Savvy members of ARTKABINETT art collector social network visit New York to view all the exhbits surrounding the huge Armory Show. Here is our top 5 pick for today:
1) The Armory Show - After its largest art fair edition in 2010 with over 60,000 visitors, The Armory Show’s 13th year promises to be just as thrilling for lovers of art. With 274 blue-chip contemporary and modern art galleries from 31 countries, the show will again present two sections, Contemporary and Modern.
Don’t miss out as over twenty prominent art collectors open their homes for private viewings; embassies, international cultural consuls and museums such as the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art will hold special receptions.
In conjunction with VOLTA NY, The Armory Show introduces Open Forum, a thought-provoking series of conversations and panels featuring top collectors, curators and museum directors. On March 5th, be sure to attend as Curator Victor Zamudio-Taylor joins artist Ivan Navarro in a conversation on his minimalist, yet socially and politically charged, sculptural practice.
2) Armory Focus Latin America - Focus continues The Armory Show’s mission to provide an annual platform for one of the world’s thriving arts communities. After featuring Berlin in 2010, The Armory Show's second edition of Armory Focus has turned its attention to Latin America. An invitation-only component of the fair, it features a selection of galleries from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela.
“New York City has long been a center of Latin American art,” says Katelijne De Backer, Armory Show executive director. “Armory Focus: Latin America will highlight this vital force in the city’s—and the world’s—art scene.”
To coincide with the program, Armory has expanded the range of Latin American-themed events in its citywide and Armory Circle program, and has commissioned Mexican artist Gabriel Kuri (work shown above) to create the visual identity for the 2011 fair. Kuri is renowned for sculptures and collages made from the remains of everyday purchases and found objects. Kuri reconfigures meaning from tickets and receipts, retail supplies and slabs of marble, stones and other incongruous materials.
3) Armory Arts Week - In celebration of the city’s unparalleled artistic communities, Armory Arts Week highlights a neighborhood or borough’s arts scene each night with events. Past events have included special receptions, open studios, art tours, museum discounts, performances, panels, artist discussions and parties. Among numerous events, here’s our picks:
Art After Dark - Join members and guests in the Guggenheim's landmark building for a private view of The Great Upheaval: Modern Art from the Guggenheim Collection, 1910-1918 and The Deutsche Bank Series at the Guggenheim: Found in Translation, a cash bar, and the sounds of Nat Trotman’s selected playlist. Time: Starts at 9pm at the Guggenheim.
MTA Arts for Transit – Robert Kushner: Download a free podcast to learn more about 4 Seasons Seasoned, Robert Kushner’s glass mosaic artwork located on the mezzanine walls of 77th Street station.
The artist, a key figure of the Pattern and Decoration movement, continues to feature vegetal motifs in his works, often along with geometric patterns and architectural shapes. In this artwork he creates bouquets of flowers - from every season - that reflect such influences as Dutch flower paintings and Japanese screens. At 77th Street station. Website: www.mta.info/art or download a free podcast.
4) Verge Art Brooklyn - Art Brooklyn is the first fair of its kind to be held in Brooklyn, NY. The intention of the fair is to promote and support Brooklyn as a cultural bellwether of artistic endeavor that influences artistic practice the world over.
Open to artists and galleries alike at all levels of practice, Art Brooklyn recovers the standard of an art fair as a platform for presenting the best work by living artists. Unlike most art fairs, Brooklyn’s will be free, and the art will be shown in actual galleries, as opposed to booths, and spread throughout an entire neighborhood.
Most fairs don’t stay open after dark, but Brooklyn’s will run until 10 pm. Featuring 70 gallery exhibitors at nine locations, nearly forty participants for Material Issue: Artist's Projects Spaces and fifty artists for Tomorrow Stars: The Art Brooklyn Open Call Exhibition. Chosen by a distinguished panel of jurors, Tomorrow Stars represents the brightest and best Brooklyn has to offer.
5) Volta - In addition to an impressive array of artists showing solo projects at VOLTA NY - a total of 83 galleries, representing 23 countries and 45 cities – the cutting-edge art fair will also feature a wealth of content beyond the limits of the fair floor. Special Projects include Michael Decker‘s Old Growth (see image right)), a site-specific installation referencing California’s giant Sequoia forests and their historic displays in metropolises like New York in the mid-19th century.
It consists of fifty found metal ironing boards that were designed in the 1950s and have been collected by the artist over the past year.
While purely utilitarian in origin, the ironing boards conjure up references to California's artistic and cultural heritage and can be seen as painted panels, minimalist monoliths or surfboards.
