THE ARMORY SHOW’S 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION
The Armory Show is taking place from September 6th to 8th. The fair’s 30th edition features over 235 galleries from 35 countries, showcasing artist projects in the Platform section, as well as highlights from sections Galleries, Focus, Solo and Presents, alongside presentation details for the Gramercy International Prize. Now part of the Frieze network, the Armory Show presents a revitalized program that offers a comprehensive view of the contemporary art world.
This year welcomes the fourth iteration of Armory Off-Site, which brings together performances across the city in addition to large-scale sculptural installations at the US Open. The fair will also present a newly redesigned theater as part of Armory Live, which features public conversations and the Curatorial Leadership Summit, the invitation-only symposium bringing nearly 100 curators to the fair. For its 30th anniversary, The Armory Show is partnering with Hästens for a special presentation that will recreate a hotel room inspired by the fair’s original 1994 edition at the Gramercy Park Hotel.
Curated sections
PLATFORM, curated by Eugenie Tsai, place large-scale installations and site-specific works at the center of the fair, examining the interplay of memory, material and spirit. The projects presented include the latest work from Nari Ward’s signature shoelace series presented by Lehmann Maupin (New York, Seoul, London, Hong Kong).
FOCUS, curated by Robyn Farrell, considers the experimental spirit of the fair’s 1994 founding at The Gramercy Park Hotel and the namesake International Exhibition of Modern Art in 1913 at New York City’s 69th Regiment Armory. It features works that explore these avant-garde histories, radical strategies, poetic interventions of interdisciplinary forms and cultural exchange. The section presents, among other projects, a joint presentation by Commonwealth and Council (Los Angeles) and Labor (Mexico City) will showcase a sculptural video installation by American Artist titled Yannis Window based on passages from the 1993 novel Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler.
Besides, the 2024 edition will feature notable thematic, dual-artist, and solo-artist presentations within GALLERIES, the fair’s core section. Notable solo and dual-artist presentations include: a solo presentation of Isaac Julien’s Once Again…(Statues Never Die), a two-screen video installation accompanied by associated photographic works, presented by Victoria Miro (London, Venice); a solo presentation of figuration work by Yukimasa Ida that expounds upon ideas of the abstract, the representational, and the natural, exhibited by Mariane Ibrahim Gallery (Chicago, Paris, Mexico City).
The PRESENTS section spotlights emerging galleries no more than ten-years-old showcasing recent work in solo-and-dual artist presentations. Presentation highlights include the ongoing photography series Compañera by Camila Falquez, presented by Hannah Traore Gallery (New York), in which the artist documents the creation of the first bill protecting trans and non-binary people in Colombia.
The SOLO section focuses on intimate presentations of work by a single emerging, established, or historic artist working in the 20th or 21st century, including an installation of sculptures by José Carlos Martinat, shown by Revolver Galería (Lima, New York, Buenos Aires), connecting the world of scientific medicine and spirituality and touching upon themes of ethnomedicine, shamanism, and magical-realism.