But Armory executives Kyla McMillan and J. Tyler Woodall appealed to Pierogi and the fair\u2019s shared history \u2014 in 2016, Amrhein suggested the Armory use an empty space to display Jonathan Schipper\u2019s installation<\/a> of a Volkswagen Golf crashing into a wall; the presentation of large-scale art has since become a cornerstone of the show. They recently negotiated a smaller exhibition space for Pierogi with a lower rate, enabling the gallery to return.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had been on the fence about it since the economy is very uncertain and it\u2019s a big investment,\u201d Swenson said. \u201cWe\u2019re not one of the big box galleries. Some of them have their own economies now.\u201d<\/p>\n The Armory Show has come a long way from exhibiting several New York gallerists on three floors of the Gramercy Park Hotel in the mid-1990s. Since 2021, the fair has set up camp at the spacious Javits Center near Manhattan\u2019s Hudson Yards, where it will host some 230 galleries from more than 35 countries from September 4 through 7.\u00a0<\/p>\n The show also has new owners. Two years after Frieze acquired<\/a> the Armory Show and EXPO Chicago, its parent company, Endeavor Group Holdings, sold its roster of art fairs for $200 million<\/a> to Hollywood superagent Ari Emmanuel. The former Endeavor CEO envisions Frieze as a key piece of a new global events company he formed this year, and perhaps one positioned to compete with Art Basel\u2019s dominance in the contemporary art market.<\/p>\n But with a reported downturn in the market, galleries have been weighing their options.\u00a0<\/p>\n Once mainstays at the Armory, blue-chip institutions have instead drifted toward Frieze\u2019s spring fair<\/a>, the Art Dealers Association of America\u2019s (ADAA) Art Show (before it was abruptly canceled<\/a> this year), or TEFAF New York \u2014 or they are skipping the New York fairs entirely. David Zwirner hasn\u2019t exhibited at the Amory Show since 2022<\/a>, and chose to show at ADAA several years before that. Pace Gallery\u2019s last year at the Armory was 2021<\/a>. Gagosian hasn\u2019t shown at the Amory since 2020<\/a>, back when it was held at Piers 92 and 94. Lisson hasn\u2019t been at the fair since 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n Others are busy courting international buyers in Asia and the Middle East, where Art Basel Qatar<\/a> will launch in Doha in February 2026. It doesn\u2019t help that Frieze is competing against itself: Its three-year-old Frieze Seoul fair overlaps with Armory next week, forcing galleries to choose.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody is asking where we should be investing our energy and time and our focus,\u201d David Norr, partner at James Cohan Gallery, told Hyperallergic. \u201cThe cost of shipping, travel and built-in expenses in participation in these fairs continues to go up.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tAlejandro Garc\u00eda Contreras, \u201cLa balada de Jennie Ruby Jane\u201d (2025) (image courtesy Swivel Gallery)<\/p>\n Others are simply skipping the season altogether. Jack Shainman stepped back from showing at New York fairs in recent years to focus on its exhibitions in Chelsea and the newly renovated Clock Tower building<\/a> in Civic Center. After wildfires ravaged Los Angeles<\/a> in January, Night Gallery chose a gallery residency at Arsenal Contemporary instead of participating in several international art fairs.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is both a result of the market and our ability to be in multiple places at once,\u201d Night Gallery spokesperson Shy Watson said. \u201cWe are trying to create alternative models of exhibition, promotion, sales, and community.\u201d<\/p>\n The Armory is used to a relatively high degree of churn. This year, 55 galleries are participating in the fair for the first time, with another 20 returning from a hiatus, roughly in line with figures from 2024, a fair spokesperson said.<\/p>\n But the relative lack of large commercial institutions at the show presents an opportunity for New York galleries to cultivate new collectors and promote their artists to a broader audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe feel like a large gallery there even though in most art fair contexts we\u2019re very much in the middle,\u201d said Norr of James Cohan. \u201cIt feels like you\u2019re giving back some attention to a local ecosystem that\u2019s not only familiar, but wants engagement.\u201d<\/p>\n Left: Zanele Muholi, \u201cBester VIII, Philadelphia\u201d (2018) (\u00a9 Zanele Muholi, courtesy Yancey Richardson, New York) Swivel Gallery owner Graham Wilson, who is participating for the first time, was excited that Armory reached out with an opportunity to showcase his roster of artists. Swivel will feature Alejandro Garc\u00eda Contreras\u2019s ceramics in the Presents section, which spotlights galleries under 10 years old, as well as an installation from multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker Simon Benjamin in the Platform section, this year curated by a nonprofit, the Georgia-based Souls Grown Deep Foundation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe visibility of the fairs is 20 times more than an artist can get at a solo exhibition at a gallery,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n The draw of being able to meet new patrons so close to the city\u2019s largest concentration of galleries remains a key appeal. Yancey Richardson, who is showing at Armory for the 16th year, appreciates that it\u2019s only 12 blocks from her Chelsea gallery.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s 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,\u201d she said. \u201cThen those people will come often to visit the gallery during the year once they meet us.\u201d<\/p>\n Anat Ebgi opened a satellite location in Tribeca two years ago in part because of the success her Los Angeles-based gallery has had meeting clients at Armory, Moira Sims, the gallery\u2019s New York director, told Hyperallergic.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cA 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,\u201d Sims said. \u201cIt feels like a prolonged engagement with clients at this fair in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tJennifer Carvalho, co-founder of Carvalho gallery in New York (photo courtesy the gallery)<\/p>\n Sometimes, it\u2019s too hard to choose. Jennifer Carvalho, who owns Carvalho gallery in Brooklyn, had participated in South Korean art fairs for several years, but never with Frieze Seoul, and had a good experience at the Armory last year. Next week, she\u2019s planning to fly to Seoul to install a solo exhibition for London-based artist Yulia Iosilzon and attend previews before getting on a 6am flight back to New York. She lands at JFK Airport at 11am on Thursday \u2014 just in time for the Armory\u2019s VIP opening.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve invested in a flatbed seat and I\u2019m just going to drink as much water as possible,\u201d Carvalho said. \u201cMy team said they\u2019ll have green tea waiting for me. I have an exceptional team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Amrhein and Susan Swenson were going to sit out the Armory Show this fall for the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[29325,365,362,363,364,366,18,117,1176,19,17,968,29326],"class_list":{"0":"post-38008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-armory-week","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-artsdesign","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-featured","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-new-york","20":"tag-the-armory-show"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/JCG18153_view01-1200x896.jpg\")
Kennedy Yanko, \u201cTeary Eyed\u201d (2024) (image courtesy James Cohan Gallery)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/La-Balada-De-Jennie-Ruby-Jane-1200x1642.jpeg\")
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Right: Jason Bailer Lost, \u201cSister Work (A)\u201d (2017) (image courtesy Anat Ebgi)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/JENNIFER-CARVALHO_PORTRAIT_2025_1-1200x800.jpg\")
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