The Armory Show is an international art fair in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, known as New York's Art Fair. Established in 1994 as the Gramercy International Art Fair by dealers

Colin De Land Colin de Land (1955-2003) was a New York art dealer who ran Vox Populi and American Fine Arts, Co. De Land founded the Armory Show with American art dealer Pat Hearn in 1994. Art Gallery De Land studied philosophy and linguistics at New York U ...

, Pat Hearn, Lisa Spellman, Matthew Marks and Paul Morris, the annual fair is now held every fall for four days and attracts crowds of 65,000. The art fair reports sales of $85 million as of 2008. Many smaller fairs and special events are held the same week in New York, effectively called "Armory Show Week" or "New York Arts Week".B. Davis
Armory Action
artnet.com, March 21, 2008.

History

Founded in 1994 as the Gramercy International Art Fair, the first iteration of the fair was held in the rooms of the Gramercy Hotel in New York City by five art dealers:

, Pat Hearn, Lisa Spellman, Matthew Marks and Paul Morris. The fair outgrew its original location and was renamed "The Armory Show" in 1999, to reflect its updated location, the

69th Regiment Armory __NOTOC__ The 69th Regiment Armory is a historic National Guard armory building located at 68 Lexington Avenue between East 25th and 26th Streets in the Rose Hill section of Manhattan, New York City. The building began construction in 1904 and ...

, site of the famous ''

Armory Show The 1913 Armory Show, also known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, was a show organized by the Association of American Painters and Sculptors in 1913. It was the first large exhibition of modern art in America, as well as one of ...

'' of 1913. The 69th Regiment Armory location was only temporary, but The Armory Show was inspired by the 1913 Armory Show's shared mission to present new art from around the world to New York City under one roof. The opportunity to celebrate this revolution in American art and culture led The Armory Show to preserve its name despite venue changes. After several editions at the Gramercy Park Hotel and

Chateau Marmont The Chateau Marmont is a hotel located at 8221 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. The hotel was designed by architects Arnold A. Weitzman and William Douglas Lee and completed in 1929. It was modeled loosely after the Château d'Amboise ...

, New York's Art Fair moved to the West Side piers (Piers 88 & 90) in 2001. In 2009, The Armory Show expanded to a new home on Piers 92 & 94 with the introduction of The Armory Show – Modern. Until 2020 Pier 94 was designated to Contemporary art, and Pier 92 to Modern. Pier 94 - Contemporary was home to Armory Presents and Armory Focus sections. In 2021, The Armory Show, the Marquee event of The Armory Week and New York Arts Week, moved its dates to September. In 2020, the fair announced its new venue, the

Javits Center The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, commonly known as the Javits Center, is a large convention center on Eleventh Avenue between 34th Street and 38th Street in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by architect James I ...

, where the fair took place in September 2021. In 2022 the fair will be held at the Javits from September 9–11.

Programming

The Armory Show comprises five integrated sections presenting contemporary and modern art. These sections include "Galleries," "Solo," "Focus," "Presents," and "Platform." "Galleries" is the core section of The Armory Show, where leading international galleries present outstanding 20th- and 21st-century artworks across a range of media. In "Solo", intimate presentations focus on the work of a single emerging, established, or historic artist working in the 20th or 21st century. "Focus" is dedicated to solo-and dual-artist presentations that explore new themes each year. In "Presents," galleries no more than ten years old showcase recent work through solo-and dual-artist presentations. All artworks in Presents are less than three years old. "Platform" is dedicated to large-scale installations and site-specific works under a new theme each year. The Armory Artist Commission was launched in 2002 to support living artists by spotlighting the work of a different artist each year. Past recipients include:

Kapwani Kiwanga Kapwani Kiwanga (born 1978) is a Canadian artist working in Paris, France. In 2018, she was named the inaugural winner of the Frieze Artist Award. Early life and education Kiwanga was born in 1978 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and grew up there ...

Lawrence Abu Hamdan Lawrence Abu Hamdan (born 1985, in Amman) is a contemporary artist based in Beirut. His work looks into the political effects of listening, using various kinds of audio to explore its effects on human rights and law. Because of his work with soun ...

, Xu Zhen,

Liz Magic Laser Liz Magic Laser (born 1981, New York) is an American visual artist working primarily in video and performance. She is based art in Brooklyn, New York. Early life and education She attended Wesleyan University and received her B.A. in 2003, a ...

Theaster Gates Theaster Gates (born August 28, 1973) is an American social practice installation artist and a professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he still lives and works. Gates' wor ...

, Gabriel Kuri,

Susan Collis Susan Collis (born 1956) is a British artist working in Hackney, London. She is known for crafting ordinary looking, everyday objects from valuable materials. In her approach to sculpture, Collis manages to elevate the mundane, celebrate tradit ...

, Ewan Gibbs,

Mary Heilmann Mary Heilmann is an American painter based in New York City and Bridgehampton, NY. She has had solo shows and travelling exhibitions at galleries such as 303 Gallery (NY, NY) and Hauser & Wirth Hauser & Wirth is a Swiss contemporary and modern a ...

and

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his Cinema of Transgression, transgressive cult films, including ''Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), ''Pink Flamin ...

Pipilotti Rist Pipilotti Elisabeth Rist (born 21 June 1962) is a Swiss visual artist best known for creating experimental video art and installation art. Her work is often described as surreal, intimate, abstract art, having a preoccupation with the female bo ...

, John Wesley, Jockum Nordström, Lisa Ruyter,

Barnaby Furnas Barnaby Furnas, (born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1973), is an American painter and former graffiti artist who lives and works in New York City. He studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York and received a BFA in 1995 before going on to study ...

, and

Karen Kilimnik Karen Kilimnik (born 1955) is an American painter and installation artist. Life and work Karen traveled through much of the United States and Canada as a young child. She often spoke of Russell, Manitoba as being an inspiration for her later wo ...

. In 2019, The Armory Show presented the Gramercy International Prize, which awards a nominated gallery with a booth at no cost to showcase a solo or dual-artist presentation. In 2021 The Armory Show launched Armory Off-Site a new initiative presenting large-scale and interactive artworks in key public areas around the city in conjunction with the Fair and New York Arts Week.

References

External links

The Armory Show website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Armory_Show Festivals in New York City Recurring events established in 1993 Art fairs Festivals established in 1993 Art festivals in the United States Festivals established in 1994 Recurring events established in 1994