Looking to see a lot of art in a small amount of time? Then rejoice: art fairs of all sizes converge in NYC this week. Tucked within the fray, Long Island artists can be found. Most fairs open Thursday and continue through Sunday. Most fairs have a nominal entrance fee but some smaller ones are free.
Anchoring the art fairs is the Armory Show. The show spans blocks and is held at Pier 92 and Pier 94 on the West Side Highway. Pier 92 focuses on modern art and Pier 94 on contemporary. The Armory Show has been held for 11 years. This year is the second year the show includes an additional “focus” on Latin American art. Open by invitation only, galleries come from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, according to the Armory website (www.thearmoryshow.com).
Another staple of the NYC art fair week is The Art Show sponsored by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA). It’s held at the Park Armory at Park Avenue and 67th Street. This is the show’s 23rd year and it proclaims to be “the country’s longest running national art fair,” according to its website (www.artdealers.org). Art ranges from 19th century to contemporary. The show is a benefit for the Henry Street Settlement.
The Armory Show and The Art Show are far from the only games in town. There are no fewer than 10 additional art fairs. They include VoltaNY, Scope, Pulse, Red Dot, Fountain Art Fair, Independent and Salon Zürcher, a seven-gallery mini-fair of Lower East Side galleries set up at Zürcher Studio on Bleecker Street.
New for this year are Moving Image and Verge Art Brooklyn. Moving Image focuses on contemporary video art exhibited by galleries and non-profit organizations from around the world. Verge Art Brooklyn doesn’t have a single venue—it’s being held in nine spots around Brooklyn. The new art fair features over 70 galleries and hundreds of artists. Locations and information are listed at www.brooklynartfair.com.
Two hot spots include 20 Jay Street and 111 Front Street. Front Street hosts Brooklyn Art Now: 2011 Survey Exhibition and Resident DUMBO galleries and art organizations, according the fair’s website. Jay Street hosts Art Brooklyn Artists’s Open Call Exhibition and Art Brooklyn Artist’s Project Spaces exhibition, Material Issue.
Material Issue is where Ugur Kunst of Smithtown is exhibiting his installation with sound, The Things We Cannot Say. The piece is made of Styrofoam, metal pipes, wood and acrylic paint. See www.ugurkunst.com for some of his art.
Kunst has exhibited internationally. On Long Island, his work was exhibited in the 2009 Patchogue Arts Biennial, Adelphi University’s 2008 Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Second Avenue Firehouse Gallery in Bay Shore and others. Kunst’s art is figurative and abstract.
East Hampton artists James Kennedy and Bob Bachler are exhibiting at Red Dot with Surface Library, a gallery they founded which holds group exhibitions in Springs. Kennedy is an abstract painter. Bachler is ceramist and is exhibiting sculptural work at the fair. Art can be viewed at jameskennedyonline.com and bobachler.com.
Silas Marder Gallery of Bridgehampton can be found at SCOPE. The gallery is exhibiting Corrine von Lebusa and Mica Marder of East Hampton. Both artists are figurative. Lebusa’s work conjures shifting emotions by depicting people in ambiguous scenes, often in mid-action. Marder’s work has a primitive feel and primarily depicts a single animal as compositional subject in his work. See micamarder.com for artwork images.