The Armory Show’s 2023 edition will feature stands from more than 225 galleries, the New York fair's organisers announced Thursday. The fair will run from 8 to 10 September, with a VIP preview on 7 September. For the first time, it will be joined in the Javits Center by a concurrent photography fair, Photofairs New York.
The fair's executive director, Nicole Berry, says the organisers are "capitalising on [their] heightened understanding of this world-class exhibition space by bringing a series of subtle refinements to a celebrated design. These changes further optimise the floor plan, enhance the visitor experience and improve the feeling of intimacy with the presentations. The fair will feel both familiar and fresh to visitors."
The Armory Show's lineup of participants this year marks a slight decline in the number of stands at the fair from last year, when about 250 galleries took part. In 2021, amid worldwide Covid-19 lockdowns, 157 galleries participated in the physical fair while 50 galleries took part online. Even slightly scaled back, The Armory Show is one of the largest art fairs in New York and the world. (This month's Tefaf New York and Frieze New York fairs will feature 91 and 69 galleries, respectively.)
More than 140 galleries from last year’s show are returning to The Armory Show, including New York mainstays James Cohan, 303 Gallery, Kasmin and Sean Kelly, as well as London's Victoria Miro, Bogotá's Instituto de Visión, Paris-based Almine Rech and Belgian gallery Zeno X.
Galleries including Clearing, Pilar Corrais, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Lehmann Maupin and Pace Prints are returning to the fair after a hiatus, according to organisers. More than 40 exhibitors will take part in the fair for the first time, including Alexander Berggruen, 56 Henry, Nina Johnson and Galeria Marilia Razuk.
Notably absent from the list of exhibitors are all three of the so-called mega-galleries headquartered in New York—Gagosian, David Zwirner and Pace—as well as Hauser & Wirth, all of which have participated in past editions of the fair. All four also have vast spaces within 15 blocks of the fair.
The fair's sector for large-scale works, Platform, is being curated by curator Eva Respini, who is stepping down as chief curator and director of curatorial affairs at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. The sector will feature works by Jean Shin, Teresita Fernández, Shahzia Sikander, Devan Shimoyama and others.
The fair has awarded its annual Gramercy International Prize—so dubbed after the fair's original name—to No Gallery, which will receive a complimentary stand at the fair. The prize, now in its fifth year, recognises an ambitious New York gallery that has never shown at the fair. No Gallery will use the free platform to show a solo stand of paintings by Valentina Vaccarella.
Before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in the US, The Armory Show announced it would relocate to New York’s Javits Center, a massive convention centre that can accommodate crowds up to 5,000 people across four city blocks. Previously, the event had been held at Manhattan's west side piers for nearly 20 years. In 2021, the fair also made the switch from spring to late summer, giving the event less competition in New York’s increasingly packed spring art calendar.