ARTNews: The Best Booths at the Armory Show, From Hybrid Selves to Beautiful Body Horror

Alex Greenberger, ARTNews, September 5, 2024
A crowd of people around three totem-like sculptures in a convention center.

The crowd at the Armory Show, with sculptures by Dyani White Hawk, Jim Denomie, and George Morrison at center.ALEX GREENBERGER/ARTNEWS

 

Was it the uncertain economy? A summer hangover? The fact that Frieze Seoul happened simultaneously, nearly 7,000 miles away? The Armory Show opened in New York on Thursday, and the energy that could be felt at past editions of this fair—the biggest in the city—was generally not present.

 

One might have expected something more dramatic, given that the Armory Show has gone through big changes in the past year. This was the first edition of the 30-year-old fair staged under Kyla McMillan, who took the reins as director from Nicole Berry two months ago, and the first held fully under Frieze’s ownership. The results of those behind-the-scenes shifts will likely play out in future years. For now, however, the fair remains largely the same.

The art on view left something to be desired. Few of the fair’s 235 galleries opted for attention-grabbing stunts (a good thing), and even fewer took big risks with the art on view (a bad thing). What could be seen, mainly, was a flood of interchangeable figurative paintings and so-so abstractions—more, even, than is usual for a selling event like this one.

 

But amid all that bland fare, there are some satisfying shockers. It’s all too easy to walk right by Jimmy Wright’s kinky drawings of S&M sex at Corbett vs. Dempsey’s booth, or to miss Naturee Utarit’s painting of a woman pointing a gun at a Giorgio Morandi still life, on view at Richard Koh Fine Art’s presentation. My advice? Slow down and bask in these works’ weirdness. Consider them a reminder that gems lie in the rough—if only you know where to find them.

 

To point you in the right direction, here are nine booths to see at the Armory Show before it closes on September 8.

 

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