works by German-born, Egypt-based artist Susan Hefuna. The exhibit, curated by gallery director Yesim Turanli, will bring together three different areas of Hefuna’s practice: drawings; sculptures; and textiles. It will explore “the artist’s fascination with networks and structures of connection that inhabit public spaces and how they become the framework for people’s interactions with each other.”
Kehinde Wiley Bound (2015)
Image: Courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery.
New York gallerist Sean Kelly will be showing a recently executed bronze sculpture by Kehinde Wiley, Bound (2015), along with works by gallery artists Marina Abramovic, James Casebere, Jose Davila, and collective Los Carpinteros.
Enrique Martinez Celaya The Crown (2015)
Image: Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery
Jack Shainman Gallery is showing works by a roster of gallery artists including Enrique Martinez Celaya, Richard Mosse, Malick Sidibé, Hank Willis Thomas, and Nick Cave.