SPRING/BREAK Art Show 2022 Returns with a Spunky Spirit to Midtown

SPRING/BREAK Art Show 2022 (September 8–12) has returned to New York with a 10th-anniversary show full of exciting booths from over 110 exhibitors. The theme NAKED LUNCH ushers in a spunky spirit for the curator-led show, filling the Midtown space with expressive paintings, drawings, sculptures, textiles, and more.

This year’s presentation builds on last year’s idea of Neo-Medievalism, exploring the notion of a Renaissance. From the Harlem Renaissance to the 1960s Free Love movement, curators for the fair have presented works dealing with themes related to the notion of cultural renewal—from nature and the nude body to figuration and social engagement.

At first, we entered the fair to be greeted by a mechanical installation by Stuart Lantry. Moving in mouse-trap fashion against a sky-blue backdrop, gears and pulleys triggered the movement of the installation held by strings and adorned with golden items. A sign on the grass-lined flooring, rooted in the middle of a pile of golden recreated poop, read “For A Nugget Of Wisdom Please Pick Up.”

“I began with the prompt of updating [Hieronymus] Bosch‘s The Garden of Earthly Delights,” Lantry told us in his booth. “His was kind of a warning to early Christianity about the idea of going forth, multiplying, and dominating the entire earth—and how that maybe might not end up so great. I updated that for the suburban, neo-liberal, capitalist movement we’re either exiting or in.”

From there, we turned the corner to see the black-and-white checkered floor of the main hallway dotted by temporary walls hosting artworks as far as the eye could see. On theme with the checker-board floor was a Sara Driver-curated installation that drew us in for its chipper American spirit—a show about the California-based Big Boy fast food brand, smothered in 100 sculptures of the restaurant’s mascot. Speaking about consumption and the dying breed that is the Big Boy establishment (since there are only four left in the world) its artist Noah Kloster was in the booth, encouraging a young boy to pick up and feel the weight of the concrete figurine he created.

After we exited, a soothing pink-painted booth curated by Amy Hughes drew us in. Delighted by paintings by Maya Mason of women with emotional faces in strange scenarios—like a confused expression while holding pickles and a curious face grasping rocks—we also took note of the artist’s outward-facing painting of three women lounging with their rear ends on full display.

Alongside traditional works and installations full of splendor, there were also digital projects and technology-forward works—like the Filo Sofi Arts booth. In a presentation titled “Data Rex Machina,” a wall of yellow was spotted with paintings of blue. In the corner, a yellow robot dog on its feet walked around as curators explained its abilities to create works within the space.

In IV Gallery‘s booth, we were drawn to the works of Radhika Gupta-Buckley in a show titled “It’s Not You, It’s Me.” On a royal gold backdrop, women with scarves over their faces sat next to each other, anchored at the far right end by a goat. On the opposite wall, the artist’s large-scale oil painting Sisters on a Swing, 2022, reeled us in with its joy and use of color.

Next door, we were captured by the group exhibition “Lured by Bacchus, Lost to Oblivion,” curated by Buket Savci and Caitlin McCormack. There, we were entranced by a scene created by Savci herself—a painting of a puddle of people laying atop each other in ease entitled “No One Cares About Your Floatie.” On a bright pink backdrop, characters in colorful clothing were sprawled out and fully relaxed, littered by everyday objects like their shoes, stuffed animals, and of course, the watermelon pool toy no one seemed to care about.

Down the hall, we passed by the Kristen Chiacchia-curated show “Dèja View,” especially drawn to one work by Sharon Shapiro. We stopped to gaze at the painting Slow Burn, which featured two women on inclined seating that were gazing at the viewer, surrounded by lush greenery and pops of orange-red, green, and blue hues.

It was a treat to see the artist Macon Reed‘s return to the fair with her large-scale installation of hand-crafted items—this time in a pharmacy setting named “Pause Apothecary.” Enlarged jars mimicking pill bottles lined the shelves, including canisters named Compounding Stigma, More Rage, Mood Swingers, and VaVa Boom.

We popped into a few other booths—including the photographer Flavia Junquiera‘s installation with UNIX Gallery of photos taken in Brazil and Ukraine; “Party Beach,” curated by Elizabet Elliott, featuring an enormous blow-up figurine stuffed into a small yellow-and-white-striped room next to a cooler, a small blow-up pool filled with empty White Claw drinks, and a colorful painting of people drinking in swimsuits; the painter Colleen Barry‘s gorgeous creations, like the yellow work Lupa, presented by Caelum Gallery; and a gorgeous rose-colored textile titled What can kill can heal by Beatrice Glow—a digital print on poly yoryu fabric with golf leaf thread embroidery details.