Joe Amrhein and Susan Swenson had been going to sit down out the Armory Present this fall for the primary time in 1 / 4 century till they acquired a name final month from the honest’s director.
The house owners of Pierogi Gallery in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood initially didn’t apply this yr because of the present’s rising sales space prices, which might exceed tens of 1000’s of {dollars}. Pierogi is planning the following section of its enterprise, which may embody relocating to Decrease Manhattan.
However Armory executives Kyla McMillan and J. Tyler Woodall appealed to Pierogi and the honest’s shared historical past — in 2016, Amrhein steered the Armory use an empty house to show Jonathan Schipper’s set up of a Volkswagen Golf crashing right into a wall; the presentation of large-scale artwork has since grow to be a cornerstone of the present. They not too long ago negotiated a smaller exhibition house for Pierogi with a decrease charge, enabling the gallery to return.
“We had been on the fence about it since the economy is very uncertain and it’s a big investment,” Swenson stated. “We’re not one of the big box galleries. Some of them have their own economies now.”
The Armory Present has come a great distance from exhibiting a number of New York gallerists on three flooring of the Gramercy Park Lodge within the mid-Nineties. Since 2021, the honest has arrange camp on the spacious Javits Middle close to Manhattan’s Hudson Yards, the place it’ll host some 230 galleries from greater than 35 international locations from September 4 via 7.
Kennedy Yanko, “Teary Eyed” (2024) (picture courtesy James Cohan Gallery)
The present additionally has new house owners. Two years after Frieze acquired the Armory Present and EXPO Chicago, its father or mother firm, Endeavor Group Holdings, offered its roster of artwork festivals for $200 million to Hollywood superagent Ari Emmanuel. The previous Endeavor CEO envisions Frieze as a key piece of a brand new international occasions firm he fashioned this yr, and maybe one positioned to compete with Artwork Basel’s dominance within the modern artwork market.
However with a reported downturn available in the market, galleries have been weighing their choices.
As soon as mainstays on the Armory, blue-chip establishments have as a substitute drifted towards Frieze’s spring honest, the Artwork Sellers Affiliation of America’s (ADAA) Artwork Present (earlier than it was abruptly canceled this yr), or TEFAF New York — or they’re skipping the New York festivals solely. David Zwirner hasn’t exhibited on the Amory Present since 2022, and selected to point out at ADAA a number of years earlier than that. Tempo Gallery’s final yr on the Armory was 2021. Gagosian hasn’t proven on the Amory since 2020, again when it was held at Piers 92 and 94. Lisson hasn’t been on the honest since 2019.
Others are busy courting worldwide patrons in Asia and the Center East, the place Artwork Basel Qatar will launch in Doha in February 2026. It doesn’t assist that Frieze is competing towards itself: Its three-year-old Frieze Seoul honest overlaps with Armory subsequent week, forcing galleries to decide on.
“Everybody is asking where we should be investing our energy and time and our focus,” David Norr, accomplice at James Cohan Gallery, informed Hyperallergic. “The cost of shipping, travel and built-in expenses in participation in these fairs continues to go up.”
Alejandro García Contreras, “La balada de Jennie Ruby Jane” (2025) (picture courtesy Swivel Gallery)
Others are merely skipping the season altogether. Jack Shainman stepped again from exhibiting at New York festivals in recent times to deal with its exhibitions in Chelsea and the newly renovated Clock Tower constructing in Civic Middle. After wildfires ravaged Los Angeles in January, Night time Gallery selected a gallery residency at Arsenal Modern as a substitute of taking part in a number of worldwide artwork festivals.
“This is both a result of the market and our ability to be in multiple places at once,” Night time Gallery spokesperson Shy Watson stated. “We are trying to create alternative models of exhibition, promotion, sales, and community.”
The Armory is used to a comparatively excessive diploma of churn. This yr, 55 galleries are taking part within the honest for the primary time, with one other 20 coming back from a hiatus, roughly in keeping with figures from 2024, a good spokesperson stated.
However the relative lack of huge business establishments on the present presents a chance for New York galleries to domesticate new collectors and promote their artists to a broader viewers.
“We feel like a large gallery there even though in most art fair contexts we’re very much in the middle,” stated Norr of James Cohan. “It feels like you’re giving back some attention to a local ecosystem that’s not only familiar, but wants engagement.”
Left: Zanele Muholi, “Bester VIII, Philadelphia” (2018) (© Zanele Muholi, courtesy Yancey Richardson, New York)Proper: Jason Bailer Misplaced, “Sister Work (A)” (2017) (picture courtesy Anat Ebgi)
Swivel Gallery proprietor Graham Wilson, who’s taking part for the primary time, was excited that Armory reached out with a chance to showcase his roster of artists. Swivel will function Alejandro García Contreras’s ceramics within the Presents part, which spotlights galleries underneath 10 years outdated, in addition to an set up from multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Simon Benjamin within the Platform part, this yr curated by a nonprofit, the Georgia-based Souls Grown Deep Basis.
“The visibility of the fairs is 20 times more than an artist can get at a solo exhibition at a gallery,” Wilson stated.
The draw of having the ability to meet new patrons so near the town’s largest focus of galleries stays a key attraction. Yancey Richardson, who’s exhibiting at Armory for the sixteenth yr, appreciates that it’s solely 12 blocks from her Chelsea gallery.
“It’s nice to go and do a fair in another city or another country and develop a clientele there, but we also meet new clients here in New York,” she stated. “Then those people will come often to visit the gallery during the year once they meet us.”
Anat Ebgi opened a satellite tv for pc location in Tribeca two years in the past partly due to the success her Los Angeles-based gallery has had assembly shoppers at Armory, Moira Sims, the gallery’s New York director, informed Hyperallergic.
“A lot of clients come by on the first day and we see them at the gallery the second day, and then we see them back at the fair later in the week,” Sims stated. “It feels like a prolonged engagement with clients at this fair in particular.”
Jennifer Carvalho, co-founder of Carvalho gallery in New York (photograph courtesy the gallery)
Generally, it’s too laborious to decide on. Jennifer Carvalho, who owns Carvalho gallery in Brooklyn, had participated in South Korean artwork festivals for a number of years, however by no means with Frieze Seoul, and had expertise on the Armory final yr. Subsequent week, she’s planning to fly to Seoul to put in a solo exhibition for London-based artist Yulia Iosilzon and attend previews earlier than getting on a 6am flight again to New York. She lands at JFK Airport at 11am on Thursday — simply in time for the Armory’s VIP opening.
“I’ve invested in a flatbed seat and I’m just going to drink as much water as possible,” Carvalho stated. “My team said they’ll have green tea waiting for me. I have an exceptional team.”
