The Best of the 2024 Armory Show

The 30th edition of The Armory Show (September 6-8) closed over the weekend in New York, culminating in a lively presentation of 235 galleries from 35 countries. Guided by its Director, Kyla McMillan, it was shown at the Jacob K. Javits Center, with various categories—Galleries, Focus, Solo, and Presents—encompassing an array of eye-catching creations from global emerging and established names, including sculptures, videos, paintings, large-scale installations, performances, and more. 

The 2024 Armory Show

Upon walking in, Whitewall meandered the maze of booths, first stopping into Victoria Moro’s presentation of works by Yayoi Kusama (including works from her “Every Day I Pray For Love” series, set to appear in London later this month) and Isaac Julien, who showed his two-channel film Once Again… (Statues Never Die) and stills from the moving picture—as seen on Whitewall’s Fall 2022 cover.

Art From Around the Globe

Around the bend, we were entranced by Sheila Hicks’ works at Francesca Minini, leading to several show-stopping works in the “Platform” section we could not overlook: Sanford Biggers’ intriguing Mirror sculpture, presented by Marianne Boesky; Anna Major’s kinetic installation named The Landing, shown by TERN Gallery; Chiffon Thomas’ Untitled (Dome, Figure 1), exhibited by Michael Kohn Gallery; Joyce J. Scott’s sensational beaded tapestry, Garden Ensconced, shown by Goya Contemporary Gallery; and Joana Vasconcelos’s first presentation at The Armory Show, in collaboration with Baró Galeria, which exhibited one of her incredible large-scale installations, “Valkyrie Liberty.”

Best Booths at The Armory Show

As we made our way through the aisles, works at Kasmin Gallery—from those presented by Vanessa German, Emil Sands, and Ian Davenport—made us stop and stare for a while before making our way to James Cohan to see perplexing pieces by Kennedy Yanko, Yun-Fei Ji, Jordan Nassar, Kelly Sinnapah Mary, Yinka Shonibare, and Naudline Pierre.

Within Tim Van Laere Gallery’s booth, we discovered Blue Road by Ben Sledsens and a new series of mesmerizing works by Marcel Dzama that beckoned our eyes, which led us to a solo exhibition of geometric artworks by Suzanne Song at Gallery Baton. Across the hall at VISTAMARE, a textile artwork—made of various threads like Angora goat fur dyed with walnuts and cotton dyed with pomegranate—by Aslı Çavuşoğlu carried our attention to others presented by the gallery, including Claudia Comte’s The Sun (soil painting) and wooden cacti sculptures from Sequoia trees spread throughout.

More Unmissable Exhibits at The Armory Show

At Pippy Houldsworth Gallery’s show, we fell for Shaqúelle Whyte’s wonderful Dance, Dance, Dance oil on canvas piece; Dindga McCannon’s Bessie’s Song quilted panel, which flowed from the wall, featuring gold lamé, glass beads, metallic threads, and more; and Zoë Buckman’s beautiful tribute to women—turn out my pockets, a vintage textile piece with embroidery stitched “& still women will tell a women or what remains of her bones that they are lying.”

Edwynn Houk Gallery, typically specializing in 20th-century photography, brought to light a series of images by unstoppable talent—including Robert Polidori, Valerie Belin, Roberto Longo, Sally Mann, Abelardo Morell, and Massimo Vitali—but the layered mixed media collages by Ron Norsworthy, like Narcissus and Echo really reeled us in. Further down the art fair rabbit hole, a solo exhibition entitled “Realms of Infinity” at DAG showed Natvar Bhavsar’s paintings, full of deep, swirling pigments; Tandem Press presented thought-provoking works by Alison Saar, as well as colorful screen prints by Jeffrey Gibson and Derrick Adams; Galerie Judin jolted visitors with the portraiture talent of Lydia Pettit and Ellen Akimoto; and Rosenfeld realized a show of noteworthy oil paintings by Ndidi Emefiele and Teodora Axente.

Not-For-Profit Art

In the “Not-For-Profit” section, featuring works by cultural organizations, non-profit galleries, and art foundations across the globe, we loved Tamarind Institute‘s suite of lithographs—one twelve-color lithograph by Jarvis Boyland and a suite of ten-color lithographs by Ellen Lesperance; and the New York Academy of Art showed unforgettable pieces by Shiqing Deng and Prinston Nnanna. 

Additional Not-Miss Moments

Turning the corner on the backend of the fair, we passed by a handful of other presentations that couldn’t be overlooked—from Fine Arts Work Center’s “Edge Condition” show to EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop’s solo exhibition of prints from its archives by Stephanie Santana. Across the hall, we caught sight of a retrospective-esque exhibition of vintage posters from Creative Time, featuring images of their own from over the years, as well as textile pieces at Cecilia Brunson Projects by the collective Claudia Alarcón & Silät, a gorgeous large-scale black-and-white painting by Hector Dionicio Mendoza at Luis de Jesus, an unmissable sphere made of knitted silver Mylar by Oliver Herring at BANK, and Southern Guild’s presentation of ceramic totems by Zizipho Poswa, a bronze sculpture by Dominique Zinkpè, and paintings by Manyaku Mashilo, Kamyar Bineshtarigh, and Mmangaliso Nzuza. 

A Last Look at The Armory Show

On our way out, we stopped to stare at Scott Reeder’s COOL/UNCOOL neon at Saenger Galeria, Awol Erizku’s neon of a hand holding a flower at Sean Kelly, Jeremy Dennis’s We Are Still Here print at Aicon Contemporary, Devan Shimoyama and Tomokazu Matsuyama’s dynamic pieces at Kavi Gupta, Ai Wei Wei’s zodiac-inspired show at Tang Contemporary Art, Andy Dixon’s delights at The Hole, Katinka Lampe’s paintings at Ron Mandos, photographs by Camila Falquez at Hannah Traore Gallery, Manuel López’s El Sereno landscape at Charlie James Gallery, Tomo Campbell’s paintings at Cob Gallery, and an array of cultural and domestic commentary works at Vielmetter by Liz Glynn, April Bey, Lavaughan Jenkins, Karl Haendel, and Carlos Rolòn.