T SAKHI Present Urban Experimental Installations Across Beirut

Instigating change in an urban topography rife with political instability, the studio’s innovative social structures invite the local community and visitors to engage in public space.

The multidisciplinary architecture and design studio T SAKHI, whose hybrid works are often playfully subversive and provoke new modes of human interaction, unveil two new experimental urban interventions in Beirut in June 2019. In “Holidays in the Sun,” the cofounding sisters Tessa and Tara Sakhi adapt existing security barriers to function as stools and a place for greenery, while “Lost in Transition” offers a flexible site for rest and socializing. Both urban installations invite the community to engage in public space, while actively questioning the abundance of unfinished construction projects and security barriers currently punctuating Lebanon’s visual landscape. 

Readapting prefabricated CMU blocks, metal wire mesh, and security barriers compromising their everyday topography, T SAKHI give the objects a new function as sustainable materials. As new, hybrid structures, “Holidays in the Sun,” present a new solution to improving the existing urban environment in Beirut. The two iterations, both pale blue, address the lack of greenery in city environments and the lack of public places for conversation or rest. The sisters adapt the hollow cavities of the CMU block and metal mesh as space for plants and vegetation, and introduce an encompassing surface on top of intertwining blocks of metal to create a seat, juxtaposing security with comfort.

Furthermore, T SAKHI’s urban chair “Lost in Transition,” now lives in the Piazza of Saint Elias Church, in the city center.  Originally exhibited in Milan Design Week 2019 for Alcova, the eccentric installation features multiple metal seats that are interconnected through an encompassing arch. The functional sculpture invites face-to-face interaction, while periphery stools offer solitary moments of rest and relaxation. The urban chair is versatile, and the numerous spatial configurations allow for multiple uses, whether it is eating lunch with colleagues or reading alone. The short film animation “Lost in Transition,” vividly imagines the turbulent interactions taking place in the installation, and was created in collaboration with director Ely Dagher and musician Joh Dagher. T SAKHI often invite a variety of creatives to explore their work through film, creating further spaces for narratives, fashion, and cinematography, to embark on a larger dialogue about the structures we live in.

In September 2019, T SAKHI will also install the public garden intervention “Incomplete Pillars for Incomplete Beings” in Beirut. The sisters will create series of interactive public seating utilizing the hollow cavities of the prefabricated CMU blocks and metal mesh. The work is commissioned by NAFAS, an urban initiative project bringing together architects and designers to address Lebanon’s public spaces.

T SAKHI’s projects are diverse, interactive, and question our contemporary understandings of identity, home, and ways of living. Their synergetic projects are both permanent and ephemeral, and range from architecture, product design, art objects, installations, scenography and most recently, films. Drawing from the emotional and psychological experience of space, the sisters often incorporating memory and all five senses to heighten corporeal activity.

A R T Announces the Representation of Architecture and Design Studio T SAKHI

Operating at the intersection of architecture, social innovation, design, and film, the Beirut-based studio will unveil several new projects in 2019.

Tessa and Tara Sakhi, Photo by Alain Sauma, Courtesy of T SAKHI.

A R T Communication + Brand Consultancy is delighted to announce the representation of T SAKHI, a multidisciplinary architecture and design studio cofounded by Lebanese-Polish sisters Tessa and Tara Sakhi.  Like Beirut’s hybrid identity, the studio fuses a multitude of creative practices to incite alternate modes of social interactions, whether through space or objects. T SAKHI’s designs are both permanent and impermanent, responding to both the city’s need for new adaptable structures as well as stability.

Operating nomadically between Milan, Beirut, and Paris, projects range from residential and commercial architecture, art objects, functional product designs, urban installations, and films reflecting on the nature of our current social fabric. The sister’s architecture and urban designs recognize the ephemerality of spaces that contemporary life requires. Enabling numerous spatial configurations, the studio allows for intimacy in both public and private space, as the sisters place humanity at the center of their practice.

In 2019, T SAKHI will unveil a diverse series of dynamic projects experimenting with materiality and the cross-cultural nuances of living and leisure spaces. Upcoming projects include a line of Murano crafted glass vases upcycling metal waste, exhibiting at “1000 Vases” in Paris, residential lofts in Milan and Beirut, the interactive performance “Toyota 89,” and “ADAR,” a Mediterranean Épicerie and Traiteur in Paris. In their rendition of the Mediterranean restaurant, they subtly capture the culture without falling into clichés of Orientalism and grandiosity, using warm earthy colors and a central chandelier comprised of local dried spices and vegetables, evoking the souk.

The studio’s past projects include “Fleeting Hearts,” a dismountable nightclub in Beirut subverting social structures, “Present Actions. Past Reactions,” a residence harmonizing communal aspects of traditional Lebanese homes with modernity, “Silent Echoes,” a dining installation that questions the social act in the era of social media, and “Holidays in the Sun,” a series of adapted security barriers installed in Beirut. The whimsical barriers are reinterpreted into a socially conscious intervention and present a solution to the lack of greenery and seating areas in public spaces.

T SAKHI regularly collaborates with artists and craftsmen from all over the world. From the glass masters of Laguna B in Murano, the stone sculptors of Marmonil in Cairo, to Lebanese directors and musicians such as Mounia Akl and Petra Serhal, T SAKHI’s collaborations are just as diverse as their work. Similarly, in their ensuing films, T SAKHI invites directors, musicians, writers, and fashion designers to interact with their architecture and designs, creating an additional, synergetic layer of music and fashion

Fri Art Kunsthalle Fribourg Will Present the First-Ever Retrospective of Gene Beery (*1937)

The exhibition will include over 40 works from 1960 – 2016, many of which have not been shown before or since the early 1960’s. The artist’s first monograph “Gene Beery” will be released on occasion of the retrospective.

Experiment in Time, 1972 acrylic on canvas. 86.4 × 106.7 cm

Fri Art Kunsthalle Fribourg will present the first retrospective of undiscovered American artist Gene Beery (*1937). On view from May 4 - June 30, the exhibition will feature 40 works spanning over 50 years. The majority of the works are on loan from the personal collection of minimalist artist Sol LeWitt, the LeWitt Collection, USA. Accompanying the retrospective is the artist’s very first monograph, “Gene Beery,” offering an in-depth exploration into his life’s work.

Despite his art historical significance and his contribution to reconsiderations of the picture plane, Beery remains largely unknown. The retrospective will allow the fluctuating periods of Beery’s oeuvre to be in dialogue, for the first time in the same space. The works on view range from early anti-art paintings (1960-1963), figurative works (1965-1975), the artist-book series (1976-1985) and the burgeoning contemporary period (1986-2016).
 
Beery is one of the first artists to use words and texts to form visual artworks, which he coined the “Paintogram.” In 1960, the artist made his first text-paintings that blended deadpan humour and anti-esthetism, as he attempted to reduce the art form to a written idea. In the early 1990s, Beery painted “We Still Have Wild Birds Here,” reflecting his concerns about global warming and the preservation of our natural habitat. Unclassifiable, the text-paintings are at the intersection of Fluxus, Minimalism, Neo-Dada and assemblage.

This Painting is Permanently In Style, 2007, 40.6 x 51 cm, acrylic on canvas. Courtesy of the artist and Greenspon, New York

At the start of his career, Beery worked at the MoMA like many other artists of his generation. Like his peers Sol LeWitt and Lucy Lippard, Beery developed a strong Abstract Expressionist fatigue, and his works held a truly anti-painting stance. During this time in New York, he befriended Max Ernst and James Rosenquist. Three years later Beery left New York to go into exile in the isolated California mountains, where he has worked ever since. His paintings began to invite colour and readapt Pop methods, extending the outreach of his practise and mediations on aesthetic experiences to a new kind of figuration.

Beery’s tongue-in-cheek works mock artistic genius and high art through puns and phrases. Behind the apparent nonchalance and sarcastic distance of his works lie profound reflections. The radical pioneer prompts the question, what does the encounter between the viewer and the artwork promise?

CHYBIK + KRISTOF Architects and Urban Designers Complete Urban Infill Lofts

The newly designed Urban Infill Lofts commence the revitalization of Brno’s post-industrial district. The building is adorned with a site-specific lighting installation and offers views of the city’s key landmarks.

Image of the Urban Infill Lofts. Photo by Alexandra Timpau. Courtesy of CHYBIK + KRISTOF.

CHYBIK + KRISTOF ARCHITECTS & URBAN DESIGNERS announce the completion of the Urban Infill Lofts in Brno, Czech Republic. The five-story building comprises of 14 modern residential lofts and commercial spaces, offering panoramic views of the city. The architect’s urban design maximized the potential of the limited area, amplifying the plot through an irregular polygon floorplan and a geometric sculptural staircase. A commissioned site-specific light installation by artist Petr Dub adorns the building’s exterior. With its location near the center, the building will provide benefits of urban living to its inhabitants, becoming a landmark of the area.
 
The Urban Infill Lofts are located in a former industrial district, which is currently undergoing a large transformation. As CHYBIK + KRISTOF’s design is the first substantial project southeast of the city center, the architects encourage further urban development in the existing area and emphasize, “In a complex urban structure, infills are a pragmatic solution for sustainable urban change. Promising existing plots and infrastructures need to be revisited and redesigned.”
 
The neon light installation crowning the top floor mimics the verticality of the building’s physique. “The Riders on the Storm,” an installation by Petr Dub imitates a lightning rod, inspired by the Doors song. The design references “the house we were born in,” emphasizing the close relationship people have with their homes.
 
CHYBIK + KRISTOF’s design is twofold; influenced by the historical aspects of the area while simultaneously utilizing modern design elements. The dominant feature of the building are the large windows, a nod to the industrial heritage of the building, accompanied by private terraces. Historically, corner buildings are at the intersection of a main meeting point, and act as visual urban anchors in navigating the city - they are defined by their verticality and the decorative elements that mark their importance.
 
The lofts stand on an unused site, intersecting two buildings. At the heart of the building is a sculptural staircase, connecting the ground floor tenant space. On a limited area of 269 m2, the architects have built a five-story building with a total floor area of 1200 m2, comprising of 14 apartments as well as commercial spaces. The lofts offer 8 standard 1-bedroom flats and ateliers on the 1st and 2nd floors and 6 lofts of 1-bedroom to 3-bedroom layouts on the 3rd and 4th floors, with areas ranging from 41 to 91 m2.  
 
The building was constructed with a cohesive selection of materials, creating a fluid palette of reinforced concrete, ash wood, and sleek white walls. The design conscious lofts are affordable and available to a broader demographic. “The socially integrated strategy informed the interior design of the building. Through using more affordable materials, we were able to open the spacious lofts to a diverse spectrum of inhabitants.” Ondřej Chybík explains.

CHYBIK + KRISTOF Architects Unveil Lahofer Winery

The Architects and Urban Designers announce new design for Lahofer Winery in the Moravian landscape, creating a space symbiotic with the surrounding nature of the vineyards. Encompassing the winemaking facility, the visitor center, tasting room and amphitheater will rest tactfully on the structure’s roof.

CHYBIK + KRISTOF ARCHITECTS & URBAN DESIGNERS unveil the new design for the expansion of the Lahofer Winery in the Czech Republic. Nestled in the Moravian countryside, known for its vineyards, the Lahofer Winery is a compelling fusion of tradition, nature and modern wine making practices. The winery has broken ground and is set to open in Spring 2020. The building consists of three interconnected structures varying in height, including a winemaking facility, the company’s administrative base, and a visitor center featuring a tasting room. An impressive undulant roof serves as the public amphitheater and will host concerts and cultural events for visitors and locals.

CHYBIK + KRISTOF respond to the architectural language of the Moravian landscape. Veering away from interfering with the landscape, the architects lighten the volume and aesthetic of the building, by dividing the space into three masses.  The building echoes the natural slopes of the surrounding terrain most noticeably in the amphitheater’s incline. Aligning with the rhythm of the vine rows, the colonnade of arches creates perfect visual symmetry with nature.

The new visitor center is enclosed in a glass façade facing south, inviting abundant light and leaving only a thin barrier to the surrounding vines. The space includes a prominent tasting room and a barrique cellar made of wood, concrete, and glass. The archetypal winery shape is an homage to the contour’s traditionally used in Czech wineries. The tasting room is interconnected with the concave roof of the amphitheater, inhabiting the space under the exposed rib construction. The perpendicular intersection made of reinforced concrete ribs divides the arched spaces. Each module rises from a vineyard row and runs through the tasting room. The exposed structural elements guide the viewer’s gaze across the grapevines.

The two halls of varying height correspond to the production processes that take place within. The first, lower hall, centralizes the operations, wine-making production and employee facilities. The strip windows under the structure’s roof create an abundance of natural light. The second hall allows for operations that require lower temperatures – the wine-press, the cellar, and the wine store.

The varying heights of the spaces corresponding to the terrain create an alignment of the functional courtyards. While one courtyard serves as the operational area, centralizing logistic and production processes, the other holds the amphitheater, offering far-reaching landscape views.

The architectural design of the amphitheater engages visitors and the roof offers a panoramic outlook of the vineyard. It will be a community space dedicated to cultural events, such as grape harvest celebrations and theater performances. CHYBIK + KRISTOF designed the Lahofer Winery to serve the wineries functionality, while simultaneously creating a hub for the local community, visitors of the region and wine connoisseurs.

Describing the concept, Ondřej Chybík and Michal Krištof explain, “The vision of our design integrates the building into the landscape it rests on, immersing the architecture among the striking vine rows that cover the land. Additionally, we prioritized the visitor experience by allocating the roof as a public space, an amphitheater open to local and international visitors.”

The 2019 Edition of The Armory Show

Jorinde Voigt, Immersive Integral Midnight III, 2018, Ink, gold leaf, pastel, oil, chalks, pencil on paper © Jorinde Voigt. Courtesy the artist and David Nolan Gallery, New York

The 2019 edition marks 25 years since the fair’s founding at the Gramercy Park Hotel. The Armory Show will present 198 galleries from 33 countries, bringing together an unparalleled presentation of international galleries in central Manhattan. 

Throughout the fair, 88 exhibitors will present solo- or dual-artist booths, reflecting a strong focus on in-depth presentations and curatorial approaches. A number of artists will make their New York debut at the fair, while several exhibitors have chosen to  restage important historical works.  In addition to solo- and dual-artist presentations, many exhibitors will devote their booths to presentations by leading contemporary women artists across several generations.

Full exhibitor list here. 

The 2019 edition features a tribute to founders Pat Hearn and Colin de Land, examining global shifts in the visual arts since the fair’s founding. To mark this historic milestone, The Armory Show is announced the creation of the Gramercy International Prize, a new, yearly initiative that supports the advancement of young and pioneering New York galleries who have not previously participated in The Armory Show.
 
In the spirit of the fair's founders, a jury will award a nominated gallery with a booth at no cost to showcase a solo or dual-artist presentation, providing a platform for experimentation and discovery with minimal financial risk. Ramiken has been selected as the recipient of the inaugural Gramercy International Prize and will exhibit a dual-artist presentation of works by Darja Bajagić and Andra Ursuţa. Combining wall sculptures from Ursuțaʼs Vanilla Isis series with paintings on printed and sewn canvas by Bajagić, the presentation offers idiosyncratic and complicated views on extremism, sexuality, and politics. 56 Henry was named the runner-up with honorable mention.
 

THE POMMERY PRIZE AND THE ANNUAL PRESENTS BOOTH PRIZE

The Armory Show 2019 will present two new prizes from partners Pommery Champagneand Étant donnés. The Pommery Prize will recognize an exceptional presentation within the Platform section of the fair with a $20,000 prize. Étant donnés Contemporary Art will award the Étant donnés Prize of $10,000 to one living artist of French nationality, or France-based, who is featured at The Armory Show. For the third consecutive year, Athena will present the annual Presents Booth Prize, a $10,000 prize that recognizes an outstanding and innovative presentation within the Presents section of the fair.

Now On View | VOID at ACFNY | March 12

The Austrian Cultural Forum New York is pleased to announce the upcoming exhibition VOID, uniting two photographers, Yvonne Oswald and Tatiana Lecomte. The show, curated by the Jewish Museum Vienna, marks the first under the helm of new director Michael Haider. On view from March 12 to June 16, 2019, VOID draws attention to forgotten and repressed aspects of Jewish history in Austria.
 
The exhibition juxtaposes Yvonne Oswald’s photographs of deserted rooms of a former grand hotel in the Austrian Alps with Tatiana Lecomte’s images of mounted birds from the collec­tions of the Natural History Museum in Vienna.
 

Curators Danielle Spera and Astrid Peterle, Director and Chief Curator of the Jewish Museum Vienna prompt a discourse about commemoration, its representabil­ity and communica­tion—aspects of the work of remembrance with which the Jewish Museum Vienna is con­fronted on a daily basis. The Austrian Cultural Forum New York is an ideal place to conduct this discourse in a global context — because of its roots in the “Austrian Institute” which was decisively influenced by Aus­trian Jewish émigrés.
 
Oswald’s work captures the absence resulting from the expulsion and murder of Jews after the so-called “Anschluss.” The once luxurious Südbahnhotel on the Semmering moun­tain pass was the cultural hub of the fin de siècle society outside Vienna and, until 1938, a meeting place for numerous Jewish guests. Personalities such as Arthur Schnitzler, Sigmund Freud, Karl Kraus, Peter Altenberg, Gustav Mahler, Franz Werfel, Stefan Zweig, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, all of whom decisively shaped the cultural and intellectual life of the twentieth century, were closely connected with the Semmering and the Südbahnhotel in their work.

Lecomte, in turn, explores issues of pictorial memory through reflections on the “unrepresentable” quality inherent in every photographic representation. Her photographs of mounted birds call key aspects of photography such as the accurate reproduction and documentation of reality into question. Concerned with the adequacy of reproductions to communicate memories, these photographs thus become a contempla­tion of the pictorial representability of the unimaginable, traumatic experiences of the Shoah.

A R T Announces the Representation of Czech Architects CHYBIK + KRISTOF

Image: Courtesy of KIVA photography, Ondřej Chybík (left) and Michal Krištof (right).

A R T is pleased to announce representation of CHYBIK + KRISTOF, founded in 2010 by Ondřej Chybík and Michal Krištof. In 2019, the duo will announce a series of new projects, which include urban infills, atypical modular architecture and a sizable winery in southern Czech Republic.
 
CHYBIK + KRISTOF is an architecture and urban design studio whose expertise lies in the fields of private and public space. The architecture firm has offices in Prague, Brno and Bratislava and operates with 50 + multidisciplinary international team members.
 
The firms past projects are closely aligned with sustainability and are heavily influenced by the architectural legacy of the Czech Republic. Founder Ondřej Chybík states, “we investigate the connection of buildings and their surroundings. Within the past century, the Czech region has seen three architectural movements: classical style urbanism, modern architecture of the 30s and the socialist-realism period. Each movement has influenced the local environment and the existing city structure, where we continue to draw our inspiration from.” 
 
The studio continues to cultivate new and experimental projects, skillfully balancing conceptual thinking and complex design. Michal Krištof defines the studios approach as,“an expression of trends and movements within a society, reflecting on crucial moments in history while drawing influence for the future.”

The Armory Show Announces Platform Presentations

The Platform presentations for the 2019 edition feature large scale artworks by nine internationally renowned artists, curated by Sally Tallant, Executive Director of the Queens Museum. 

Image Credit: Tania Candiani, Reverencia, 2019, Choreographic Action Penachos: Maestro Marcos Anderete Dancers, Francisco Rojas and Carlos Coronel. Courtesy of the artist and Galeria Vermelho.

The Armory Show announces the participating artists and galleries in Platform, a curated section of the fair, which stages large-scale artworks and installations across Piers 92 & 94. The 2019 edition of Platform, entitled Worlds of Tomorrow, is curated by Sally Tallant, the recently appointed Executive Director of the Queens Museum, and former Director of Liverpool Biennial. Worlds of Tomorrow features works by Andreas Angelidakis, Siah Armajani, Tania Candiani, Ryan Gander, Iris Häussler, Xaviera Simmons, Jessica Stockholder, Super Taus, and Pascale Marthine Tayou, who will present a monumental new work in the Town Square on Pier 94.
 
Worlds of Tomorrow which takes the 1939 New York World’s Fair as a point of departure, features nine site-responsive projects, seven of which have been made specifically for the fair. On the brink of World War II, the New York World’s Fair looked to a hopeful future in the face of rising geopolitical uncertainty. Similarly, the artists featured in this year’s Platform offer hope, respite, and resilience in the face of our present realities in the forms of performance, collective activism, and collaboration.
 
“Today, we are living in dark times: borders are closing; there is a growing refugee crisis; identity, internationalism and citizenship are in turmoil,” remarks Sally Tallant. “Environmental challenges and the oppression of minorities in a society of pervasive gender inequality define this moment. We cannot let these uncertainties paralyze us, we must find a way to gain perspective and develop ways of seeing that allow us to build new hope. It is through art that we express our hopes and fears, and articulate alternatives and new possible worlds. Artists often speak out for the rights of people on the margins of society and now that we are facing a shift in how those people and margins are defined, we need artists to continue to be brave.”
 
Xaviera Simmons deploys photographic and sculptural works to explore the systems that have rendered invisible major aspects of the American narrative. Both Tania Candiani and Super Taus use objects and performance to offer critiques of cultural stereotypes and to explore personal and national identity. Ryan Gander employs comic reinvention to re-visualize a modernist sculpture; Andreas Angelidakis challenges the market through the redistribution of school supplies in a ‘donation drive’, and Siah Armajani responds thoughtfully to the current migrant crises with radical hospitality in the form of seven rooms. Environmental issues of ecology and waste are brought into sharp focus by Pascale Martine Tayou through a spectacular work comprised of multi-colored plastic bags. Iris Häussler re-presents a body of work that blurs the line between fact and fiction, challenging historical reinvention, while Jessica Stockholder combines symbiotic objects that require support from, and are dependent on other objects, to demonstrate the need for collaboration and collective action.
 
Presentation details:
 
Daniel Faria Gallery (Toronto) will present Iris Häussler’s Apartment 5 (2019) a studio reconstruction representing the late body of work of French immigrant Florence Hasard. In 1942, Hasard moved from Wisconsin to New York. Her legacy reveals the life of a reclusive artist living in exile and isolation, the mind of a woman traumatized and obsessed with her experiences during World War I. Location: Town Square, Pier 92.
 
In 1918, Belgian abstract sculptor, painter and founding member of the De Stijl group, George Vantongerloo, created Komposition Aus Dem Ovoid (Composition from the ovoid). Over a hundred years later, Ryan Gander comically revisits this artwork as an enlarged and swollen form made of up of ovoids covered in multi-color artificial fur balls, exhibited on a white plinth. Gander’s work, Het Spel (My neotonic ovoid contribution to Modernism)(2019) is presented by Lisson Gallery (London, New York). Location: Champagne Lounge, Pier 94.
 
Begun in 2016, Siah Armajani’s 3-D printed Seven Rooms of Hospitality (2016-2017) responds with thoughtful urgency to the contemporary migrant crisis, representing the uncertain spaces occupied by refugees, deportees, and exiles. While constituting a clear indictment of the nationalist politics that have produced the global refugee crisis, Armajani’s works presented by Rossi & Rossi (London, Hong Kong) convey hope in their attempt to revive the revolutionary internationalist energy of the avant-garde, alongside the communal impulse of vernacular American building. Armajani’s Platform presentation aligns with The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Siah Armajani: Follow This Line, the first major U.S. retrospective of the preeminent Iranian-American artist, opening February 20. Location: Staircase Lounge, Pier 94.
 
In an installation consisting of two "Penachos" or Crowns, Tania Candiani uses bamboo, reed, cloth, paper and feathers to create "Reverencia 2019" based on the headdress used in the Dance of Los Quetzales. Presented by Galeria Vermelho (Sao Paulo), Reverencia features video, drawing on paper, and live activations. The piece proposes a reinterpretation of the symbolic meaning of the movements of the Dance, based on reverences of gratitude and petition, and draws a historical connection with the National representations during the World’s Fairs of the 19th century. Location: East End, Pier 94.
 
Through photographic and sculptural works, Xaviera Simmons’ Chord (2018-2019), presented by David Castillo Gallery (Miami), explores the legacies and the ways in which systemic policies and prejudices have rendered major aspects of the American narrative virtually invisible, the effects of which reverberate into the present day. Location: West End, Pier 94.
 
Jessica Stockholder’s three works presented by Kavi Gupta (Chicago) share a reliance on objects taken from other contexts and used as “raw” material in the crafting of sculpture. “Dream Whip” (2019) is comprised of: Catapult Anime Stack, made from layering old furniture fragments, an MDF box, and topped with an array of objects plucked from a vast stream of “products” and myriad chemical formulations; Assist #1: A Cyst and Assist #2create combustion where their metal hardware hits the prop. The Assists can also be used as a ‘base’ to display another artwork, prompting the question: how is autonomy enabled? Location: Central Lounge, Pier 92.
 
Donation Drive (2019) by Andreas Angelidakis and presented by The Breeder (Athens) is a performative, value-exchange protocol benefiting public schools in need. Equipment and tools requested by teachers from charities dedicated to the provision of school supplies are assembled into a sculptural installation and tagged with art certificates. Potential collectors at the fair are encouraged to buy parts of the installation as a donation. As a result, the schools receive funds to buy the equipment they need, while the visitors to the fair can enjoy purchasing part of an installation for the price of an educational object. If a collector decides not to keep the actual artwork, it will be donated to the schools. Location: Central Lounge, Pier 92.
 
Plastic bags are helpful, as well as harmful—they carry goods, cross borders, and contribute to pollution. Pascale Marthine Tayou’s Plastic Bags (2019) takes ubiquitous objects and uses them to create an artwork that offers a colorful commentary on consumerism and globalism. This timely, visual investigation of ecology is presented by Richard Taittinger Gallery (New York) and Galleria Continua (San Gimignano, Beijing, Les Moulins, Havana). Location: Town Square, Pier 94.
 
If you’ve ever dreamt of winning something but never quite made it, Super Taus can actualize the recognition of your achievements. In Quick Fix (2019), she’ll engrave one of the hundred trophies she found via Amazon and AliExpress with the achievement(s) of your choice, presented by narrative projects (London). Location: West End, Pier 92.

The Armory Show Announces the Gramercy International Prize

The 2019 edition features a tribute to founders Pat Hearn and Colin de Land with a thematic program of Armory Live Talks examining global shifts in the visual arts since the fair's founding

March 7 - 10, 2019 on Piers 92 & 94 in New York City

Tracey Emin and Jay Jopling, with Emin’s work Hotel International, at The Gramercy International Art Fair in 1994. Image Courtesy of Art in America.

The Gramercy International Prize
The 2019 edition of The Armory Show will celebrate the fair’s 25th Anniversary. To mark this historic milestone, The Armory Show is announcing the creation of the Gramercy International Prize, a new, yearly initiative that supports the advancement of young and pioneering New York galleries who have not previously participated in The Armory Show. 
 
In the spirit of the fair's founders, a jury will award a nominated gallery with a booth at no cost to showcase a solo or dual-artist presentation, providing a platform for experimentation and discovery with minimal financial risk. Ramiken has been selected as the recipient of the inaugural Gramercy International Prize and will exhibit a dual-artist presentation of works by Darja Bajagić and Andra Ursuţa. Combining wall sculptures from Ursuțaʼs Vanilla Isis series with paintings on printed and sewn canvas by Bajagić, the presentation offers idiosyncratic and complicated views on extremism, sexuality, and politics.
 
“The founders of The Armory Show – originally named the Gramercy International Art Fair – sought to provide an alternative platform for contemporary art through presentations by artists who challenged the status quo,” says Nicole Berry, Executive Director of The Armory Show. “In the spirit of our founders, we are honored to offer this new prize to a gallery committed to showing a robust and experimental program of emerging talent in the hopes that they too may continue to push the boundaries of contemporary art practice.”
 
For its inaugural year, the Gramercy International Prize jury includes: Stefano Basilico, Collector and Advisor; Clarissa Dalrymple, Independent Curator; Nicole Klagsbrun, Owner and Founder, Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery; Andrea Rosen, Owner and Founder, Andrea Rosen Gallery; and Lisa Spellman, Owner and Founder, 303 Gallery.

Read more here.



The Armory Show Celebrates the 25th Anniversary in 2019

The Armory Show 2018, Pier 94 Central Lounge. Photo by Teddy Wolff courtesy of The Armory Show

The Armory Show's 2019 edition will present 194 galleries from 33 countries, bringing together an unparalleled presentation of international galleries in central Manhattan. Staged at Piers 92 & 94, the upcoming fair will feature a diverse breadth of compelling artworks—from new discoveries to historical masterpieces. The Armory Show, supported by Lead Partner Athena Art Finance, will open to the public March 7–10, 2019 with the VIP Preview Day on Wednesday, March 6.

FULL EXHIBITOR LIST 2019

Save the Date | 25th Anniversary | The Armory Show 2019

Preview: March 6, 2019: 12–8 pm
March 7 - 10, 2019 on Piers 92 & 94 in New York City.

To mark the fair’s 25th Anniversary edition, The Armory Show unveiled a campaign of iconic images taken from the fair’s first editions at the Gramercy Park Hotel. Accompanying the campaign is an exciting three-part digital narrative that chronicles the fair’s early years at the Gramercy Hotel through its relocation to Manhattan’s Westside.

Now On View | British Painter Phoebe Dickinson Exhibition in London | November 14

British painter Phoebe Dickinson unveiled her new urban and pastoral works painted during her year of global travel. “Journey Through Landscape” is on view at Tessa Packard Showroom in Chelsea, London until December 14, 2018. This new body of work marks a shift in the artist’s oeuvre, as Dickinson is well known for her portraiture in the style of late 19th-century American masters, such as John Singer Sargent.

Read more in Artists & Illustrators, Country & Town House, House & Garden, London Art News, The London Magazine, Town & Country, and more.

Now On View | Women.Now. at ACFNY | Until February 18

The Austrian Cultural Forum New York (ACFNY) is pleased to present Women.Now., a group exhibition showcasing contemporary female artists based in Austria and the United States, curated by Sabine Fellner. This transmedial show unites artists from different generations, commenting on women’s role in society and the arts.
 
The exhibition pays homage to two major anniversaries. 2018 marks the hundredth anniversary of women’s suffrage in Austria. This movement allowed women to formally participate in political practices. Second, it remembers 1968, a year in which social norms defined by patriarchal structures were put under radical scrutiny as the feminist avant-garde was formed. In Women.Now., curator Sabine Fellner sheds light on the legacies of these monumental time periods and how they impact current artistic discourse . The contemporary art scene is still struggles with gender disparities, whether that be in the art market, museums, or exhibition venues.

Read more on Aesthetica, An0ther Magazine, Art & Object, Good Trouble Magazine, L’Oeil de la Photographie, The Architects Newspaper and more.

The Armory Show Announces 2019 Curatorial Board

Exhibition View, 2018 Edition

The Armory Show announced today that Sally Tallant, Lauren Haynes, and Dan Byershave been selected to curate The Armory Show’s 2019 edition, marking the fair’s 25th Anniversary Year since its founding in 1994. The Armory Show will open with a VIP Preview Day on Wednesday, March 6; the fair will be open to the public March 7–10, 2019.
 
Led by Nicole Berry, Executive Director, The Armory Show’s 2019 edition will once again convene a selection of top international galleries in Midtown Manhattan, presenting artworks that range from historical masterpieces to the latest contemporary projects by established and emerging artists. This year’s international curatorial team reflects The Armory Show’s core identity as a place for presenting new artists and strong curatorial viewpoints.
 
“We are thrilled to be working with these internationally renowned curators on the occasion of our 25th Anniversary Year,” says Nicole Berry. “The gallerists who founded the fair had a strong and important vision to present new voices in the arts. Capturing the spirit of the fair’s early days, while also looking toward the future, we have selected three curators who will bring new energy and perspectives to the 2019 edition. Engaging Sally, Lauren, and Dan reflect the core of our mission, to provide discoveries, intellectual rigor, and thoughtfulness to the fair experience. This is possible through our deep relationships with international curators and institutions, which continue to make The Armory Show New York’s premier destination for top galleries, artists, and collectors alike.”

Read more here.