Art Fairs Galore

March 4-8 marked the beginning and the end of New York City's big art fairs. Luckily we were around for it! For Nina Katchadourian's class, we were to spend an imaginary $150,000 at The Armory on Thursday. Some pieces of art were way off the charts with prices going above $600,000, while up-and-coming artists sold for less than one percent of that. So some of my classmates walked away with one or two pieces of art, but I on the other hand stretched my budget a little and went for six. The Armory...was huge, to say the least. It consisted of two piers that housed what seemed like thousands of pieces of art. Over two hundred booths lined both piers: one hundred seventy-seven exhibitors were in pier 94, and 68 were at pier 92.

I was interested in looking at what galleries chose to offer at The Armory, keeping in mind how the present state of the economy has caused tremors in the art world. After researching some recent newspaper articles, I came to expect that galleries would choose more prominent artists and smaller pieces to "be safe", versus taking chances on displaying emerging, lesser known artists. As a newcomer, I couldn't compare the general trends at The Armory to previous years, but I did see a good number of big names at the galleries and generally the size of artworks were modest.

After getting our feet wet at The Armory, my roommate and I decided to venture out to the other art fairs: Scope, Volta, and Pulse. Below are pictures from (1) The Armory (2&3) Scope (4) Volta (5) Pulse. Our favorite was Scope. Maybe it was the sunny weather that had us in happier moods, but but I think because it was a smaller venue, it seemed much more friendly and open than The Armory. The second picture from Scope is an area of the tent that featured live performances and merchandise in Scope's "Cheap Fast & Out of Control" to benefit artists. We saw Glenn Close at Pulse!
: