Art Update: The Art Show/The Armory Shows

Tuesday evening's opening of the ADAA Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory kicked off a frenzied week of art fairs in NYC March 7-10 2013. It was refreshing to see 40 galleries present solo exhibitions in their booths. This enables the viewer to have an in depth look at the artists' body of work. Among my favorites were Louise Lawler at Metro Pictures (see Jerry Saltz voguing in front of the triptych entitled "Marie + 270", Wim Delvoye's tattooed pig at Sperone Westwater, Kiki Smith's new bronze unique "Birds" at Pace, John Newman's new sculpture at Tibor de Nagy, who has reappeared after many years living abroad, and more new sculpture by Saint Clair Cemin at Paul Kasmin.

Jerry Saltz "voguing" in front of Louise Lawler's "Marie + 270" at Metro Pictures

Off to the dinner, following Rita Ackermann's opening at Hauser & Wirth's uptown gallery, with the artist in attendance.  This exhibition, entitled, "Negative Muscle", follows her last show which I saw last October in London.  She continues her practice of merging "the non-representational and the figurative in her art".

Wednesday's VIP opening of the Armory Show at Piers 92 and 94 brought out a mass of younger art enthusiasts in their search of the "new new".  This year the "Focus" section showcased the U.S. It was curated by Eric Shiner, Director of The Andy Warhol Museum and featured Gagosian's all Warhol booth. Among my favorites were Rob Wynne's poured mirrored glass sculpture "Fifteen Minutes" (with a nod to Andy's Fifteen Minutes of Fame) at Gavlak and the artist collaborative Type A, featuring "Target (Red, White, & Blue)" at Monique Meloche.  There were many references to the 100th year of the original Armory show in 1913 and Marcel Duchamp.  There was a functioning urinal at Perogi gallery (courtesy of the artist Andrew Ohanesian), homages to “Nude Descending a Staircase” at Francis M. Naumann and a booth dedicated to the Swedish artist Ulf Linde, known for his replicas of “The Large Glass” and other major works by Duchamp. 

Barbara Kruger's "The Meaning of Life is That it Ends" at Sprueth Magers gallery says it all!

Barbara Kruger at Sprueth Magers

One of my favorites of the satellite fairs was the Independent Art Fair, which returned to the Dia building on West 22nd Street in Chelsea.  It's a delight to go from floor to floor and view the work in a relaxed, open environment.  You can walk around freely as there are walls, but no booths or aisles. The Modern Institute's rainbow box by Joanne Tatham and Tom O'Sullivan was visually outstanding.   

A highlight of the private collections this year was a visit to the home of American Folk Art Museum President Monty Blanchard in his downtown loft. The Blanchard-Hill collection boasts self-taught, outsider and folk art from many diverse cultures, including Africa, Japan, Haiti, Australia and Myanmar.  It was very exciting to see and feel the energy and dialogue created by the various artists and media. It shows the power of talented artists and artisans who are mostly unknown. Indeed an incredible art experience!